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Major Reddit communities will go dark to protest threat to third-party apps

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Re: Major Reddit communities will go dark to protest threat to third-party apps

#41

Post by justapassenger »

paxys wrote: post #5

I will never understand how Reddit bungled this so badly. I'm no Harvard MBA, but here's an easier way out – instead of asking small-time app developers to pay millions, put API access contingent on the account subscribing to Reddit Premium. That way users get to keep the experience they enjoy, independent developers can keep doing their thing, Reddit gets to make up for the lost ad revenue in the form of subscriptio…

Source for people being happy to pay $50 per year?

I’m not saying that Reddit handled it well. Buy your option doesn’t seem to be any better.

Re: Major Reddit communities will go dark to protest threat to third-party apps

#42

Post by pier25 »

Simulacra wrote: post #8

I presume that going dark means that there will be less traffic on the site, which ostensibly would put pressure on the ad revenue. How long would this have to go on before it was a noticeable effect on read its balance sheet?

I think the biggest effect will be in terms of PR. Reddit will IPO soon and if the blackout happens the protest will make it to mainstream media.

Re: Major Reddit communities will go dark to protest threat to third-party apps

#43

Post by dvngnt_ »

anonred wrote: post #20
valine wrote: post #4

A large portion of reddit contributors use 3rd party apps. Will reddit even be worth using if those people leave? That’s a huge risk, and I’m not confident Reddit has fully evaluated the second order effects of this API change.

Do you have a source for “a large portion of reddit contributors use 3rd party apps”? And what percent are we talking about here?

i know the pcgaming is around 20 percent which isn't a majority but it's enough to move somewhere else

Re: Major Reddit communities will go dark to protest threat to third-party apps

#44

Post by vsnf »

ravenstine wrote: post #21
partiallypro wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

/r/politics has leaked into virtually every subreddit.

The pandemic also ruined a lot of subreddits, especially ones for municipalities. Over 3 years of "OMG COVID" and "we ar liek literally in a pandemic" and "I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU DON'T SUPPORT MORE LOCKDOWNS" made me give up on a lot of subreddit communities, especially the Los Angeles one. But yeah, the metastasization of Reddit's broad politics also made things worse.

The municipality boards the world over were all similarly overwhelmed with sanctimony and paranoia. I think this mostly speaks to the demographic of Reddit. Which is to say, the fact that Reddit is home to any edifying discussion at all is in spite of its demographic, not because of it.

Re: Major Reddit communities will go dark to protest threat to third-party apps

#45

Post by anonred »

paxys wrote: post #5

I will never understand how Reddit bungled this so badly. I'm no Harvard MBA, but here's an easier way out – instead of asking small-time app developers to pay millions, put API access contingent on the account subscribing to Reddit Premium. That way users get to keep the experience they enjoy, independent developers can keep doing their thing, Reddit gets to make up for the lost ad revenue in the form of subscriptio…

Reddit Premium costs more per month ($7) than the expected cost per user for the API ($2). If third party apps can’t make it work with the request-based pricing model, limiting access to just premium users isn’t going to work any better.

Re: Major Reddit communities will go dark to protest threat to third-party apps

#46

Post by kumarvvr »

In this day and age, after fiasco of the likes of Twitter, I wonder how developers choose to spend their time to develop apps for companies that own the content.

It is going to be a bumpy ride, and the content owners dont give a damn about third party apps.

I solely blame the developers of the apps, for trusting a mega corporation that is set on path of profiteering and data secrecy.

Re: Major Reddit communities will go dark to protest threat to third-party apps

#47

Post by roncesvalles »

jacooper wrote: post #9
paxys wrote: post #5

I will never understand how Reddit bungled this so badly. I'm no Harvard MBA, but here's an easier way out – instead of asking small-time app developers to pay millions, put API access contingent on the account subscribing to Reddit Premium. That way users get to keep the experience they enjoy, independent developers can keep doing their thing, Reddit gets to make up for the lost ad revenue in the form of subscriptio…

Its not about the revenue, its about forcing everyone to get ads, with endless tracking.

At least on Android, the official app is terrible. Scrolling is very janky and feels unnatural, and the design is cluttered and soulless. Just need to look at Reddit is Fun to see how good it could be.

They say a product reflects the organization that produced it, and it's clear from the app that this is a company with unchecked Promo-Driven-Development and Resume-Driven-Development. There is no impressive metric that measures app jankiness or design clarity in isolation, and the effort to fix it is disproportionately larger than the line that it adds to your resume or promo package. So even though it's glaringly obvious that the app is broken within 3 seconds of opening it, not a single person anywhere in the org is incentivized to fix it.

Re: Major Reddit communities will go dark to protest threat to third-party apps

#48

Post by _ktx2 »

mmiliauskas wrote: post #6

Reddit is garbage these days anyways. Even communities that are scientific/technical seem to be toxic these days. If you want to get to a comment that has any substance regarding some topic or article, you have to scroll all the way down.

Reddit conversations are mostly memes at this point. I have two geographic subreddits for my city. One is owned by a dude in another city, I'm pretty sure Detroit, who just doesn't moderate anything. The other is owned by a group of people who will straight up ban people for even marginal dissent from their favored ideology. Most of the people active on those subreddits aren't even from Portland. They're conservatives, liberals, and leftists who view Portland as this gateway of cultural relevance. It's the internet equivalent of Ballmer and his wife buying political influence in Portland, a city they don't live in, much less the state.

The rot is root deep at this point if it's let things like this happen.

Re: Major Reddit communities will go dark to protest threat to third-party apps

#49

Post by wmurmann »

chillbill wrote: post #34
paxys wrote: post #5

I will never understand how Reddit bungled this so badly. I'm no Harvard MBA, but here's an easier way out – instead of asking small-time app developers to pay millions, put API access contingent on the account subscribing to Reddit Premium. That way users get to keep the experience they enjoy, independent developers can keep doing their thing, Reddit gets to make up for the lost ad revenue in the form of subscriptio…

The aim is not _just_ to make money, but to force users to use their crappy app so they can track users better. Sort of like what Twitter did. It’s also why they had like one dude working on their mobile website one hour a month for the last few years.

What’s so crappy about it? I’ve seen some bad apps and it’s definitely not that bad. Can you elaborate?

Re: Major Reddit communities will go dark to protest threat to third-party apps

#50

Post by rootusrootus »

_ktx2 wrote: post #48
mmiliauskas wrote: post #6

Reddit is garbage these days anyways. Even communities that are scientific/technical seem to be toxic these days. If you want to get to a comment that has any substance regarding some topic or article, you have to scroll all the way down.

Reddit conversations are mostly memes at this point. I have two geographic subreddits for my city. One is owned by a dude in another city, I'm pretty sure Detroit, who just doesn't moderate anything. The other is owned by a group of people who will straight up ban people for even marginal dissent from their favored ideology. Most of the people active on those subreddits aren't even from Portland. They're conservative…

I read this thinking "huh, not a bad description of the Portland subreddit"

> aren't even from Portland

Ah, there we go ;-)

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