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Popular Subreddits are organizing a strike on 2023-06-12 b/c high API prices

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Re: Popular Subreddits are organizing a strike on 2023-06-12 b/c high API prices

#61

Post by Finnucane »

tiedieconderoga wrote: post #14
UpToTheSky wrote: post #2

What is the hard thing about building an open, user-friendly Reddit alternative? Hosting the posts shouldn't be that hard. Storage is so cheap these days. Is it the legal aspects of handling user generated content? Ranking the posts is another issue. Is that where the value of Reddit lies? Maybe one could build some hybrid thing which capitalizes on existing structures? I could imagine a frontend which only shows pos…

Three big issues off the top of my head: * Hosting costs. Reddit was very lucky to have imgur pick up a lot of its bandwidth in its early days, but free image/video hosting sites are cyclical: absent a benevolent billionaire, the costs will rise with popularity, and the site will eventually need a source of revenue, which will introduce friction and start its inevitable decline in popularity. * Moderation. Always a h…

HN is functionally like a single topic forum, which makes it a little easier to have rules about what is generally allowable content. Many single topic forums still exist, though in recent years have had to take a back seat to Reddit et al. Maybe if Reddit goes completely to pot, people will look them up again.

Re: Popular Subreddits are organizing a strike on 2023-06-12 b/c high API prices

#62

Post by patrickmay »

ninth_ant wrote: post #52

Can someone explain why this is such a big deal to some people? I legitimately don’t understand why this matters. Third party clients seem to be fairly niche with limited usage, I’m not sure why inexpensive access to an API is a required right for forum software. I don’t expect this to affect my usage of Reddit at all, and wondering who and what it does affect aside from a small number of third party client users. To…

I'm an Apollo user and I'll be dramatically reducing my use of Reddit if and when the third party apps are killed. The official Reddit app is nearly unusable, with a remarkably poor UI and too many ads. It also doesn't offer the tools for subreddit moderators that third party apps do.

The hope is that, despite being a small percentage of total users, third party app users represent a large volume moderators and high value contributors. If that's the case, this change will hurt Reddit enough to potentially roll it back.

What will probably happen is Reddit will tell us all to pound sand and we'll find alternatives.

Re: Popular Subreddits are organizing a strike on 2023-06-12 b/c high API prices

#63

Post by Macha »

awesome_dude wrote: post #42

The API arguments are interesting from another point of view - who really owns the content generated on a site like Reddit, Twitter, or Hacker News. Once I send this post out, do I own it? Can I claim some sort of compensation for my comment being used in an AI training set? Does HN (or whichever site I post the comment on) own the comment, and therefore should be compensated for the comment's use in said training se…

Legally it's governed by the terms of use which for most sites say something along the effect of you retain copyright ownership but transfer a non-revocable unlimited license to the platform.

Sometimes other legislation, like EU right to to be forgotten, GDPR, etc. overrides that and they have to take it down, but otherwise they could pretty much do whatever.

Re: Popular Subreddits are organizing a strike on 2023-06-12 b/c high API prices

#64

Post by dt3ft »

spondylosaurus wrote: post #27
dt3ft wrote: post #25

I started to build an alternative: https://flingup.com It’s not much, but it’s honest work. If all this does is create a tiny fragment with a hundred people, I’ll call it success. For now, me and a handful of people use it to share articles we find interesting.

I love this idea, but the content I'm seeing on the front page right now is turning me off from using it. A lot of fringe political content (pandemic trutherism, Bud Lite culture war shit, etc.), which is not my idea of interesting since I can find plenty of that anywhere else.

It is merely a tool, guided by the same principle Aaron Swartz implanted into reddit. Freedom of choice, freedom of expression, as long as the laws in the country hosting the servers are upheld. Communities can form and moderate the content as they please, but alternative communities can also form with perhaps less moderation. It is up to the users to make it what they want, not funded by advertizing, but rather with potential donations. It doesn’t have to be huge. If it gets too big, it should be able to split up.

Re: Popular Subreddits are organizing a strike on 2023-06-12 b/c high API prices

#65

Post by bushbaba »

add-sub-mul-div wrote: post #18

The days of MySpace losing to Facebook or Digg losing to Reddit are over. We reached a phase where the biggest networks are too big to die quickly. It no longer seems possible to replace these sites wholesale. Their decline will look like Craigslist's. They'll still be around a decade from now, but having slowly and steadily lost traffic and cultural relevance. I fully welcome Twitter and Reddit suddenly sacrificing…

Disagree. Generally it’s porn/restricted content as the driver. If Reddit to better monetize the Platform decides porn/certain popular conte t has no place. Another similar to Reddit platform will emerge to host this less than above board content. That will in turn drive other topic discourse and eventually the downfall of the old.

See Snapchat for sexting. Instagram for insta-thots (Facebook has parents these days on it), and YouTube which originally was used for hosting copyright infringement (still is).

Re: Popular Subreddits are organizing a strike on 2023-06-12 b/c high API prices

#66

Post by RheingoldRiver »

ninth_ant wrote: post #52

Can someone explain why this is such a big deal to some people? I legitimately don’t understand why this matters. Third party clients seem to be fairly niche with limited usage, I’m not sure why inexpensive access to an API is a required right for forum software. I don’t expect this to affect my usage of Reddit at all, and wondering who and what it does affect aside from a small number of third party client users. To…

> Third party clients seem to be fairly niche with limited usage

The question is: Who is using these clients, specifically?

1. Visually impaired people. The official reddit app has terrible screenreader support

2. The longest-term & most dedicated users to the site, who are responsible for the content that everyone else uses & who want a) ad-free browsing; and b) a better experience than the official app, which sucks

3. Moderators who require better functionality on mobile than what the official app gives

These are all communities that matter a lot, even if it's a small % of users.

Re: Popular Subreddits are organizing a strike on 2023-06-12 b/c high API prices

#67

Post by maxbond »

add-sub-mul-div wrote: post #18

The days of MySpace losing to Facebook or Digg losing to Reddit are over. We reached a phase where the biggest networks are too big to die quickly. It no longer seems possible to replace these sites wholesale. Their decline will look like Craigslist's. They'll still be around a decade from now, but having slowly and steadily lost traffic and cultural relevance. I fully welcome Twitter and Reddit suddenly sacrificing…

I'm not sure those days ever existed. MySpace is still operating, after all. I think we may have overestimated the degree to which network effects lead to an exclusive or monopolistic structure - it turns out a lot of people are pretty willing to have multiple active social media accounts, and that there are disadvantages to very large networks (pushing people to spread out into a series of smaller ones). And then there's federated stuff like Discord and Mastodon, where you can use the same account to join many networks, decreasing the modest friction.

Re: Popular Subreddits are organizing a strike on 2023-06-12 b/c high API prices

#69

Post by transcriptase »

londons_explore wrote: post #54
hackinthebochs wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The last time subreddits staged a coordinated strike like this, Reddit warned they would replace moderators next time. I wonder if they'll make good on their threat? I wish they would, the powermod situation on reddit is out of control. Part of the reason these coordinated strikes happen is because most top subreddits are ran by the same handful of people. It would do reddit some good to get variety among the moderat…

Removing some moderators would probably anger other moderators...

And those can be replaced with what has to be an infinite pool of people willing to volunteer as thought-police for a public company.

Re: Popular Subreddits are organizing a strike on 2023-06-12 b/c high API prices

#70

Post by [deleted] »

add-sub-mul-div wrote: post #18

The days of MySpace losing to Facebook or Digg losing to Reddit are over. We reached a phase where the biggest networks are too big to die quickly. It no longer seems possible to replace these sites wholesale. Their decline will look like Craigslist's. They'll still be around a decade from now, but having slowly and steadily lost traffic and cultural relevance. I fully welcome Twitter and Reddit suddenly sacrificing…

[deleted]
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