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Reddit sparks outrage after it demands app developer pay $20M/yr

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Re: Reddit sparks outrage after it demands app developer pay $20M/yr

#81
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even old.reddit.com has gotten bad. I have an annoying persistent problem that ads auto-play with sound, despite being disabled in my Reddit options and in my browser options. I've re-enabled and re-disabled all of these options and it still happens. They (Reddit) claim that this is not expected behavior. Some other people have also reported this. No fixes.

I wonder if old.reddit.com is a freeze-dried old codebase in maintenance mode. If so, I would expect it to get worse over time, broken by accident, never prioritized to be fixed.

It is. There are several issues already.

Re: Reddit sparks outrage after it demands app developer pay $20M/yr

#82

It's inevitable that I'll still have to filter search results by Reddit to find genuine information, but if the only option for Reddit is the official app/website, I'll just stop browsing and commenting altogether. I don't understand how their official app could remain so bad.

What's really strange is Reddit could have a good app because they just bought the most popular iOS client, Alien Blue, back in 2014. I still can't understand why they would buy a perfectly good app just to replace it.

Because what is good for the user and what is good for company revenue don't always align (at least in the short term).

Re: Reddit sparks outrage after it demands app developer pay $20M/yr

#83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They probably have totally different priorities. Apollos only goal is good UI/UX. Reddits is tracking, Ad revenue, prioritizing cached content and who knows what other priorities have been pushed into it.

If their priority is to make money, why wouldn’t they invest in the UX their official app. It’s probably their main revenue stream but it’s so bad that it drives users away to third party clients they can’t monetize. Now instead of actually investing in making their app better and giving users a reason to go back to it they’re blocking third party clients so they don’t need to actually improve their app. It’s a lose-…

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Re: Reddit sparks outrage after it demands app developer pay $20M/yr

#84
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why should I have to pay when my de facto web browser is the apollo app versus the safari app? At the end of the day its just an app interfacing with a website in both cases, and regulating that in either way is inconsistent and stupid.

When you are in the web browser, Reddit makes money off you by serving you ads. With Apollo, they get nothing.

They make no money off me because those ads are blocked on my web browser just like they would be on a mobile app. It just seems like the same sort of thing to me when you boil down what the things are, but I can see why reddit wants to be punitive and capture most of the market. It sure sucks to see the site slide that way though.

Re: Reddit sparks outrage after it demands app developer pay $20M/yr

#85
post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you are in the web browser, Reddit makes money off you by serving you ads. With Apollo, they get nothing.

They make no money off me because those ads are blocked on my web browser just like they would be on a mobile app. It just seems like the same sort of thing to me when you boil down what the things are, but I can see why reddit wants to be punitive and capture most of the market. It sure sucks to see the site slide that way though.

Capture most of the market? What market? Apollo is using Reddit's servers to make the API calls, so how is blocking it "capturing the market". Sounds like Apollo should pay for their own server infrastructure and make their own Reddit instead of a passthrough app that generates 7 billion API requests a month LOL
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