Apollo will close down on June 30th • Hacker News Board

Re: Apollo will close down on June 30th

#841

Post by hnick » Fri, Jun 09, 2023, 12:56 AM UTC

Demmme wrote: post #290

mustacheemperor wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is really astounding to see the CEO of Reddit being caught in a blatant lie denigrating a third party developer whose work has done a lot for the platform and who has the ear of a reasonably sized and loud portion of the community. I really hadn’t expected that. Corporate doublespeak is one thing, and management decisions aren’t necessarily always in the interest of their users - but such an egregious act is reall…

I actually believe reddit when they say the impact is small I'm using reddit for ages and never even considered anything besides their website. If the traffic to their site is primarily from the web (or web mobile or the official Reddit app), the client (3th party) users are only a loud minority. Of course I think the behavior is shitty but I don't think most people really care and reddit will not see any real impact…

I've seen this argument in other places and it makes an error in assuming all users are equal in what they bring. It's common in MMO communities - why do the devs spend so much time working on high end raids enjoyed by only 1% of the player base? For Reddit, I would assume mobile users are more motivated - motivated enough to install an app at least - and probably contribute more UGC to the site. Not to mention unpaid moderators.

Re: Apollo will close down on June 30th

#842

Post by andrei_says_ » Fri, Jun 09, 2023, 12:57 AM UTC

ohgodplsno wrote: post #176

soneil wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They also made the same claim in r/partnercommunities too, not just internally. https://www.reddit.com/r/apolloapp/comments/143sho8/admins_c...

>It’s an extraordinary amount of data, and these are for-profit businesses built on our data for free. No spez you utter cunt. The data is not yours. It's my posts on your website. Your own fucking terms say I grant you a right to copy it, not that it's fucking yours.

I rarely appreciate profanity on HN but in this case I appreciate the candid language. The politeness of the corporate speak BS on the other hand is devastating.

Re: Apollo will close down on June 30th

#843

Post by zouhair » Fri, Jun 09, 2023, 12:58 AM UTC

Ekaros wrote: post #46

nkotov wrote: post #9

Bad move from Reddit's end. Apollo is one of my most used apps because I absolutely refuse to use the official app. Just like the new Reddit experience on desktop version, the mobile app is just as terrible. Clunky, slow, not user friendly. No thanks.

And exactly what are they losing from business perspective? Few users that generate only costs?

Mods. People working for free running the site.

Re: Apollo will close down on June 30th

#844

Post by ineedasername » Fri, Jun 09, 2023, 12:58 AM UTC

What’s the viability (I guess legally?) of creating an app that bypasses the API and just scrapes Reddit and parses it to something roughly equivalent to what these 3rd party apps were doing?

Re: Apollo will close down on June 30th

#845

Post by dang » Fri, Jun 09, 2023, 12:58 AM UTC

Ok, here are the major threads. Others?

r/ProgrammerHumor will be shutting down to protest Reddit's API changes - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36249958 - June 2023 (233 comments)

Sync will shut down on June 30 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36248234 - June 2023 (88 comments)

Join our CEO tomorrow to discuss the API - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36246937 - June 2023 (73 comments)

Reddit is Fun will shut down on June 30th in response to Reddit API changes - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36246398 - June 2023 (129 comments)

Reddit will exempt accessibility-focused apps from unpopular API pricing changes - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36238630 - June 2023 (115 comments)

Reddit announces plan to lay off 90 workers as subreddits plan mass protest - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36237285 - June 2023 (36 comments)

Reddit's Recently Announced API Changes, and the future of /r/blind - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36231016 - June 2023 (288 comments)

Ask HN: Anyone Building a Competitor to Reddit? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36225583 - June 2023 (134 comments)

Reddit to lay off about 5% of its workforce - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36223466 - June 2023 (30 comments)

Redditor creates working anime QR codes using Stable Diffusion - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36218281 - June 2023 (100 comments)

Reddit Laying Off About 90 Employees and Slowing Hiring Amid Restructuring - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36218090 - June 2023 (56 comments)

Reddit permanently bans account of user advocating Lemmy migration - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36215914 - June 2023 (298 comments)

Reddit’s plan to kill third-party apps sparks widespread protests - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36210805 - June 2023 (494 comments)

Demo: Fully P2P and open source Reddit alternative - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36203610 - June 2023 (230 comments)

iOS Reddit App Apollo's Developer Surprised by WWDC Callout - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36203277 - June 2023 (27 comments)

We're joining the Reddit blackout from June 12th to 14th - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36202277 - June 2023 (54 comments)

Ask HN: Reddit alternatives (that aren't Mastodon) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36199403 - June 2023 (30 comments)

Major Reddit communities will go dark to protest threat to third-party apps - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36196343 - June 2023 (213 comments)

Tell HN: My Reddit account was banned after adding my subs to the protest - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36192312 - June 2023 (218 comments)

Popular Subreddits are organizing a strike on 2023-06-12 b/c high API prices - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36187705 - June 2023 (172 comments)

Don't let Reddit kill 3rd party apps - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36179853 - June 2023 (260 comments)

How Reddit became the enemy [video] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36177876 - June 2023 (154 comments)

Update 3: Reddit effectively kills off third party apps - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36170143 - June 2023 (23 comments)

Reddit sparks outrage after it demands app developer pay $20M/yr - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36166236 - June 2023 (76 comments)

Third-party Reddit apps are being crushed by price increases - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36162235 - June 2023 (416 comments)

Fidelity has cut Reddit valuation by 41% since 2021 investment - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36157829 - June 2023 (85 comments)

Ask HN: Could Usenet get revived, to replace the soon to be unusable Reddit? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36153565 - June 2023 (149 comments)

Teddit – An alternative Reddit front-end focused on privacy - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36144211 - May 2023 (93 comments)

Historical code from reddit.com - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36142971 - May 2023 (64 comments)

Had a call with Reddit to discuss pricing - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36141083 - May 2023 (1292 comments)

Reddit's API Changes - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36085422 - May 2023 (25 comments)

Re: Apollo will close down on June 30th

#846

Post by kats » Fri, Jun 09, 2023, 1:02 AM UTC

It's so obvious that the Apollo dev is not a good guy.

Re: Apollo will close down on June 30th

#847

Post by dang » Fri, Jun 09, 2023, 1:03 AM UTC

All: there are over 1300 comments in this thread. To read them all, you need to click More links at the bottom of the page, or like this:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36245435&p=2

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36245435&p=3

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36245435&p=4

For other recent threads on this topic, brace yourself and go to https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36251707.

Re: Apollo will close down on June 30th

#848

Post by tester457 » Fri, Jun 09, 2023, 1:06 AM UTC

ZacnyLos wrote: post #363

Simply join Lemmy (i.e. beehaw.org) or Kbin (kbin.social).

Both are buggy

Re: Apollo will close down on June 30th

#849

Post by Aeolun » Fri, Jun 09, 2023, 1:07 AM UTC

Guest9081239812 wrote: post #557

WestCoastJustin wrote: post #182

In this situation, do you hire someone to negotiate with or for you? I'm thinking the intention here was to sell the company for $10 million and that came across as a threat because of the language that was used. You would not record the call [1] and then publish it if you actually were blackmailing them for $10 million. I'm not faulting the guy here at all, I just think it comes down to lack of experience in dealing…

It's certainly a strange call. Hey, you want to charge me $20 million per year, so why don't we make it easy and you just pay me $10 million to go quiet? It's really confusing. He wants Reddit to pay $10 million so he isn't "loud" with API usage? He wants them to buy and takeover the app? He's wants a payment to shutdown? Is he even serious about any of this? I get the impression he lacks the confidence to ask for a…

> if he can't find a way to pay it then Apollo shuts down and the majority of users return to the official Reddit site/app for free

I think you underestimate the fallout here.

Re: Apollo will close down on June 30th

#850

Post by clarkdale » Fri, Jun 09, 2023, 1:09 AM UTC

dang wrote: post #845

Ok, here are the major threads. Others? r/ProgrammerHumor will be shutting down to protest Reddit's API changes - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36249958 - June 2023 (233 comments) Sync will shut down on June 30 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36248234 - June 2023 (88 comments) Join our CEO tomorrow to discuss the API - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36246937 - June 2023 (73 comments) Reddit is Fun…

Is this aggregation manual and do you find it rewarding?