Major Reddit communities will go dark to protest threat to third-party apps • Hacker News Board

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

#91

Post by merricksb » Mon, Jun 05, 2023, 3:09 PM UTC

Don't let Reddit kill 3rd party apps https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36179853 (361 points/1 day ago/254 comments)

How Reddit became the enemy: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36177876 (172 points/1 day ago/154 comments)

Third-party Reddit apps are being crushed by price increases: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36162235 (406 points/3 days ago/421 comments)

Had a call with Reddit to discuss pricing: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36141083 (1969 points/4 days ago/1310 comments)

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

#92

Post by 14zadz » Mon, Jun 05, 2023, 3:10 PM UTC

moneywoes wrote: post #85

shmatt wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That small time developer who discussed paying millions also said it came out to $2.5/month on average[1]. Which actually isn't that bad for the service Reddit is providing One of the problems mentioned in the many Reddit threads discussing the issue about Apollo, is that its creator was selling ULTRA LIFETIME MEMBERSHIPS[2]. Yes, they were charging people money, taking it, then using a free API to deliver paying mem…

Will he have to refund those lifetime members? Smart on him for selling those…

He won’t have to and I wouldn’t request it either. The cost was fairly minimal for the amount of hours I’ve spent in Apollo. The only app that makes Reddit usable on iOS (RIP Alien Blue)

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

#93

Post by cragfar » Mon, Jun 05, 2023, 3:10 PM UTC

wmurmann wrote: post #49

chillbill wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

The app on iOS isn't too bad. It used to just light your data on fire though when reddit was trying to do streaming.

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

#94

Post by judge2020 » Mon, Jun 05, 2023, 3:11 PM UTC

Timpy wrote: post #69

If I understand this correctly, these third party apps are drawing tons of ad money away from Reddit while at the same time increasing their hosting costs and dev costs for maintaining the API, right? How is this not a win-win for Reddit? They lower the traffic that was costing them money. I know it's user-hostile and that's the crux of the complaints, but it seems a little naive that these communities are basically…

Reddit is a user-generated content app, and many users in the comments have already expressed their plan to stop using reddit if they can't use their favorite third-party app.

There are better ways to handle this without just saying "give us millions of dollars". Something like requiring that users pay a subscription to reddit to use it, for example.

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

#95

Post by lcfcjs » Mon, Jun 05, 2023, 3:11 PM UTC

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…

[dead]

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

#96

Post by Spivak » Mon, Jun 05, 2023, 3:11 PM UTC

kitsunesoba wrote: post #19

paxys wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Says who? They are only pushing the "official experience" to make up for lost ad revenue. If I pay Reddit $50/yr why would they care what app I use? YouTube does the same thing with Premium, and it is working out great.

It's about ads and tracking sure, but they're also trying to build a TikTok-style algorithm-powered black hole that keeps you sucked in by way of constantly shoving more things in front of you, including posts from subreddits you're not subscribed to. They also want to be able to force whatever new half-baked features they add to work with prominent positioning in their apps.

But to what end? You have a bunch of users who you know are willing to pay real dollars for a different experience. You couldn't ask for better segmentation getting people with wildly different desires and expectations to both be hooked on your platform.

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

#97

Post by anonred » Mon, Jun 05, 2023, 3:11 PM UTC

Eisenstein wrote: post #71

shmatt wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That small time developer who discussed paying millions also said it came out to $2.5/month on average[1]. Which actually isn't that bad for the service Reddit is providing One of the problems mentioned in the many Reddit threads discussing the issue about Apollo, is that its creator was selling ULTRA LIFETIME MEMBERSHIPS[2]. Yes, they were charging people money, taking it, then using a free API to deliver paying mem…

Key word here is 'on average'. Most people are not going to spend $25/year for access to a third party reddit app. That leaves the hardcore users who are going to cost the dev much more than $2.50/mo, and when ads are no longer able to be served and NSFW content is also gone where is the profit then? Putting aside the bad salesmanship and planning of selling a forever license, it is absolutely way too much money.

Third party apps are billed in aggregate each month. It’s up to them to decide how that’s split between users.

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

#98

Post by Eisenstein » Mon, Jun 05, 2023, 3:12 PM UTC

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?

Here is a shot from a subreddit I moderate:

* https://imgur.com/a/Tg3IXNf

No idea how many of those apps are third party, but I would be willing to bet 'most' of them.

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

#99

Post by Spivak » Mon, Jun 05, 2023, 3:12 PM UTC

phailhaus wrote: post #10

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…

Yeah OpenAI just demonstrated how effective this is.

Spotify demonstrates it too because you need premium to use things like mopidy.

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

#100

Post by Semaphor » Mon, Jun 05, 2023, 3:12 PM UTC

paxys wrote: post #11

jacooper wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Says who? They are only pushing the "official experience" to make up for lost ad revenue. If I pay Reddit $50/yr why would they care what app I use? YouTube does the same thing with Premium, and it is working out great.

> If I pay Reddit $50/yr why would they care what app I use?

Then why is that not an option? The narrative that they want more tracking and control makes sense with the facts we have.