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I have to hand it to those app devs. The way they managed to dupe millions of Redditors into protesting was masterful. They didn't produce any good evidence th

I have to hand it to those app devs. The way they managed to dupe millions of Redditors into protesting was masterful. They didn't produce any good evidence that the new API price is excessive (some cherry-picking here, a deceptive comparison there) but they still managed to convince 99% of Reddit that it was true anyway. Bravo! It was a beautiful exercise in propaganda and the delusion of crowds.

poisonborz 3y ago
It has nothing to do with the amount of the price, the scheme (charge per request, not /user/month) makes third party apps impossible on purpose. Not to say that this abrupt and unannounced dumping of beloved community apps is just the latest misstep of a long string of anti-user moves from Reddit. They had it coming, but their estimation is that a large majority will keep silent. Let's see - Twitter had also not truly crashed yet on their grand way to profitability...
- ChocMontePy 3y ago
  If it made 3rd party apps impossible, then all or most of them would have announced they were shutting down by now. In fact, only three have done so. The rest are still trying to work out the economics. I expect that quite a few will survive, despite people saying it is "impossible."
  - skilled 3y ago
    Do let us know about the math, once you are done with it.
coufu 3y ago
Even if the API price was reasonable, Reddit only gave 3rd party apps 30 days to prepare. You can’t come up with a decent pricing model, billing infrastructure, and incorporate the logic in your app in that amount of time. It’s just overall very hostile and unreasonable from Reddit leadership. The biggest apps are forced to shut down because if they stay up, the millions of dollars in bills are going to start flooding in.
- ChocMontePy 3y ago
  I agree with you that the timeline is tight. Relay For Reddit has just announced their preliminary plan to offer a $2-3 a month paid version. They sound cautiously optimistic and are hoping for some flexibility on the tight timeline. This is in stark contrast to a week ago when they were very doom and gloom.
  - coufu 3y ago
    The doom and gloom honestly is mostly driven by Reddit’s leadership being incompetent. If Reddit leadership reached out and worked things out privately and in a productive manner with 3rd party app developers to create a plan and agree on reasonable timelines, none of this drama would have surfaced at this magnitude. Would people still be pissed at the API charges forcing apps to charge subscription fees? Probably. But you wouldn’t have peoples’ favorite Reddit apps shutting down and creating a much bigger stir as we have today. And I think everyone is in agreement at some level that Reddit deserves some compensation for API usage. But again, this has all been handled very poorly by Reddit leadership.
    - unclekev 3y ago
      > If Reddit leadership reached out and worked things out privately and in a productive manner with 3rd party app developers to create a plan and agree on reasonable timelines, Well to be fair, that appears to be exactly what was happening until the dev of Apollo spat the dummy and turned it into a public mega drama before actually consulting with the users of his App on how much they'd be willing to pay.
      - coufu 3y ago
        This was Reddit's statement (proven to be false btw by audio recordings) before "the dev Apollo spat the dummy and turned it into a public mega drama": > Steve: "Apollo threatened us, said they’ll “make it easy” if Reddit gave them $10 million." Steve: "This guy behind the scenes is coercing us. He's threatening us." Source: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36245721 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36245721 (there's probably a better source linked in there somewhere) Soooo yeah the dev of Apollo should have just sat back and let Reddit's CEO control the narrative and tell lies to make itself look better?
Terretta 3y ago
Propaganda is gaslighting users that the apps make API requests. No, users do, using their web client of choice for the site. Reddit is fighting its own users, and fighting what it used to mean to be a web site.

poisonborz 3y ago

It has nothing to do with the amount of the price, the scheme (charge per request, not /user/month) makes third party apps impossible on purpose. Not to say that this abrupt and unannounced dumping of beloved community apps is just the latest misstep of a long string of anti-user moves from Reddit. They had it coming, but their estimation is that a large majority will keep silent. Let's see - Twitter had also not truly crashed yet on their grand way to profitability...

ChocMontePy 3y ago
If it made 3rd party apps impossible, then all or most of them would have announced they were shutting down by now. In fact, only three have done so. The rest are still trying to work out the economics. I expect that quite a few will survive, despite people saying it is "impossible."
- skilled 3y ago
  Do let us know about the math, once you are done with it.

coufu 3y ago

Even if the API price was reasonable, Reddit only gave 3rd party apps 30 days to prepare. You can’t come up with a decent pricing model, billing infrastructure, and incorporate the logic in your app in that amount of time. It’s just overall very hostile and unreasonable from Reddit leadership. The biggest apps are forced to shut down because if they stay up, the millions of dollars in bills are going to start flooding in.

ChocMontePy 3y ago
I agree with you that the timeline is tight. Relay For Reddit has just announced their preliminary plan to offer a $2-3 a month paid version. They sound cautiously optimistic and are hoping for some flexibility on the tight timeline. This is in stark contrast to a week ago when they were very doom and gloom.
- coufu 3y ago
  The doom and gloom honestly is mostly driven by Reddit’s leadership being incompetent. If Reddit leadership reached out and worked things out privately and in a productive manner with 3rd party app developers to create a plan and agree on reasonable timelines, none of this drama would have surfaced at this magnitude. Would people still be pissed at the API charges forcing apps to charge subscription fees? Probably. But you wouldn’t have peoples’ favorite Reddit apps shutting down and creating a much bigger stir as we have today. And I think everyone is in agreement at some level that Reddit deserves some compensation for API usage. But again, this has all been handled very poorly by Reddit leadership.
  - unclekev 3y ago
    > If Reddit leadership reached out and worked things out privately and in a productive manner with 3rd party app developers to create a plan and agree on reasonable timelines, Well to be fair, that appears to be exactly what was happening until the dev of Apollo spat the dummy and turned it into a public mega drama before actually consulting with the users of his App on how much they'd be willing to pay.
    - coufu 3y ago
      This was Reddit's statement (proven to be false btw by audio recordings) before "the dev Apollo spat the dummy and turned it into a public mega drama": > Steve: "Apollo threatened us, said they’ll “make it easy” if Reddit gave them $10 million." Steve: "This guy behind the scenes is coercing us. He's threatening us." Source: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36245721 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36245721 (there's probably a better source linked in there somewhere) Soooo yeah the dev of Apollo should have just sat back and let Reddit's CEO control the narrative and tell lies to make itself look better?

Terretta 3y ago

Propaganda is gaslighting users that the apps make API requests. No, users do, using their web client of choice for the site. Reddit is fighting its own users, and fighting what it used to mean to be a web site.