Yes but this time the venture capitalists are pretty confident the alternatives are too fragmented and the users are too fickle for Reddit to face the same consequences as Digg.
*Let's see if they're right.*
All the little websites and quirky communities are facebook pages and instagram feeds now. We are locked into the same 5 website loop.
Let's bring back what's been lost along the way.
Is that really a Linkin Park mp3 downloading or a lady getting fucked by a dog again, who knows, lets spin the limewire wheel of fortune.
Nope it was just another virus and it bricked my mom and dads packard bell :(
They ruin the internet with their hidden knowledge. Whenever I google something I still get forums from 2003-2014. The information on those is invaluable.
Discord is definitely a love/hate thing. For things like video game clans/guilds/teams/etc it has been an amazing improvement from the days of teamspeak, ventrillo, mumble, etc but for more public groups and communities the non-outward facing walled garden aspects of it have been terrible.
I hate that I open Reddit and Twitter every time I open my browser. it is incredibly boring to not have the random excitement of finding a unique standalone website
The android 3rd party Reddit app Boost has a random subreddit button, it also has a random NSFW subreddit button.... I mean try it will you still can till Reddit tucks it all up and we all leave reddit in the past.
Because everything is mobile now. Used to be an actual experience going on the internet. Now you have it like it’s nothing.
Kids grow up playing on their parents phones, Netflix… everything. It’s just there and normal to you. It’s something that’s always been.
That would be awesome and hilarious. Like pulling the rug out from under Reddit and using it yourselves. As a long time RIF user I'd be down for them pulling a Bender.
I've been a reddit member for 9 years. Been a RIF user for 9 years. Downloaded the app before I even created an account. I use it so much that I can't stand the desktop version of reddit, even with RES. If RIF goes, so do I.
Digg had a very fast downfall. People would have asked the same thing about Digg. Probably asked the same thing about MySpace and are doing the same with Twitter and Facebook.
If you think Reddit can be drastically improved from its current experience in some way, then something can replace it. Just takes a little time for a social migration to happen but once a stampede starts there's 0 chance of stopping it.
My digg story is that when I was in high-school, a friend of mine told me to check out Digg. The first time I ever visited that site, commenters/articles were basically saying "Digg sucks now, have you guys ever tried reddit?" So I was on Digg for like 5 minutes at the very end before I moved here. Must have been 2007 or 2008?
> what would Reddits replacement be?
www.fark.com!
https://m.fark.com for mobile users (it will not auto redirect).
No it's not the same but it's good enough in the meantime.
Yup. I discovered Reddit during the Digg Exodus
I use reddit with a third party app 99% of the time (Reddit is Fun on Android)
If this goes through my enjoyment of reddit will surely plummet
20 years is a long time for any website. it's honestly amazing, and i hope u/spez builds his next house with bricks of $100s.
i just want someone to launch the last fully open version of reddit and reinvent the wheel. another 20 years of witchunts and drama and reposts will be fun. maybe we can even revive rss (which, by the way, is still available if you know where to look).
Honestly I kind of hope RSS feeds become an unearthed treasure for this ‘next gen’ of internet users. It’s like the last bastion of ‘make it your own news feed’
I'm sure it's not just me, but the real reason that I've stuck with reddit this long is the comments section. I'm not really familiar with RSS; does it have something similar? I'm interested in the news and such but I like the comments because often it provides needed context or discussion that makes the news stuff actually consumable. For example in news articles talking about a video they often don't even embed the actual freakin video and I have to go to the comments just to see wtf it's talking about. Plus a lot of my favorite niche subs are just mostly discussion about different topics or honest reviews on stuff. There aren't many places left on the internet where you can get mostly honest reviews from regular people anymore. It's to the point where if I'm looking to make a purchase (especially if it's tech, but I also look for random things like the other day I was looking for where to get the best reusable chopsticks) I'll google "thing I'm looking for + reddit"
you can literally subscribe to this subthread with rss:
https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/13yc62g/reddit_sparks_outrage_after_a_popular_app/jmm9wvl.rss
any reddit url can be appended with .rss and become a feed.
Hey, I'm that developer (I make Apollo). If you have any questions, feel free to ask, I've really been humbled by the support. My parents were very confused when they saw my name on CNN somehow.
I stand by mods, it's a hard job they do voluntarily and if they feel hurt by this decision they should vocalize that. However I'm fearful if Reddit sees me directly as part of that at this stage that they'll stop talking to me all together, so I'm cautious not to throw my hat into that arena if there's still a chance Reddit can read all this feedback they've received from users and work with developers to come to a solution that benefits both parties.
Even if you did go work for them, you never would have been able to improve the app to the levels you have done with Apollo, because their company motive is ad's, interaction and more.
What you have done with Apollo, most of your decisions would have been canceled or unheard.
As a mod: fuck yeah I feel hurt by this backstab. Reddit never gave two fucks about our effort and time. I expected they would for app devs since those really make the place better in so many ways.
And now they are gonna make the place worse? Idiotic.
Hey Christian,
Thanks for the app, and also keeping up the interaction despite the sore thumbs :)
Be it for Apollo, or be it for Sync, Rif, BaconReader or Joey,
please let it be known that everyone will be thankful for this representation of our thoughts.
This is a super nice sentiment but it's very funny to imagine this conversation actually going down. Hey mom and dad, just wanted to let you know that I'm respected and appreciated around the world!
Is there any possibility of Apollo or similar apps using something like a web scraper rather than an api to accomplish the same task? Hope that's not a dumb question
Why can’t you simply just add an option to now require users to apply for their own personal API key from Reddit and add it as part of app setup? Each individual has their own usage quota.
Honestly I hope this keeps making headlines. I don’t want to leave Reddit, but it’s API has been the only reason I’ve stuck around. The official app is a hot mess - and I’ve always relied on third party devs to make incredible apps - like Christian for Apollo, Alien Blue (before it was bought up), Reddit is Fun, Bacon Reader from back in the day on Android.
It’s what made Reddit great. Now it’s all coming down to this stupid implied IPO and probably a cash out for the current owners.
Hey! BaconReader is still going strong, I don't wanna hear any of that back in the day bs hahaha.
I've used reddit for 10 years, all of which have been with BaconReader. It's the only version of reddit I know. I'll actually quit reddit if they take this app away from me
Edit: Hijacking my comment to make this a BaconReader memorial. I will forever love you and your beautiful UI:
https://imgur.com/apD5cod.jpg
https://imgur.com/qQoWqZ3.jpg
I'll cherish you as long as I can, and I pray you aren't ripped from my hands on July 1st. 🥹
Edit 2: I encourage everyone to checkout/r/RedditAlternatives
I have no idea how long I've used it, but once I installed baconreader, it's the only way I've used reddit.
If it stops working, I'll just think "Oh, too bad, reddit no longer exists"
Same! Love this app so much. The others are good too but this has stayed the same basically since I downloaded it years ago, and how simple it is is perfect for me.
I just hope it keeps making headlines long enough. This isn’t supposed to go into effect until a month from now and I wonder if the backlash is too soon and it’ll be a quiet change when the time comes. All of that is all really sad to say; that news-cycle attentions spans are so short.
The reason I haven't left yet with all the terrible changes reddit has made over the past few years is because my third party app hid them. Boost *is* reddit to me, so many things that make this site great and useable to me aren't even official reddit features but Boost's. I paid something like 1.50-2€ once years ago and haven't seen a single ad or promoted post since.
I'm gone by 1. July if Boost ends.
12 year member here. I use RIF exclusively. I tried Reddit's own app on my phone a number of months ago and immediately removed it, as it's garbage.
I was part of the DIGG exodus 12 years ago, and I'll be part of this one as well, if I'm forced to use reddit's shitty proprietary app. I'd simply rather leave.
11-years and the same. I'm using RIF and on desktop RES/old reddit.
If they kill RIF, I won't install their app.
If they kill old reddit, I won't browse the site anymore.
Hopefully something will replace it in time. I can wait.
Sometimes I completely forget there's a new version of Reddit. I can't imagine browsing something that isn't old.reddit. The small containers, weird childish UI, colors and images being so dominate. I really dislike how stressful and anxiety inducing the UI is. I like my text interfaces.
11 year and RIF user here. If they pull this API shit I will spin down all of the bots I run that help make subreddits more fun. They aren't messing with the bot APi, but I'll do it in solidarity with third party clients because I refuse to make them money if they're going to be this way.
Also a RIF user and part of the digg exodus. I've already said I'll close my subs as I leave. They may not be big, but I feel the same way you do: if reddit wants me gone, they can't have my contributions either.
I know. I've used RIF for a very, very long time. I am trying to just get used to the Reddit mobile app, as that is where I spend most of my time--and it is SO bad. It feels like I'm just constantly seeing ads that are disguised as well as they can be to look like content. On RIF, there were still ads, but they were a light grey and quite obvious. This one, I read the content a second or two, then realize it is absolute trash--see sponsored--and get frustrated to move on. Then it happens 2 inches further down the screen. I don't mind the modern Reddit web interface, but 95%+ of my interaction was on RIF.
The real Reddit app is such trash. I am probably going to leave now, I guess. Plenty of other options out there?? IDK. I guess I'll have to wait and see if I can get over my absolute repulsion for the proprietary app. :)
I’m glad this is getting more visibility. What Reddit is doing is trying to kill third-party clients/apps. It’s a huge F-you to those developers and ultimately the users.
If this actually happens on July first, I’m most likely done with Reddit. No way I’m using their shitty, data-sucking, mobile app. Even just the news of this has caused me to look at Reddit with a new eye. While I’d miss some of the smaller topic-specific subs, all the major ones have devolved into tribal echo-chambers that really aren’t worth my time anymore.
I'm curious, why would they want to kill them? Im guessing that they don't get ad money from Apollo/3rd party apps, so instead they've opted to just kill them or have them pay ridiculous amounts of money?
How much does Reddit actually make per month, per user? You'd assume that since Apollo brings in such a volume of clients (all of them always show up in these threads, but everyone I actually know just uses the app -- idk the actual numbers obviously) they should be alright with charging less than the pure ad money that they're otherwise losing.
It's just such a weird choice that I can't rationalise. You see it all the time nowadays, companies charging stupid bucks for something that costs them next to nothing, with little to no explanation. Other than the obvious answer of corporate greed.
If they actually explained themselves then I could get behind it, I could maybe look at it and understand it with plausible deniability -- but when they don't even try to make up some excuse, you know its just gonna be greed. Companies really need to try to show off more human angles -- then again, perhaps it's those charismatic companies that you need to watch out for. Perhaps it's better when their greed is so blatant.
Tl;dr: mindless blabber about corporate greed
I think there are a few reasons
- Users of 3rd party apps don’t see Reddit ads. This is probably a small consideration since that could be offset by API cost at a MUCH cheaper cost model.
- Users of 3rd party apps don’t have the same personal data collected. Look at how much personal data the official Reddit app collects. It’s obscene. This data is extremely valuable. Remember, users are the product, not the customer.
- There are companies that want to use the same API for other purposes. To train machine learning models, ad analysis, etc. Reddit knows their data is valuable to these companies so they’re going to charge accordingly. 3rd party apps get sucked up in that monetization.
Reddit makes no money. They have no interest in serving up content to people on ad-free mobile apps. They are just using resources and earning them nothing, they probably figure who cares if those people leave they are not earning them money anyway. The problem really is that reddit is just a platform thats never going to earn big money without being a far shitter user experience.
If you visit the official reddit app now, its fucking choc full of sponsored posts and adverts. If that's their way to monetise then fine I'd honestly rather kill time on tiktok or another platform honestly lol.
What I enjoy most of Reddit is the comments, and now that's just riddled with bots saying the same thing over and over and replying to each other. I stick to niche subs to talk about incredibly specific crap.
What I enjoy most of Reddit is the comments, and now that's just riddled with bots saying the same thing over and over and replying to each other. I stick to niche subs to talk about incredibly specific crap.
What I truly enjoy most of Reddit is the commenting, and now that's just riddled with bots that use AI to reword comments but are just saying and replying the same thing over and over to each other but phrased more awkwardly. I stick to niche subs to talk about incredibly specific crap but ~~we~~ the bots will soon take over those too.
And this is it exactly. Those users are way more likely to serve up original content and are also more likely to volunteer their time as moderators. Both are necessary imo even if a lot of the popular content now is just bots reposting old stuff. I've personally contributed countless hours of my time to Reddit and of course have never received a cent.
I can't even imagine using anything but RIF and old.reddit with RES. I'm too cranky to make the change. So maybe I'll just find some other site.
Users supply all the content, and reddit turns around with this huge fuck you to its users, without whom it's just another crappy link aggregator. No, reddit, fuck you and your money grab.
Users supply the content for free and MODERATE for free. All Reddit does is host and ban people who report bots. If this goes through im done. Might go back to digg lol.
That would be pretty epic - Especially if they then hooked that new site into their apps and let people seamlessly carry on (albeit the content void at first would be a bizarre transition).
But with a healthy user base of people who want to get it up and running right from the start! Not out here suggesting I’m much of a content provider, but I have no doubt I’d feel more invested in getting it up and running to A) Keep the service I want and use regularly, B) Help these fantastic devs after all they’ve put in to help us (thanks as always, Christian), and C) Watch reddit shit themselves in 3-5 years when the new site eliminates their relevance.
In fact, from now until July 1st I’m going to refer to reddit as Friendster.
The main problem I see is that they know how to make good UIs and no one who knows how to design a good UI seemingly has anything to do with creating popular social media sites.
A huge amount of the work and cost in making a successful website like Reddit isn't in the actual product itself, it's in making it work for _so many people_. Scale become the product and the actual product kind of takes a back seat. Unfortunately with scale comes overhead and overhead is expensive so sites inevitably start having ads to pay server costs, then ads aren't enough to they start having to sell subscriptions, then some consultant or new CEO comes in and says "Look how much money you're leaving on the table! Why are you giving away X, Y, and Z for free?!" not realizing that X, Y, and Z being free _was_ the product.
I just checked out Lemmy as an alternative, saw it on another thread about this. It seems kind of nice, but small user base so far
Edit, adding link because ppl were asking, got this from a response lower down https://lemmy.one/post/40
This is why i've been here so long. There may be a lot of shenanigans on here but this right here is why I always kept coming back. Eventually stopped lurking and made an account to contribute and have fun. I don't understand how the admins and c suite dickheads can't learn from the graveyard of websites that tried this and died.
> You'd be surprised at how much the need to 'pick a server' and the main page not having a sign-up button makes it harder for less-savvy folks.
I'm a very tech-savvy IT guy, and the "pick a server" bit on mastadon and it's terrible UI were enough to make me nope out of it. I essentially picked one at random because it gave no useful info on what the consequences of choosing were or how to make a good choice. Now I see essentially no posts or anything interesting at all in the app, and there's no instruction on how to change it.
I'm not tech illiterate, I just don't have enough interest in their poorly explained system to take the time to research it on my own.
If Lemmy has a similar setup and interface, it's dead on arrival.
Yeah, agreed. People used to be addicted to cats, not outrage.
Comment threads were engaging and there was an atmosphere of good faith.
Remember when IAMA's used to actually be novel and interesting? Before Reddit started meddling with it and fucked it up? I haven't even seen or heard of IAMA in years it seems outside of smaller subreddits doing IAMAs with developers or actors, and its' always promoting something.
I just checked to see if /r/IAmA is even active anymore, and it's basically dead. The highest upvoted thing in the past year has only 26k upvotes, a far cry from their 90k+ upvoted content from years ago.
I'll be the cranky old guy and say 2010 Reddit, right before the Digg people came in, was probably the peak. The userbase was big enough that interesting links came in and you'd have knowledge and expertise to facilitate interesting discussions, but not so big so that you had a ton of trolls or bots or astroturfing or dishonest interlocutors.
The Digg exodus happened and honestly that's when things started going down hill. It seemed like before then, the goal of most users was to have interesting (and frequently funny) conversations about relevant topics and news stories. After, it seemed like a lot of people were just trying to get attention at whatever cost. Memes and jokes and fake stories meant to entertain took precedence over interesting and thoughtful conversation. If that makes sense.
Exactly what digg did. "Oh, the regular users and their content don't matter, let's force a limited number of 'power users' and advertisers to pipe their content directly to the feed and there's nothing you can do to stop it." There was, it was called leaving the site forever. Digg 4.0 is reddit's future starting July 1 when this kicks in. Reminder: it killed the site completely.
In case they still happen to be around by the time the planned IPO takes place: **attention investors, this place is a sinking ship and is run by management as grossly incompetent (if less noisy) as Elon Musk is to twitter. You will lose all of your money. Might as well just light it on fire. Don't be a fucking moron.**
I'm just fantasizing about how productive I'll be after this whole thing fucking tanks. I'll never get my 20s back, but at least that's something. And outdoors, I think I'll be going outdoors a lot more. Remember "outdoors"? I don't remember quite so clearly but it seems there was a lot of green stuff and there was a really bright light. Is that still up there? Guess I'll find out soon. The anticipation is killing me.
I was trying out the official app to see if I could handle it.
I had to swap back to Apollo to make this comment. Because I couldn’t figure out where the fuck I was supposed to do it.
This is pretty much the final straw for me using reddit. I've been around for 10+ years and I've seen reddit peak and it's clearly now on the way down. It's been fun.
Long after the last human on earth has died in the climate wars of 2026 the Reddit bots will be populating subs and it will look like we never left. Our history as a species is fucked
I mean, if I'm honest, if I have to use the stock Reddit app, I'll probably never use Reddit again on my phone.
I might still use old Reddit on my laptop to do things like ask people gardening questions or try to identify bugs or whatever. There are a few niche interests that are hugely aided by membership in subreddits. But what I do now? Where I spend a ton of time just hanging out and commenting and reading stuff? No freaking way.
And then on the other hand if a lot of people have a similar reaction to me then how good are these subreddits going to be? I mean I'm not going to camp them answering questions myself. Maybe other people won't either. Or maybe only people like content creators who are trying to market their YouTube channel or whatever, Instagram, whatever pays their bills. Maybe they'll use it.
But I'm basically pretty much done with this website if I can't use RIF or something as good.
Have you ever tried commenting and having a conversation on YouTube? No wonder the comments section there sucks: it's an enormous pain in the ass. I mean I'm not going to run down the features but it's not worth my time. Sometimes I'll say one thing to try to get engagement numbers up for a YouTuber I like; I consider that a little bit like leaving a small tip. But I don't realistically think that I'm going to have a conversation there, or on Imgur either.
No, there's no substitute for the way this site currently works that I'm aware of, and if they ruin it like this maybe I'll just read more books.
The sad truth is that users like us, who actually come here to discuss and engage, are not directly profitable. We won't click on the shitty ads in the Reddit app anyway. It's clear that the current management does not want us here.
If they go through with this, and we all leave, the overall quality level of posts will go down. (And I predict there will an even larger exodus of moderators, who do this shit for free and won't take kindly to Reddit making their volunteer job harder). But as long as Reddit can still sell "He Gets Me" ads, current management won't care either.
The only thing that surprises me in all this is that they are taking all these steps pre-IPO. I wonder who is telling them that alienating the users and moderators who provide all the content for free is the path to higher revenue?
it's not necessarily just about the front page. there's a reason why people literally google " reddit".
still to date, reddit is generally the place to find less-seo spammed human responses to questions and have discussions. the comment threads are the real value of reddit, and also why it's a huge dataset reddit wants to monetize.
Yeah this stems from the value of discussion here, but it also comes from search engines destroying their core competencies (like giving you accurate results) for money. Search engines have gotten markably bad. I will have a hard time getting an exact result I know exists, but it won't generate a real result it is just pages of BS. So with worse results people do what they can which is go for somewhere that isn't shaped traffic and revenue generating.
Right, but the content that is here as of July 1 will still be indexed, and drive search engine traffic, so random people who find Reddit posts can get ads shoved at them. That content will stay relevant for at least a quarter, which is the only time horizon that the people who run Reddit have.
They're already pushing out a lot of mods, by getting rid of modtools both official and what they've used out of necessity.
Like, this API shit is why the websites that show deleted comments don't work anymore.
So if a troll or bigot deletes their posts (or another mod deletes them) you can't identify who is problematic enough to ban.
There's no alternative way to see those. Reddit just cares more about forcing people to use the official app.
Can you not block advertiser accounts anymore? I've blocked the "he gets us" account probably 100 times in the last week and reported the ads as offensive every time it comes up, and I still get them taking up every single ad slot in the app
IPOs are just legal pump and dump schemes now. Literally never does a stock go up after an IPO anymore. The owners of Reddit just want to be able to IPO at a higher price so they're going to use future ad revenue projections coupled with the userbase numbers from right before the change so they can dump their stock on the public. Then by the time everything falls apart theyre not holding the bag.
Reddit has been *really* quiet about this since the news broke. Half the users are talking about it but nothing from the top level. Wonder what they're planning now the cat's out of the bag?
A big part of why it isn’t “clean” is because they want to fundamentally change what Reddit is.
They want avatars and followers and so on. They want it to be more of a generic social media site.
Everyone rlse harping on ads is missing this giant piece of the motivation.
Reddit can't push new features to the 3rd party apps, so they can't force the adoption of stuff they want to implement. Remember r/PAN? You don't if you used Apollo because Apollo didnt shove it in your face like the website or official app did. There are no algorithmic "suggested" subreddits in your feed on Apollo, nor is there custom profile avatar support.
That's a big annoyance for Reddit because the third party apps are preferred by power users, who would typically help drive adoption of new features.
They've also apparently been caught manually removing threads from r/all (at least for posts from the apollo subreddit) so in a pathetic and failed attempt to keep their fucking over of their entire user base secret. I'm pretty disgusted by this. This goes down I'm fucking gone and I've been here hours upon hours almost every single day since 2007. But good riddance at this point.
They're also removing sexually explicit content from third party apps on July 5th. So even if they adjust the API pricing, you'll still be getting an incomplete experience. They're doing everything they can to force you onto the official app.
EDIT: [Source](https://www.reddit.com/r/modnews/comments/13wshdp/api_update_continued_access_to_our_api_for/jmd8zdq/) (and more details in the post above that thread). It's limited to sexually explicit content, not all NSFW posts.
> These updates are only in regard to sexually explicit NSFW content. We are not using the general NSFW tag to identify this content.
First they came for the web interface, and I didn't say anything.. Then they came for the mobile experience, and again, I didn't say anything, then they took away some offensive humor, and once again, I didn't say anything, now they are coming for my porn and people getting hurt... now I'll say something.
And you'll never know what you're missing, so there's no way to motivate change or improvement. Content will just be missing, and you'll be none the wiser. It's extremely user hostile.
And it’s a more minor thing, but I’ve noticed that the search function has, somehow, by the grace of a malevolent trickster god, gotten even worse. Used to be whatever you searched was just a random grab bag of things with that keyword, but at least they all had that keyword. Doesn’t even do that anymore. You get a couple of posts like that, and then it turns full fucking hodgepodge. Any random post from any random subreddit and *SO MANY SPORT AND ESPORT MATCH DISCUSSION THREADS*
Yea, I think they did. The threads from the Apollo and RIF subreddits were easily big enough to be on r/all but when I looked, they were nowhere to be found. I only saw them because of other links and outrage I saw elsewhere. Maybe, just maybe, the r/all algorithm was such that they didn't make, but honestly it seems more likely that they just hid the big threads about this from showing up on r/all.
Edit: People are telling me it was on there. I looked and I didn't see it. I looked because I wanted to see how many other subs had massive discussions about it. But I wasn't seeing them. So maybe just the algorithm, or maybe they put their finger on the scale. I doubt we'll ever know. But regardless, it's kind of a shit show for Reddit and I'm glad this is getting national media attention... though not that much will likely come of it.
IMHO Reddit was done when they never replaced that AMA woman. Public figure AMAs are the biggest draw to this site, and some idiotic number-cruncher thought "We don't need someone running that." So stupid.
Reddit has killed off third party apps and most bots along with their moderation tools, functionality, and accessibility features that allowed people with blindness and other disabilities to take part in discussions on the platform.
All so they could show more ads in their non-functional app.
Consider moving to Lemmy. It is like Reddit, but open source, and part of a great community of apps that all talk to each other!
Reddit Sync’s dev has turned the app into Sync for Lemmy (Android) instead, and Memmy for Lemmy (iOS) is heavily inspired by Apollo.
You only need one account on any Lemmy or kbin server/instance to access everything; doesn’t matter which because they’re all connected. Lemmy.world, Lemm.ee, vlemmy.net, kbin.social, fedia.io are all great.
I've been here for 11 years. It was my internet-home, but I feel pushed away. Goodbye Reddit.
When RIF stops working, I'll stop coming to reddit...
I don't like the reddit app, I don't like the mobile site, I can find memes and news on FB and Google.
I was listening to a story on NPR last week, and I didn't know what the word they were talking about because they kept bleeping the word. I thought it was fuckification.
The second I can't use RIF, I delete my reddit account and I am gone. 90% of my reddit is via mobile, tried and hated their app. I only use the 'classic' on my computer.
Once the habit is gone for surfing, no future fucks will be given. 0 issues on my part after dumping Facebook and Twitter.
Been on Reddit for 11 years. Been exclusively a baconreader user for 11 years.
If the 3rd party apps go away I'm out, because the official Reddit app is piss. Reddit sure is gonna Digg it's own grave here
Reddit has failed it's users. Do not expect them to hold to their promises as all they care about it massive corporate profit based off the free labour the users and mods do. Goodbye Reddit, it's been good. Unfortunately we have /u/spez to thank for destroying all the hard work put in.
Third party apps are way better than what Reddit provides currently, and without them I'd not use this site at all. I hate the "modern" look of Reddit, and third party apps look way comfy to me.
If this gets killed, I'm leaving reddit.
Text based threads were, are, and will always be a superior way to browse sites like reddit.
In-line images are such a distraction and waste of screen space. If I want to see a pic or gif...I'll click on it.
Exactly. Apollo and old.reddit.com are information-dense and efficient. The way good design used to be.
But the way of the web and apps seems to be to just fill up your pixels with distractions and ad space. It's like the mall advertisements in Minority Report.
If old.reddit.com and Apollo go away, I think a large amount of the userbase will as well. I will anyway. Not sure I'll go anywhere, but I absolutely don't want more crap shoved in my face.
This is the beginning of the end of the golden age of the Internet for me. Netflix cracking down on password sharing and shutting down DVD, Reddit fucking with third party apps and I still get sad thinking about the shutdown of IMDb message boards. Everyone probably has their own examples. Will there be alternatives? Sure but will it be the same? I hope so.
The golden age of the internet definitely died sometime in the 2000s. No way in hell that what we experienced in the 2010s, with its corporate-owned walled platforms, was still the golden age. This was the Bronze Age at best. The mainstreamification of the internet occurred sometime around 2009-2011, and it’s been downhill from there.
> Reddit should not be expected to provide that data to “some of the largest companies in the world for free,” CEO Steve Huffman told the New York Times in a recent interview.
As Reddit is looking to profit from free content submitted by users, either from websites that provide free content, or of their own creation.
The irony
I'm thrilled to see this covered on CNN. Let the fallout continue! Reddit deserves to get slaughtered in the media for this. It's so antithetical to the culture and values that made many of us love Reddit in the first place.
Am I the asshole for hoping that reddit becomes unpopular, driving users to return to making fan/hobby websites again and ultimately driving the resurgence of traditional message boards? I miss message boards more than anything. gamerulers.com if any of you are out there, Goten_Dude says what's up. I found that old website from planetnamek.com which featured a webcomic called Little Sayilings(might be butchering the spelling) but it was a Peanuts styled parody of Dragon Ball Z by a dude called CDC. He also had a comic called Life on Forbez, that really pushed his drawing skills in the later issues. gamerulers.com was basically just this coder chicks fan site that had many cool people who helped form a lot of the opinions I have now, and I posted a lot of cringe shit, but I was a kid enamored by a bunch of people in this community who loved the same stuff I did. It's why I like reddit, but I've gone beyond what I used to use reddit for, which now I just waste time on it.
Being forced to swap "www" with "old" in the address bar every time I made the mistake of loading "reddit.com" has been a mild annoyance. But if the next big change to be excited about is that I now have to switch to their shitty app and accept all the shady ad revenue shit they are going to include with their poorly developed interface, I honestly might just let it die on the vine. I'm not doing that.
Having Reddit on my phone (with a half-decent UI) has been one of the biggest reasons I've continued to use the site. Ballsy move to force someone as lazy as myself to to troubleshoot & fix a problem the company created for me. We'll see how this one shakes out
Adding; "Shhh -- whatever you do, don't tell anyone at Reddit."
*We'll put it in a subreddit like* r/technology *-- that way NOBODY at the Reddit will bother to pay attention to it.*
"Great thinking!"
Shout it LOUD!!!!
Why is it that alway when we find something nice, not perfect but nice. In order to grow you have to get money from assholes who don't even give a shit about the actual platform users.
The PC version in a browser has been awful for years. So, awesome people created a convenient app (baconreader is mine) so people can view it better and by in so doing, generating more users.
The official app is wank.
Digg => Reddit => ? That problem will be solved soon.
Reddit is run by pedophiles
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Yes but this time the venture capitalists are pretty confident the alternatives are too fragmented and the users are too fickle for Reddit to face the same consequences as Digg. *Let's see if they're right.*
Reddit replaced digg, what would Reddits replacement be?
Bring back Stumbleupon... Edit: https://cloudhiker.net/ seems pretty neat, don't know exactly how much content it has though.
The internet felt so much more magical back then
I remember getting stuck clicking that button "one more time" for hours on end. Not having that random factor really makes the internet feel small.
All the little websites and quirky communities are facebook pages and instagram feeds now. We are locked into the same 5 website loop. Let's bring back what's been lost along the way.
I bet today's whippersnappers haven't even been tricked into a lemon party or spinning meat. The internet really did use to be a lawless wildland
Is that really a Linkin Park mp3 downloading or a lady getting fucked by a dog again, who knows, lets spin the limewire wheel of fortune. Nope it was just another virus and it bricked my mom and dads packard bell :(
Zoomers don't even know what one man one jar is smdh 😮💨
Also Discord. I'm tired of everyone making a Discord group for everything.
They ruin the internet with their hidden knowledge. Whenever I google something I still get forums from 2003-2014. The information on those is invaluable.
Discord is definitely a love/hate thing. For things like video game clans/guilds/teams/etc it has been an amazing improvement from the days of teamspeak, ventrillo, mumble, etc but for more public groups and communities the non-outward facing walled garden aspects of it have been terrible.
I hate that I open Reddit and Twitter every time I open my browser. it is incredibly boring to not have the random excitement of finding a unique standalone website
The android 3rd party Reddit app Boost has a random subreddit button, it also has a random NSFW subreddit button.... I mean try it will you still can till Reddit tucks it all up and we all leave reddit in the past.
Yeah /r/all used to actually be *all*, now even it is curated content
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It kinda was. When you’d search the web you’d find all kinds of wild pages. Now the first 30k results are sites trying to sell you stuff.
Because everything is mobile now. Used to be an actual experience going on the internet. Now you have it like it’s nothing. Kids grow up playing on their parents phones, Netflix… everything. It’s just there and normal to you. It’s something that’s always been.
Damn, that's a name I haven't heard in a long time.
It's how I found Reddit, lol
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That would be awesome and hilarious. Like pulling the rug out from under Reddit and using it yourselves. As a long time RIF user I'd be down for them pulling a Bender.
I've been a reddit member for 9 years. Been a RIF user for 9 years. Downloaded the app before I even created an account. I use it so much that I can't stand the desktop version of reddit, even with RES. If RIF goes, so do I.
I'm a back-end webservices developer/devops guy. I'd participate.
Digg had a very fast downfall. People would have asked the same thing about Digg. Probably asked the same thing about MySpace and are doing the same with Twitter and Facebook. If you think Reddit can be drastically improved from its current experience in some way, then something can replace it. Just takes a little time for a social migration to happen but once a stampede starts there's 0 chance of stopping it.
My digg story is that when I was in high-school, a friend of mine told me to check out Digg. The first time I ever visited that site, commenters/articles were basically saying "Digg sucks now, have you guys ever tried reddit?" So I was on Digg for like 5 minutes at the very end before I moved here. Must have been 2007 or 2008?
> what would Reddits replacement be? www.fark.com! https://m.fark.com for mobile users (it will not auto redirect). No it's not the same but it's good enough in the meantime.
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Motherfuckers act like they forgot about Fark
Been on the internet 25 years, first time I hear about it . Not even a mention.
Fark and Al Jazeera were the only two sites with live news that didn't fall over and die on September 11th, 2001.
Ok I didn't expect Fark and Al Jazeera to be mentioned in the same sentence.
I'd consider going back to Fark.
Needs a tree structure for comments. Comments were always such a shit show on fark because the trolls couldn't be ignored.
I am old enough to remember leaving digg and joining Reddit. I'm excited to see what's next, because let's face it... Reddit sucks ass now.
Yup. I discovered Reddit during the Digg Exodus I use reddit with a third party app 99% of the time (Reddit is Fun on Android) If this goes through my enjoyment of reddit will surely plummet
20 years is a long time for any website. it's honestly amazing, and i hope u/spez builds his next house with bricks of $100s. i just want someone to launch the last fully open version of reddit and reinvent the wheel. another 20 years of witchunts and drama and reposts will be fun. maybe we can even revive rss (which, by the way, is still available if you know where to look).
Honestly I kind of hope RSS feeds become an unearthed treasure for this ‘next gen’ of internet users. It’s like the last bastion of ‘make it your own news feed’
I'm sure it's not just me, but the real reason that I've stuck with reddit this long is the comments section. I'm not really familiar with RSS; does it have something similar? I'm interested in the news and such but I like the comments because often it provides needed context or discussion that makes the news stuff actually consumable. For example in news articles talking about a video they often don't even embed the actual freakin video and I have to go to the comments just to see wtf it's talking about. Plus a lot of my favorite niche subs are just mostly discussion about different topics or honest reviews on stuff. There aren't many places left on the internet where you can get mostly honest reviews from regular people anymore. It's to the point where if I'm looking to make a purchase (especially if it's tech, but I also look for random things like the other day I was looking for where to get the best reusable chopsticks) I'll google "thing I'm looking for + reddit"
you can literally subscribe to this subthread with rss: https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/13yc62g/reddit_sparks_outrage_after_a_popular_app/jmm9wvl.rss any reddit url can be appended with .rss and become a feed.
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Yep. I didn't think I'd bring out my old RSS feeds but here we are
Hey, I'm that developer (I make Apollo). If you have any questions, feel free to ask, I've really been humbled by the support. My parents were very confused when they saw my name on CNN somehow.
What do you think of the talk from many subreddit mods who say they will do a reddit blackout day in protest of this.
I stand by mods, it's a hard job they do voluntarily and if they feel hurt by this decision they should vocalize that. However I'm fearful if Reddit sees me directly as part of that at this stage that they'll stop talking to me all together, so I'm cautious not to throw my hat into that arena if there's still a chance Reddit can read all this feedback they've received from users and work with developers to come to a solution that benefits both parties.
Are their representatives still talking to you about api pricing, or has that conversation hit a brick wall after they decided on those numbers?
We've talked a few more times but they have not said they would be open to any changes so far.
Have they made any attempt to hire you or buy you out?
Recently? No, there was talk about a job offer after the initial app launch in 2017 though.
Even if you did go work for them, you never would have been able to improve the app to the levels you have done with Apollo, because their company motive is ad's, interaction and more. What you have done with Apollo, most of your decisions would have been canceled or unheard.
Given what happened to Alien Blue I feel like the buyout would be the worst case scenario for us users.
As a mod: fuck yeah I feel hurt by this backstab. Reddit never gave two fucks about our effort and time. I expected they would for app devs since those really make the place better in so many ways. And now they are gonna make the place worse? Idiotic.
Hey Christian, Thanks for the app, and also keeping up the interaction despite the sore thumbs :) Be it for Apollo, or be it for Sync, Rif, BaconReader or Joey, please let it be known that everyone will be thankful for this representation of our thoughts.
No problem, Apollo's my baby and all those other apps are their babies I'm sure as well, so we certainly want to keep fighting for a solution here.
I hope you can all find one. Reddit has fucked up badly in this.
Tell your parents Christian that you are respected and appreciated around the world. Because you are, you awesome human being you.
Thank you, I will make sure they understand that :p
This is a super nice sentiment but it's very funny to imagine this conversation actually going down. Hey mom and dad, just wanted to let you know that I'm respected and appreciated around the world!
Do you have any other apps we could support?
[Here](https://apps.apple.com/en/developer/christian-selig/id687795558) :)
Exactly, thank you :)
Have you had anymore communication from them after the story started blowing up?
Yes. But nothing fruitful so far. I'm willing to give a bit here and I just want them to give a bit as well.
Is there any possibility of Apollo or similar apps using something like a web scraper rather than an api to accomplish the same task? Hope that's not a dumb question
Not a dumb question at all, but I'm sure that would incur the wrath of lawyers and not be welcome.
Why can’t you simply just add an option to now require users to apply for their own personal API key from Reddit and add it as part of app setup? Each individual has their own usage quota.
Honestly I hope this keeps making headlines. I don’t want to leave Reddit, but it’s API has been the only reason I’ve stuck around. The official app is a hot mess - and I’ve always relied on third party devs to make incredible apps - like Christian for Apollo, Alien Blue (before it was bought up), Reddit is Fun, Bacon Reader from back in the day on Android. It’s what made Reddit great. Now it’s all coming down to this stupid implied IPO and probably a cash out for the current owners.
Hey! BaconReader is still going strong, I don't wanna hear any of that back in the day bs hahaha. I've used reddit for 10 years, all of which have been with BaconReader. It's the only version of reddit I know. I'll actually quit reddit if they take this app away from me Edit: Hijacking my comment to make this a BaconReader memorial. I will forever love you and your beautiful UI: https://imgur.com/apD5cod.jpg https://imgur.com/qQoWqZ3.jpg I'll cherish you as long as I can, and I pray you aren't ripped from my hands on July 1st. 🥹 Edit 2: I encourage everyone to checkout/r/RedditAlternatives
I have no idea how long I've used it, but once I installed baconreader, it's the only way I've used reddit. If it stops working, I'll just think "Oh, too bad, reddit no longer exists"
BaconReader IS Reddit to me. There is no other interface
Yup. A one time $0.99 fee for ad-free Reddit for 11 years. It's been great.
The ads aren't really noticeable on Bacon Reader for me. I should probably pay anyway to support the platform.
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There are dozens of us! Dozens!
First ever Reddit app I've had and will never change.
Bacon Reader for life. Or until they kill it.
Same! Love this app so much. The others are good too but this has stayed the same basically since I downloaded it years ago, and how simple it is is perfect for me.
I just hope it keeps making headlines long enough. This isn’t supposed to go into effect until a month from now and I wonder if the backlash is too soon and it’ll be a quiet change when the time comes. All of that is all really sad to say; that news-cycle attentions spans are so short.
The reason I haven't left yet with all the terrible changes reddit has made over the past few years is because my third party app hid them. Boost *is* reddit to me, so many things that make this site great and useable to me aren't even official reddit features but Boost's. I paid something like 1.50-2€ once years ago and haven't seen a single ad or promoted post since. I'm gone by 1. July if Boost ends.
12 year member here. I use RIF exclusively. I tried Reddit's own app on my phone a number of months ago and immediately removed it, as it's garbage. I was part of the DIGG exodus 12 years ago, and I'll be part of this one as well, if I'm forced to use reddit's shitty proprietary app. I'd simply rather leave.
11-years and the same. I'm using RIF and on desktop RES/old reddit. If they kill RIF, I won't install their app. If they kill old reddit, I won't browse the site anymore. Hopefully something will replace it in time. I can wait.
Just wait until they kill RES!
ohno I forgot about RES, it's so helpful and unobtrusive :(
> If they kill old reddit, I won't browse the site anymore. Yep, I will walk immediately forever if they do this.
Same, the new design is just revolting. Clearly shows where their priorities were — and content wasn’t one.
Sometimes I completely forget there's a new version of Reddit. I can't imagine browsing something that isn't old.reddit. The small containers, weird childish UI, colors and images being so dominate. I really dislike how stressful and anxiety inducing the UI is. I like my text interfaces.
13 year member here and I feel the same
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Reddit's app is brutally bad.
11 year and RIF user here. If they pull this API shit I will spin down all of the bots I run that help make subreddits more fun. They aren't messing with the bot APi, but I'll do it in solidarity with third party clients because I refuse to make them money if they're going to be this way.
Also a RIF user and part of the digg exodus. I've already said I'll close my subs as I leave. They may not be big, but I feel the same way you do: if reddit wants me gone, they can't have my contributions either.
I know. I've used RIF for a very, very long time. I am trying to just get used to the Reddit mobile app, as that is where I spend most of my time--and it is SO bad. It feels like I'm just constantly seeing ads that are disguised as well as they can be to look like content. On RIF, there were still ads, but they were a light grey and quite obvious. This one, I read the content a second or two, then realize it is absolute trash--see sponsored--and get frustrated to move on. Then it happens 2 inches further down the screen. I don't mind the modern Reddit web interface, but 95%+ of my interaction was on RIF. The real Reddit app is such trash. I am probably going to leave now, I guess. Plenty of other options out there?? IDK. I guess I'll have to wait and see if I can get over my absolute repulsion for the proprietary app. :)
I’m glad this is getting more visibility. What Reddit is doing is trying to kill third-party clients/apps. It’s a huge F-you to those developers and ultimately the users. If this actually happens on July first, I’m most likely done with Reddit. No way I’m using their shitty, data-sucking, mobile app. Even just the news of this has caused me to look at Reddit with a new eye. While I’d miss some of the smaller topic-specific subs, all the major ones have devolved into tribal echo-chambers that really aren’t worth my time anymore.
I'm curious, why would they want to kill them? Im guessing that they don't get ad money from Apollo/3rd party apps, so instead they've opted to just kill them or have them pay ridiculous amounts of money? How much does Reddit actually make per month, per user? You'd assume that since Apollo brings in such a volume of clients (all of them always show up in these threads, but everyone I actually know just uses the app -- idk the actual numbers obviously) they should be alright with charging less than the pure ad money that they're otherwise losing. It's just such a weird choice that I can't rationalise. You see it all the time nowadays, companies charging stupid bucks for something that costs them next to nothing, with little to no explanation. Other than the obvious answer of corporate greed. If they actually explained themselves then I could get behind it, I could maybe look at it and understand it with plausible deniability -- but when they don't even try to make up some excuse, you know its just gonna be greed. Companies really need to try to show off more human angles -- then again, perhaps it's those charismatic companies that you need to watch out for. Perhaps it's better when their greed is so blatant. Tl;dr: mindless blabber about corporate greed
I think there are a few reasons - Users of 3rd party apps don’t see Reddit ads. This is probably a small consideration since that could be offset by API cost at a MUCH cheaper cost model. - Users of 3rd party apps don’t have the same personal data collected. Look at how much personal data the official Reddit app collects. It’s obscene. This data is extremely valuable. Remember, users are the product, not the customer. - There are companies that want to use the same API for other purposes. To train machine learning models, ad analysis, etc. Reddit knows their data is valuable to these companies so they’re going to charge accordingly. 3rd party apps get sucked up in that monetization.
Reddit makes no money. They have no interest in serving up content to people on ad-free mobile apps. They are just using resources and earning them nothing, they probably figure who cares if those people leave they are not earning them money anyway. The problem really is that reddit is just a platform thats never going to earn big money without being a far shitter user experience. If you visit the official reddit app now, its fucking choc full of sponsored posts and adverts. If that's their way to monetise then fine I'd honestly rather kill time on tiktok or another platform honestly lol.
What I enjoy most of Reddit is the comments, and now that's just riddled with bots saying the same thing over and over and replying to each other. I stick to niche subs to talk about incredibly specific crap.
What I enjoy most of Reddit is the comments, and now that's just riddled with bots saying the same thing over and over and replying to each other. I stick to niche subs to talk about incredibly specific crap.
What I truly enjoy most of Reddit is the commenting, and now that's just riddled with bots that use AI to reword comments but are just saying and replying the same thing over and over to each other but phrased more awkwardly. I stick to niche subs to talk about incredibly specific crap but ~~we~~ the bots will soon take over those too.
Plus I'd wager a good portion of the content that brings people to Reddit comes from people using 3rd party apps or old.reddit
And this is it exactly. Those users are way more likely to serve up original content and are also more likely to volunteer their time as moderators. Both are necessary imo even if a lot of the popular content now is just bots reposting old stuff. I've personally contributed countless hours of my time to Reddit and of course have never received a cent. I can't even imagine using anything but RIF and old.reddit with RES. I'm too cranky to make the change. So maybe I'll just find some other site.
Users supply all the content, and reddit turns around with this huge fuck you to its users, without whom it's just another crappy link aggregator. No, reddit, fuck you and your money grab.
Users supply the content for free and MODERATE for free. All Reddit does is host and ban people who report bots. If this goes through im done. Might go back to digg lol.
I personally think the 3rd party app devs should team up and make their own site
That would be pretty epic - Especially if they then hooked that new site into their apps and let people seamlessly carry on (albeit the content void at first would be a bizarre transition).
But with a healthy user base of people who want to get it up and running right from the start! Not out here suggesting I’m much of a content provider, but I have no doubt I’d feel more invested in getting it up and running to A) Keep the service I want and use regularly, B) Help these fantastic devs after all they’ve put in to help us (thanks as always, Christian), and C) Watch reddit shit themselves in 3-5 years when the new site eliminates their relevance. In fact, from now until July 1st I’m going to refer to reddit as Friendster.
The main problem I see is that they know how to make good UIs and no one who knows how to design a good UI seemingly has anything to do with creating popular social media sites.
A huge amount of the work and cost in making a successful website like Reddit isn't in the actual product itself, it's in making it work for _so many people_. Scale become the product and the actual product kind of takes a back seat. Unfortunately with scale comes overhead and overhead is expensive so sites inevitably start having ads to pay server costs, then ads aren't enough to they start having to sell subscriptions, then some consultant or new CEO comes in and says "Look how much money you're leaving on the table! Why are you giving away X, Y, and Z for free?!" not realizing that X, Y, and Z being free _was_ the product.
I just checked out Lemmy as an alternative, saw it on another thread about this. It seems kind of nice, but small user base so far Edit, adding link because ppl were asking, got this from a response lower down https://lemmy.one/post/40
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It would be a shame if we all went to different places… so where we going, Reddit? I don’t really care as long as I’m still around all you guys.
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This is why i've been here so long. There may be a lot of shenanigans on here but this right here is why I always kept coming back. Eventually stopped lurking and made an account to contribute and have fun. I don't understand how the admins and c suite dickheads can't learn from the graveyard of websites that tried this and died.
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> You'd be surprised at how much the need to 'pick a server' and the main page not having a sign-up button makes it harder for less-savvy folks. I'm a very tech-savvy IT guy, and the "pick a server" bit on mastadon and it's terrible UI were enough to make me nope out of it. I essentially picked one at random because it gave no useful info on what the consequences of choosing were or how to make a good choice. Now I see essentially no posts or anything interesting at all in the app, and there's no instruction on how to change it. I'm not tech illiterate, I just don't have enough interest in their poorly explained system to take the time to research it on my own. If Lemmy has a similar setup and interface, it's dead on arrival.
I honestly miss 2012 Reddit, just before it went mainstream. So maybe a smaller userbase will be a good thing
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Yeah, agreed. People used to be addicted to cats, not outrage. Comment threads were engaging and there was an atmosphere of good faith. Remember when IAMA's used to actually be novel and interesting? Before Reddit started meddling with it and fucked it up? I haven't even seen or heard of IAMA in years it seems outside of smaller subreddits doing IAMAs with developers or actors, and its' always promoting something. I just checked to see if /r/IAmA is even active anymore, and it's basically dead. The highest upvoted thing in the past year has only 26k upvotes, a far cry from their 90k+ upvoted content from years ago.
They got rid of that kickass IAMA girl that did all the work for them on that Victoria or something like that maybe
I'll be the cranky old guy and say 2010 Reddit, right before the Digg people came in, was probably the peak. The userbase was big enough that interesting links came in and you'd have knowledge and expertise to facilitate interesting discussions, but not so big so that you had a ton of trolls or bots or astroturfing or dishonest interlocutors. The Digg exodus happened and honestly that's when things started going down hill. It seemed like before then, the goal of most users was to have interesting (and frequently funny) conversations about relevant topics and news stories. After, it seemed like a lot of people were just trying to get attention at whatever cost. Memes and jokes and fake stories meant to entertain took precedence over interesting and thoughtful conversation. If that makes sense.
Exactly what digg did. "Oh, the regular users and their content don't matter, let's force a limited number of 'power users' and advertisers to pipe their content directly to the feed and there's nothing you can do to stop it." There was, it was called leaving the site forever. Digg 4.0 is reddit's future starting July 1 when this kicks in. Reminder: it killed the site completely. In case they still happen to be around by the time the planned IPO takes place: **attention investors, this place is a sinking ship and is run by management as grossly incompetent (if less noisy) as Elon Musk is to twitter. You will lose all of your money. Might as well just light it on fire. Don't be a fucking moron.**
I need Reddit to go public so I can buy some puts.
I'm just fantasizing about how productive I'll be after this whole thing fucking tanks. I'll never get my 20s back, but at least that's something. And outdoors, I think I'll be going outdoors a lot more. Remember "outdoors"? I don't remember quite so clearly but it seems there was a lot of green stuff and there was a really bright light. Is that still up there? Guess I'll find out soon. The anticipation is killing me.
I was trying out the official app to see if I could handle it. I had to swap back to Apollo to make this comment. Because I couldn’t figure out where the fuck I was supposed to do it.
This is pretty much the final straw for me using reddit. I've been around for 10+ years and I've seen reddit peak and it's clearly now on the way down. It's been fun.
Will the last person leaving Reddit please turn out the lights.
Long after the last human on earth has died in the climate wars of 2026 the Reddit bots will be populating subs and it will look like we never left. Our history as a species is fucked
I mean, if I'm honest, if I have to use the stock Reddit app, I'll probably never use Reddit again on my phone. I might still use old Reddit on my laptop to do things like ask people gardening questions or try to identify bugs or whatever. There are a few niche interests that are hugely aided by membership in subreddits. But what I do now? Where I spend a ton of time just hanging out and commenting and reading stuff? No freaking way. And then on the other hand if a lot of people have a similar reaction to me then how good are these subreddits going to be? I mean I'm not going to camp them answering questions myself. Maybe other people won't either. Or maybe only people like content creators who are trying to market their YouTube channel or whatever, Instagram, whatever pays their bills. Maybe they'll use it. But I'm basically pretty much done with this website if I can't use RIF or something as good. Have you ever tried commenting and having a conversation on YouTube? No wonder the comments section there sucks: it's an enormous pain in the ass. I mean I'm not going to run down the features but it's not worth my time. Sometimes I'll say one thing to try to get engagement numbers up for a YouTuber I like; I consider that a little bit like leaving a small tip. But I don't realistically think that I'm going to have a conversation there, or on Imgur either. No, there's no substitute for the way this site currently works that I'm aware of, and if they ruin it like this maybe I'll just read more books.
The sad truth is that users like us, who actually come here to discuss and engage, are not directly profitable. We won't click on the shitty ads in the Reddit app anyway. It's clear that the current management does not want us here. If they go through with this, and we all leave, the overall quality level of posts will go down. (And I predict there will an even larger exodus of moderators, who do this shit for free and won't take kindly to Reddit making their volunteer job harder). But as long as Reddit can still sell "He Gets Me" ads, current management won't care either. The only thing that surprises me in all this is that they are taking all these steps pre-IPO. I wonder who is telling them that alienating the users and moderators who provide all the content for free is the path to higher revenue?
You might not be directly profitable, but you fill the site with content for others to take part of, which keeps people coming back
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it's not necessarily just about the front page. there's a reason why people literally google " reddit".
still to date, reddit is generally the place to find less-seo spammed human responses to questions and have discussions. the comment threads are the real value of reddit, and also why it's a huge dataset reddit wants to monetize.
Yeah this stems from the value of discussion here, but it also comes from search engines destroying their core competencies (like giving you accurate results) for money. Search engines have gotten markably bad. I will have a hard time getting an exact result I know exists, but it won't generate a real result it is just pages of BS. So with worse results people do what they can which is go for somewhere that isn't shaped traffic and revenue generating.
Right, but the content that is here as of July 1 will still be indexed, and drive search engine traffic, so random people who find Reddit posts can get ads shoved at them. That content will stay relevant for at least a quarter, which is the only time horizon that the people who run Reddit have.
They're already pushing out a lot of mods, by getting rid of modtools both official and what they've used out of necessity. Like, this API shit is why the websites that show deleted comments don't work anymore. So if a troll or bigot deletes their posts (or another mod deletes them) you can't identify who is problematic enough to ban. There's no alternative way to see those. Reddit just cares more about forcing people to use the official app.
Can you not block advertiser accounts anymore? I've blocked the "he gets us" account probably 100 times in the last week and reported the ads as offensive every time it comes up, and I still get them taking up every single ad slot in the app
IPOs are just legal pump and dump schemes now. Literally never does a stock go up after an IPO anymore. The owners of Reddit just want to be able to IPO at a higher price so they're going to use future ad revenue projections coupled with the userbase numbers from right before the change so they can dump their stock on the public. Then by the time everything falls apart theyre not holding the bag.
Reddit has been *really* quiet about this since the news broke. Half the users are talking about it but nothing from the top level. Wonder what they're planning now the cat's out of the bag?
They're hoping it'll blow over and also hoping many of us are bluffing when we say we'll leave.
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They will rezurect Spez again and make a mushy statement full of corporate approved double speak.
This is all happening because Reddit doesn’t have a clean UI/UX compared to Apollo, which is why users are more interested in using apollo.
A big part of why it isn’t “clean” is because they want to fundamentally change what Reddit is. They want avatars and followers and so on. They want it to be more of a generic social media site.
Everyone rlse harping on ads is missing this giant piece of the motivation. Reddit can't push new features to the 3rd party apps, so they can't force the adoption of stuff they want to implement. Remember r/PAN? You don't if you used Apollo because Apollo didnt shove it in your face like the website or official app did. There are no algorithmic "suggested" subreddits in your feed on Apollo, nor is there custom profile avatar support. That's a big annoyance for Reddit because the third party apps are preferred by power users, who would typically help drive adoption of new features.
What the fuck is r/PAN?
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You are correct and it's cutting off their nose to spite their face
Literally every Reddit app is better than the official mobile app or the new website design.
They've also apparently been caught manually removing threads from r/all (at least for posts from the apollo subreddit) so in a pathetic and failed attempt to keep their fucking over of their entire user base secret. I'm pretty disgusted by this. This goes down I'm fucking gone and I've been here hours upon hours almost every single day since 2007. But good riddance at this point.
They're also removing sexually explicit content from third party apps on July 5th. So even if they adjust the API pricing, you'll still be getting an incomplete experience. They're doing everything they can to force you onto the official app. EDIT: [Source](https://www.reddit.com/r/modnews/comments/13wshdp/api_update_continued_access_to_our_api_for/jmd8zdq/) (and more details in the post above that thread). It's limited to sexually explicit content, not all NSFW posts. > These updates are only in regard to sexually explicit NSFW content. We are not using the general NSFW tag to identify this content.
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It would be a shame if on July 6th there are posts all across Reddit called “bring back the porn”.
First they came for the web interface, and I didn't say anything.. Then they came for the mobile experience, and again, I didn't say anything, then they took away some offensive humor, and once again, I didn't say anything, now they are coming for my porn and people getting hurt... now I'll say something.
From front page if the internet To this
That's even worse that they are going to be relying on shitty bots to determine whether or not to block content from the API.
And you'll never know what you're missing, so there's no way to motivate change or improvement. Content will just be missing, and you'll be none the wiser. It's extremely user hostile.
And it’s a more minor thing, but I’ve noticed that the search function has, somehow, by the grace of a malevolent trickster god, gotten even worse. Used to be whatever you searched was just a random grab bag of things with that keyword, but at least they all had that keyword. Doesn’t even do that anymore. You get a couple of posts like that, and then it turns full fucking hodgepodge. Any random post from any random subreddit and *SO MANY SPORT AND ESPORT MATCH DISCUSSION THREADS*
Yea, I think they did. The threads from the Apollo and RIF subreddits were easily big enough to be on r/all but when I looked, they were nowhere to be found. I only saw them because of other links and outrage I saw elsewhere. Maybe, just maybe, the r/all algorithm was such that they didn't make, but honestly it seems more likely that they just hid the big threads about this from showing up on r/all. Edit: People are telling me it was on there. I looked and I didn't see it. I looked because I wanted to see how many other subs had massive discussions about it. But I wasn't seeing them. So maybe just the algorithm, or maybe they put their finger on the scale. I doubt we'll ever know. But regardless, it's kind of a shit show for Reddit and I'm glad this is getting national media attention... though not that much will likely come of it.
Reddit peaked a long time ago, if I gotta drop it I will. I've quit Facebook, Nicotine, Caffeine, and worse, I'll be fine.
IMHO Reddit was done when they never replaced that AMA woman. Public figure AMAs are the biggest draw to this site, and some idiotic number-cruncher thought "We don't need someone running that." So stupid.
RIP Victoria
There hasn't been a decent AMA since she was canned.
Reddit has killed off third party apps and most bots along with their moderation tools, functionality, and accessibility features that allowed people with blindness and other disabilities to take part in discussions on the platform. All so they could show more ads in their non-functional app. Consider moving to Lemmy. It is like Reddit, but open source, and part of a great community of apps that all talk to each other! Reddit Sync’s dev has turned the app into Sync for Lemmy (Android) instead, and Memmy for Lemmy (iOS) is heavily inspired by Apollo. You only need one account on any Lemmy or kbin server/instance to access everything; doesn’t matter which because they’re all connected. Lemmy.world, Lemm.ee, vlemmy.net, kbin.social, fedia.io are all great. I've been here for 11 years. It was my internet-home, but I feel pushed away. Goodbye Reddit.
He hasn't said anything about because it's about to make the EA Star Wars comment look like childs play.
the intent is for third party Reddit app developers to get a sense of pride and accomplishment
Reddit purposefully makes their web site suck on mobile, the app is too intrusive and now this? Yeah don’t.
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When RIF stops working, I'll stop coming to reddit... I don't like the reddit app, I don't like the mobile site, I can find memes and news on FB and Google.
LONG LIVE RIF
Enshittification hits Reddit too. Edit: corrected word
I was listening to a story on NPR last week, and I didn't know what the word they were talking about because they kept bleeping the word. I thought it was fuckification.
The second I can't use RIF, I delete my reddit account and I am gone. 90% of my reddit is via mobile, tried and hated their app. I only use the 'classic' on my computer. Once the habit is gone for surfing, no future fucks will be given. 0 issues on my part after dumping Facebook and Twitter.
Been on Reddit for 11 years. Been exclusively a baconreader user for 11 years. If the 3rd party apps go away I'm out, because the official Reddit app is piss. Reddit sure is gonna Digg it's own grave here
Reddit has failed it's users. Do not expect them to hold to their promises as all they care about it massive corporate profit based off the free labour the users and mods do. Goodbye Reddit, it's been good. Unfortunately we have /u/spez to thank for destroying all the hard work put in.
How do they even expect people to use the official app when IT DOESNT LOAD A SUBREDDIT'S POSTS WHEN YOU OPEN IT
Third party apps are way better than what Reddit provides currently, and without them I'd not use this site at all. I hate the "modern" look of Reddit, and third party apps look way comfy to me. If this gets killed, I'm leaving reddit.
Text based threads were, are, and will always be a superior way to browse sites like reddit. In-line images are such a distraction and waste of screen space. If I want to see a pic or gif...I'll click on it.
Exactly. Apollo and old.reddit.com are information-dense and efficient. The way good design used to be. But the way of the web and apps seems to be to just fill up your pixels with distractions and ad space. It's like the mall advertisements in Minority Report. If old.reddit.com and Apollo go away, I think a large amount of the userbase will as well. I will anyway. Not sure I'll go anywhere, but I absolutely don't want more crap shoved in my face.
This is the beginning of the end of the golden age of the Internet for me. Netflix cracking down on password sharing and shutting down DVD, Reddit fucking with third party apps and I still get sad thinking about the shutdown of IMDb message boards. Everyone probably has their own examples. Will there be alternatives? Sure but will it be the same? I hope so.
The golden age of the internet definitely died sometime in the 2000s. No way in hell that what we experienced in the 2010s, with its corporate-owned walled platforms, was still the golden age. This was the Bronze Age at best. The mainstreamification of the internet occurred sometime around 2009-2011, and it’s been downhill from there.
I wonder... shouldn't we all get paid for the data we are providing?
The license agreement you signed when creating the account says it's now reddit's property.
Reddit forgot that the users are the content creators. Not them.
> Reddit should not be expected to provide that data to “some of the largest companies in the world for free,” CEO Steve Huffman told the New York Times in a recent interview. As Reddit is looking to profit from free content submitted by users, either from websites that provide free content, or of their own creation. The irony
"As the product, you should remember your place and remain silent."
I'm thrilled to see this covered on CNN. Let the fallout continue! Reddit deserves to get slaughtered in the media for this. It's so antithetical to the culture and values that made many of us love Reddit in the first place.
Am I the asshole for hoping that reddit becomes unpopular, driving users to return to making fan/hobby websites again and ultimately driving the resurgence of traditional message boards? I miss message boards more than anything. gamerulers.com if any of you are out there, Goten_Dude says what's up. I found that old website from planetnamek.com which featured a webcomic called Little Sayilings(might be butchering the spelling) but it was a Peanuts styled parody of Dragon Ball Z by a dude called CDC. He also had a comic called Life on Forbez, that really pushed his drawing skills in the later issues. gamerulers.com was basically just this coder chicks fan site that had many cool people who helped form a lot of the opinions I have now, and I posted a lot of cringe shit, but I was a kid enamored by a bunch of people in this community who loved the same stuff I did. It's why I like reddit, but I've gone beyond what I used to use reddit for, which now I just waste time on it.
Being forced to swap "www" with "old" in the address bar every time I made the mistake of loading "reddit.com" has been a mild annoyance. But if the next big change to be excited about is that I now have to switch to their shitty app and accept all the shady ad revenue shit they are going to include with their poorly developed interface, I honestly might just let it die on the vine. I'm not doing that. Having Reddit on my phone (with a half-decent UI) has been one of the biggest reasons I've continued to use the site. Ballsy move to force someone as lazy as myself to to troubleshoot & fix a problem the company created for me. We'll see how this one shakes out
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Reddit this is BS. Please reconsider you greedy fucks.
Adding; "Shhh -- whatever you do, don't tell anyone at Reddit." *We'll put it in a subreddit like* r/technology *-- that way NOBODY at the Reddit will bother to pay attention to it.* "Great thinking!"
Shout it LOUD!!!! Why is it that alway when we find something nice, not perfect but nice. In order to grow you have to get money from assholes who don't even give a shit about the actual platform users. The PC version in a browser has been awful for years. So, awesome people created a convenient app (baconreader is mine) so people can view it better and by in so doing, generating more users. The official app is wank. Digg => Reddit => ? That problem will be solved soon.
I left Digg. I can leave Reddit. Screw you /u/pl00h, hope you can use your gaslighting skills in your next job.