https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/06/reddit-api-changes-are-imminent-heres-whats-happening-to-your-favorite-apps/
Ars spoke to devs about their apps' future & what they learned from this ordeal.
I've been spending so much time in the Fediverse for the last week, I had no idea there were so many apps that were going to adapt to the new API rules and keep going.
Looks like the smaller apps, and Narwhal has an NDA, so I'd bet they cut a deal with reddit to keep the price really low, in exchange for something, possibly forcing reddit ads into their app.
All have gone to a subscription format, which is still ridiculous. Reddit isn't worth accessing for any price monthly.
If reddit was willing to cut a deal for narwhal why weren’t they willing to cut a deal with apollo or RiF. If reddit just handled the situation better I would probably still be using it today and paying for a subscription for apollo. Now if I did that I’d feel like I’d be rewarding a company that treats its users with contempt and there’s no way I’m doing that.
Good question and observation. I think Reddit set out to crush any and all competition with loyal fanbases and a business model. No coincidence that the surviving apps are severely feature-limited and run almost exclusively by hobbyists (such as is the case of Narwhal; it is not the dev's job. He is an executive with a side project).
It seems pretty clear what is going on here. Reddit thought Christian of Apollo would just roll over and take it. He exercised his rights and recorded conversations and saved transcripts of Reddit lying to him, and released them after they started libeling and slandering him and his business.
Reddit doesn't want that to happen again. I would guarantee that the NDAs being forced on these devs have clauses which prevents them of speaking ill of Reddit or making any statements regarding similar circumstances. They will just bend over and take it when the time comes.
And those devs are OK with that because the surviving apps are all hobbies, nothing more. Reddit lined them such that they can be easily swept away when needed.
Meanwhile, even communities under active attack--like r/Blind--are not moving. They are, similarly, just taking it. Even as mods make it very clear that they cannot perform their jobs even with Reddit's "carve out" to profit from the unpaid labor and expertise of mod tool creators. Even as users reaffirm that they can not use the site anymore, whether through surviving hobby apps or otherwise, because reddit refuses to hire on certified accessibility professionals or even put their own users through that training.
It was always going to be a slow death for Reddit. /r/blind may still exist, but it sure as hell is going to be lower quality than before, and have more spam issues.
Because RIF and Apollo were hugely popular.
Reddit wants to give you the faint idea that you have a choice instead of actually having a choice.
A cornered animal who sees 1 way out isn't as unpredictable than a fully cornered one.
I am no longer posting any of my work to reddit. Maybe if they started profit sharing with actual content creators I'd consider going back, but the hubris, greed, and animosity they've shown towards the users and mods that freely provide content/work that make the site worth anything has been infuriating.
I was a daily user for a frickin decade both posting and lurking.. Haven't been to reddit in almost 3 weeks now. Onward to the fediverse 👍
But as we know, developers are under the whim of Reddit. It's a capitalist platform. They depend on Reddit. Maybe they'll integrate ads à la Reddit.
My favorite reddit app(baconreader) stopped working. Unless I see apologies and changing course on reddit I'll be trying my hardest to adapt to the Fediverse. I've commented more on here more than on reddit in by a higher percentage since I want this to work.
I haven't posted any content to the reddit sub that I mod since the blackout--I've been putting all of it on the equivalent community in lemmy.world. I was astonished that apparently only 2 or 3 of the 11,000 subscribers followed me over (0.03%!).
I've actually really been enjoying it here. Testing out the various apps, checking out how lemmy and kbin are the same and different...finding interesting communities. The posts have been growing, and there's something gratifying about watching problems get resolved, and updates get applied.
I check in on the reddit sub occasionally--I haven't decided what to do yet about my mod position yet--but it's pretty dead over there for the last couple of weeks (I guess I was doing most of the posting?).
This is the bottom line. People will go where the content is. A concerted push to populate the fediverse with good content will give people and incentive to migrate. It will be a gradual process but I'm very confident in building a community here.
Yep, me too. I've made the switch permanently a few weeks ago. Really nice to see more users come here and content is starting to flow.
Don't really miss the old site anymore.
Right there with you. Moved all of my lurking here. Reddit is dead to me, and RiF has been uninstalled to prevent opening it via muscle memory.
It seems that the ability for an app to continue depends on it having a small userbase willing to pay for the privilege, which probably isn't sustainable. I agree that Reddit has a right to make money but there are better ways to do it that don't involve making Reddit harder to use.
I think there will be some willing to pay, but it is heavily dependent on whether people actually decide to jump over to the Fediverse or not. We really need to work hard while we still have time to drive content and community here to show users that there is a path forward.
Former Apollo user. I just tried to do my morning browse on the official app. It was a sea of ads and negativity. I had to stop after 10 minutes. Would love to see this place take off.
I think people are open minded about migration, but this place is not exactly a warm welcome to new users. For every 1 person that comes and stays, I’d estimate that 5 do not.
It’s frustrating to navigate, it’s not straightforward on how everything works, the differences between “magazines, people, and threads” is not spelled out…how the fediverse is integrated.
Without a coherent and cohesive redesign and or some polished mobile apps to bring it together, it’s futile and wasting the momentum given to it imo.
Coming from Apollo and using Reddit for 15 years, as a tech savvy person, I can say with certainty that the average person (specifically Reddit user) won’t make it much past creating an account. Maybe Christian could work on something for the fediverse. I’d pay for a polished mobile app if he released one.
The hard part for me over the past couple of days is the familiarity, yet completely different way things work.
I still don’t know how to see only things I’m subscribed to.
still not receiving notifications
still having issues searching for and finding new topics etc.
Been only on mobile though, which is very much the likely reason. And the same reason that most people will not stay. It’s not the lack of groups and content. It’s the ease at which they can jump into it. The easier it is (for a mobile user), the more people will come, and the niche forum content will organically arise.
I would suggest giving https://wefwef.app/posts/sh.itjust.works/all a try.
Apollo like experience, you can browse as a guest. If you want to login, it requires a Lemmy account rather than Kbin however.
I can see you're on kbin, which as far as I have heard is unique in that it tries to unify lemmy and mastodon content. I'm unsure if that's a good idea, I'm not sure how you're meant to reconcile thread based link aggregation with microblogging feeds. Here on sh.itjust.works I have a set of options at the top of my feed that make it very easy to only see the content I've subscribed to. I'm honestly shocked to hear that it's not so simple for you on your instance.
I am on wefwef + lemmy.world and it has been smooth for me. Only issues came from the user surge. Content is easily searchable, wefwef has a "Home", "Local", and "All" sorting options for communities you see. I find it all very simple, no idea what other people are talking about.
Yes, that's because lemmy.world does not attempt to include mastodon content, as far as I know. From what I can tell, kbin is trying to be one website that works like reddit and twitter at the same time, which is going to be a bit complicated at best.
I did not know that. But it appears it interacts nontheless. I can see how magezines might confuse people as its odd nomenclature. But honestly the biggest issue is the multiples of subgroups with the same names.
Edit: also this double comment stuff but that is an issue with my app as far as I am aware.
Sorry, at this point you're talking about things I don't understand. The nomenclature I'm familiar with is "instances" and "communities". I don't know what a magazine, multiple, or subgroup refers to in this context.
Kbin mostly just needs to simplify its nomenclature and its lack of true mobile apps makes it a little lackluster.
I don't care what scabs stay if there are no changes to the reddit API policy. Why would you ever pay for something in a subscription model without getting full access to all the content? You lose all/anything labeled NSFW content, doesn't matter if it's spoilers, combat footage, or porn.
I've only gone on to reddit recently for certain health related matters/ ultra niche subs with a revanced app (took a bit to get set up) or through old reddit with RES, an adblocker, and strict tracking blocking (seriously, reddit tracks you like crazy. It's ultra creepy.).
Otherwise, lemmy is new home and it is best to forget the old world and let them/those old ways fail.
Love to see so many Lemmy mentions in the comments! That’s a sure fire way to get people to give the Fediverse a try.
I can say while it’s not difficult to set up an account, it’s not as easy as give us your email and make a password for this one site. I’m figuring it out as I go but those little things might be enough to turn some people away.
Agreed, the barrier for entry for a lay user is much too high, lots of terms and functionality gets thrown at you right out the gate. Hopefully the onboarding experience can improve with time.
And I’m sure it will. But one comment had a “welcome package” with like 13 different links.
NSFW content is not available in 3rd party apps, and I'm paying for it? You gotta be kidding spez.. You killing them.
Hate spez all you want, I sure do. But that rumor has some slant, since once upon a time you could be appointed as a mod without your approval, and it appears that’s what happened with spez and the jailbait sub.
He created a special jailbait trophy. It's not exaggerated. Yes, he's was added when you could do that. He then proceeded to ACTIVELY participate, and again, made a custom, one of a kind jailbait trophy for the head mod there.
My app now just has a popup telling me to go to Lemmy 😀 Seriously happy sync is going to be released for Lemmy, I'm already pretty happy with my feed.
Heh. I clicked on the RIF link and it took me to their Reddit post wherein I immediately got a pop-up trying to direct me to read it on the official Reddit app.
Yeah, no.
I don't foresee any of those remaining apps lasting the remainder of the year; people are tired of paying for subscriptions, and since Reddit is technically free, they're less like to pay for a 3rd-party app sub. No matter how cheap it might be.