Reddit CEO: We’re sticking with API change, despite subreddits going dark
Reddit CEO: We’re sticking with API change, despite subreddits going dark
'Unlike some of the 3P [third-party] apps, we are not profitable,' Steve Huffman says in defending the move to charge for high-volume API access.
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and here i was, truly believing that they would reconsider. as of right now ~4000 of the planned 6600 subs have gone private, if that isn't enough then oh well
Bear in mind this article is from a couple days ago right after the AMA happened and before subreddits started closing.
oh okay. so i guess its still to be decided then?
Yes. This isn't breaking anything we didn't know from the AMA and previous events.
And if nothing changes, I would imagine a new, possibly more severe protest to be organized.
I'm hoping that a lot of the subreddits that has gone dark would remain dark indefinitely. Granted, the Reddit admins might try to replace the mods on a lot of the subreddits - but at that point the community may not be the same anymore.
there are a few, such as r/196, but most are only doing it for 48 hours unfortunately.
r/witcher has gone dark until further notice as well. Granted, most of the content was stones with holes in it and moaning about the Netflix show, so nothing of value was really lost.
Make that 4500
theres a new one going private every like 5 seconds, and the list of how many are supposed to keeps growing. up to nearly 7k as of rn, so thats 400 more in the past 30 mins
It's already over 5000!
There (likely) won't be any reconsideration. Reddit's concern right now isn't the health of its communities. They're focused on taking the ball of data they're sitting on and selling it to AI platforms while the AI gold rush is still happening.
I don't think that makes sense as an explanation for killing off 3PA/API access. 3PAs would increase user base, and so collection of data, by virtue of providing more channels by which users can contribute and improving the experience for those people would likely increase their engagement. The mod tools that make use of the API would also help with curating that data, which increases its value to an AI consumer.
Cheap API access was letting the AI platforms pull Reddit data directly via API. That's why the "fix" was making API access expensive, so that buying the data from Reddit instead becomes the more cost-effective solution.
Reddit's not (as) worried about gathering more data to sell, they're worried about selling the years of data they already have.
But charging over a million dollars a month instead makes little sense.
I doubt any amount would change their minds. They want 3rd party dead.