Long before the APIcalypse, I was thinking of quitting Reddit. Now that everything went downhill, that decision became super easy.
I wasn’t really getting that much benefit out of Reddit, so it wasn’t a big deal. Spending time there was more like bad habit to me. The mere thought of paying for a bad habit sounds so absurd that quitting would have been absolutely mandatory at that point.
Fortunately though, Reddit already made the process so much easier simply buy kicking out my favorite client app.
Must be fucking tragic still developing for reddit ecosystem. All of your subscriptions go straight to Reddit, who graciously gives you access to user generated content curated by unpaid mods.
I checked out Narwhal 2, and the app is a goddam jewel. I'd have paid $30 or $50 for it (like I did with Bean for Lemmy). It almost convinced me to go and make a reddit account again, but then I saw reddit recently stopped letting you opt out of ad personalization anymore, and it was easy to run back to lemmy. Reddit does not want 3rd party apps. Eventually they'll look for ways to fully block access.
For those who don't know: Eternity (for Lemmy) is a fork of Infinity (for Reddit).
My favorite bit of irony is how spez was throwing shade at third party apps for having the audacity to "profit" off reddits's work for free, when that is reddits's entire business model.
If I had been given the option to pay $3 or $5 a month in June to continue using Apollo to access Reddit with no restrictions (NSFW) I would have considered it. I trust Christian’s assessment that it wasn’t financially viable, though. The dev of this app admits at $3 they basically make nothing. If the app cannot be funded (aka dev make a living) Reddit is overcharging for what they provide and can go fuck themselves.
This basically still supports what Christian said in June…and still shows why Reddit was so stupid and toxic that they wouldn’t try to tweak the api dollar amounts to make it sustainable.
Fuck spez still. I admire what these devs are trying to do but Reddit does not want them to succeed, and Reddit does not want people using their apps…so it’s a losing battle
I love the pattern of prices. Price goes down but the last option is the most expensive.
It's a paradigm that defeats itself. Reddit is basically reselling access to shit that users freely submit. They start removing access from users who don't want to pay or use the official (bad experience) app, and they will necessarily have fewer submissions and less content.
If its a hassle to go there and use it, and the payment structure disincentivizes their young demographic from using it, it is no longer the "cool kid" corner of the internet, which further removes the reason why other people would want to pay for it.
Imagine I'm a hypothetical Reddit user under the new model - what would be my incentive to pay them for the privilege of posting links, quality text posts, my girlfriends tits, or anything else for that matter?
Yeah, I hope this kind of business never thieves.
... and people will do it.
To be fair, Infinity worked for me for months after the API bullshit went into effect; NSFW and everything. The dev seemed pretty cool in the one or two times I messaged them. It must suck they have to charge now.
Still, screw Reddit. Dropped it like a bad habit... Because it honestly was for me.
