Probably an unpopular opinion....but I do get Reddit's perspective that these apps are profiting without sharing back to Reddit who bears the costs and built the community. I wonder what conversations were had to find an equitable point for both sides and what that looked like.
And so do the app devs -- at least Apollo and RiF have said so explicitly.
As I understand it, reddit announced that they would start charging for API in April. Everyone was concerned/interested but also agreed that reddit should get paid.
The issue is that the amount Reddit wants is 10x to 20x what would be 'typical' for API access like this. (I'm NOT an expert/informed on what normal pricing is, that's just what I've read in multiple sources)
The OTHER issue is that while the announcement of changes/charges was made in April, the (very high) pricing was just announced and there are only 30 days before it starts. That is definitely not enough time for developers to find revenue to cover the higher costs, write the code for app updates, test and deploy. 30 days is just not enough time to get it done.
Apollo seems to be taking the lead/brunt of the publicly visible controversy and has proposed that they could make the transition and pay the bill, IF it was half of what Reddit asks (so, 5-10x typical?) and they allow 90 days for apps to update/implement.
That seems like a pretty reasonable approach, I think.
However other factors that indicate that Reddit really just wants to kill all other apps is that outside apps will never be allowed access to nudity/NSFW content, and they are not allowed to run in-app advertising. Obviously a lot of users are interested in NSFW content and not many users prefer to pay for that app, most people tolerate the ads.
YET, Apollo thinks that they could make it work if given 90 days and a slightly more reasonable price. However spez (reddit CEO) has refused to reply or engage on that proposal.
According to the Apollo dev, they were taking in £500,000 a year ($10 from 50,000 subscriptions). I don't know if anyone else has revealed any figures
Source
Probably an unpopular opinion....but I do get Reddit's perspective that these apps are profiting without sharing back to Reddit who bears the costs and built the community. I wonder what conversations were had to find an equitable point for both sides and what that looked like.
And so do the app devs -- at least Apollo and RiF have said so explicitly.
As I understand it, reddit announced that they would start charging for API in April. Everyone was concerned/interested but also agreed that reddit should get paid.
The issue is that the amount Reddit wants is 10x to 20x what would be 'typical' for API access like this. (I'm NOT an expert/informed on what normal pricing is, that's just what I've read in multiple sources)
The OTHER issue is that while the announcement of changes/charges was made in April, the (very high) pricing was just announced and there are only 30 days before it starts. That is definitely not enough time for developers to find revenue to cover the higher costs, write the code for app updates, test and deploy. 30 days is just not enough time to get it done.
Apollo seems to be taking the lead/brunt of the publicly visible controversy and has proposed that they could make the transition and pay the bill, IF it was half of what Reddit asks (so, 5-10x typical?) and they allow 90 days for apps to update/implement.
That seems like a pretty reasonable approach, I think.
However other factors that indicate that Reddit really just wants to kill all other apps is that outside apps will never be allowed access to nudity/NSFW content, and they are not allowed to run in-app advertising. Obviously a lot of users are interested in NSFW content and not many users prefer to pay for that app, most people tolerate the ads.
YET, Apollo thinks that they could make it work if given 90 days and a slightly more reasonable price. However spez (reddit CEO) has refused to reply or engage on that proposal.