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.
Hey. 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.
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.
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.
You are not logged in. However you can subscribe from another Fediverse account, for example Lemmy or Mastodon. To do this, paste the following into the search field of your instance: !technology@lemmy.world
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
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.
Hey. 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.
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.
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.