Tag: app-subdomain-redirection:reddit-the-official-app

On June 30 came the fateful day for many Reddit users and app developers. On that day, all apps or extensions that made use of the Reddit API and did not pay the platform for it stopped working. With that, users lost many apps that allowed them to browse Reddit with many more features or with different designs, and moderators were left without many utilities that made their job much easier.

After several weeks and a lot of pressure from Reddit’s administration, many of the platform’s communities that went private in protest (with no access for normal users) have been reopening. Many, but not all. Some of the protesting subreddits remain private to this day, including one of the platform’s largest, which doesn’t exactly intend to back down.

r/malefashionadvice, a Reddit community that discussed men’s fashion and has more than 5 million followers, is not only inaccessible to the public, but also now recommends people who visit to join the community’s Discord server and Substack.

While Discord serves as the primary means of communication between the subreddit’s followers and its own moderators (who decided to shut down the community with user approval), allowing them to chat as if they were doing so on the subreddit, its Substack account is used to post fashion guides.

According to one of the subreddit’s moderators, who contacted The Verge, the community’s Substack is not intended “to be a subscription-based thing” (paid), but rather serves to keep the subreddit’s guides accessible to the community and maintain the format.

At the moment, both platforms do not have many users (2000 on Discord and 560 on Substack), but seeing the attitude of the Reddit administration, neither the moderators nor the community may miss coming back, at least as long as the platform does not change its attitude. Will other subreddits do the same?

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The protests on Reddit are getting louder. The “blackout” of thousands of subreddits, which accumulate millions of followers, is now joined by a group of hackers who try to put the balance in favor of developers and users. And, as you can imagine, they don’t come with very good intentions.

BlackCat is a group of hackers specializing in ransomware that claims responsibility for an attack on Reddit’s systems that took place earlier this year. Through phishing, the attackers claim to have stolen nearly 80 gb of data from the platform, and have threatened Reddit with publication if their demands are not met.

First of all, BlackCat is demanding $4.5 million from the company in exchange for the stolen data, a typical demand of such criminal groups. On the other hand, the hackers seem to be against Reddit’s recent policy changes regarding its API, and demands that it repeal them.

Reddit said in February, just after the hack occurred, that this phishing attack was very “sophisticated and targeted” with the internal data and documents that were stolen, including contact information for Reddit employees and advertisers on the platform. The hacking group did not access non-public user data, according to the company.

Blackcat’s threats could be a setback for Reddit, which has the platform’s entire developer community against it. Until recently, developers of apps for Reddit did not have to pay for the use of the API, but now the company requires a monthly payment, based on the requests made, to keep them running. In addition to the fact that the API is now payable, the more serious problem would be the high price that developers claim they would have to pay.

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If you thought that the situation on Reddit would be resolved in a few days, we’re sorry to tell you that you were being naive. Reddit is currently immersed in what could be considered a “war” between the management of the internet’s largest forum and app developers and the community, who are protesting against the recently established exorbitant fees that Reddit has imposed for using its API.

What was initially planned as a 48-hour “shutdown” by thousands of subreddits has now stretched into this entire week, and for the time being, it will continue until further notice. And it’s not just because we assume that Reddit has no plans to back down on this measure, but also because the words of Reddit CEO Steve Huffman essentially confirm it.

Huffman gave an interview to The Verge yesterday, where he tried to do some damage control in a rather peculiar way. Among the noteworthy statements in the interview is his assertion that Reddit’s API, which has been used by third-party developers to create highly useful apps for years, “was never designed to support third-party applications.”

According to Huffman, “the vast majority of API usage” is for “tools, bots, and enhancements for Reddit,” and he believes that third-party apps like Apollo, one of the heavily affected ones by the new fees, do not offer any improvement to the Reddit experience.

Huffman also admits to bearing some responsibility for the current situation, stating that he “let (the API) exist” for all these years and that he should take the blame for it because he was the one who defended it for a long time. The Reddit CEO claims that he only recently realized “how much they were benefiting from our API,” despite being the CEO of the platform. “They were not charities,” Huffman said.

Adding fuel to the fire, Huffman also states that apps like Apollo “don’t add as much value to Reddit as they take away, in any way,” and he believes it is better to privatize the API (as happened with Twitter) rather than completely banning its use. “They have to pay for this. It’s fair. What our counterparts have done is to completely ban them. And we’ve told them no, that we believe in the free market. They have to cover their costs. That’s our business decision, and we’re not going to undo that business decision.”

With this neoliberal approach that seems detached from reality and reminiscent of another notorious leader in the tech industry, Elon Musk, it is only natural that tension on Reddit will continue to escalate, and the subreddits that are currently “in the dark” will remain so for many days.

Frankly, we hope that Reddit reconsiders its stance and finally listens to its community (which is the reason it pays its bills).

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This week, thousands of subreddits fulfilled their threat and “shut down” as a sign of protest against Reddit‘s new fees. Since April, it was known that Reddit intended to charge developers of apps and browser extensions for using their API. On June 12, one week after the “Don’t Let Reddit Kill 3rd Party Apps!” protest was called, the “D-Day” has arrived.

From June 12th to June 14th, an astounding number of subreddits (estimated to be over 7,000) have decided to “shut down.” Essentially, this means that these communities are now in private mode, preventing anyone from reading or posting anything, even those subscribed to the affected subreddits.

The inaccessibility of thousands of subreddits is not a trivial matter, especially considering the high user counts of many of them. Among the communities that have chosen to block public access are r/Music, r/Pics, r/EarthPorn, and r/LifeProTips, each of which has over 20 million users. Considering that a significant portion of Reddit’s monetization comes from advertising, this large-scale action may have dealt a significant blow to the company.

The blackout of thousands of subreddits is a protest against the “exorbitant fees” that Reddit plans to charge developers of apps for using their API. Initially, the exact amount Reddit intended to charge was unknown. However, Christian Selig, the developer of the popular app Apollo (which allows users to browse Reddit with many additional features), stated that the company demanded a payment of around $20 million per year for his app to continue functioning.

While the fees do not affect non-commercial apps that implement accessibility features, there are dozens of widely used apps by Twitch users and moderation teams that will cease to function because their developers refuse to pay such prices.

A very delicate issue that can evolve in various ways in the coming days. Will Reddit backtrack on its new fees? Will they pretend that nothing happened and let popular apps among users “die”?

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Reddit will exempt apps that utilize its API to provide accessibility features, as reported by The Verge. Reddit spokesperson Tim Rathschmidt stated to the publication that non-commercial apps that “address accessibility needs” will not be required to pay the new fees.

And the current situation on Reddit is anything but calm. In late April, it was announced that the platform would start charging developers of apps that utilize its API. This news did not sit well with the Reddit app developer community or the users themselves.

Among those affected is Christian Selig, the developer of Apollo, a popular app for browsing Reddit that offers a wide range of new features. A few days ago, the platform contacted Selig, demanding a staggering $12,000 for every 50 million API requests (or $20 million per year) if he wants his app to continue functioning.

This situation also applies to other app developers, who would be forced to abandon their apps due to these new fees, which they describe as “abusive.” These apps serve, among other things, to assist moderators in their functions or enable people with disabilities to enjoy Reddit’s content.

In response to this situation, the Reddit community has rallied behind app developers by creating the subreddit r/Save3rdPartyApps and organizing a 48-hour blackout on June 12th. As a result, numerous communities, some with millions of followers, will be completely inaccessible during this time (at the very least).

Not charging accessibility app developers will be beneficial for both users and Reddit itself, although the measure still doesn’t solve the serious crisis the platform is facing. Will they backtrack and lower the API usage fees?

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A few days ago, we reported that Apollo, an app that allows users to browse Reddit with more features than the official app, was facing an uncertain future due to changes made by Reddit in its API usage policy. Reddit contacted the app’s creator, Christian Selig, demanding $12,000 for every 50 million API requests if he wants his app to continue functioning. In Selig’s case, this would amount to $20 million per year, a sum he is unwilling to pay.

But Selig’s case is not unique. Both Reddit users and moderators rely on a multitude of third-party functions and apps that utilize the Reddit API on a daily basis. These tools are created for public use and do not seek any financial gain, but they will cease to function if their creators do not pay Reddit for API usage.

This situation has greatly upset many Reddit users, especially the moderators who ensure smooth operations on the platform and rely on third-party applications to carry out their duties. In response, hundreds of Reddit communities, including many of the largest ones on the platform, have decided to stage a blackout on June 12th as a form of protest.

In this way, huge subreddits like r/Music, r/Pics, r/EarthPorn or r/LifeProTips, which are home to more than 20 million users each, will be private for 48 hours, so the general public will not be able to access them they don’t even read its content. The convener of the protest, u/Toptomcat, posted the following text on r/Save3rdPartyApps (“Let’s save third-party apps”), a subreddit created for the occasion:

“On June 12, many subreddits will go offline to protest this policy. Some will return after 48 hours: others will disappear permanently unless the issue is properly resolved, as many moderators are unable to do the job they do with the poor tools available through the official app. This is not something any of us do lightly: we do what we do because we love Reddit, and we truly believe that this change will make it impossible to continue doing what we love”.

A protest that will be noted on Reddit, whose monetization is based mainly on advertising revenue (a situation that the company was precisely intended to solve by charging for the use of its API). Removing access to hundreds of communities with millions of users at the stroke of a pen will greatly affect the platform, and may help Reddit rethink the prices it intends to charge developers.

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When it comes to browsing through the thousands of threads on Reddit, many users prefer using Apollo instead of the official app. Apollo is the creation of Christian Selig, a former Apple employee who aimed to provide a better browsing experience for Reddit, with additional features and a more user-friendly design.

Apollo enjoys great success among Redditors, and prestigious technology websites like TechCrunch even claim in their reviews that it is “the only Reddit app you need.” But if, by any chance, you not only knew about it but also used it daily, we have bad news for you: the app may be on borrowed time.

Last month, we reported that Reddit modified its API terms and conditions to limit and even charge for its usage, which many functions, extensions, and even apps like Apollo rely on. Following these changes, Reddit contacted Selig to inform him that he will have to pay a whopping $20 million per year if he wants his app to continue functioning as it has been until now.

In a business move very similar to Elon Musk‘s approach with Twitter‘s API (which ultimately led to the end of thousands of accounts, websites, and useful apps), Reddit is demanding the developer to pay around $12,000 for every 50 million API requests made by his app. With 7 billion requests made just last month, Selig would have to pay a total of $1.7 million per month or $20 million per year to keep Apollo alive.

“I am deeply disappointed with this price,” Selig states, finding the price set by Reddit for API usage unreasonable. “I hope it goes without saying that I don’t have that amount of money, nor would I even know how to charge it to a credit card.”

Currently, it is unknown what will happen to Apollo. Selig hopes that Reddit will listen to the developers and that both parties can reach an agreement that benefits them. In the event that this does not happen, it is likely that Selig will end the app, much to the disappointment of its hundreds of users.

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