this post was submitted on 17 Jun 2023
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I keep thinking this would have been a much better sell to devs and to users. I have always used Sync, and Boost. I tried the official app a few times, but really only used it for the chat feature. I didn't want to pay for it, but (I am embarrassed to admit it) I would pay premium to keep my app. I think this would have worked out better for Reddit than the garbage they are pulling right now.

Would that have been a more reasonable solution in your opinion as well?

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I would have considered that at the start, but at this point they've damaged their ecosystem so much, and correspondingly Lemmy has grown a lot, so I don't see why I would go back either way.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Yeah, the fact that he seems devoted to following musk's business practices leaves litte faith for Reddit to ever get back on the right track again. Besides, I'm loving my time here at the fediverse and will probably start selfhosting my own private Lemmy server soon!

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[–] altima_neo 6 points 1 year ago

If they had given us a heads up that we would need a subscription, early enough in advance.

If they didnt limit the content we could access.

If the price wasnt ridiculous - Im not paying Netflix, Amazon Prime, or Game Pass money to access a web forum.

Then sure.

But Spez fucked it up. Hes shown that he really doesnt care about the communities, the people that make it up, or even reddit itself. Hes too bent on making that IPO and bailing out as soon as he can.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think if they'd framed it properly, in that by using Apollo I'm bypassing their ad revenue and costing them money, I'd see it as a reasonable compromise that I pay for Premium to support the company and carry on using Reddit in the way I preferred.

Now? Fuck u/spez

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Yeah. Like two or three weeks ago if they said third party apps need to create a couple dollar per month subscription, then I probably would have bit. Now, with the current leadership? Nope.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (10 children)

Hah, no. Are you asking if I want to pay for access to a platform that is already dependant on its users to create or aggregate content, while they are already making ad money off my eyeballs? Heck, no, never. If that site cannot make enough money on ads alone, while being one /were of the most visited non-porn sites on the internet, then maybe they should reconsider their other expenses. E.x. Is it really necessary to have a downtown office in an expensive us city, or pay out high CEO wages. I can only really conclude that they are being stupid about this. If they want me back, they are going to have to beg.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

They took a 250m funding round and used it to build an nft site. reddit's problems are 100% self created. Think about how ama's used to be and how they managed to kill that. They could have had several revenue streams just based on ama's.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Lol, not anymore.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I never paid for it before and I wouldn't start now. Especially not after how they've been handling the whole situation.

I do agree with what you're saying, though. Many people would have been fine with paying to keep their favourite apps.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Three weeks ago, I totally would have… Apollo was life! Now, I don’t think anything could lure me back…

With Spez’s comments about how Reddit has all this data, and “we’re not going to just give that away for free”, I think anyone left on that platform is going to get sold so hard to anyone with two nickels to rub together, that they will effectively have zero privacy or anonymity… no thanks, Spez.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Had they come out and said "hey guys, we really need to actually be making money here. We know it's not ideal, but itll allow us to further invest in the site and its community", there really wouldn't have been a fuss. Sure people would have been upset, but most would've gotten it.

Instead they have to act like petulant children throwing a temper tantrum when they don't get exactly what they want exactly when they want it.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

No, the reason I left Reddit last week has little to do with with third party app issue. I left because the CEO has shown he isn't interested in listening or addressing community concerns.

[–] NutWrench 2 points 1 year ago

This. He's just another arrogant authoritarian who doesn't understand where Reddit's value comes from. It's the users who will decide if Reddit survives or not, NOT the CEO's. We've seen this attitude before. Hollywood has been destroying franchises for years because they think they know better than the fans.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (6 children)

If you had asked me a month ago, I’d have said absolutely, as long as it keep Reddit alive.

Now? Absofuckinglutely not. I’m a firm believer in putting my money where my mouth is. I haven’t accessed Reddit (intentionally) since the 11th. And my original plan was to see how it all played out, and still probably browse only when I’m at my desk, on my laptop. Watching it all unfold, I’m absolutely disgusted with the choices they are making, and more so with how they are treating everyone, privately, and publicly.

I won’t be going back to Reddit. And I’m ok with that. It was honestly already a bit too……money-grubbing anyhow, and all this last week just solidified that for me.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I was on board during reddits first year. I deleted my apps the moment sync announced it was ending service. I don't intend to go back - this post was just moreso me trying to see if this option would have been the "right" way to handle things.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

No, once they showed what they're up to, this could happen again in some new kind of paywall. Really hope Lemmy continue it's ascension

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

They've showed extremely bad faith. That's hard to recover from.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

No, bridge is already burnt.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It would depend on the price, and also we would need to live in a hypothetical world where Reddit hasn't done any of the stupid shit they've done in the past month. As of right now, I can't imagine giving Reddit my money knowing what a PoS spez is

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Yeah this is the thing. I would have happily paid it before spez revealed himself to be an irredeemable piece of shit. Now, I've no interest in filling his coffers. Policy needs to change and he needs to go, no negotiation, I don't trust him and I don't think he's a good steward for the site.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I wouldn't have paid for, but i would have accepted much better. "API usage is ad free hence only premium users can access it" is much better than "API users are freeloaders that take more than they are giving, fuck them!"

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I wouldn't go back to reddit even if they paid me to do it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Ok so, if they paid me, I might consider it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Those are big ifs, but: if the API prices would have been reasonable and if the Reddit leadership hadn’t acted as they have, I think I might have been willing to pay for Premium. As it stands, Reddit leadership has destroyed a lot of trust, so for me that ship has sailed.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

That was my initial suggestion and IMO the change wouldn't be the PR nightmare that it currently is. It would have been a fair middle ground: you don't make it financially devastating for the 3PA devs, the Premium users don't get ads so that would be fair that 3PA don't get shown ads through the API and Reddit gets financially compensated for it.

At this point I kinda lost faith in Reddit. I don't expect them to honor whatever they say, so I won't be subscribing anymore.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

With how spez is handling this? No.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I told the Infinity dev that I would pay for access. But I somehow expected a reasonable price. And after the shitshow of the last days I am not interested in Reddit anymore. I think I will pay for a few months because I said so and that it is then.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I’d be willing to pay for Apollo premium(I should have a while ago) to pay for API costs, but fuck Reddit! Seriously if Apollo/RIF came forward and said “Reddit is going to charge us for API, the price is high but reasonable” I’d have bought Apollo premium to help out, but 20mil? Nah, that’s Reddit crushing competition and fuck them.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

No, because the sudden API lockout of third party apps with yearly subscriptions shows they do not care about contractual obligations.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I would have IF it had been the solution Reddit had came up with in the first place AND they hadn't destroyed my trust in them with their handling of the protests.

I have an issue with your proposed solution though: it does not address the use case of moderation / accessibility / utility tools and bots.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

No reddit is dead to me. Anything that is used by ceos to fuck over the people. Let it burn for all I care.

Actually scratch that. Let it pump to obscene levels and after all those rich riches have bought in. Dump that thing into the Earth's core.

Far too much money and corruption in this world.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

lmao fuck no. I was on reddit for 12 years until recently, but at this point, there's nothing they can do to win back my trust. Reddit is just another corporate giant these days, and has been for a long time. Huffman is the reason I no longer wish to support reddit in any form, and they can make promises all they want - I've happily jumped ship and will be staying here.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

At this point, no. I took June as a Lemmy test drive, and turns out I like it better. The API change doesn't affect me too much, as I primarily interacted with Reddit through a web browser, but generally things have been going downhill for Reddit. I found a viable alternative, I'm sticking with it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Absolutely not. If I learned something from Twitter and Facebook and Reddit fiascos then it is to never ever let youself be trapped into a closed-source, centralized for-profit platform. So NO, unless they make it completely open source and decentralised so anyone can setup their own instance. But then again we already have Fediverse and Mastodon and Lemmy... so why bother with that, let's improve what treasure we already have.

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