just so this doesn’t overwhelm our front page too much, i think now’s a good time to start consolidating discussions. existing threads will be kept up, but unless a big update comes let’s try to keep what’s happening in this thread instead of across 10.
developments to this point:
- Apollo for Reddit is shutting down
- Reddit is Fun will also shut down
- Reddit CEO (/u/spez) is going to hold a AMA about the API update
- Sync has announced it is shutting down
- ReddPlanet has announced it is shutting down
- Reddit creates an API exemption for noncommercial accessibility apps
- /r/videos is planning to shut down indefinitely, beginning June 11
- A subreddit dedicated to migrating to kbin.social has been closed by Reddit
The Verge is on it as usual, also–here’s their latest coverage (h/t @dirtmayor@beehaw.org):
other media coverage:
I don’t know how RedReader will survive without monetisation, either since the conditions are they are “non-commercial”. It’s such bullshit and just a ploy to further profit off free labour.
RedReader has never been monetized. They don’t have servers to support and distribute for free on f-droid and the play store. It’s a small open source project and an influx of users won’t change costs for them. The app acts purely as a reddit client for each user and doesn’t need a go between server. They accept donations through Patreon and you can find the link on their GitHub repo.
In the case that reddit eventually cuts off their api access too, they’re planning on adding support for Lemmy, HackerNews, Tildes and RSS in a future refactor but that’s probably not any time soon.
I feel like that’s gone a bit under reported. Reddit is basically saying that their current apps aren’t usable for users who need accessibility features, so they’re relaxing rules for apps that have better accessibility features, but those apps can’t be “commercial”.
So basically they don’t want to improve their own apps, and they don’t want to allow people who build apps with good accessibility to make any money, which means the only conclusion is that they put literally zero value on users who require those apps. Or, alternatively, they put zero value on developers of those apps, which makes their decision to charge other developers tens of millions of dollars to use the API almost inconceivably hypocritcal.
Yeah, but I’m sure that that’s only until the official app can add those features, and they’ve already stated that they’re actively working on that. Even for apps like RedReader, their days are numbered. Maybe a larger number than the rest of the apps, but still numbered.
What I struggle with a bit is that making apps accessible on iOS is pretty straight forward. You almost have to go out of your way to not do it. I don’t have experience in Android development, but would imagine it’s at least similar? So I can only conclude that it’s something reddit really doesn’t care about. Not even an after-thought. So I’m sceptical of any company with that sort of mindset being able to do a good job.
Agreed on RedReader. I wouldn’t be putting any time, effort, or money in to developing a reddit app or bot right now. The writing’s on the wall.