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FWIW, Reddit's new limits are about 3rd party use of their data/APIs. As a regular user, it doesn't really change anything (unless you consume Reddit NSFW conte

FWIW, Reddit's new limits are about 3rd party use of their data/APIs. As a regular user, it doesn't really change anything (unless you consume Reddit NSFW content exclusively through a 3rd party app, I guess), so a pretty different case than Imgur's change here, which fundamentally shifts their user-base.

deminature 3y ago
3rd party reddit apps rival reddit's own app in terms of popularity, and will be significantly hamstrung by these changes if NSFW content can only be accessed in the official app. Lots of non-porn content is marked NSFW. It may end up having a much larger impact than reddit corporate anticipates.
- tgsovlerkhgsel 3y ago
  I think that's intentional. They clearly want to kill those apps because they don't generate ad revenue. Those apps will now also have to move to a subscription-only model because the APIs will be paid, as the Apollo dev confirmed.
  - deminature 3y ago
    I'm trying to take the most charitable interpretation possible instead of assuming malice on the part of reddit, but it's difficult to interpret it any other way than they have decided to kill 3rd party clients and not be upfront about their intentions. It wouldn't be so difficult to swallow if the official mobile app was high quality, but it isn't. There are major UX issues with the official app that haven't been fixed for years. The 3rd party app ecosystem is vibrant because of this. Instead of competing and being the best on merit, they have decided to play their platform-owner veto card which is very disappointing, compounded with their dishonesty about the true intent of these changes.
    - lozenge 3y ago
      They're a huge company, they could easily acquire five of the third party apps, add ads and keep the developers on payroll to maintain the apps. Banning apps that don't show ads of course.
      - bolanyo 3y ago
        A main reason people use those apps is to avoid ads. Also to avoid the reddit company's decisions about how stuff should work.
        pmoriarty 3y ago
        I use Boost because it's far superior to the Reddit app and to Reddit's website (even old.reddit.com), despite Boost having ads and despite me being able to avoid ads on Reddit due to having an ad blocker. So at least for me, using a third-party app is well worth it despite seeing ads. [1] - https://boostforreddit.com/ https://boostforreddit.com/
      - mehdix 3y ago
        I have leared to ignore any promoted content i.e. ads in my reddit timeline, mostly because they are irrelevant. The app is regardless slow as hell. The Dawn app in comprasion, is extremely smooth and a pleasure to use. I'd guess the difference is the amount of tracking and analytics the official app is trying to do, I'd guess it is also not a native app.
      - Mindwipe 3y ago
        The last time they did that they managed to wreck it so badly in six weeks that it's userbase imploded. Reddit's management simply have awful UI instincts.
    - sizzle 3y ago
      I hate when I’m hovering my thumb on a comment for a millisecond when scrolling the comments sections and accidentally collapsing a thread I’m reading, how can they not test their app with users to catch these simple usability issues?
  - karlshea 3y ago
    One way to do that is fix their own mobile app so it's not a pile of trash. I wouldn't mind seeing the ads if the app was as good as Apollo.
- ajacksified 3y ago
  "reddit corporate"? Like Steve, who was the original founder and is the current CEO, or Alexis, another original founder, who is the executive chairman? There is absolutely zero way they're unaware of the impact and I guarantee you they have thought this move through thoroughly.
  - deminature 3y ago
    Fair enough, in that case this is Digg v4 levels of arrogance. Tons of moderators depend on 3rd party apps to moderate [1]. These people are providing free labor on an industrial scale to reddit and it might be wise not to frustrate their work. [1] https://old.reddit.com/r/reddit/comments/12qwagm/an_update_regarding_reddits_api/jgt5y85/ https://old.reddit.com/r/reddit/comments/12qwagm/an_update_r...
    - Karunamon 3y ago
      Reddit moderators are, by and large, terrible people. If they quit, as the guy in your link is threatening to do, they can be trivially replaced. It is not a thing that requires much skill. There is no shortage of people who would volunteer for something like this. The replacements might even be less terrible, both at the job (reddit is stiflingly over-moderated, as documented on r/undelete and r/redditminusmods) and in their dealings with users.
  - vasco 3y ago
    You mention it like they haven't done a ton of user hostile releases, like the constant UX dark patterns to push you to a mobile app, etc. This argument is so strange, should we refute anything against Meta with "but the original founder is there, there's no corporate"?
    - xmprt 3y ago
      I think the argument isn't that Reddit isn't corporate but rather that the original founders have thought it through a lot and have still decided to make this decision.
armchairhacker 3y ago
It's a problem on mobile, because old-reddit isn't mobile-engineered and there isn't uBlock for iOS. The go-to Reddit app for iOS is Apollo, and they're going to be affected. https://www.reddit.com/r/apolloapp/comments/12ram0f/had_a_few_calls_with_reddit_today_about_the/ https://www.reddit.com/r/apolloapp/comments/12ram0f/had_a_fe...
- orthoxerox 3y ago
  It's not that different from browsing HN on mobile.
- romwell 3y ago
  > old-reddit isn't mobile-engineered Eh. I exclusively use https://old.reddit.com/ https://old.reddit.com/ on both Desktop and Mobile, and never felt inconvenienced. Our cell phones are large enough today to use 2008-era websites without any additional bells and whistles. But, of course, people who are already used to whatever UI they chose are going to suffer. Alas.
  - andybak 3y ago
    Yeah. I use old. mainly because I prefer it on mobile.
  - Kiro 3y ago
    I also use old.reddit all the time but come on, you seriously can't mean it's a good mobile experience. The text is tiny and you need to zoom in and out all the time just to be able to read anything. It becomes exhausting reading a comment thread by all the zooming. The image posts also don't have the actual image embedded, which makes it a really bad experience on mobile when you have to go to another URL just to look at it.
    - calderknight 3y ago
      I'm with the above commenter, I used the old reddit on mobile for a decade+ and always enjoyed it. Also, there used to be i.reddit.com which was great for mobile - but it looks like they've gotten rid of that. I've stopped using Reddit now. I liked the freedom of speech and the curiosity of the users. Freedom of speech had been eliminated totally. Curuisity can presumably be found in some niche subreddits - but even the niche subreddits I used to frequent have fallen.
user- 3y ago
> As a regular user, it doesn't really change anything It absolutely does. There is tons of normal content that is tagged as NSFW for various non pornogrpahic reasons, and consdering 'regular users' includes the millions of people that use apollo, Rif, etc , thats a huge amount of the user base negatively effected.
- JBiserkov 3y ago
  Indeed! Just one example in /r/Diablo_2_Resurrected/ screenshots of very good, very rare items are marked NSFW because they're considered "disgustingly good" and because having to do an extra step to reveal the item provides a "rush" similar to gambling. I often use spoiler formatting for comedic effect, etc.
  - red_admiral 3y ago
    It's a recurring joke in /r/AoE2 (Age of Empires II) to label screenshots of particularly aesthetic base/farming layouts as NSFW. For context, normally you are placing 3x3 tile farms either around 2x2 tile mills or 4x4 tile Town Centers, so you end up with a "pinwheel" at best. But the Poles can build a 3x3 Folwark (like a mill but makes your food come in faster if the farms are close enough) leading to some very satisfying ways to use building space efficiently and aesthetically.
  - master-lincoln 3y ago
    joke's on you now. Looks to me like people were misusing a feature so bad consequences are not entirely a surprise...

deminature 3y ago

3rd party reddit apps rival reddit's own app in terms of popularity, and will be significantly hamstrung by these changes if NSFW content can only be accessed in the official app. Lots of non-porn content is marked NSFW. It may end up having a much larger impact than reddit corporate anticipates.

tgsovlerkhgsel 3y ago
I think that's intentional. They clearly want to kill those apps because they don't generate ad revenue. Those apps will now also have to move to a subscription-only model because the APIs will be paid, as the Apollo dev confirmed.
- deminature 3y ago
  I'm trying to take the most charitable interpretation possible instead of assuming malice on the part of reddit, but it's difficult to interpret it any other way than they have decided to kill 3rd party clients and not be upfront about their intentions. It wouldn't be so difficult to swallow if the official mobile app was high quality, but it isn't. There are major UX issues with the official app that haven't been fixed for years. The 3rd party app ecosystem is vibrant because of this. Instead of competing and being the best on merit, they have decided to play their platform-owner veto card which is very disappointing, compounded with their dishonesty about the true intent of these changes.
  - lozenge 3y ago
    They're a huge company, they could easily acquire five of the third party apps, add ads and keep the developers on payroll to maintain the apps. Banning apps that don't show ads of course.
    - bolanyo 3y ago
      A main reason people use those apps is to avoid ads. Also to avoid the reddit company's decisions about how stuff should work.
      - pmoriarty 3y ago
        I use Boost because it's far superior to the Reddit app and to Reddit's website (even old.reddit.com), despite Boost having ads and despite me being able to avoid ads on Reddit due to having an ad blocker. So at least for me, using a third-party app is well worth it despite seeing ads. [1] - https://boostforreddit.com/ https://boostforreddit.com/
    - mehdix 3y ago
      I have leared to ignore any promoted content i.e. ads in my reddit timeline, mostly because they are irrelevant. The app is regardless slow as hell. The Dawn app in comprasion, is extremely smooth and a pleasure to use. I'd guess the difference is the amount of tracking and analytics the official app is trying to do, I'd guess it is also not a native app.
    - Mindwipe 3y ago
      The last time they did that they managed to wreck it so badly in six weeks that it's userbase imploded. Reddit's management simply have awful UI instincts.
  - sizzle 3y ago
    I hate when I’m hovering my thumb on a comment for a millisecond when scrolling the comments sections and accidentally collapsing a thread I’m reading, how can they not test their app with users to catch these simple usability issues?
- karlshea 3y ago
  One way to do that is fix their own mobile app so it's not a pile of trash. I wouldn't mind seeing the ads if the app was as good as Apollo.
ajacksified 3y ago
"reddit corporate"? Like Steve, who was the original founder and is the current CEO, or Alexis, another original founder, who is the executive chairman? There is absolutely zero way they're unaware of the impact and I guarantee you they have thought this move through thoroughly.
- deminature 3y ago
  Fair enough, in that case this is Digg v4 levels of arrogance. Tons of moderators depend on 3rd party apps to moderate [1]. These people are providing free labor on an industrial scale to reddit and it might be wise not to frustrate their work. [1] https://old.reddit.com/r/reddit/comments/12qwagm/an_update_regarding_reddits_api/jgt5y85/ https://old.reddit.com/r/reddit/comments/12qwagm/an_update_r...
  - Karunamon 3y ago
    Reddit moderators are, by and large, terrible people. If they quit, as the guy in your link is threatening to do, they can be trivially replaced. It is not a thing that requires much skill. There is no shortage of people who would volunteer for something like this. The replacements might even be less terrible, both at the job (reddit is stiflingly over-moderated, as documented on r/undelete and r/redditminusmods) and in their dealings with users.
- vasco 3y ago
  You mention it like they haven't done a ton of user hostile releases, like the constant UX dark patterns to push you to a mobile app, etc. This argument is so strange, should we refute anything against Meta with "but the original founder is there, there's no corporate"?
  - xmprt 3y ago
    I think the argument isn't that Reddit isn't corporate but rather that the original founders have thought it through a lot and have still decided to make this decision.

armchairhacker 3y ago

It's a problem on mobile, because old-reddit isn't mobile-engineered and there isn't uBlock for iOS. The go-to Reddit app for iOS is Apollo, and they're going to be affected. https://www.reddit.com/r/apolloapp/comments/12ram0f/had_a_few_calls_with_reddit_today_about_the/ https://www.reddit.com/r/apolloapp/comments/12ram0f/had_a_fe...

orthoxerox 3y ago
It's not that different from browsing HN on mobile.
romwell 3y ago
> old-reddit isn't mobile-engineered Eh. I exclusively use https://old.reddit.com/ https://old.reddit.com/ on both Desktop and Mobile, and never felt inconvenienced. Our cell phones are large enough today to use 2008-era websites without any additional bells and whistles. But, of course, people who are already used to whatever UI they chose are going to suffer. Alas.
- andybak 3y ago
  Yeah. I use old. mainly because I prefer it on mobile.
- Kiro 3y ago
  I also use old.reddit all the time but come on, you seriously can't mean it's a good mobile experience. The text is tiny and you need to zoom in and out all the time just to be able to read anything. It becomes exhausting reading a comment thread by all the zooming. The image posts also don't have the actual image embedded, which makes it a really bad experience on mobile when you have to go to another URL just to look at it.
  - calderknight 3y ago
    I'm with the above commenter, I used the old reddit on mobile for a decade+ and always enjoyed it. Also, there used to be i.reddit.com which was great for mobile - but it looks like they've gotten rid of that. I've stopped using Reddit now. I liked the freedom of speech and the curiosity of the users. Freedom of speech had been eliminated totally. Curuisity can presumably be found in some niche subreddits - but even the niche subreddits I used to frequent have fallen.

user- 3y ago

> As a regular user, it doesn't really change anything It absolutely does. There is tons of normal content that is tagged as NSFW for various non pornogrpahic reasons, and consdering 'regular users' includes the millions of people that use apollo, Rif, etc , thats a huge amount of the user base negatively effected.

JBiserkov 3y ago
Indeed! Just one example in /r/Diablo_2_Resurrected/ screenshots of very good, very rare items are marked NSFW because they're considered "disgustingly good" and because having to do an extra step to reveal the item provides a "rush" similar to gambling. I often use spoiler formatting for comedic effect, etc.
- red_admiral 3y ago
  It's a recurring joke in /r/AoE2 (Age of Empires II) to label screenshots of particularly aesthetic base/farming layouts as NSFW. For context, normally you are placing 3x3 tile farms either around 2x2 tile mills or 4x4 tile Town Centers, so you end up with a "pinwheel" at best. But the Poles can build a 3x3 Folwark (like a mill but makes your food come in faster if the farms are close enough) leading to some very satisfying ways to use building space efficiently and aesthetically.
- master-lincoln 3y ago
  joke's on you now. Looks to me like people were misusing a feature so bad consequences are not entirely a surprise...