5 ms·

I'm surprised I haven't heard plans for these 3rd party developers to create a reddit clone, and instead of hitting api.reddit.com, hit api.apolloapp.io. Users

I'm surprised I haven't heard plans for these 3rd party developers to create a reddit clone, and instead of hitting api.reddit.com, hit api.apolloapp.io. Users of these 3rd party apps seem quite loyal, and would at least forgo uninstalling to test out a reddit alternative.

dom96 3y ago
They are likely still hoping Reddit will back down. But if they don't this is a very real possibility.
- solarkraft 3y ago
  Having it is a good negotiation tactic anyway. I hope someone is working on this.
tgv 3y ago
First, it's not trivial, and won't be production ready before Apollo runs out of money. Second, it's been tried, multiple times. Saidit was one, I think. Ruqqus was another, and there have been more, all claiming to be censor free and all failing to achieve a solid following. Saidit was (and still appears to be) a cesspool of trolling, conspiracy theory and anti-everything-ism. Third, it'll miss moderation, so it will probably follow in saidit's footsteps.
- lesuorac 3y ago
  > all claiming to be censor free and all failing to achieve a solid following Possible related? People don't actually want censorship free.
- oehpr 3y ago
  Something worth considering is potentially just jumping ship to a reddit alternative like Saidit, like you mentioned. The trouble these alternatives have is their userbase have to be, in bulk, the users banned from the centralized social media apps. But if Apollo takes THEIR userbase, then those people arn't negatively selected. They're just people who have phones. It's a better alternative to dying. Diversifying support for multiple backends could serve to protect you. Non trivial but it seems necessary at this point.
- IshKebab 3y ago
  Those alternative sites failed because the only reason to use them was if you were too trashy to be welcome on Reddit. A RedReader/Apollo/etc. run alternative wouldn't exist for that reason so I think it would stand more of a chance. I don't think Reddit will give them enough runway to have time to set that up though.
1270018080 3y ago
I am a backend engineer and would love to work on a project like this. What's muddying the waters right now is the "decentralization" federation kick (Mastodon, Lemmy etc.), which kills the user experience and ability to grow into a viable social network. Too many resources are getting wasted on this idea. And the people working on it just don't get it. Users don't care about who is hosting the servers and most people aren't in constant drama with unpaid moderators and the censorship boogeyman. A direct centralized reddit clone without the god awful UI, dark patterns, and increasing poor leadership decisions would probably be an immediate success. Apollo for mobile plus old.reddit on the desktop would hit a million users in weeks.
- hosteur 3y ago
  I’m afraid Awful ui, dark patterns, censorship, tracking all comes with centralization.
  - 1270018080 3y ago
    Product decisions aren't unique to centralization.
- rileymat2 3y ago
  I think most users don’t care, but people contributing to the ecosystem in code and content without ownership do care, for exactly the reason we are talking about these reddit changes.
_a9 3y ago
There is lemmy.ml, a federated reddit-like site that some people and communities have been talking about https://join-lemmy.org/ https://join-lemmy.org/

dom96 3y ago

They are likely still hoping Reddit will back down. But if they don't this is a very real possibility.

solarkraft 3y ago
Having it is a good negotiation tactic anyway. I hope someone is working on this.

tgv 3y ago

First, it's not trivial, and won't be production ready before Apollo runs out of money. Second, it's been tried, multiple times. Saidit was one, I think. Ruqqus was another, and there have been more, all claiming to be censor free and all failing to achieve a solid following. Saidit was (and still appears to be) a cesspool of trolling, conspiracy theory and anti-everything-ism. Third, it'll miss moderation, so it will probably follow in saidit's footsteps.

lesuorac 3y ago
> all claiming to be censor free and all failing to achieve a solid following Possible related? People don't actually want censorship free.
oehpr 3y ago
Something worth considering is potentially just jumping ship to a reddit alternative like Saidit, like you mentioned. The trouble these alternatives have is their userbase have to be, in bulk, the users banned from the centralized social media apps. But if Apollo takes THEIR userbase, then those people arn't negatively selected. They're just people who have phones. It's a better alternative to dying. Diversifying support for multiple backends could serve to protect you. Non trivial but it seems necessary at this point.
IshKebab 3y ago
Those alternative sites failed because the only reason to use them was if you were too trashy to be welcome on Reddit. A RedReader/Apollo/etc. run alternative wouldn't exist for that reason so I think it would stand more of a chance. I don't think Reddit will give them enough runway to have time to set that up though.

1270018080 3y ago

I am a backend engineer and would love to work on a project like this. What's muddying the waters right now is the "decentralization" federation kick (Mastodon, Lemmy etc.), which kills the user experience and ability to grow into a viable social network. Too many resources are getting wasted on this idea. And the people working on it just don't get it. Users don't care about who is hosting the servers and most people aren't in constant drama with unpaid moderators and the censorship boogeyman. A direct centralized reddit clone without the god awful UI, dark patterns, and increasing poor leadership decisions would probably be an immediate success. Apollo for mobile plus old.reddit on the desktop would hit a million users in weeks.

hosteur 3y ago
I’m afraid Awful ui, dark patterns, censorship, tracking all comes with centralization.
- 1270018080 3y ago
  Product decisions aren't unique to centralization.
rileymat2 3y ago
I think most users don’t care, but people contributing to the ecosystem in code and content without ownership do care, for exactly the reason we are talking about these reddit changes.

_a9 3y ago

There is lemmy.ml, a federated reddit-like site that some people and communities have been talking about https://join-lemmy.org/ https://join-lemmy.org/