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I know I'm in the minority here on HN, but....look: I feel bad for the developers of the various 3rd-party apps that this is happening. Having the rug pulled f

by nlh 3y ago

I know I'm in the minority here on HN, but....look: I feel bad for the developers of the various 3rd-party apps that this is happening. Having the rug pulled from your livlihood just absolutely sucks. Having said that: Can you really blame Reddit here? Reddit is company which is trying to make money. One of the ways it does that is by building its own app and selling its own ads and showing those ads on its app which it controls and in the way it wants. Whether or not we agree, and whether or not we think it's the right move, you can't honestly be surprised by this can you? Facebook doesn't have a 3rd-party client. Twitter stopped having 3rd party clients. This is how the game is played. The mobile app is fine. I use it every day. Is Apollo better? Maybe? Will most of Reddit's users care about this? Doubtful.

x86x87 3y ago
> This is how the game is played Is it? Twitter had a golden opportunity in its early stages to become the message bus of social media before it killed 3rd party apps. Looking at twitter today I can say for a fact that stunned their growth and now they are just a zombie. Monetizing your service doesn't have to mean killimg 3rd party app. Also, keep in mind that the users of Reddit are what makes Reddit Reddit. You fuck with them and you'll end up with a ghost town. How are you going to monetize a ghost town?
doctaj 3y ago
Couldn’t they just send their ads to the third party app feed APIs and require that third party apps show them and link to buy rewards?
ryandrake 3y ago
You could have written the same thing to explain Microsoft bundling IE and crushing competing 3rd parties back in 1999. Can you really blame Microsoft here? Microsoft is company which is trying to make money. One of the ways it does that is by building its own browser and locking users into its platform which it controls and in the way it wants. EDIT: And sorry, I know you're not defending or excusing Reddit here. My comment is just about how we sometimes mistake "what a company obviously will do" for "what standard a company should be held to"

by nlh 3y ago

x86x87 3y ago

> This is how the game is played Is it? Twitter had a golden opportunity in its early stages to become the message bus of social media before it killed 3rd party apps. Looking at twitter today I can say for a fact that stunned their growth and now they are just a zombie. Monetizing your service doesn't have to mean killimg 3rd party app. Also, keep in mind that the users of Reddit are what makes Reddit Reddit. You fuck with them and you'll end up with a ghost town. How are you going to monetize a ghost town?

doctaj 3y ago

Couldn’t they just send their ads to the third party app feed APIs and require that third party apps show them and link to buy rewards?

ryandrake 3y ago

You could have written the same thing to explain Microsoft bundling IE and crushing competing 3rd parties back in 1999. Can you really blame Microsoft here? Microsoft is company which is trying to make money. One of the ways it does that is by building its own browser and locking users into its platform which it controls and in the way it wants. EDIT: And sorry, I know you're not defending or excusing Reddit here. My comment is just about how we sometimes mistake "what a company obviously will do" for "what standard a company should be held to"