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> On May 31, 2023, Reddit announced they were raising the price to make calls to their API from being free to a level that will kill every third party app on Re

> On May 31, 2023, Reddit announced they were raising the price to make calls to their API from being free to a level that will kill every third party app on Reddit, from Apollo, to Dystopia, to Reddit for Blind, to Luna for Reddit, to BaconReader This is what I don't get. Nothing's been killed. They can keep existing, they just have to pay. Why is nobody talking about just passing the cost along to the consumer and seeing how objectionable the cost really is?

alephaleph 3y ago
We know the costs and they’re ridiculous. Under the new pricing the average user of one third party app (Apollo) uses $2.50 worth of requests per month.
- paulcole 3y ago
  OK so charge people $9 a month to use Apollo?
  - petersellers 3y ago
    Doing that is going to kill a huge percentage of Apollo's user base. It's not a foregone conclusion that the app will die, but the chances of that happening are much much greater now than they were before. If you were the developer of Apollo I think you'd have every reason to be worried about that, and any opposition to this change would be justified.
    - paulcole 3y ago
      > Doing that is going to kill a huge percentage of Apollo's user base Wait until you find out what happens to Apollo’s user base if they pay less than the API costs.
      - petersellers 3y ago
        Not sure what your point is here? We're talking about the fact that Reddit's API prices are going to be extremely high going forward. Your response was a dismissive "just charge 9 dollars". Obviously that is going to cause a lot of pain for all third party developers, which is the whole reason why everyone is complaining about this.
        paulcole 3y ago
        Again, the thing that is going to cause more pain is not charging anything. My point is that this whole protest is framed as “We have no option and no way to exist unless Reddit gives in to our demands.” But the reality is that Reddit literally gave them an option. It’s like the “we’ve tried nothing and are all out of ideas” meme. Just make people pay. There’s no such thing as a free lunch.
        addandsubtract 3y ago
        You forget that people using reddit also provide its content. Should users start charging reddit now as well? Reddit would be nothing without its users.
        paulcole 3y ago
        > You forget that people using reddit also provide its content. No, I’m well aware of that. > Should users start charging reddit now as well? Absolutely! They should organize and stop posting until Reddit agrees to pay them a fee. Do you think this will work?
        addandsubtract 3y ago
        > They should organize and stop posting until Reddit agrees to pay them a fee. Do you think this will work? That's basically what we're doing, but skipping the middleman and overhead of paying and receiving money.
        petersellers 3y ago
  - boring_twenties 3y ago
    I am using a FOSS app that cannot charge me. I would probably pay $2-3/mo for my own personal API key. Or, I guess I could just not use reddit ...

alephaleph 3y ago

We know the costs and they’re ridiculous. Under the new pricing the average user of one third party app (Apollo) uses $2.50 worth of requests per month.

paulcole 3y ago
OK so charge people $9 a month to use Apollo?
- petersellers 3y ago
  Doing that is going to kill a huge percentage of Apollo's user base. It's not a foregone conclusion that the app will die, but the chances of that happening are much much greater now than they were before. If you were the developer of Apollo I think you'd have every reason to be worried about that, and any opposition to this change would be justified.
  - paulcole 3y ago
    > Doing that is going to kill a huge percentage of Apollo's user base Wait until you find out what happens to Apollo’s user base if they pay less than the API costs.
    - petersellers 3y ago
      Not sure what your point is here? We're talking about the fact that Reddit's API prices are going to be extremely high going forward. Your response was a dismissive "just charge 9 dollars". Obviously that is going to cause a lot of pain for all third party developers, which is the whole reason why everyone is complaining about this.
      - paulcole 3y ago
        Again, the thing that is going to cause more pain is not charging anything. My point is that this whole protest is framed as “We have no option and no way to exist unless Reddit gives in to our demands.” But the reality is that Reddit literally gave them an option. It’s like the “we’ve tried nothing and are all out of ideas” meme. Just make people pay. There’s no such thing as a free lunch.
        addandsubtract 3y ago
        You forget that people using reddit also provide its content. Should users start charging reddit now as well? Reddit would be nothing without its users.
        paulcole 3y ago
        > You forget that people using reddit also provide its content. No, I’m well aware of that. > Should users start charging reddit now as well? Absolutely! They should organize and stop posting until Reddit agrees to pay them a fee. Do you think this will work?
        addandsubtract 3y ago
        > They should organize and stop posting until Reddit agrees to pay them a fee. Do you think this will work? That's basically what we're doing, but skipping the middleman and overhead of paying and receiving money.
        petersellers 3y ago
- boring_twenties 3y ago
  I am using a FOSS app that cannot charge me. I would probably pay $2-3/mo for my own personal API key. Or, I guess I could just not use reddit ...