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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
        > “We have no option and no way to exist unless Reddit gives in to our demands.” That's a strawman. The complaint isn't that Reddit is charging money for API usage, it's that the pricing is extremely expensive. > But the reality is that Reddit literally gave them an option. Charging an exorbitant fee that will most likely kill all third-party clients isn't really an option, but ok. > It’s like the “we’ve tried nothing and are all out of ideas” meme. This is a very inaccurate analogy, and it makes me think you are missing the point of the complaints entirely. > There’s no such thing as a free lunch. Again, no one is demanding free API access.
        paulcole 3y ago
        If nobody is demanding free API access, why has the “movement” not put out a counteroffer for pricing that they’d be happy with? My belief is that it’s because if they announce a number that is not $0, then everyone is going to find out that a lot of people are demanding free API access. “Reddit is killing 3rd-party apps” is a disingenuous statement. Is any app even planning to charge the new prices? If they don’t, then they’re killing themselves. Honestly it’s a great campaign by the app makers to whip users up into a frenzy like this because it means more profit for themselves if Reddit backs down on the API pricing.
- 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 ...

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
        > “We have no option and no way to exist unless Reddit gives in to our demands.” That's a strawman. The complaint isn't that Reddit is charging money for API usage, it's that the pricing is extremely expensive. > But the reality is that Reddit literally gave them an option. Charging an exorbitant fee that will most likely kill all third-party clients isn't really an option, but ok. > It’s like the “we’ve tried nothing and are all out of ideas” meme. This is a very inaccurate analogy, and it makes me think you are missing the point of the complaints entirely. > There’s no such thing as a free lunch. Again, no one is demanding free API access.
        paulcole 3y ago
        If nobody is demanding free API access, why has the “movement” not put out a counteroffer for pricing that they’d be happy with? My belief is that it’s because if they announce a number that is not $0, then everyone is going to find out that a lot of people are demanding free API access. “Reddit is killing 3rd-party apps” is a disingenuous statement. Is any app even planning to charge the new prices? If they don’t, then they’re killing themselves. Honestly it’s a great campaign by the app makers to whip users up into a frenzy like this because it means more profit for themselves if Reddit backs down on the API pricing.
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 ...