3 ms·

The percentage of people who use a third party app to read reddit is likely relatively small. They're also the most likely to be invested in the platform. Why m

The percentage of people who use a third party app to read reddit is likely relatively small. They're also the most likely to be invested in the platform. Why make these users angry? Why even take the risk that some of your users might leave for another platform? If the issue is displaying ads or gathering analytics you can deal with both of those without cutting off third party apps. If you are concerned that others are building big data tools or bots off your free API you can also just grandfather the existing popular clients as free or with a very large discount. For that matter you can also just set different price tiers for API clients that are used interactively by real people to interact with subreddits vs anyone else. The social media game is all about network effects. Putting up barriers to making reddit a core service is only a bad thing. What positive gain is reddit expecting from killing third party clients here? As I said ads and analytics can be handled by the license agreement. You can even require them to link a library you provide that does the ad displays and analytics by pulling code from your servers so if you really must have deep control of that experience you can.

deleted 3y ago
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matthew28845 3y ago
People who use third-party apps are the most likely to be invested in the platform but they don't matter at all to reddit, the company. I would assume that they are also the most likely to use old.reddit, the most likely to use adblockers on desktop, etc. Reddit would rather replace them with people that will just use the default mobile/desktop experiences because they're the easiest to set up. That is the gain. NPCs are easier to develop apps for because they don't care if the apps are actually good.
- moneywoes 3y ago
  Bingo, all they care about is monetization. Simple
deminature 3y ago
The official app collects far more data points to identify users for ad targeting than the third party clients do (check the permissions asked). They may have decided there's no way to effectively monetize third-party app users to the levelling of targeting that their ad platform requires, so these users will always be a cost center instead of a profit center. Then again these users are likely to disproportionately be posters and commenters, the people who create free content that keeps the broader userbase engaged, or are moderators keeping the site running for zero compensation, so pissing them off seems ill advised. Based on this thread [1], where an admin accuses 3rd party apps of being inefficient API consumers but refuses to explain why, it's clear Reddit just wants these apps gone and isn't interested in whether anyone is alienated or upset by it. The looming IPO and showing as positive user monetization numbers as possible is undoubtedly the motivation for this, unfortunately goodwill with the userbase that has taken years to build is getting trashed in the process. [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/redditdev/comments/13wsiks/api_update_enterprise_level_tier_for_large_scale/ https://www.reddit.com/r/redditdev/comments/13wsiks/api_upda...
- scarface_74 3y ago
  > The official app collects far more data points to identify users for ad targeting than the third party clients do (check the permissions asked I jusy checked the iOS app’s permissions. It asks for no permissions outside of live activities, for integration with Siri, notifications and background app refresh.
  - deminature 3y ago
    The iOS privacy permissions are different between the official app and Apollo: - Official app https://i.imgur.com/fjgKlVo.png https://i.imgur.com/fjgKlVo.png, see 'Data used to track you' - Apollo app https://i.imgur.com/icykgJP.png https://i.imgur.com/icykgJP.png, see 'Data not used to track you' 3rd party apps do not track users, which is a problem for an advertising-based business like Reddit.
    - scarface_74 3y ago

deleted 3y ago

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matthew28845 3y ago

People who use third-party apps are the most likely to be invested in the platform but they don't matter at all to reddit, the company. I would assume that they are also the most likely to use old.reddit, the most likely to use adblockers on desktop, etc. Reddit would rather replace them with people that will just use the default mobile/desktop experiences because they're the easiest to set up. That is the gain. NPCs are easier to develop apps for because they don't care if the apps are actually good.

moneywoes 3y ago
Bingo, all they care about is monetization. Simple

deminature 3y ago

The official app collects far more data points to identify users for ad targeting than the third party clients do (check the permissions asked). They may have decided there's no way to effectively monetize third-party app users to the levelling of targeting that their ad platform requires, so these users will always be a cost center instead of a profit center. Then again these users are likely to disproportionately be posters and commenters, the people who create free content that keeps the broader userbase engaged, or are moderators keeping the site running for zero compensation, so pissing them off seems ill advised. Based on this thread [1], where an admin accuses 3rd party apps of being inefficient API consumers but refuses to explain why, it's clear Reddit just wants these apps gone and isn't interested in whether anyone is alienated or upset by it. The looming IPO and showing as positive user monetization numbers as possible is undoubtedly the motivation for this, unfortunately goodwill with the userbase that has taken years to build is getting trashed in the process. [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/redditdev/comments/13wsiks/api_update_enterprise_level_tier_for_large_scale/ https://www.reddit.com/r/redditdev/comments/13wsiks/api_upda...

scarface_74 3y ago
> The official app collects far more data points to identify users for ad targeting than the third party clients do (check the permissions asked I jusy checked the iOS app’s permissions. It asks for no permissions outside of live activities, for integration with Siri, notifications and background app refresh.
- deminature 3y ago
  The iOS privacy permissions are different between the official app and Apollo: - Official app https://i.imgur.com/fjgKlVo.png https://i.imgur.com/fjgKlVo.png, see 'Data used to track you' - Apollo app https://i.imgur.com/icykgJP.png https://i.imgur.com/icykgJP.png, see 'Data not used to track you' 3rd party apps do not track users, which is a problem for an advertising-based business like Reddit.
  - scarface_74 3y ago