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I'm not really sure what benefit you get out of harping on a developer you will likely never meet or interact with in a third party forum, but power to you. No

I'm not really sure what benefit you get out of harping on a developer you will likely never meet or interact with in a third party forum, but power to you. Nobody really cares about your opinion on him or a monthly subscription; he explicitly said it's not going to happen and at the end of the day that's his decision to make, not yours. He doesn't even need to give a reason for shutting down. It's his personal project to manage and he's the only one who's ever worked on it. It's also clear you haven't read the article, because he explicitly calls out a bunch of criticisms you have of him directly. > Isn't this your fault for building a service reliant on someone else? > To a certain extent, yes. However, I was assured this year by Reddit not even that long ago that no changes were planned to be made to the API Apollo uses, and I've made decisions about how to monetize my business based on what Reddit has said. > > January 26, 2023 Reddit: "So I would expect no change, certainly not in the short to medium term. And we're talking like order of years." > Another portion of the call: > > January 26, 2023 Reddit: "There's not gonna be any change on it. There's no plans to, there's no plans to touch it right now in 2023. Me: "Fair enough." Reddit: "And if we do touch it, we're going to be improving it in some way." > Your initial post in April sounded quite optimistic. Are you dumb? > In hindsight, kinda yeah. Many of the other developers and folks I talked to were much less optimistic than I was, but I legitimately had great interactions with Reddit for many years prior to last week (they were kind, communicative, gave me heads up of changes), so when they said they were aiming to have pricing that would be fair and based in reality, I honestly believed them. That was foolish of me in hindsight, and maybe could have had a different outcome if I was more aggressive in the beginning. Sorry. /canadian > (And to be clear, they did indeed say this. They used the word "substantive" and I wanted to make sure we had the same definition of something "having a firm basis in reality and therefore important, meaningful, or considerable") > > Reddit: "That's exactly right. And I think, thankfully, the word is exactly the right one. It's going to have a firm basis in reality. I also just looked it up. We're going to try to be as transparent as we can."

websap 3y ago
[flagged]
LorenPechtel 3y ago
It occurs to me--could he go after Reddit for the cost of all those refunds? Detrimental reliance.
mulmen 3y ago
The road to hell is paved with good intentions. Reading this with 15 years of corporate experience the developer was at best naive. In corporate speak Reddit is completely consistent in their actions and words. It's a crappy situation and I'm sure the developer is a great person and I agree Reddit did them dirty but also that's how these things work. You don't take dependencies on third parties without a lawyer and a contract. > There's not gonna be any change on it. Nobody can make this promise, those are just words to make you feel good. > There's no plans to, there's no plans to touch it right now in 2023. Plans can be made quickly. Action can be taken without a plan. What is the guarantee on lead time? > And if we do touch it, we're going to be improving it in some way. Define improvement. Improved for who? > It's going to have a firm basis in reality. I have no doubt that Reddit based the API pricing on them making money on it. We can debate if they got it right. > We're going to try to be as transparent as we can. Try is a weasel word, this sentence is meaningless. Zero transparency can be provided and still meet the standard of being "as transparent as possible". "Try" here even gives them the opportunity to be less transparent than possible. The Glomar defense ("We can neither confirm nor deny") is "as transparent as possible" and actually meets a higher standard than Reddit promised here because the CIA didn't just "try", they successfully provided the most possible transparency (almost none).
- mynameisvlad 3y ago
  I'm just going to leave this first sentence from my comment here; it very much applies to you as well. > I'm not really sure what benefit you get out of harping on a developer you will likely never meet or interact with in a third party forum, but power to you. Y'all need to find a better hobby. As per his own words, he also clearly realizes that in hindsight he should have been more pessimistic. But that's all moot now. The past is in the past. Pointing it out is not going to do anything.
  - mulmen 3y ago
    I'm not harping on the developer. I'm using this opportunity to explain how communication with corporations can be confusing. The developer clearly knows they made mistakes and is doing the best they can. They did a great job of tracking the conversations and keeping the receipts, which is important in these situations, but isn't enough to save the app.
hajile 3y ago
That "no changes for years" sounds very much like a verbal contract that could/should be enforced.

websap 3y ago

[flagged]

LorenPechtel 3y ago

It occurs to me--could he go after Reddit for the cost of all those refunds? Detrimental reliance.

mulmen 3y ago

The road to hell is paved with good intentions. Reading this with 15 years of corporate experience the developer was at best naive. In corporate speak Reddit is completely consistent in their actions and words. It's a crappy situation and I'm sure the developer is a great person and I agree Reddit did them dirty but also that's how these things work. You don't take dependencies on third parties without a lawyer and a contract. > There's not gonna be any change on it. Nobody can make this promise, those are just words to make you feel good. > There's no plans to, there's no plans to touch it right now in 2023. Plans can be made quickly. Action can be taken without a plan. What is the guarantee on lead time? > And if we do touch it, we're going to be improving it in some way. Define improvement. Improved for who? > It's going to have a firm basis in reality. I have no doubt that Reddit based the API pricing on them making money on it. We can debate if they got it right. > We're going to try to be as transparent as we can. Try is a weasel word, this sentence is meaningless. Zero transparency can be provided and still meet the standard of being "as transparent as possible". "Try" here even gives them the opportunity to be less transparent than possible. The Glomar defense ("We can neither confirm nor deny") is "as transparent as possible" and actually meets a higher standard than Reddit promised here because the CIA didn't just "try", they successfully provided the most possible transparency (almost none).

mynameisvlad 3y ago
I'm just going to leave this first sentence from my comment here; it very much applies to you as well. > I'm not really sure what benefit you get out of harping on a developer you will likely never meet or interact with in a third party forum, but power to you. Y'all need to find a better hobby. As per his own words, he also clearly realizes that in hindsight he should have been more pessimistic. But that's all moot now. The past is in the past. Pointing it out is not going to do anything.
- mulmen 3y ago
  I'm not harping on the developer. I'm using this opportunity to explain how communication with corporations can be confusing. The developer clearly knows they made mistakes and is doing the best they can. They did a great job of tracking the conversations and keeping the receipts, which is important in these situations, but isn't enough to save the app.

hajile 3y ago

That "no changes for years" sounds very much like a verbal contract that could/should be enforced.