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> The rule that you shouldn’t build your business on someone else’s API obviously applies here Is there an alternative? If your business is an app around someo

> The rule that you shouldn’t build your business on someone else’s API obviously applies here Is there an alternative? If your business is an app around someone elses API, as it is in this case, Tweetbot, etc - it seems super reasonable no? Yea the API could change at any moment. So maybe don't over leverage yourself. Play it safe, knowing any day could be the apps last.. but beyond that "building your business around someone else's API" isn't bad here is it? I'd happily do it if it was going to make some money. So i'm kinda unsure where the distinction is for that phrase. When is it not a good idea? Seems a better phrase would be one that includes knowing what type of business you have.

vinyl7 3y ago
It just depends on what your timeline is. Tech is very ephemeral, so anything that exists today will be gone eventually. So build an app using an api, but i would not rely on it to be a viable product for more than a couple of years. So its fine if you want beer money, but it wont be a career.
tensor 3y ago
Personally, I think it's reasonable for a small 1-2 person shop, but if you are planning a larger company it's pretty irresponsible to build it around someone's API like this. If you can't feasibly replace a given API, then you're business is incredibly fragile, and I think it's unfair to employ a large number of people in a fragile business without clearly stating to them that they could all be unemployed in an instant.
fwlr 3y ago
If you have good reasons to build on a third party API and you do it responsibly (not over-leveraging yourself, not annoying the API provider) then it’s fine, sure. Perhaps the real value of that rule is that it makes you conscious of the risks and pushes you to mitigate them.
6510 3y ago
Reddit is dead, Twitter is dead, RSS lives on. RSS is an API first, there is no CEO, there are no investors, the peasants tried to stage a revolt against it many times. Everyone on HN should probably watch this clip from Aaron Swartz again. (who deserves blame for the creation of RSS and Reddit) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aaron_Swartz_-_The_Network_Transformation.webm https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aaron_Swartz_-_The_N... It is odd we are to stupid to understand while he explains things so wonderfully?
willis936 3y ago
The alternative is to pursue safer business. It makes sense from a risk mitigation perspective, but it doesn't sound like the reddit third party app devs were unaware or incorrectly weighing this. It sounded like they took on personal and financial risk to do something they wanted to do and add something to the world that they wanted to. Rather than foolish, I find it admirable to abandon profit and security for principles. Especially in the context of reddit being founded on principles. Regardless of what happens to the site and the shareholders: it is safe to say that the true reddit is already dead.
Izkata 3y ago
> > The rule that you shouldn’t build your business on someone else’s API obviously applies here > Is there an alternative? Scraping. They're joking on some subreddits about how reddit is about to see costs skyrocket when third-party tools start requesting and parsing whole pages instead of using a lightweight API.

vinyl7 3y ago

It just depends on what your timeline is. Tech is very ephemeral, so anything that exists today will be gone eventually. So build an app using an api, but i would not rely on it to be a viable product for more than a couple of years. So its fine if you want beer money, but it wont be a career.

tensor 3y ago

Personally, I think it's reasonable for a small 1-2 person shop, but if you are planning a larger company it's pretty irresponsible to build it around someone's API like this. If you can't feasibly replace a given API, then you're business is incredibly fragile, and I think it's unfair to employ a large number of people in a fragile business without clearly stating to them that they could all be unemployed in an instant.

fwlr 3y ago

If you have good reasons to build on a third party API and you do it responsibly (not over-leveraging yourself, not annoying the API provider) then it’s fine, sure. Perhaps the real value of that rule is that it makes you conscious of the risks and pushes you to mitigate them.

6510 3y ago

Reddit is dead, Twitter is dead, RSS lives on. RSS is an API first, there is no CEO, there are no investors, the peasants tried to stage a revolt against it many times. Everyone on HN should probably watch this clip from Aaron Swartz again. (who deserves blame for the creation of RSS and Reddit) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aaron_Swartz_-_The_Network_Transformation.webm https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aaron_Swartz_-_The_N... It is odd we are to stupid to understand while he explains things so wonderfully?

willis936 3y ago

The alternative is to pursue safer business. It makes sense from a risk mitigation perspective, but it doesn't sound like the reddit third party app devs were unaware or incorrectly weighing this. It sounded like they took on personal and financial risk to do something they wanted to do and add something to the world that they wanted to. Rather than foolish, I find it admirable to abandon profit and security for principles. Especially in the context of reddit being founded on principles. Regardless of what happens to the site and the shareholders: it is safe to say that the true reddit is already dead.

Izkata 3y ago

> > The rule that you shouldn’t build your business on someone else’s API obviously applies here > Is there an alternative? Scraping. They're joking on some subreddits about how reddit is about to see costs skyrocket when third-party tools start requesting and parsing whole pages instead of using a lightweight API.