There are numerous solutions, such as building better apps or acquiring and doing deals with them. Or you could serve ads in the api and require 3p apps to disp

There are numerous solutions, such as building better apps or acquiring and doing deals with them. Or you could serve ads in the api and require 3p apps to display them. Note that API charges were a red herring, they knew upfront that 3p apps couldn’t pay. So they’re killing off this part of the ecosystem without any attempt at salvaging its value, in any shape or form. Reddit as an ecosystem is remarkably tool-centric, especially for the minority that contributes the most. What’s happening is not that people demand free stuff (whatever that means in this case). They see Reddit make unreasonable demands, lie and argue in bad faith. So people like me, who didn’t use a 3p app, participate in the protest because we see the writing on the wall. I deleted my 12yo account and wiped all “my” content. It sucks, but I don’t want to be part of a value-extraction phase without a term-sheet. It’s our own fault for having assumed a “gentleman’s agreement” and thinking content we post will be accessible, when Reddit is well within their legal rights to gatekeep any way they want. To be clear, I believe the business model makes this inevitable, and isn’t unique to Reddit. In fact, Reddit was a temp refuge from the norm. Long term I think it’s good that this business model produces the same predictable results. That makes it easier to recognize (a certain kind of) failure earlier when looking for alternatives.