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The way I use Reddit is to subscribe to small subreddits for thoughtful engagement and just do r/all when I want to mindlessly engage with whatever is hitting t

The way I use Reddit is to subscribe to small subreddits for thoughtful engagement and just do r/all when I want to mindlessly engage with whatever is hitting the top. So far aside from a couple random “we’re protesting” or whatever banners from the former main subreddits, my experience has remained unchanged, except that I’m seeing some welcome diversity in what’s at the top pages of r/all. Meaning: it’s not just r/pics or r/videos or whatever hitting the top, because they’ve neutered themselves, and now it’s pics and videos from slightly smaller subreddits that don’t normally hit. So far I’m liking this change, though not engaging through Apollo will be a bit annoying in the future.

hospitalJail 3y ago
So you are a boycott breaker?
- constantly 3y ago
  To me “boycott breaker” is a much more self-important framing than this deserves. It’s framing it with picket line crossers or scabs. Happy to boycott, protest, and use my resources for things that are acutely important to humanity: human rights issues, unionization and pay issues, environmental issues, among others — and I have done so, including physically standing in solidarity. Third-party API access to a private company doesn’t merit a blip on the radar in my opinion. However while I’m not happy about the access being shut down, nor am I happy that Apollo dev took his ball and went home, I am fully supportive in spirit of the unintended consequences. Notably: lots more diversity on the front page (meaning less reporting dreck from the same oversized subreddits over and over), and maybe even a clamp down on the self-perceived sway of mods, a position that tends to attract the worst, most power-hungry people, and their “moderating” of literally hundreds of subreddits simultaneously. My guess is that, as I’ve previously posted, this will go something like the last boycott of the chat feature. Main subreddits will shutter, new subreddits with similar names will pop up to fill the void with identical content. In any case, Reddit is under the VC gun at this point and I doubt they have a choice here, in my experience with large VC-backed companies.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - orev 3y ago
    > nor am I happy that Apollo dev took his ball and went home That’s a very unfair characterization. It’s more like he was happy to allow everyone to keep playing with his ball, but suddenly the owner of the field wanted $20 million to allow it. That phrase is mostly used when someone is being petty, which is absolutely not the case in this situation.
    - constantly 3y ago
      Sorry just seeing this, HN of course isn’t designed for back and forth discussion. I used the phrase intentionally because looking at the developer’s side of what happened, my takeaway is that while yes it would cost a lot to continue operating, out of the many options available to them they chose to just shut down. That’s “taking their ball and going home” in my opinion. Of course they’re free to do so, but it was far from the only option to take and they’re basically leaving a lot of Apollo fans in a lurch because they didn’t feel like putting in the effort to make a workable solution. Reddit also handled the rollout of fees poorly. All this is of course just my opinion and I don’t expect everyone to agree.
      - IggleSniggle 3y ago
        I’m curious what you think they could have done differently. They made a pretty strong case that they explored the alternatives with good intentions and open communication, and that Reddit backed them into a corner. Unless you expect someone to go bankrupt just so their app can continue for one more month? They could either shut down now and refund everyone, or shut down in 2 months and go bankrupt trying pay the bill.
- me_me_me 3y ago
  Its completely pointless, reddit is doing it because of bottom line: money. Its a long term goal, and few days of people protesting is not going to change their mind, few percent of userbase not being active before coming back is negligible impact at best. Its not going to have any effect, unless significant /r/ communities start migrating to competition. Same story goes with physical product boycotts. They come and go, people forget and move on to another outrage.

hospitalJail 3y ago

So you are a boycott breaker?

constantly 3y ago
To me “boycott breaker” is a much more self-important framing than this deserves. It’s framing it with picket line crossers or scabs. Happy to boycott, protest, and use my resources for things that are acutely important to humanity: human rights issues, unionization and pay issues, environmental issues, among others — and I have done so, including physically standing in solidarity. Third-party API access to a private company doesn’t merit a blip on the radar in my opinion. However while I’m not happy about the access being shut down, nor am I happy that Apollo dev took his ball and went home, I am fully supportive in spirit of the unintended consequences. Notably: lots more diversity on the front page (meaning less reporting dreck from the same oversized subreddits over and over), and maybe even a clamp down on the self-perceived sway of mods, a position that tends to attract the worst, most power-hungry people, and their “moderating” of literally hundreds of subreddits simultaneously. My guess is that, as I’ve previously posted, this will go something like the last boycott of the chat feature. Main subreddits will shutter, new subreddits with similar names will pop up to fill the void with identical content. In any case, Reddit is under the VC gun at this point and I doubt they have a choice here, in my experience with large VC-backed companies.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- orev 3y ago
  > nor am I happy that Apollo dev took his ball and went home That’s a very unfair characterization. It’s more like he was happy to allow everyone to keep playing with his ball, but suddenly the owner of the field wanted $20 million to allow it. That phrase is mostly used when someone is being petty, which is absolutely not the case in this situation.
  - constantly 3y ago
    Sorry just seeing this, HN of course isn’t designed for back and forth discussion. I used the phrase intentionally because looking at the developer’s side of what happened, my takeaway is that while yes it would cost a lot to continue operating, out of the many options available to them they chose to just shut down. That’s “taking their ball and going home” in my opinion. Of course they’re free to do so, but it was far from the only option to take and they’re basically leaving a lot of Apollo fans in a lurch because they didn’t feel like putting in the effort to make a workable solution. Reddit also handled the rollout of fees poorly. All this is of course just my opinion and I don’t expect everyone to agree.
    - IggleSniggle 3y ago
      I’m curious what you think they could have done differently. They made a pretty strong case that they explored the alternatives with good intentions and open communication, and that Reddit backed them into a corner. Unless you expect someone to go bankrupt just so their app can continue for one more month? They could either shut down now and refund everyone, or shut down in 2 months and go bankrupt trying pay the bill.
me_me_me 3y ago
Its completely pointless, reddit is doing it because of bottom line: money. Its a long term goal, and few days of people protesting is not going to change their mind, few percent of userbase not being active before coming back is negligible impact at best. Its not going to have any effect, unless significant /r/ communities start migrating to competition. Same story goes with physical product boycotts. They come and go, people forget and move on to another outrage.