They did walked back the stuff at least for accessibility apps. Legal must have told them to walk it back because of the ADA. But that was announced a few days before spez’s AMA.
Thing is, why “non-commercial” apps? Why aren’t the people making accessibility tools - in lieu of the company who should be doing that work anyways - allowed to make money? And, y’know, that exempts the pricing model (ok) but will NSFW content still be barred? We don’t even 100% know how the NSFW API block works other than Reddit claims it’ll be porn only, but I don’t trust 'em to not pull a Tunblr and just say “if it’s under the NSFW filter it’s blocked from any API access.”
What they did is something, but it’s still not enough. What apps qualify? Are they allowed to make money so working on this app can be, like, their job (and not free volunteer work like happens often), and if so how do they define “non-commercial” so that happens? What features does it need to have to be “accessibility focused” - a lot of the 3rd party clients are customizable enough where people who are hard of vision can make the text plenty large so they can read, is that enough or are they considering the need for screenreader support too?
They’re just so damn vague about all of this and whatever they answered yesterday was barely clarifying at all & just reiterated years-old promises that they’ve bareky made progress on. IMO, Reddit needs to walk the changes back until they can roll out the festures they’re talking about & come to an agreement with app devs on a reasonable price (for the apps not deemed accessibility focused) and what they’re allowed to do to monetize to afford that.
Fifteen business days now isn’t enough time to get ready for these huge changes unless the plan is to shut down your app, like many app devs are going to do. Especially with how much seems to still be unknown or unclear.
They did walked back the stuff at least for accessibility apps. Legal must have told them to walk it back because of the ADA. But that was announced a few days before spez’s AMA.
https://www.neowin.net/news/reddit-now-says-it-will-allow-free-api-access-for-developers-of-accessibility-apps/
Thing is, why “non-commercial” apps? Why aren’t the people making accessibility tools - in lieu of the company who should be doing that work anyways - allowed to make money? And, y’know, that exempts the pricing model (ok) but will NSFW content still be barred? We don’t even 100% know how the NSFW API block works other than Reddit claims it’ll be porn only, but I don’t trust 'em to not pull a Tunblr and just say “if it’s under the NSFW filter it’s blocked from any API access.”
What they did is something, but it’s still not enough. What apps qualify? Are they allowed to make money so working on this app can be, like, their job (and not free volunteer work like happens often), and if so how do they define “non-commercial” so that happens? What features does it need to have to be “accessibility focused” - a lot of the 3rd party clients are customizable enough where people who are hard of vision can make the text plenty large so they can read, is that enough or are they considering the need for screenreader support too?
They’re just so damn vague about all of this and whatever they answered yesterday was barely clarifying at all & just reiterated years-old promises that they’ve bareky made progress on. IMO, Reddit needs to walk the changes back until they can roll out the festures they’re talking about & come to an agreement with app devs on a reasonable price (for the apps not deemed accessibility focused) and what they’re allowed to do to monetize to afford that.
Fifteen business days now isn’t enough time to get ready for these huge changes unless the plan is to shut down your app, like many app devs are going to do. Especially with how much seems to still be unknown or unclear.