From his pinned post on /r/ApolloApp:
Will you build a competitor? Move to one of the existing alternatives?
I’ve received so many messages of kind people offering to work with me to build a competitor to Reddit, and while I’m very flattered, that’s not something I’m interested in doing. I’m a product guy, I like building fun apps for people to use, and I’m just not personally interested in something more managerial.
These last several months have also been incredibly exhausting and mentally draining, I don’t have it in me to engage in something so enormous.
I don’t think he will. He’ll probably avoid investing effort into apps that are reliant on a third-party service now after how he was treated by Reddit.
I’ve definitely been in that position where you put your heart and soul in to a project, and then it gets ripped away from you by forces beyond your control. It sucks, and it can really kill your joy for that kind of thing. I doubt he’s going to want to get involved in another social network, and it sounds like he already has a new project he’s excited about.
He could easily make an Apollo focused lemmy instance and be free of external influence.
I really don’t think he’s gonna go for it
At least we try to convince him and do something
Just so you guys are aware, mlem is actively being developed… more info here: https://lemmy.ml/c/mlemapp
I really hope so