Long before the APIcalypse, I was thinking of quitting Reddit. Now that everything went downhill, that decision became super easy.
I wasn’t really getting that much benefit out of Reddit, so it wasn’t a big deal. Spending time there was more like bad habit to me. The mere thought of paying for a bad habit sounds so absurd that quitting would have been absolutely mandatory at that point.
Fortunately though, Reddit already made the process so much easier simply buy kicking out my favorite client app.
I know, right? It was like a steady stream of assholes, habitual doom scrolling, and occasionally a few good topics or people chatting.
I made a pact to stop using Reddit as soon as Infinity stopped working for me. It worked for months, but when it stopped, I held myself to it. Not only did I deactivate my account, I used a service to overwrite all of my content, and also then delete it beforehand. My mental health has been recovering steadily ever since.
Even if I did get something positive out of it, I refuse to be part of an ecosystem run that treats it’s users and volunteers with such open hostility. The whole saga with Spez lying and bullshitting to make other people look bad, and the pro-corporate bots that popped up from time to time turned me off it entirely. I miss it sometimes, but what’s the point of having a sense of ethics or personal conviction if you shrug your shoulders and do what you want regardless of whether you know you should?
It’s like someone claiming to be a vegetarian, but they eat meat whenever they feel like it because it tastes good.
When I joined Reddit I noticed that it’s too easy to end up doomscrolling and arguing with idiots. That’s why I stayed away from r/all and any sub that’s all about news and/politics. The only exception was r/europe, because I think it’s good to know something about the region that actually influences my life.
In order to avoid wasting time on stupid idiont nonsense, I focused on science and technology subs along with some very specific niche subs. That way Reddit was actually able to provide some benefit from time to time.
I made a Lemmy account before the Reddit Blackout, and I’ve been here ever since. After the blackout ended, I visited Reddit every week at first, but now it’s more like once a month at most. In order to make the transition faster, I unsubscribed from everything except all the protest, blackout, API etc. related subs. So if I go to Reddit now, I’ll just see people complaining about Reddit. If I go to r/all it’s about as useless as it was years ago, so there’s no reason to spend time in there.
You can compile the infinity APK yourself with your own free API key and continue to use it. There are guides and automated scripts available that can do this for you.
Thats cool to know. Thanks!
But why
i tried doing a packet capture in genymotion to get the redreader api key
headers had http bearer
Must be fucking tragic still developing for reddit ecosystem. All of your subscriptions go straight to Reddit, who graciously gives you access to user generated content curated by unpaid mods.
I checked out Narwhal 2, and the app is a goddam jewel. I’d have paid $30 or $50 for it (like I did with Bean for Lemmy). It almost convinced me to go and make a reddit account again, but then I saw reddit recently stopped letting you opt out of ad personalization anymore, and it was easy to run back to lemmy. Reddit does not want 3rd party apps. Eventually they’ll look for ways to fully block access.
Reddit has a lot more tracking and fingerprinting going on in their own app too that they obviously want you there for. Once you log into multiple accounts, it fingerprints you as the same user on all accounts. I had a few accounts; a work related one and a couple personal ones. Ended up with a temporary ban on one from a dick head mod, and ALL of them got banned together for 7 days because of that with a message (forget the exact wording so I’m paraphrasing) basically saying “don’t try to make another account to get around the ban because we’ll still know its you”. They’re mining the shit out of user data now, and also really starting to connect the dots on multiple account holders which I’m guessing will be to “deal with” people who detract from their IPO goals. Glad I left.
I wonder if those devs, still playing along with Reddit Inc. outrageous prices, aren’t coding access to other platforms behind the scenes. It would be a decent approach to retain their userbase, while gently encouraging it to migrate.
That’s what BOOST did. Basically a 1:1 transition from reddit to lemmy after the API died.
I’m happy to buy an app, but I will not pay a $3 subscription for just an app and access to a repository of user generated content. I know the Infinity devs don’t really have a choice, but this pricing model is ridiculous!
I don’t even want to buy an app for social media. Since Reddit sells your data I just can’t be interested in purchasing access to my info being sold.
For some reason, Spaz thinks he’s Musk. It’s funny that Spaz is destroying reddit the same way Mush destroyed twitter, well… not funny “ha ha”, but funny ‘odd’.
How stupid must they be?
Well in the reddit case there’s a payoff and then one gets to walk away from the sinking ship. They just need to get things pumped up for the IPO and then who cares what happens from there. It’s time to cash out and it becomes someone else’s problem to deal with.
This IPO is the only thing that going to give them anything remotely near Musk money and it’s not going to anywhere near at much where one can crash and burn another social media site for the hell of it…
Which I don’t get, all they have done for months(years really) is make the site less attractive to users, and therefore less attractive to investors. They did all the shitty stuff you do to maintain piece of shit shareholders BEFORE THEY HAD THE SHAREHOLDERS!
They probably have to show revenue
It’s like those recent news about netflix rising prices and preventing password share. They don’t care about users’ experience, or if 10% of the userbase will leave, as long as the revenue increases.
And that’s why it’s so awesome that Reddit users got together and did a protest that dumped the valuation of Reddit stock just as Spez was trying to sell it
Narwhal prompted similarly. Haven’t even thought to look since. It’s dead to me now.
First Apolo, then Narwal, Alíen Blue barely works, but not able to log in or search for particular sub, which was the main reason I was still using it. No longer a redditor, I identify Ada Lemmor
Edit- I’m going to leave it like that. You win auto correct
Nice to meet you Ada Lemmor
I love the pattern of prices. Price goes down but the last option is the most expensive.
This is like seeing a photo of a friend that got murdered three months after they got killed just highlighting the corpse that is left.
It’s a paradigm that defeats itself. Reddit is basically reselling access to shit that users freely submit. They start removing access from users who don’t want to pay or use the official (bad experience) app, and they will necessarily have fewer submissions and less content.
If its a hassle to go there and use it, and the payment structure disincentivizes their young demographic from using it, it is no longer the “cool kid” corner of the internet, which further removes the reason why other people would want to pay for it.
Imagine I’m a hypothetical Reddit user under the new model - what would be my incentive to pay them for the privilege of posting links, quality text posts, my girlfriends tits, or anything else for that matter?
Yeah, I hope this kind of business never thieves.
I hope the people who are willing to pay a monthly subscription on reddit are a very miniscule portion of the user base.
Here’s the thing, reddit hopes so too. Reddit’s goal isn’t to make money on 3rd party apps, it’s to price the api high enough to draw people to their free ad riddled dumpster fire of an app. It’s the same reason you can’t get nsfw subs on the api.
For once I’m with reddit (on people using third party apps but reasons are different where reddit wanted to no longer compete with third party apps, and I don’t want people giving reddit money after the end of the protest). I’d prefer third party apps be dead for good if mobile plan type subscriptions are necessary to exist (by this I mean the third party apps need subscriptions to exist because of reddit’s decision to charge for api which they aren’t going to change because people were unwilling to quit during the protest, and showed reddit they are too addicted to stay away. So now the aftermath for users is either pay or don’t, and I’d rather people not pay reddit money. Better off quitting mobile use than pay money is my stance.).
So the few hold outs now either give into using reddit app like reddit wants or go through the process of getting third party apps to work for free. Or use the website or preferably move to not contributing to reddit anymore through mobile, and just moving to lurker status through rss or accountless apps like Stealth for Android.
“Necessary to exist” is a bit of a stretch. Reddit is vastly overcharging for the api, as evidenced by what other sites charge apps for similar service.
Reddit charging so much for api access is them solving a problem they invented with the express purpose of killing free 3rd party apps.
Saying you’re with reddit on this is essentially saying you like the way they’re handling the problem they created to benefit themselves.
I just have yet to be convinced that paying to use it is a good thing regardless of reddit’s intention.
I only see the grip reddit on its users where even negative users are still dedicated to point of being willing to pay access reddit. Which is nice dedication to see for Reddit where all the vocal talk has turned out to be nothing but talk.
You can get nsfw subs on RedReader because Reddit refuses to spend money on accessibility
Likely yes, because it seems most of the people use the atrocious official client instead of third party client. And access through that is of course still free, well, paid by ads obviously.
I have noticed there are some people who love spending money on internet services. Like they genuinely enjoy it and flex about it.
Honestly, I feel that way too but for independent creators, mostly open source things.
Boy, now I really want to go back! 🤣
Let’s pack tonight we can be there by morning 😹😹
Why did everybody have to close down if costs are fully covered with a $2.99 subscription? I probably would have paid for reddit is fun at that price for myself and my wife. Assuming it stays ad free.
Three dollars a month is a lot in some places.
Every user pays the same for the app, but the app pays an amount dependent on how much its users are browsing and posting. So if your users are all lurkers who open Reddit once a day, then you can make an easy profit charging a small fee. But if your core userbase are power posters and mods and people who spend every bathroom break on reddit, you’ll lose money unless you charge a huge subscription.
The power users moving to Lemmy actually made these app subscriptions cheaper and more financially viable, because it brought down the activity level of their average user. If things had stayed the same, apps would be more expensive to run.
Funny enough, the more reddit dies, the more profitable third party apps get.
Yeah, I get that. But the devs know what their average API calls are per user, seems like they would have landed on those numbers here; less frequent users likely subsidize power users to some extent. Or, like reddit, they could price it dynamically based on your usage too.
But you also might be right that it’s only affordable if ALL power users moved on. Probably fewer moved here than we’d hope/expect, but I’m sure it helped.
As long as Redreader still works, other applications could just borrow the oauth key.
Wow that sucks, It just sucks even more that a good portion of the Reddit Fanbase doesn’t want to even try other platforms such as Lemmy which give much better user experiences in the end.
Lemmy not pulling in Reddit’s general audience and Lemmy having a better user experience than Reddit are highly correlated.
My Reddit usage is highly correlated with whether or not I’m at my desk.
I feel like I need to wash my hands after opening the official Reddit app on my phone.
Idk honestly. Lemmy is quite an echo chamber in terms of tech stuff especially. I think reddit having much more content of all different types can make it a better user experience for most people. I find it hard to suggest lemmy for the average user who just wants to see memes and discussions based on their hobbies and interests. Lemmy is a lot less diverse.
@Neve8028@lemm.ee I know I for one have been trying to fix it in the gaming sense talking about the games I enjoy on communities I rather find or make myself. Hopefully more topics get explored and filled in the near future.
yeah I wish we had more variety unfortunately I don’t have time to commit myself to be a mod for a community here
You’re 100% right about that. Try mentioning a web browser that isn’t Firefox for a good example.
- jackpot ( @jackpot@lemmy.ml ) 0•8 months ago
actually you should be using waterfox / librefox
There’s great lemmy apps too like Connect for Lemmy which has become my favorite. Handles multiple instances well and good filtering settings.
I’m using Memmy on iPhone and it’s awesome, very similar to Apollo. Custom gestures, themes, hide read posts, etc. Can’t recommend it enough to my iOS homies
I used Memmy for a while (actually since I created this acount during “the incident”) and recently swapped to Avelon id suggest to check it out
I still have Memmy installed but Avelon is my personal go to
I used Memmy for a while (actually since I created this acount during “the incident”) and recently swapped to Avelon id suggest to check it out
I still have Memmy installed but Avelon is my personal go to
I used Memmy for a while (actually since I created this acount during “the incident”) and recently swapped to Avelon id suggest to check it out
I still have Memmy installed but Avelon is my personal go to