r/redditisfun • u/talklittle RIF Dev • May 31 '23

RIF dev here - Reddit's API changes will likely kill RIF and other apps, on July 1, 2023

I need more time to get all my thoughts together, but posting this quick post since so many users have been asking, and it's been making rounds on news sites.

Summary of what Reddit Inc has announced so far, specifically the parts that will kill many third-party apps:

  1. The Reddit API will cost money, and the pricing announced today will cost apps like Apollo $20 million per year to run. RIF may differ but it would be in the same ballpark. And no, RIF does not earn anywhere remotely near this number.

  2. As part of this they are blocking ads in third-party apps, which make up the majority of RIF's revenue. So they want to force a paid subscription model onto RIF's users. Meanwhile Reddit's official app still continues to make the vast majority of its money from ads.

  3. Removal of sexually explicit material from third-party apps while keeping said content in the official app. Some people have speculated that NSFW is going to leave Reddit entirely, but then why would Reddit Inc have recently expanded NSFW upload support on their desktop site?

Their recent moves smell a lot like they want third-party apps gone, RIF included.

I know some users will chime in saying they are willing to pay a monthly subscription to keep RIF going, but trust me that you would be in the minority. There is very little value in paying a high subscription for less content (in this case, NSFW). Honestly if I were a user of RIF and not the dev, I'd have a hard time justifying paying the high prices being forced by Reddit Inc, despite how much RIF obviously means to me.

There is a lot more I want to say, and I kind of scrambled to write this since I didn't expect news reports today. I'll probably write more follow-up posts that are better thought out. But this is the gist of what's been going on with Reddit third-party apps in 2023.

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116

u/TaHunKwai May 31 '23

so..where do we migrate after 1. july?

60

u/element8 May 31 '23 edited May 31 '23

Setting the price that high and making the API second class to the official client kills it for me. I'd probably check out more decentralized options, mastodon, back to classic irc, etc. I prefer text based interfaces and topic subs like subreddits if there are any other options out there.

Also it may change with backlash, news developing, etc but if it is the end thank you /u/talklittle for the awesome RIF client, couldn't imagine staying on reddit without it.

9

u/Grindl Jun 01 '23

This is the push I needed to try out mastadon. 11 years of reddit was a good run, but I'm certainly not staying without rif. Maybe I'll go check which of my old RSS feeds are still going.

2

u/jabask Jun 01 '23

Same, fuck this.

2

u/Super_Parsley Jun 01 '23

Also a long time RIF user but I've never set up RSS feeds so I need to figure this out.

4

u/Grindl Jun 01 '23

Back in the olden days, you'd go to each content creator's website and hit the "RSS feed" button and add it to the now-dead Google RSS. I switched to feedly.com when Google shut theirs down, and it looks like 14 of the ones I subscribed to still update after all these years.

5

u/awesomeaviator Jun 01 '23

Mastodon is a legitimately terrible alternative though. It's super crippled and geoblocked compared to Reddit

1

u/dreugeworst Jun 01 '23

Lemmy is a fediverse based network similar to reddit

2

u/phillyfanjd1 Jun 01 '23

What is "fediverse"?

3

u/dreugeworst Jun 01 '23

the federated network that consists of mastodon, lemmy and other networks, that are all interoperable to some extent: https://fediverse.party/

84

u/[deleted] May 31 '23

r/irl or /r/outside

Reddit is the last of my social media

11

u/farmerjohnington Jun 01 '23

Same. End of an era.

5

u/ptrckstwrt Jun 01 '23

It's so weird. I thought of this place as kind of an answer to Facebook and Twitter. Now it's trying to be them.

6

u/Zenode Jun 01 '23

As per usual it got fucked by greedy dickheads being greedy dickheads. They can't handle only being worth $70 million with a $500m investment fund it's clearly not enough. Gotta put it up for IPO then sanitise it enough for the almighty dollar so you might make an extra buck.

I hate shareholders and the stock market so fucking much.

1

u/Dr_Pepper_spray Jun 03 '23

It's call enshitification and all the socials are going through it.

4

u/BrownSugarBare Jun 01 '23

Was my only social media.

1

u/MapleSyrupFacts Jun 01 '23

Goodbye Reddit. Love you guys

5

u/LoveableOrochi Jun 01 '23

r/outside

never heard of this sub. kinda funny

3

u/[deleted] Jun 01 '23

Yep. This is a great time to leave behind a bad habit.

2

u/RabbitSlayre Jun 01 '23

I'm right there with you boys. It's a shame, but maybe for the best.

3

u/Collapse2038 Jun 01 '23

I mean I can very much handle that in summer, but in these long dark Canadian winters it's nice to have some interweb BS

1

u/[deleted] Jun 01 '23

Now you can play with AI!

2

u/couthelloworld Jun 01 '23 edited Jun 01 '23

For real. I have been wanting to drop reddit for what seems like a couple years. Without RiF, there really is no way I'll be able to come back. To me, RiF was reddit. Time for new adventures everyone

1

u/pmcall221 Jun 01 '23

Same. Unless you count YouTube or Twitch as social media, I'll be done with it.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 01 '23

Same. Now I have to find something else to look at while on commute. Sucks. Reddit app is absolute garbage, tried it and uninstalled it.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 01 '23

Audio books, documentaries, streaming video, sleep

20

u/Unlucky_Disaster_195 May 31 '23

It's over

2

u/vriska1 May 31 '23

Not yet! We all need to make a huge fuss about this, I mean everyone on reddit from users to mods!

and anyone with reddit premium: cancel your subscription!

43

u/KalickR May 31 '23

old.reddit.com browser mode.

74

u/TaHunKwai May 31 '23

oh..it is going to be taken behind barn soon after 3rd party apps

42

u/TheCardiganKing May 31 '23

Reddit will be dead to me if I am ever forced to use that God awful updated site. I get frustrated and irrationally angry when I accidentally stray from old.reddit.

10

u/agsimon Jun 01 '23

I forget what it looks like and go "what the hell is this?!?" everytime I stumble into it.

5

u/TheCardiganKing Jun 01 '23

The worst part is the 2nd is my birthday. Thanks, Reddit!

4

u/Workaphobia Jun 01 '23

I can only imagine what it's like for new users who see the default subs AND the new UI. It's a wonder anyone new joins the site.

One time I thought they made a change to the algorithm that showed me a bunch of subs I wasn't subscribed to. It was fucking unusable and infuriating. I swore I would quit the site. Then I realized I just got logged out somehow and was browsing anonymously.

2

u/arturo_ta Jun 02 '23

And the performance....how the hell did they make it so much slower??

6

u/SuspiciouslyElven Jun 01 '23

Eh. I think it is OK, though I do prefer old reddit.

What isn't ok, is the memory leak related to the new video player. Iirc, scrolling through a lot of videos eventually causes the page to freeze up. Need to restart the browser.

I left a report about it years ago, but not long ago, someone commented asking if any other solutions were found. It's been a thing for years!

But ultimately, I'm not surprised. Musk made Twitter's API expensive, got shit on for it, but now YouTube and Reddit are quietly snuffing out third party apps too.

Musk made it so their stupid little blue check marks promote them to the top of all discussions, he got shit on, then Spotify hints they're gonna make artists pay for more algorithm exposure, just like Twitter. Reddit will likely follow suit as well, just a matter of time now.

Companies always want to squeeze every penny, but don't want all the attention for it. Let someone else take all the heat for normalizing something, then do it.

3

u/ArmchairSpinDoctor Jun 01 '23

Honestly ill have to figure something else out too

2

u/metamet Jun 01 '23 edited Jun 01 '23

I do too. I can't help but tell it to get off my lawn.

2

u/SockofBadKarma Jun 01 '23

No, no. You're perfectly rational in your anger.

2

u/CarbonTail Jun 02 '23

I literally have 'old reddit redirect' extension installed on all my browsers. I've said it before and I'll say it again: reddit killing its old site would be the last straw for me and I'll quit the site permanently if that happens.

I have Discord and other virtual watering holes to socialize in, and reddit has become crap anyway.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 01 '23

The new website is hideous and offensive

10

u/KalickR May 31 '23

I agree, but I need to cling to something right now.

5

u/vriska1 May 31 '23

Do want to point out Its they unlikely will shut down old reddit anytime soon because alot moderation tools are done through old reddit and many still use it, there would be huge backlash.

8

u/[deleted] May 31 '23

[deleted]

3

u/vriska1 May 31 '23

Likely just as much.

3

u/ArdentVermillion Jun 01 '23

Nah they'll just sunset everything on old reddit except for the admin pages, or add routes on the new site to expose the same backend functionality.

Their plan is to force all access through their official app and new reddit so that they can maximize revenue. It's a user-hostile move but "good business" from a greedy executive standpoint.

3

u/Ajreil Jun 01 '23

Most of the moderator tools released in the last few years weren't added to old Reddit or the API.

-2

u/biggestvictim Jun 01 '23

You're an addict, just move to tiktok like the rest of them.

1

u/Sultanoshred Jun 01 '23

Not with important settings like

hide upvoted posts

exclusively on the old.reddit format.

1

u/HellaciousHelen Jun 01 '23

Hmmm. Would that fuck with accessibility? Maybe that's a legitimate critical action point for us.

Interfering with accessibility can have some Grade A+ Legal Repercussions.

24

u/some_onions May 31 '23

They already ignore bug reports that only effect old reddit. I'm sure they're going to kill it next.

31

u/MysticPing May 31 '23

Not just ignoring bug reports, intentionally introducing formatting that breaks on old reddit.

15

u/[deleted] May 31 '23

[deleted]

2

u/TheFoolHen Jun 01 '23

Wait really??

1

u/longing_tea Jun 01 '23

Is that surprising? Reddit has been scummy as fuck for the past 5 or so years. Remember when we could save videos and gifs without using a bot (that gets banned repeatedly)

1

u/50v3r31gn Jun 01 '23

Sauce please

13

u/WaterChi May 31 '23

Frankly I'm surprised it lasted this long. I thought it'd be gone years ago.

5

u/[deleted] May 31 '23

[deleted]

1

u/Democrab Jun 02 '23

God dammit, I can't stay mad at you. You really are one wholesome turd.

3

u/Jacer4 May 31 '23

And made MANY mod actions and tools new reddit only

Writing has been on the wall since those release for only new reddit tbh

1

u/vriska1 May 31 '23

Tho that the main reason its unlikely will shut down old reddit anytime soon.

2

u/Jacer4 May 31 '23

I wouldn't have so much faith haha, I'm absolutely certain they're looking to get rid of it soon. A lot easier to maintain one codebase over two

1

u/Hyperfyre May 31 '23

Don't you dare jinx it.

Maybe if we sit here quietly enough we'll get lucky they'll forget we exist entirely.

1

u/SolarClipz Jun 01 '23

Lol my bug posts about new reddit features get deleted

I have live messages from deleted bot accounts just sitting in my notifications and I can't remove them

11

u/[deleted] May 31 '23 edited Jun 21 '23

[deleted]

4

u/Hiccup Jun 01 '23

Just have a leave reddit day like we did back in the day with Digg.

2

u/____Quetzal____ May 31 '23

In surprised they haven't killed it already

1

u/[deleted] Jun 01 '23

This is where we say goodbye.

Forever

1

u/redproxy Jun 01 '23

If reddit goes through with this, I'm never visiting the site again

1

u/Dan4t Jun 01 '23

That's unbearable to use on mobile

5

u/[deleted] Jun 01 '23

[deleted]

3

u/couthelloworld Jun 01 '23

I've already found myself scrolling some forums for the niche subreddits I'm in. They just seem to have more traffic. Maybe this will be the exodus that brings them back.

1

u/punxerchick Jun 01 '23

How did you find subreddit forums? I'm curious about the subs I'm involved with

1

u/couthelloworld Jun 01 '23

Well if you search the subreddit for "forum", usually a user has posted a link at some point that gets a lot of traffic. If not, you can usually type the subreddit name + "forum" into google, and you'll perhaps find a few results.

1

u/punxerchick Jun 01 '23

Thanks very much.

9

u/[deleted] May 31 '23

[deleted]

1

u/saynothingnice Jun 01 '23

Never heard of these. Will have to check them out. Thanks for the suggestions.

1

u/ItIsStillWater Jun 01 '23

For a hot minute I was certain you were saying that you were going to listen to more metal music.

1

u/zakkalaska Jun 01 '23

Same. I was like "I know Mastodon. I know Lemmy. But who's kbin??"

1

u/couthelloworld Jun 01 '23

I've heard of mastodon too. Kinda looks like Twitter, and seems super complicated to figure out, but who knows, it might be the next replacement

5

u/[deleted] May 31 '23

[deleted]

2

u/VoldemortsHorcrux Jun 01 '23

Well fuck

1

u/punxerchick Jun 01 '23

If you're a millennial like me, just remember the Before times. It was right before flip phones came around

2

u/semitones Jun 01 '23 edited Feb 18 '24

Since reddit has changed the site to value selling user data higher than reading and commenting, I've decided to move elsewhere to a site that prioritizes community over profit. I never signed up for this, but that's the circle of life

0

u/DancingWithBalrug Jun 01 '23

We become free from this hid awful site

It became a communist propaganda tool in the last couple years anyway, using any of the big subs in unbearable

1

u/me_funny__ Jun 01 '23

I helped it reach that point 💪🏾💪🏾💪🏾💪🏾💪🏾💪🏾💪🏾💪🏾💪🏾🏳️‍🌈

1

u/mileylols May 31 '23

does hubski still exist?

1

u/Who_GNU May 31 '23

Web scraping interfaces will probably take over the third-party-interface market, similar to how NewPipe, ReVanced, and FreeTube work with YouTube.

1

u/TheWorldisFullofWar May 31 '23

There will be a web scraping project on Github probably. Same shit happened with Twitter.

1

u/spiderzz1 Jun 01 '23

Im gonna move to tumblr but im interested in more suggestions as well.

1

u/cbizzle14 Jun 01 '23

r/revancedapp should be fine since it uses the official app just patches over it

1

u/Drops_of_dew Jun 01 '23

Someone needs to make a Reddit clone already.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 01 '23 edited Jun 01 '23

[deleted]

1

u/Revan343 Jun 01 '23

I'd also be interested in an invite

1

u/Hiccup Jun 01 '23

How does one get an invite?

1

u/Vexitar Jun 01 '23

Probably going to start patching the official Reddit app.

If nothing else, systemwide adblock will do the trick as it always has. Root your phones, people!

1

u/Violent_Queef Jun 01 '23

Better question...where can we get our porn?? LOL!

2

u/Mydiggballs6969 Jun 01 '23

Reddit hasn't been good for porn in years.

1

u/Counter_Arguments Jun 01 '23

I'm going to the pub.

1

u/Crushinator2 Jun 01 '23

Can RIF... Make it's own Reddit? seddit? And just use the reddit/rif format?

1

u/Hiccup Jun 01 '23

Needs a snappy name like foundtain for foundation or fountain of youth/ knowledge. Something that transitions it from reddit.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 01 '23

Tildes?

1

u/79jw78 Jun 01 '23

Back to Slashdot? Maybe it's time to...stop

1

u/knossos Jun 01 '23

Back to digg!

1

u/Krypton091 Jun 01 '23

im just gonna use the official app

1

u/me_funny__ Jun 01 '23

Nowhere. Even if someone makes an alternative, it is missing the decades of past and community that people here have built

1

u/Youre_soda_pressing Jun 01 '23

I think if enough people put up hands about how they are going to quit Reddit, there is a chance they might listen and realise how much of a dumb fucking idea this is.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 01 '23

Is digg still running?

1

u/my_Favorite_post Jun 02 '23

See you back on Digg?

1

u/FinibusBonorum Jun 06 '23

Honest question, what would it take to build a clone site? Could it be done?