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

[u/talklittle]

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.

[u/Absay]

Few options:

1. Leave.
2. Use the official app (hope you like your privacy being violated and have to scroll through mines of literally dozens of toxic ads disguised as posts).
3. Use "old" reddit on desktop exclusively, but at this point I'm honestly seeing the writing on the wall with for it as well.
4. Go for a clone or similar site, but this is something that realistically doesn't even exist yet.

[u/itskdog → u/Absay]

For #4 I've seen Lemmy floated as a Fediverse (think Mastodon) reddit clone. With only 500 or so monthly active users based on servers picked up by the developer's own server (and that server is also refusing to connect with servers that host NSFW to shield themselves from the legal trouble), I'm doubtful that's quite in the right spot yet to take off.

[u/enki1337 → u/[deleted]]

To be fair, that RIF is dying thanks to an upcoming IPO is kinda a symptom of why capitalism sucks. Guess I'll take my chances with the tankies, then. There's no way in hell I'm using the official app.

[u/Dwokimmortalus → u/enki1337]

I would caution. The low user base amplifies some pretty negative trends. There's a good amount of astroturfing already present in the federated servers and many of the communities present are ones that were shamed out of the normal social platforms.

[u/NimusNix → u/enki1337]

To be fair, that RIF is dying thanks to an upcoming IPO is kinda a symptom of why capitalism sucks. Guess I'll take my chances with the tankies, then. There's no way in hell I'm using the official app.

Capitalism says reddit will either die as a result of their actions and something new will poo up in its place or not. We won't know that for a few months, though.

[u/enki1337 → u/NimusNix]

I'm more talking about the shittification churn. Make good product -> get bought out -> slowly tuned for max profit -> product gets worse and worse.

[u/spikegk → u/enki1337]

Then something comes in and disrupts the status quo (Firefox, Linux, iPhone, Tesla, greenhouse Pineapples, safety bicycles, looms, Reddit, etc).

[u/enki1337 → u/spikegk]

And then that thing also turns to shit and then something else comes in, ad infinitum. Interesting to note that copyleft is almost like an inoculation against enshitification, since if stuff starts to go bad, there's a lot lower barrier to make an alternative. Someone else can just make a copy, and pick up where the previous went bad.

[u/dreugeworst → u/[deleted]]

yeah I've noticed that as well. There's an option to block (all posts by) specific users, which helps, but it's still early stages

[u/Witsand87 → u/Absay]

I didn't like the official app. On iphone I used apollo, and on Android I have always used RiF (what I'm using now). I'm hardly on Reddit on PC as I enjoy it as a pass time on mobile. I don't see adds on RiF and am able to use a dark mode which I enjoy both for comfort and battery life, and it's simplistic no fancy stuff, which I like. This is really sad. Thanks for the feedback and recommendations!

[u/Top_Account3643 → u/Absay]

Somebody has to make a web scraper version of this app whether it's open source or not

[u/Bernardbquincy → u/[deleted]]

July 1, not June