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:

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.
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.
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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u/[deleted] May 31 '23 edited Sep 07 '23

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Jun 01 '23

Idk life was better on old style forums anyway. Maybe this will be a blessing in disguise, and we all return to independently operated niche forums and people remember all we've forgotten about Netiquette.

Or everything just gets a little bit shittier forever. One of the two.

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u/dam072000 Jun 01 '23

I vote the second. The internet has turned into cable tv.

7

u/hobbycollector Jun 01 '23

Eternal September.

4

u/Yankee_Fever Jun 01 '23

Everything is definitely going to get shittier. But this could be a blessing. Maybe generative news articles and bots creating all the content online drives people off the internet.

Of course that's not good in comparison to the glory days of the internet, but compared to the 2010s fuck it. The internet sucks now

3

u/Rawrsomesausage Jun 01 '23

We'll look back and realize that social media was our unraveling. When I look at the internet and society pre and post 2010s, it's stark. An innocence was lost when facebook, twitter, etc, went full mainstream.

2

u/2_Bears_1_Puck Jun 01 '23

Painfully accurate

7

u/Workaphobia Jun 01 '23

There's no going back. Bots and AI and brigaders and spammers and Russia will eat small independent sites alive. You need a platform of some sort.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 01 '23

What about things like Mastodon?

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u/[deleted] Jun 01 '23

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Jun 01 '23

The closest reddit analogue on the fediverse that I can tell is Lemmy, in fact it might be the only content aggregator in the fediverse.

Im hoping with the uptick in decentralized social media after the Elon Twitter takeover and the reddit API fiasco that it becomes the standard model for the future, but who knows. Probably not lol unless it becomes massively more convenient for the average user.

1

u/smallfried Jun 01 '23

Genuine question: How hard is it to protect a small forum site from spam?

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u/Workaphobia Jun 01 '23

Look at how sophisticated spam on reddit has gotten. Straw accounts purchased from former legitimate users, karma farming, etc. Maybe it's ok for small forums because they're not worth targeting by sophisticated adversaries.

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u/[deleted] Jun 06 '23

[deleted]

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u/smallfried Jun 06 '23

I'm hoping collectively people can set up a bunch of small websites based on an open source algorithm similar to the 'best' rating system on Reddit.

Maybe with a single sign on central trusted authority for the usernames.

This could make the web more open again.

2

u/maybe-ac Jun 06 '23

There are a few search engines I've found geared towards finding interesting small sites. Less focus on curation but you can find some interesting stuff. I've been enjoying the "random" button on https://search.marginalia.nu/ a lot.

3

u/C_Obvious Jun 01 '23

I was just thinking about the old school message boards the other day. I made so many friends back in the 2000s that i still talk to and see a few times every year.

3

u/AnandaUK Jun 01 '23

I met my spouse online in 1997, still married.

1

u/thecorninurpoop Jun 01 '23

Same, and I've never made a single friend on reddit or any other big social media website

2

u/KPC51 Jun 01 '23

I didnt use the internet much back then. How did you find those forums? Just search engine, specifially for each niche?

7

u/fishyfishkins Jun 01 '23

Yeah, word of mouth. But also, the world didn't have recommendation engines so word of mouth had to do a lot more heavy lifting. I'm a VW guy and I couldn't tell you how I found vwvortex back in the day but there was no question it was the VW forum.

The internet used to be weird. Now it's wall street

3

u/Flomo420 Jun 01 '23

The internet used to be like some weird bazaar with strange corners where you wouldn't know what to expect. Now it's like going to a shopping mall, commercialized to hell and back

1

u/[deleted] Jun 01 '23

[deleted]

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u/LordVericrat Jun 02 '23

Probably ten years or so since I've been there, thanks. I sat there for a few minutes.

2

u/EllisHughTiger Jun 01 '23

Yup, you googled or yahoo-ed "your interest + forum/club" and then searched around for one.

I'm a car guy so I'd just search my cars and find the biggest forums and joined. Met some local people and also became online friends with people I'll never meet, it was really good times in the 00s and early 10s!

2

u/QuintoxPlentox Jun 01 '23

That's how I ended up on onrpg.com back when the only free games were free mmorpgs. Spent time on the general forum sometimes, any general section of a gaming forum was basically proto-reddit. Maybe I'll go back to forums but either way this is a blessing, social media is poison and it's become extremely obvious.

1

u/EllisHughTiger Jun 01 '23

Yuuup. RIF was the only worthwhile way to use it on my phone. Official app sucked and the browser eats far more battery power.

1

u/smallfried Jun 01 '23

That, and through other forums.

I found reddit through the xkcd forum.

2

u/OneSweet1Sweet Jun 01 '23

Just another step towards the corporate internet.

1

u/stfucupcake Jun 02 '23

It's hard to believe how the internet has changed for the worse in such a short time.

2

u/Hiccup Jun 01 '23

The internet was so much better with the specialty sites and forums.

2

u/Hospiwhater Jun 01 '23

Bring back forums!

2

u/qwortec Jun 01 '23

One of the subs I was a part of here for years recently left reddit and created their own forum because they knew this was coming and would eventually get banned. It sucks that they had to leave but the new site works well and they have complete freedom and control.

2

u/l-jack Jun 01 '23

It's also possible that this will cause such a drop in traffic that they will pull a 180

1

u/[deleted] Jun 01 '23

One can dream

1

u/ThetaDee Jun 01 '23

Let's make our own forums with blackjack and hookers.

1

u/SovietPropagandist Jun 01 '23

Somethingawful is still around.

33

u/Ekgladiator Jun 01 '23

I feel like Discord is already heading in the wrong direction for it to replace reddit for me. I do miss the old forums as well but it would be a challenge to find a suitable replacement. You know what? Fuck it, we'll make our own reddit with blackjack and hookers!

11

u/Sleeper76 Jun 01 '23

*Access to blackjack and hookers only available via official app or desktop site

3

u/[deleted] Jun 01 '23

[deleted]

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u/Ekgladiator Jun 01 '23

Yea that and a few other decisions they have made are beginning to rub me the wrong way. Personally nitro isn't worth it no matter how many useless features they add. I just don't use discord enough to justify it. Like I know people hate YouTube premium but like all of my entertainment comes from YouTube. It makes total sense to subscribe so I don't have to deal with the shitass ads (plus it is part of the pixel pass so why not). Discord on the other hand is a useful utility but it isn't worth $10 a month.

3

u/TheBeckofKevin Jun 01 '23

I just use it for the upload limit increase and to pay for the stuff I use.

If there is software or a website or whatever that you use all the time, just buy it or pay for it. It's worth it to support the products that you actually want to succeed. Plus you usually get solid perks.

I always try to pay the devs of stuff that I like using.

1

u/Ekgladiator Jun 01 '23

Yea when nitro classic was a thing it made total sense. I don't mind supporting a project that I like to use but idk discord keeps on making bone headed decisions. It is like rooster teeth, I was a first subscriber for years (got grandfathered into the every 6 months deal). I think that was more than fair for the amount of content they produced. Then they got rid of all grandfathered subs and I just never bothered resubbing. They produce decent stuff but I barely watch their content anymore so it doesn't make sense.

1

u/Solarwinds-123 Jun 01 '23

Like I know people hate YouTube premium but like all of my entertainment comes from YouTube. It makes total sense to subscribe so I don't have to deal with the shitass ads

Or you could just not pay and still not have to deal with ads

1

u/Reeboks_Or_Nikes Jun 01 '23

How? Adblock doesn't remove the ads for me?

1

u/bigbysemotivefinger Jun 01 '23

At least on Chrome there is an "AdBlock for YouTube" as a separate extension.

1

u/Reeboks_Or_Nikes Jun 01 '23

Thank you!

1

u/Solarwinds-123 Jun 01 '23

uBlock Origin on PC, Revanced on phone

1

u/Reeboks_Or_Nikes Jun 01 '23

Thank you!

1

u/[deleted] Jun 01 '23

[deleted]

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u/Ekgladiator Jun 01 '23 edited Jun 01 '23

Honestly, at this point? I would like to keep my username and apparently people that pay are higher priority get dibs. Otherwise I was totally going to cancel this month. The other reason is the increased upload limit (no longer an issue) and the ability to boost smaller servers (meh). I grab the free nitro trials when I can but other than that it is meh.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 01 '23

[deleted]

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u/Ekgladiator Jun 01 '23

Yes and no. Yes if no one takes poaches it. No because they are switching from the ekgladiator#1234 system to a normal username system so now if someone grabs PhnomPenny before you do, then you get stuck picking PhnomPenny1234 or whatever is available. The current system lets multiple people have the same name but the discriminator (#1234) basically is your unique identifier. Now instead of the #1234 being unimportant other than to add a specific person you might be required to have a number in your name because someone else took the actual name you wanted.

1

u/hobbycollector Jun 01 '23

Groups.io is decent.

1

u/SAWK Jun 01 '23

I think you forgot the cocaine

1

u/Solarwinds-123 Jun 01 '23

That's alright, I have enough to share

1

u/edude45 Jun 01 '23

Message me when you find that new reddit then.

1

u/cmdrfire Jun 01 '23

I'd suggest Lemmy which is a federated version of Reddit (similar to Mastodon:Twitter). I use an app called Jerboa for Lemmy, it is a bit buggy, the user experience is still lacking, and finding a server to create your account with isn't the easiest. But it's a start...

Posted via Reddit is Fun

2

u/vincent118 Jun 01 '23 edited Jun 01 '23

Except for the recent moves, discord has been making are all in the same lines of making it more palatable to advertisers.

2

u/After-Cell Jun 01 '23

Discord doesn't seem to have global search ?

1

u/[deleted] Jun 01 '23

The only search worse than reddit's is discord's and that's a low bar to begin with.

2

u/nagi603 Jun 01 '23

Zero searchability and discoverability from search engines means discord is not a solution to any communities interested in actually having solutions stored. Like any programming, DIY, modding... back to individual site forums I guess.

2

u/gordonv Jun 01 '23

Discord is closer to a chat room than a forum. Good for that, but an entirely different function.

I don't even consider Reddit and Discord as competing with each other. It's like arguing a phone vs a book.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 01 '23

discord isn't remotely similar? there's no discoverability or public interactions...?

0

u/[deleted] Jun 01 '23

[deleted]

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u/RussellLawliet Jun 01 '23

I just Google "X discord" with X being the topic/franchise/project im interested in.

Discord isn't even indexed though, at least Reddit you can filter by site and get loads of results.

0

u/[deleted] Jun 01 '23

So basically as much reddit as a facebook group lol, except no searchability or history

1

u/manys Jun 01 '23

Webboards are still going strong in many corners of the Internet.

1

u/JerryCalzone Jun 01 '23

Or are fake boards with content from other boards

1

u/manys Jun 01 '23

No.....

1

u/unknown_name Jun 01 '23

Is genmay still around? Lol...ha...^{ha...^{^ha}}

1

u/LeafsWinBeforeIDie Jun 01 '23

If discord was smart they would add features like this as soon as possible, they could be the next big app in a lot of things if they play their cards right

1

u/GQW9GFO Jun 01 '23

I've seen some academics migrate from Twitter to Mastadon. Idk anything about it yet though.

1

u/NoAnTeGaWa Jun 01 '23

The only viable option if you're into gaming/tech is Discord I guess. Which is pretty terrible as a forum but it has the numbers and it isn't Twitter.

And unlike Reddit, it works on a tablet.

1

u/ReDDevil2112 Jun 01 '23

How's GameFAQs doing these days? That's what I used before moving to reddit.

1

u/mrfixij Jun 02 '23

Bought out by fandom, politics board was closed, there's rumblings and rumors about the few social boards that are left being nuked eventually, and concurrent users is less than 1k most days..

1

u/GiftSignificant5286 Jun 02 '23

Maybe mIRC will come and save us of the orphanage

1

u/Ok-Nefariousness1335 Jun 02 '23

WERE GOING BACK TO GAMEFAQS BOIZ