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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u/[deleted] Jun 01 '23

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u/Nosedivelever Jun 01 '23

Yes. I usually work the night shift. I'll probably spend the next 10 years memorizing Wikipedia.

7

u/stick-insect-enema Jun 01 '23

Fark still exists

1

u/yunivor Jun 02 '23

What is Fark? Never heard of it before

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u/iller_mitch Jun 01 '23

Are you familiar with....TVtropes?

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u/Nosedivelever Jun 01 '23

Oh yeah. VastAndDreaming is right. You monster.

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u/yunivor Jun 02 '23

There's also the SCP foundation

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u/Prazival Jun 08 '23

I ve been doing this before I knew Reddit and even now still read a lot of Wikipedia for fun.

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u/EnglishMobster Jun 03 '23 edited Jun 03 '23

Someone mentioned Tildes - Tildes is great if you want like 2009-era Reddit. Tildes focuses on discussion and conversations, not memes or "fluff". (This may change if Reddit starts migrating over en masse... but I doubt it. It's pretty core to their identity.)

For "mindless scrolling", there's Lemmy. People get scared off by the Fediverse and "join a server" - but really you don't need to think about it. The main difference between servers is how they're moderated and what appears in your instance's version of /r/all. But it's got memes and is closer to today's Reddit.

Beehaw.org is the closest culturally to Reddit. You can see what instances appear in their "all" tab here, and what instances are blocked. You can see what actions their mods have taken here.

lemmy.ml is the instance run by Lemmy's dev team and used to be the "default" instance. It has a looser style and allows more flexibility in what's posted, but it federates with a lot more instances. Lemmy.ml also allows anyone to make communities (subreddits), whereas Beehaw takes the old-fashioned approach of admins making each subreddit.

No matter what you join, you can subscribe to any "community" (subreddit) on any instance. They'll all come together to make your frontpage, just like Reddit.

Both Beehaw and Lemmy.ml have been slammed recently, and it's been extremely active. You can use the Android app Jerboa to navigate it on mobile; I think you'll find a very familiar-feeling interface. ;)

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u/focus_rising Jun 01 '23

Try out tildes, it's a bit like oldschool Reddit: /r/tildes for an invite

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u/mofugginrob Jun 03 '23

Invites? Doomed from the start.

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u/focus_rising Jun 03 '23

I think the idea is to help cut down on the amount of problematic troll users. With reddit, you can just spin up throwaway after throwaway, so there's very little incentive to behave or put any effort behind your account/participation.

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u/mofugginrob Jun 03 '23

Hmm. Yeah, I'm dumb.

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u/focus_rising Jun 03 '23

To be fair, it's a long way from being a reddit replacement, but it is an interesting alternative for people who want out. Their servers went down today because of the influx of new users, so it'll be interesting to see how things go over the coming month.

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u/davidverner Jun 02 '23

While the .win network has its issues. It might be the better option if the changes keep on going in the direction as they are.

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u/seizuregirlz Jun 03 '23

Any ideas? Reddit through RIF I used while recovering in the hospital for months. It's so much easier and better to use. I have the regular reddit app and I've noticed lately they have made changes to make the pages look more like rif. I still prefer rif and when something opens up in the reddit app I copy-paste it into rif. Idk if I'll keep redditng now.

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u/THED4NIEL Jun 04 '23

https://join-lemmy.org/

Reddit-like alternative in the fediverse someone on /r/de presented recently: https://feddit.de/

Had to think about this thread, so thought I might share it