This is the best summary I could come up with:
The costs of a subscription will go up based on a user’s daily average number of API calls, essentially meaning that the more things a person does in the app, the more they might have to pay.
Here is the full list, from developer DBrady’s post, which appears to include Google’s take of the subscription and Relay’s expected revenues:
In the newest release of Relay, DBrady says they also added the ability for users to see their average daily API calls.
The plan is for a subscription to roll out in two or three weeks from the time of their post and they expect to charge a monthly cost of $3 or $4.
“This won’t cover the cost of ‘super users’ who use the app all day, but, on average, it should allow me to pay the Reddit API bill,” the developer said.
Many subreddits and users protested against the switch to the paid API in-party because of its effect on the third-party app ecosystem.
I’m a bot and I’m open source!
Original thread on Reddit, has some interesting insight into people’s patterns of API usage.
It seems that voting is a huge part of API calls, so users who want to fit into a certain API call tier will want to curb their use of voting. But that means that even if 3rd-party apps survive there will be reduced engagement from power users with the voting system, raising the question why pay if you’re going to be marginalized. Needless to say, Reddit has not thought this through.
Also, the cut of the subscription money that makes it to the Relay developer is ridiculous. They’d need tens of thousands of active subscribers to make any meaningful money.
If this is better then the official app, it could be an option
If Reddit wants to charge for their API, they need to consider compensating these “superusers” who bring in upvotes/comments, encourage content creation etc like Twitter X is doing.
As it stands, Reddit seems to be saying “we don’t want to be giving our content base for free to AI and scrapers etc” while ignoring the fact that as a platform, its not creating any of the content. They are hosting it and simultaneously saying everything is their intellectual peoperty that the recognize the value of without completing the analysis.
They want you to upload porn or whatever content and then turn around and charge you for the privelege, but also turn around and whine “only in our app” + you have to watch ads and commericials and there’s no way around this unless you pay us more and you still can’t use your preferred app and we own everything you submit.
Fuck that
Edit: Also, no anonymous posting (remember, they want YOUR billing details that they then can link to your real identity and use to further buikd and sell ad profiles to and track your ip etc). There’s no way for the superuser/highly engaged who don’t want Reddit knowing and selling knowledge of their interests even after they’ve been paid. Same problem with Youtube+. Pay so Google can learn far more deeply about you? Again, fuck that
Edit: Not even just superusers, every user. Set a price for posts, comments, upvotes, etc. That they got rid of awards points to the fact that they don’t give a shit about revenue. Its about selling out and gaining even deeper insight into redditors for more of that sweet ad revenue and their IPO
Edit: If its the monetization aspect, let them try accepting Monero. If they care that much purely for money, let people pay anonymously. But they won’t because they don’t want to be a content source. They want to be an advertising unicorn like Facebook or Google.
Edit: Not to put too fine a point on it, but re: porn and sexual content, Reddit is now essentially demanding that if you want to view porn on their platform, they want to know who you are so, by extension, they will know your sexual interests/fetishes/kinks and be able to still sell that to the lowest bidder. Think about that for a minute. Doesn’t that sound like what southern states in the US are trying to enact that even PORNHUB has come out against? Aren’t porn apps not even allowed on the Apple AppStore? Isn’t that why there’s no 4Chan 3rd party (or hell, even 1st party) apps?
Edit: TIL: Reddit is an AppStore approved porn app. Pornhub should be suing to join them. I trust Pornhub way more than I trust Reddit at this point. And I don’t trust Pornhub at all…
Who the fuck would still want to use Reddit, like wtf? Just leave that shitty site behind.
Reddit has royally pissed me off to the point where I never wanted to use them again.
But they have curated content which I just can’t find anywhere else.
I have tried. Lemmy is a pale alternative, which has some stuff I like.
But the sheer amount of content I like on Reddit is unmatched anywhere else.
Twitter can be okay with some topics, but has so much spam is ridiculous.
Lemmy has content, but a small amount in comparison.
9gag is a racist shit hole with occasiona bit ofl funny content.
Tides seems empty.
I dunno maybe I can reconfigure lemmy connect. It’s a pretty nifty app btw.
If you can recommend any other sites as good as Reddit be my guest.
Reddit it still better for more niche stuff and the feed in general has more content. But I’ve got the feeling that the amount of reposts and low effort stuff has been ramped up lately, I mean it was always there, but seems to have increased lately.
I still use it, although way less, and it’s only bearable because there’s still 3rd apps working and I have a shit ton of subs blocked
Perfectly reasonable IMO. That said I’m still not going to use reddit again
Just sad that’s what the Internet has come to, microtransactions for using an app for a website that just aggregates links. Not to mention reddit has already gimped your third party access with the NSFW stuff and I’m sure more is on its way. Fuuuuuck off reddit
if you are mod of an subreddit you still get access to nsfw. also you can continue to use thirdparty apps. i still use joey for Reddit as an example. reddit still allows you to use them in secret if you’re a moderator.
I guess the era of getting everything for free wasn’t entirely sustainable after all. Who would have thought.
We never got anything for free. That’s not how capitalism works my dude. We paid, and are still paying, with our data. Only now they want more
It’s absolutely sustainable- but once you aren’t satisfied with sustainability and want it to produce an ever growing profit, that’s when things start going sideways and eventually downhill.
You’re ignoring that the users and in many cases the mods were the ones adding value to Reddit. It’s a running joke that Reddit corporate is always working on things nobody asked for. Reddit has had 18 years to figure out how to figure out a profitable ad business and they’ve failed miserably. I think charging for api access to put up a barrier for people to continue to add value to the site they own is stupid and short sighted.
Why is Infinity for Reddit still working fine? The Verge hasn’t reported anything about it.
if you are mod of an subreddit, reddit still lets you use thirdparty apps and nsfw. i still use joey for reddit as an example. they don’t tell you about it though.
I use both without an account. Relay is down to checking /r/all in the evening for a little bit and even that is already apparently at 48 calls, meaning I had to pay 2 bucks for just that casual scrolling alone. lol
Infinity is good because you can create a home feed with subscribed subs without having an account. I use that for news and Ukraine related stuff, as well as the odd game related sub. I was thinking of doing the custom api key thing but that requires an account and is kind of a hassle. I also doubt they keep that open for too long.
Just create your own subreddit, anyone can do it. Make it private and forget it exists
This is making my stomach sick. What about Apollo, did Christian totally disable the old unupdated version or does it function still for mods and certain people who didn’t update?
most apps have auto update functions who require you to update. so normally they are all deactivated. but i have blocked the requests Joey does to it’s server for checking the version check and use an older version of the app so i can still use a older version. newer versions don’t let you do that anymore. so i guess Apollo is killed off completely.
No one wants to jynx it.
In all seriousness though, I expect reddit just hasn’t yet started invoicing for API calls. Meanwhile, they haven’t actually cut off access, because they want something to be able to charge for. However they may struggle to argue that continued use of the existing API access constitutes an agreement to start paying for it.
So is Comet and Narwhal. Something weird went on with this whole thing. It seems like reddit wanted to kill the popular apps that were actually being used by people, but the smaller ones are fine.
Not sure about Comet but the Narwhal dev made some deal with reddit. They removed ads and nsfw content and are going to release a subscription based model I think.
Yeah, that’s what the dev says, but I haven’t seen any details on what that deal is. As for NSFW content, all you need to do to get around that is to be a mod of a NSFW sub. I created one, set it to private and have been able to see NSFW posts and subs for weeks in both apps with no problem. It has been weeks and both Comet and Narwhal still work with no issues, and they aren’t the only apps that are still functional.
The whole thing just feels weird after the dust has settled.
you can still use most third-party apps. All you have to do is be a moderator in a subreddit. for some stupid reason reddit then allows you to still use them because they probably need all help they can get from mods.
Joey as an example still works fine, you nust have to use a older version and block their versions check.
Infinity is working on charging people, and the dev has been fronting the bill to keep their userbase before they roll out a billing system. Obviously, they didn’t have time to rollout a new version before the changes went into effect because Reddit gave them a month.
Redreader still works for some reason.
It was specifically exempted from API fees due to it’s stronger accessibility tools and that it is open source and non-commercial.
Joey also still works. You have to use a older version and block the versions check though. Also you have to be a moderator on a subreddit. It’s stupid to pay a subscription to Relay if you can just use older third-party clients and block their versionscheck (otherwise they force you to update)