It turns out though, the mods are also users. That’s the whole free labor market Reddit has tapped into. They don’t have to pay mods and so users are mods. Yet now they are trying to monetize just half and completely failing to understand what their user base even looks like. I don’t know many mods but the ones I do know are users first and moderators because they want the community to be decent.
My problem with the “free API” is there are no control mechanisms for it. What’s to stop Reddit from discontinuing the free contract if they decide to develop their own specific use App? A creator or developer of any said App will be beholden to bend or subjugate themselves to the whims of Reddit admins, any controversial comments or events like that of Apollo could nullify the free API if they don’t approve of your actions.
It’s a slippery slope and we’ve already been shown that Reddit can and will change/vilify anyone who doesn’t fall in line especially when IPO time comes.
I was under the impression that you could still use the API for free within a limit. The 3rd party app developers could just have users input their own API credentials to use the app.
I can’t remember where I read it but the Apollo developer ask about doing exactly that. He was told no. They charged based on client ID (per app) not user ID.
Theoretically, you could do it anyway but it would require each user to deploy their own customized version of the app thay has their personal keys baked in. Not exactly scalable and user friendly.
I guess Reddit has introduced free API calls for moderator apps. They’re trying to placate the mods, but screw the users. Good luck with that.
It’s almost like they never considered that moderators use the same third party apps as the rest of their users, either.
Though based on the leaked internal memo, it looks like Reddit doesn’t think very much of their users at all.
It turns out though, the mods are also users. That’s the whole free labor market Reddit has tapped into. They don’t have to pay mods and so users are mods. Yet now they are trying to monetize just half and completely failing to understand what their user base even looks like. I don’t know many mods but the ones I do know are users first and moderators because they want the community to be decent.
My problem with the “free API” is there are no control mechanisms for it. What’s to stop Reddit from discontinuing the free contract if they decide to develop their own specific use App? A creator or developer of any said App will be beholden to bend or subjugate themselves to the whims of Reddit admins, any controversial comments or events like that of Apollo could nullify the free API if they don’t approve of your actions.
It’s a slippery slope and we’ve already been shown that Reddit can and will change/vilify anyone who doesn’t fall in line especially when IPO time comes.
I was under the impression that you could still use the API for free within a limit. The 3rd party app developers could just have users input their own API credentials to use the app.
I can’t remember where I read it but the Apollo developer ask about doing exactly that. He was told no. They charged based on client ID (per app) not user ID.
Theoretically, you could do it anyway but it would require each user to deploy their own customized version of the app thay has their personal keys baked in. Not exactly scalable and user friendly.
I hadn’t seen anything about end user access to the API. Got a link?