I keep thinking this would have been a much better sell to devs and to users. I have always used Sync, and Boost. I tried the official app a few times, but really only used it for the chat feature. I didn’t want to pay for it, but (I am embarrassed to admit it) I would pay premium to keep my app. I think this would have worked out better for Reddit than the garbage they are pulling right now.

Would that have been a more reasonable solution in your opinion as well?

  • Fickle_Ferret
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    1 year ago

    Hah, no. Are you asking if I want to pay for access to a platform that is already dependant on its users to create or aggregate content, while they are already making ad money off my eyeballs? Heck, no, never. If that site cannot make enough money on ads alone, while being one /were of the most visited non-porn sites on the internet, then maybe they should reconsider their other expenses. E.x. Is it really necessary to have a downtown office in an expensive us city, or pay out high CEO wages. I can only really conclude that they are being stupid about this. If they want me back, they are going to have to beg.

    • whofearsthenight@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      They took a 250m funding round and used it to build an nft site. reddit’s problems are 100% self created. Think about how ama’s used to be and how they managed to kill that. They could have had several revenue streams just based on ama’s.

    • Thanks4NothingOP
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      1 year ago

      But that is exactly the problem with third party apps …they don’t show ads so they make no add revenue on people using apps like Sync and Apollo or RIF… The official app does. I understand why they are trying to push people to their app, but the route they took was worst case scenario.

      • 1chemistdown@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        Third party app users generate content that make adds possible. Get out of here with this pitty reddit problems.

      • ShadowRunner@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        You’re ignoring the other effects of third party apps - which is to have significantly added to the number of users they have to show ads to in the first place.

        Making their API free encouraged active development which increased user engagement. So it absolutely did increase their revenue because it helped to increase the popularity of their site in the first place.

        • DreamerofDays@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          This.

          Put more explicitly:

          • 3rd party apps bring more people to the site, or keep them there longer.

          • Those people create content in the forms of posts proper and comments— hell, even down to just voting— that feeds the site engagement for users through 1st party interfaces(the ones getting ads), keeping them there longer, and seeing more ads.

          • Better moderation tools help mods keep online communities healthy, and the kinds of places we are happy to spend unhealthy amounts of time on.

          • whofearsthenight@kbin.social
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            1 year ago

            Lest we forget how dumb reddit is, they didn’t have a mobile strategy in 2014, which necessitated buying Alien Blue.

            If you look at the history of reddit, it has succeeded entirely in spite of management decision. Gotta say, even being on the site since 07-08, even I got this wrong. I expected reddit to do something dumb, I just didn’t expect them to do the most dumb thing.

            • Viper_NZ
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              1 year ago

              They took the best Reddit client and turned it into the current abomination.

        • Thanks4NothingOP
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          1 year ago

          Users that likely will never see an ad of they only use the 3rd party app

          • ShadowRunner@kbin.social
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            1 year ago

            Doesn’t matter. The more people who use reddit, the more additional people who will be attracted to reddit. Not only will a percentage of those people use platforms that do support ads, but both groups increase the engagement with reddit, which means more content being added, more discussions being had, more subreddits being created covering new topics.

            Ultimately, it still contributes to reddit.

      • arquebus_x@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        That’s not a problem with third party apps, that’s a problem with Reddit’s API that doesn’t send ads to third party apps. It’s entirely a problem of their own making, which they could have fixed years ago, but chose not to, and are now using as a fallacious excuse to shut off access.

        • CmdrMoto@beehaw.org
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          1 year ago

          Uhh … if I were developing a Reddit reader app, and if their API periodically shit ads into my user’s feed, you KNOW that feature #1 in my third-party app would be simply to ignore those blobs of crap.

          • Teppic@kbin.social
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            1 year ago

            They could easily have included it in the terms of use for the API - ‘thou shalt not strip out our ads’. The fact remains it wasn’t even possibly for third party apps to pickup the ads. Apollo/ RIF never asked for a free ride, just something fair.

      • Rhodin@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        Why didn’t Reddit try to buy out these third party apps, then? They’d have had the superior functionality AND they could have added ads.

        • arquebus_x@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          They could have added ads at any time, by feeding them into their API, which they could have done at any time, but didn’t.

        • SoupOfTheDay@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          They did years ago. AlienBlue was the unofficial “official” app. It was the most popular Reddit app on the App Store. Reddit bought it and at first it was fine, but then Reddit decided it didn’t like supporting AB and its official app, so they shut AB down and forced everyone to their official app.

    • EtherealMongrel@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      We are literally the product that Reddit offers. It’s not like they produce content like Netflix etc.

      They’re literally trying to sell the product to the product.