To each their own, but I find this decision really misguided.
It’s her money, not mine, so whatever, but l do not expect her to turn a profit in, rather the opposite.
In my view, the cross section of “IfR” users and people willing to subscribe monthly is rather small (especially if the money mostly goes to reddit - assuming I could afford it, I, for instance, would rather fund an open system like Lemmy).
And if Apollo’s dev Christian Selig decided that it wasn’t worth it with an already established paying user base, who already has a strong culture of subscriptions and exaggerated pricings, and one of the highest volume of users, at what probably was the peak usage of the platform; I don’t see how a small app like IfR can survive.
That, or Christian made a pretty expensive mistake…
“It’s required for you to update Infinity after July 1st… Thank you for understanding!”
goes on Lemmy and never returns to Reddit lol
Lmao
I’m generally willing to pay for a service (I donate to Open Source Projects I regularly use) because of course there are server costs, development costs, etc. But in this case and after all that Reddit has done to its user base it would be a very bad signal to give them money for it… I like Infinity for reddit and would love to have an Infinity for Lemmy
The other point for me is that reddit has been getting shittier long before the API change. Forcing you to use their crappy app when you just clicked a link on mobile, all this weird avatar and award stuff. The weird chat that got bolted onto their message system, yet keeping the two seperate?
There’s no way I will pay for that.
Did you know, there’s actually 3? PM, Chat and Legacy Chat… whatever the heck differentiates the last two is frankly beyond me, a 12+ yrs old Reddit user…
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And even with that subscription, you still get locked out of any post or subreddit that is marked NSFW, which will now be even more since subreddits are still protesting the changes.
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Ever since the first pricing announcement, they said they’d lock out NSFW. Originally they said it would just be porn, but when asked how the API would differentiate different types of NSFW Reddit never replied.
When mods using 3PA asked how they were supposed to remove NSFW posts on non-NSFW subreddits, the Reddit reply was the posters shouldn’t be doing that. Yeah.
Right now nobody even knows which ones will be blocked or not because it’s hardly visible at the moment. It’s going to be an absolute clusterfuck once people start realizing their subreddits are improperly categorized as NSFW and are completely blocked from the API.
If it’s the same as the mobile website, then new/small subreddits are blocked too for being “unreviewed”.
Yup.
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Free speech absolutist except for boobies.
Yes and they’re already blocking mobile web access to most porn subreddit. Only from their app, for “safety” 😉
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Fuck that
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I believe the admins said it would only block access to NSFW communities, not a post flagged NSFW on an otherwise SFW community
But still bullshit
This is reddit killing third party apps, because even if you did subscribe you’re still not getting NSFW because reddit is taking that out of the API anyways
So who would pay literally more for less? Reddit can say all they want about supporting 3rd party but even the blind could see through them
The devs were hoping that they can keep their apps up and their livelihoods without too much additional work, that’s fair from them I suppose. But they should definitely be taking a hard look at porting their existing apps for the Fediverse, if they aren’t yet.
I bet Infinity is doing this instead of hanging up their keyboards like the other apps specifically because they know it won’t work and want to be living proof of it.
Some of the other apps are making Lemmy versions instead.
This was the Sync for Reddit’s main argument against going in that direction.
As others have pointed out, doesn’t seem like this will work out well for the dev from business (or integrity) POV - Only thing I can think is maybe devs need to act in good faith now to “attempt” to adapt to API changes to then demonstrate the absolute and tangible harms that Reddit caused their business with this quick and reckless change, so that they can then sue after the fact?
Otherwise, what are you doing?
Exactly, this is the same bullshit that Twitter pulled off with their API. Yes, there are third party apps but guess what, you can’t see your Notification in them. So nobody is going to use them.
If there are enough people that are willing to pay the price for third party apps, I bet Reddit is going to limit API access gradually.
cross section of “IfR” users and people willing to subscribe monthly is rather small
Absolutely. I used Infinity for years now because it’s open source and on F-Droid. I used it to get away from Google and the Reddit App. Donating for Infinity’s developer? Sure thing. Paying money only to finance reddits API policy? For sure not.
I don’t think most users will understand where their money is actually going…
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Someone should tell the developer to not do that. They should just shut down their app.
You should never pay for for-profit social media, it’s fundamentally backwards. Their service is not the product, your contributions and presence are. They are nothing without you, and require you.
The exception is things like instances on the Fedi where it’s not for profit and you’re putting up a server to include yourself.
It’s ‘adapt or die’ at the moment for 3rd party Reddit apps. I was kind of hoping that the developer would pivot to Lemmy or add Lemmy functionality to the app. Infinity was my go-to app before the apocalypse.
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I digg the name
I think they’re trying to get rid of rfd party apps. It’s more ‘die or die’ for them.
I personally wouldn’t try to work with Reddit, if I were a developer, but another factor here is that walking away from a project might be a big risk for someone who doesn’t have a backup plan. Christian Selig is a high-profile figure who can afford to walk away from a project. He will be able to rebuild his career quickly and easily, and he knows it. The developer of Infinity likely doesn’t have as many opportunities, and may also not feel comfortable taking that risk. I don’t know much about her, but if she’s not making a whole lot as is, she may legitimately not be able to afford going without an income source for weeks or months. It may be less about making a profit by doing this than about avoiding a catastrophic loss. Selig has admitted he’s going to be losing a six-figure amount of money ($250,000, iirc) from shutting down after selling year-long subscriptions. I suspect everyone who has or had a Reddit app looking for alternative income sources, but I don’t blame her for trying to make Infinity work for a little while longer.
I guess if the app is done and basically works then you might as well add a payment system and at least try to cut your losses. I’d struggle to enthusiastically improve the app after that though.
That comment about “it might not work” really sums up reddit’s attitude
I think “struggle to enthusiastically improve the app” is probably an understatement, lol. I doubt this is meant to be a long-term business strategy. It’s not like there were any good options here, just her choice of a few bad ones. I wish her luck.
Whenever they posted about the future of the app they said:
P.S. I am still finding jobs right now, so I would greatly appreciate any referrals for entry-level or intern software engineer roles in both Canada and Australia!
I hope they find something good soon
I read the post that went into further detail and infinity’s creator was looking for intern/entry level software developer jobs… so definitely not on the same profile level unfortunately
Dang, that’s rough. Infinity should look good on her resume, at least.
Infinity is an awesome app. I’m suprised that she only thinks shes good enough for an intern/entry level software developer job
Agreed. I have never used Infinity myself, but I think anyone who can not only develop a functional app, but maintain that app over an extended period deserves better than an internship. But it’s an awkward position, and companies like to claim they won’t even interview you for a one-finger-typing job unless you have ten years of experience and an engineering degree. And from what I see in the news, tech companies are doing more layoffs than hiring right now.
I love infinity but paying for Reddit to enable them to continue doing this is something I hope nobody does.
I would consider paying, but giving money to support Reddit? With its current attitude? It is a moral choice rather than a financial one.
That, or Christian made a pretty expensive mistake…
I wouldn’t put a lot pass /u/spez, including offering special deals on API pricing. Especially if he thinks it would make Christian Selig look bad.
It’s precisely the kind of thing a lying, gaslighting and vindictive /u/spez would do.
You know what… That does seem like something Spez would do.
Yeah I’ve used Infinity for over two years, but won’t after this update. I couldn’t imagine paying money to Infinity only to have it go directly to Reddit. Tbh, I don’t think paying money to any non-open, profit-driven social network is a good idea.
Exactly. Infinity is definitely the best reddit client. But, paying them is just paying reddit and I’m not doing that. I’d pay Infinity to browse Lemmy though.
I feel like using them for free is an even worse idea. At least if you’re paying there’s a chance they’ll treat you like a customer.
It’s 100% clear that Reddit is trying to kill off third party apps completely so that they can facefuck you with ads and other garbage. The Apollo dev saw the writing on the wall. I can’t blame other app devs for trying to squeeze a bit more livelihood out of this, but hopefully they’ve realized that they need to move on asap. In the end, it’s a great reminder to not build your business on someone else’s platform, even if they’re “cool”.
Unpopular opinion, but I’d consider it if the API provided all the data. I never expected the API to always continue to be free. But making me pay and providing incomplete data? Nah.
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They could permit individual users to get API keys and then charge for that. This way would be fair and profitable while protecting them from API misuse. But forcing it on to app developers charging insane prices was their way to kill the apps.
The openai CEO is one of the first investors of reddit, was Reddit CEO for a while, reintroduced spez as the CEO.
There’s no way spez is going to let his good friend to pay this insane api prices for ai training
And in fact, i quote spez interview from the verge:
[API pricing for third party apps and AI training pricing] financially, they’re not related. The API usage is about covering costs and data licensing is a new potential business for us
It’s interesting the part “potential business”, that means they didn’t change anything yet for them
I mean what’s the point. This is all just going to pay Reddit for the privilege of a hobbled 3rd-party app experience (and no NSFW). And we now know how much Reddit cares about you using their API.
