If Reddit phased out 3rd party apps gradually and tactfully, do you think this would have gone the way it has? The Reddit app is terrible, but is it any worse than navigating and learning the fediverse so far? Be honest.

I've been thinking a lot about why I decided to come here and I know it started off as a "they can't make me use their shitty app!" while simultaneously using test apps that crash and navigating less content than Reddit. What is the primary motivation for all of this anymore? Is anger enough of a motivation to keep people away from a platform long term?

I have a feeling that most folks are more loyal to their communities than they are the company themselves - meaning that no matter how bad the corporation is, sacrificing what they truly care about is not really worth it no matter how poorly they are treated.

If the community goes away, THEN reddit goes away.

But if the only way to access their community is through some shitty app, I don't see it stopping many people.

tate,

I love learning and navigating the fediverse! Reddit had become unbearably stale for me.

Devi,

I wouldn't have left. I use Apollo as my way to access reddit, I've tried the official app but it's dreadful and when I heard Apollo was closing I was already set to protest. When I read the post from Apollo about everything that went down, well, I don't think I want to go back.

Heresy_generator, (edited )
Heresy_generator avatar

I'm sure if they had handled it with more honesty and been up front about the fact that they're choosing to kill third party apps for business reasons some of the frogs who left would probably have stuck around to be boiled for a little longer, but I personally believe that it's the ethos behind the decision that most people are responding to more than the decision itself or the way it was communicated.

The creep of enshittification just became too much to ignore at that point and the enshittified path forward became crystal clear. Reddit signaled to everyone paying attention that decisions will continue to be made based on what makes money rather than what's in the interests of users.

Yes, my KBin experience is worse than my Reddit experience as it is today but I have confidence that my KBin (or other ActivityPub based platform I may choose to migrate to) experience will improve as time moves on while my Reddit experience would have continued to degrade. When that became undeniable to me I choose to pull the cord and start fresh now rather than wait until the rise of one met the fall of the other.

ppb1701,
ppb1701 avatar

@Haan. I imagine if they'd said we're phasing out xyz from the api or 3rd party support over say the next year or so, it would likely had a bit less of an uproar. Especially if they addressed the tools for the mods in that timeframe and accessibility. There still would have been a notable backlash though. Their own app has not been historically that great and their mobile web is irritating in its "use the app" pushiness.

Friend,
Friend avatar

mobile web is irritating in its "use the app" pushiness.

This has created so much bad will for me.

abff08f4813c,
abff08f4813c avatar

It depends on the what and how.

The first time they did something like that, they bought out Alien Blue.

Sellig would have been will to sell Apollo - he even brought it up in a call that he had with reddit. So reddit buys Apollo and the other top apps like RiF, rebrands them as official reddit apps, and includes more telemetry and ads. But the basic functionality that makes accessibility and moderation better remains.

Add the above into the mix and I think there's not be that much uproar at all. People would mostly be happy to continue using the mostly-their-apps as they had before. Other 3rd party apps perhaps do get phased out, but they'd just move on to some of the bigger ones. Certainly nowhere near enough outrage to blackout.

Haan,

It is baffling to me the timeline they chose for this. If I were an investor I would see this as complete desperation. What stable company makes these decisions seemingly on a whim?

I completely agree.

abff08f4813c,
abff08f4813c avatar

I think this must be it. Desperately looking for new sources of revenue to get into profitability quickly - so they can meet their timeline on the IPO and make up for lost value in their recently cut valuation.

Givesomefucks,

It's gaming an algorithm.

Big deals like this aren't made off one person's decision, there's all these metrics that are supposed to show the health of a company. But like anything, if you know the metrics you can just focus on that even if it's the literal worst thing to do. It pumps the metrics.

They're not trying to keep reddit alive forever, they want to juice the metrics so it's worth the absolute most on IPO day. It's all they care about.

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