Oh, I've been creating a lot of tech content, like my old days on Reddit. These days I mostly lurk on LGTQ subreddits though and idk how the Lemmy community feels about that (not that I have much to post in that regards anyways, link/forum wise)
Yeah, I've started just posting anything that seems interesting while trying not to flood the place. I'm pretty deep into the tech world so it's been mostly tech, but I'd highly recommend posting content that interests you and I'm sure it'll interest others.
If you're using a lemmy web interface (as opposed to an app), there is a cross-post button you can use to post in other communities that are tanginately related (if you decide to create a community for your topics).
/r/buildapc and /r/buildapcforme. Has been helpful to get a general idea of what parts to get and feedback on if the build is balanced for what the user intends.
/r/buildapcsales, /r/gamedeals, /r/consoledeals are other ones. There's sites like isthereanydeals and pcpartpicker, but those subs have come in helpful for catching deals I would have missed.
I'm not putting it past reddit to suddenly backpedal and/or lower the API charges significantly then say they listen to their users/communities. And then slowly push 3rd party apps away. The damage has been done for me.
I am skeptical. The pricing on the API wasn’t merely unrealistically optimistic, it was “eleventy morbillion dollars” high. People only negotiate on numbers when they actually want to be paid. Reddit doesn’t want to be paid, it wants the apps to die.
They might still be well aware of the damage they’re causing with this move. What if they think it’s all worth it because of all the money they will be getting in the future? What if they think it’s a risk worth taking? Besides, business comes first.
I've said before, but I think they made a calculated decision to intentionally throw away all of their 3rd party app users. Essentially, some of those users will go to the first party app, but either way, none of us are giving reddit any ad revenue anyway, and that's how Reddit makes money.
Their calculation was wrong for several reasons:
The users that they are forcing away produce content, and Reddit would not have users generating ad revenue if Reddit did not have content.
A huge proportion of the people who make Reddit function (moderators) rely on third-party apps and affected bots/services like push/shift. Making those people leave is a Bad Idea.
Reddit has never had to worry about section 504 compliance (equal opportunity for service participation for people with disabilities) because third party apps have historically provided such opportunities. So r/blind probably wasn't even on their radar - but their website and first-party app do not function with screen readers, so I fully expect them to get sued if they go through with this.
This is probably great for (very) short-term income, which is what Reddit wants before they go public. But obviously, it's bad in every way beyond that.
Totally agree. Reddit is absolutely committing a suicide with this move, even though there could be some financial reasoning behind it.
Fortunately though, the fediverse seems to be ready for the coming exodus, so I don’t really mind. Besides, I’ve been thinking of cutting down or even quitting Reddit entirely. These events will only hasten the inevitable.
Crazy some of the comments sections tho, a lot of people are pissed at Mods for backing the protest. Its like people who cant see past their noses how bad this idea is.
Wow you aren't kidding. I just sorted by controversial on a couple of blackout posts. It's both disappointing and fascinating to see how short sighted some people are.
This is something I'm noticing a lot now. People are more worried about having somewhere to discuss and moan what they're watching, than actually watching it! It's like no one can just sit down and enjoy anything anymore.
The number of people in those threads asking “what is happening?” is depressing given that the OPs explain everything.
About on par with people saying “official app works for me what’s the problem?” and of course people acting like the 3rd party apps totally could easily pay the fees so are in the wrong.
I’d say such comments are Reddit backed disinfo, except that the average person can be extremely dense.
It's probably why companies like Reddit can get away with stuff like this. Most common users have no idea how much they're being shat on. They couldn't care less about the platform as long as they get their content.
Ultimately will break my Reddit addiction for me. Not enough content here to replace it entirely, and I’m fine with that. I suspect that the damage has been done and a lot of people will not being going back to Reddit regardless if they backpeddle or not.
I'm both on lemmy and tildes. After about a few days on tlides, then i go back to reddit to check what's up. I immediately get disappointed by the quality of the comments there.
I've been really enjoying beehaw so I definitely don't see myself leaving. However if reddit goes back on these changes I'll be happy just for my reddit widget if nothing else. Having a quick feed of gaming news on my phone home screen is something I've been so used to having. If the changes keep going I'll probably look into setting up some kind of widget with an rss feed or something.... Or make my own reddit widget with my own API key
It's nice to hear that so many subreddits and mods trying to do something about this... they can see the brick wall that Reddit's owners are about to plow into, and are trying to steer the site away from probable destruction. If they're dead set on selling Reddit though, I'm pessimistic about whether or not they will care enough to course correct at this point. Maybe it got their attention when Fidelity cut their valuation by 41%, but the lack of any response so far despite significant backlash has me thinking that perhaps they don't intend to respond. Regardless of whether that's their intent or not, they're certainly sending the message that they don't care. I wouldn't be surprised if they take whatever paycheck they can get, abandon the ship and have zero concerns when it sinks on someone else's watch.
I'm sure 3rd party app usage is low. It's probably only a tiny minority of users who even know they exist. They're betting they can drive however many of us do use 3rd party apps back onto the 1st party one, and increase ad impressions at a time where social media advertisers are pulling away from Twitter.
Ad revenue going up would mean stock valuation increasing, and that bag they're grabbing getting bigger.
Once they go public, it won't matter. They'll have already cashed out. They'll be playing with somebody else's money then.
I see what their calculation with driving 3rd party users to 1st party is, but I really feel like it’s such a suit decision. 3rd party users tend to be power users, so driving even a fraction of them away disproportionately affects content. I think the loss of that content is going to outweigh the hypothetical gain of them looking at ads, because everybody agrees, 3rd party users are a tiny percentage of total users.
I don’t think this will kill Reddit. At least not lights out instantly. People are being hyperbolic. The kinds of people who scroll r/all won’t even notice. That page is repost bots and corporate and political propaganda, it won’t change. What I think will happen is the quality and amount of content on competitors, like Lemmy, will rise as displaced power users settle. If enough power users settle in one place to create critical mass, that creates competition.
Of course this discussion is like talking into the wind, as neither you or I have the ear of people making the choices at Reddit.
No, it won't kill Reddit overnight. It might not even land a fatal blow, and Reddit could live a long life going forward. But it will make this place a truly viable alternative for the average (or maybe moderately above average) user.
In the other hand, if their API fuckery actually kills useful or entertaining bots...
Yes that was my meaning, it is less about Reddit dying and more about alternatives growing.
I browsed a little bit last night (getting my last uses from Apollo) and it does seem like more unengaged users are catching on that this will kill bots. The DeepRockGalactic sub is up in arms about losing their mascot bot.
@setsneedtofeed@Kichae so much this. I nutshell, it is important to attract as many people as possible that find Fediverse as idea attractive in first place. There is no point of having millions who do not care about platform.
Mm, I'm a big fan of Decronym on Reddit, the bot that wanders around demystifying acronyms. There was a post by the bot's creator yesterday where they covered how many API calls it makes, and how there's been no clarity on whether there'll be a free tier of API usage etc.
It could shut down all the comment bots on the site.
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