What am I missing???
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Reddit wide protest that a lot of subs are doing because of Redditâs changes that affect 3rd party apps.
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Honestly considering that Reddit is now a giant corporation, itâs unlikely theyâll listen to this protest. All itâs doing is inconveniencing the users as the mods throw their tantrums
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Yep. Allowing third-party apps to pull all of Redditâs content without allowing them to generate ad revenue is not a sustainable long-term business model, so I have zero issues with Reddit charging for their API access. Now, one article I read about the topic had Redditâs prices way higher than other sites, so there might be an issue with the price of said accessâbut I donât think that is going to change because some subreddits became private for a couple days.
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The 3rd party apps are doing perfectly fine with their powers. If reddit wants to charge exorbitant amount for api. Then the 3rd party mods have no way to let Reddit change their mind other than to block access to content. At the end if reddit is too expensive, the /r editors will move else where. When some one like the lead of Apollo says it will cost them upto 20mill dollars to use reddit apis to continue for a whole year. Then there is a problem.
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Then donât use them. There is no obligation for a company to provide cheap access to their resources.
Someone has to pay for the servers and network traffic.
So what? Itâs different data, so it isnât clear that it makes any sense to compare them.
If I build a product that relies on a map api service, the cost of say a game API is irrelevant to the value of the map api service to me and my business.
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This goes both ways. There is no reason for them to make their content public. So they made it private and denying access.
Over 7,000 subreddits, including many of the most-subscribed communities on Reddit like [r/funny], [r/aww], [r/gaming], [r/music], and [r/science], have set themselves private to protest Redditâs upcoming API pricing changes.
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Yeah, this is an interesting point. It seems like their mods have a fair amount of control over the communities and in turn the api data. Of course, this is unrelated to WoW other than the community mentioned at the top of this thread.
Iâm not much of a Reddit user to be honest, so I would not have noticed this, nor do I have any special insight into what is happening, but so do find it interesting.
Of course, they could offer access levels with API subscriptions that allow them to access to whatever data Reddit would like to permit, without the mods having any administrative control or input, so this is an incredibly easy issue to bypass from a technical point of view, but what of PR and user retention?
I donât think the issue is the âpay to useâ itâs the amount. According to the Apollo dev it would cost several million for them to continue to use the API as they currently do.
And it wasnât going to be cheap for others, like one that makes it easier to read for those with sight issues. â Though, last I checked, that app got an exemption from the price change.
âŚand some of the apps are used for moderation, because Redditâs tools suck for large communities.
I, personally, would look at this as Reddit attempting to kill off 3rd party apps that mimic Redditâs app. Which, to me, looks like a ploy to eventually plaster ads all over the site (think a Gamer News Site; ads everywhere and terribly slow as a result).
This, all in the rumor that Reddit may be going public âsoonâ. And will need to show shareholders it can make them lots of money.
EDIT:
For some context: https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/reddit-api-changes-explained/
Imgur is apparently charging $166 for every 50 million requests. While Reddit appears to plan to charge $0.24 per 1000 requests.
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Just to be clear here, I looked up Apollo Reddit, and it appears that this is an app that mimics Reddit, by using its api, while offering in-app purchases.
So just like if I made a Snipy WoW Forums app to allow people to interact with these forums through my app, but hit up users with my own monetization strategies that in no way benefit Blizzard.
Thanks for the share. At the end of the day, this really leaves me with two questions:
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So what? What does what one site charges for API access have to do with another? Tell Apollo to use Imgr instead and find out: nothing!
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However interesting of a topic this is, is it something relevant for these forums?
The audacity of a company profiting off the work and content of other people 
Thatâs reddit entire business model.
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Sure it is different data, but it is mostly comparable data. The article I referenced is linked elsewhere in this thread, but the comparison was between Imgur and Reddit. Imgur is going to provide one or more images and user comments. Reddit is going to provide basically the same thing: primary post (image(s), link to video, text) and user comments.
The actual cost to serve those API requests is not going to be significantly different between the two sites, so for Reddit to charge over 70x more means they either a) are greedy (which is trueâall companies are really), b) think their specific data is actually worth the increased price, or c) are trying to discourage the use of third-party apps.
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I donât think I understand your point. From my point of view, I keep thinking that for one, thereâs no reason for any website to have to offer access to their data through an api, and if they choose to do so, there are no restrictions as to what they could charge.
If another site is offering something comparable for less, then just use that. If you cannot just use that, then how is it comparable?
And here also, I must be missing your point, because this just leaves me wondering, âso what?â
its usually better for websites to offer an API. Otherwise people make web scrapers which do full page requests and grab the data. If people want the data, they will get the data.
I do think reddit is different in that the API makes it easier for tools to work better than scraping ever could, because a page request doesnt return everything, it returns what the âalgorithmâ wants to return.
But typically sites that offer set data, like weather or stocks, a public API is a cost saving measure.
Ok.
Again though, Iâm left wondering what the point being made is.
Are you mad that Reddit isnât saving enough money for itself by offering api access at a reasonable cost?
In any case, clearly this has nothing to do with WoW and as exciting as it is to discuss feelings and apis, this doesnât feel like a productive conversation or topic.
Iâm mad because 90% of my reddit time is through a 3rd party app. Whatâs fair or not is not really between me and reddit. All I know is that reddit is making a change that changes how I interact with the site, for the worse.
Well this thread is about the classic wow subreddit going dark. So it is on point. If you look at the scroll bar on the left, there is a little paw print. If you click that button, you can swap the thread to âMutedâ and you wonât see it anymore 
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Well Reddit isnât WoW or Blizzard, so while I can agree that the original post here is probably intended to be about WoW, the topic has become Redditâs API and third party services using it, which has nothing to do with WoW.
Indeed the subreddit is very unlikely moderated by or connected to Blizzard and is a third party fan community, so I guess that could go either way.
I hope you find a comfortable and convenient way to access the information you want to access going forward and that that access is uninterrupted.
Well I hope it ends soon. If Iâm not told how classic era is thriving, or get to help someone with their Alg 10 logs where everyone is dying to smash, I might just lose it.
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We need someone with Valanyr to go to that orc in TBC that steals weapons and start that meme again.
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Shadowmourne ogre SMASH!