Reddit Migration

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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 fedivers (kbin.social)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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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.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (3 children)

@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.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

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

This has created so much bad will for me.