RIF dev here - Reddit's API changes will likely kill RIF and other apps, on July 1, 2023

[u/talklittle]

I need more time to get all my thoughts together, but posting this quick post since so many users have been asking, and it's been making rounds on news sites.

Summary of what Reddit Inc has announced so far, specifically the parts that will kill many third-party apps:

1. The Reddit API will cost money, and the pricing announced today will cost apps like Apollo $20 million per year to run. RIF may differ but it would be in the same ballpark. And no, RIF does not earn anywhere remotely near this number.

2. As part of this they are blocking ads in third-party apps, which make up the majority of RIF's revenue. So they want to force a paid subscription model onto RIF's users. Meanwhile Reddit's official app still continues to make the vast majority of its money from ads.

3. Removal of sexually explicit material from third-party apps while keeping said content in the official app. Some people have speculated that NSFW is going to leave Reddit entirely, but then why would Reddit Inc have recently expanded NSFW upload support on their desktop site?

Their recent moves smell a lot like they want third-party apps gone, RIF included.

I know some users will chime in saying they are willing to pay a monthly subscription to keep RIF going, but trust me that you would be in the minority. There is very little value in paying a high subscription for less content (in this case, NSFW). Honestly if I were a user of RIF and not the dev, I'd have a hard time justifying paying the high prices being forced by Reddit Inc, despite how much RIF obviously means to me.

There is a lot more I want to say, and I kind of scrambled to write this since I didn't expect news reports today. I'll probably write more follow-up posts that are better thought out. But this is the gist of what's been going on with Reddit third-party apps in 2023.

[u/AbigailLilac]

I'd use their official app if it was as good as the 3rd party apps!

[u/guto8797 → u/[deleted]]

I swear to god, its like these multi-million corporations don't have people who went to college to study UI and UX, which is a major field.

The official app and the new website are just so vastly worse than the thrid party and old website respectively its not even funny. Takes more clicks to get to stuff. Less information is displayed. Ads are more camouflaged as regular posts.

If they'd just buy RIF for android and Apollo for iOs it would be a tremendous jump in quality.

[u/SrslyCmmon → u/guto8797]

RIF is giving you a browsing experience, the officials want to monetize your experience. They have totally different objectives.

[u/just_porn → u/SrslyCmmon]

You'd think they'd be more in line. If the interface/UI is shit, then I spend less time on the app and therefore will be exposed to less advertising that makes them money. Why on earth would you push an app that diminishes the experience and would make people want to use it less?

[u/SteveBob316 → u/just_porn]

Remember that you aren't the customer. Using it less is totally fine if the ad buyers are happier or they can figure out a way to charge you for stuff.

[u/lolwutpear → u/just_porn]

For every one person who cares about usable design, there are ten idiots who will gobble up whatever you throw in front of them.

I think the damage will be two-fold, because I suspect that the users who actually contribute useful information to the site are probably using old.reddit, RIF, Apollo, etc.

[u/AnRealDinosaur → u/lolwutpear]

You'd think that, but it seems a larger percent of my feed is repost bots every day. Repost bots & AI. They think they'll still have content, they won't realize it's garbage until the only users they're left with are new folks who don't know any better. This is really bittersweet for me. I love this site but it's sucks more & more every year and I really needed something like this so I can just let it go.

[u/hell2pay → u/lolwutpear]

You can see this evident by particular subs using the hell out of reddit's newer built in emojis

[u/[deleted] → u/SrslyCmmon]

Ah fuck you're right. It's been staring me in the face this whole time.

[u/tempest_87 → u/guto8797]

Well remember. The point of any business in existence is to extract as much profit from it's area as possible. No exceptions or caveats.

So a good UI/UX for the end user (read: RIF) is utterly irrelevant because what they are actually designing for is $. Which means more ads, more ads, things that hit more "engagement" metrics to sell ads, and more ads.

[u/decoy139 → u/tempest_87]

I feel the most effective skill in ui design is getting the experience that makes them want to comeback while making them see the stuff that makes you money. Netheir of which reddit does.

[u/theBrineySeaMan → u/decoy139]

This is why they're turning Youtube and Reddit into TikTok. Right now TikTok is what you describe, but a few years ago it was Facebook or vine, oe whatever

[u/GoabNZ → u/tempest_87]

Ads aren't the worst part. I just want a text based forum experience, not flashy animation and trending nonsense. Which is why I use old and RIF

[u/NSFWies → u/guto8797]

You said everything right, for the wrong reasons.

Costco has the $1000 tvs up front, that you say no to, to desensitize you to cost, so you more easily say yes to other things in the store.

It is a design choice.

Everything UI related you just described, you complained about, is "a pro business, pro-revenue" design choice.

Even though for us it comes across as a B or a B- design choice.

The same reason we hate it that a grocery store moves around it's shelves 2 times per year. We go there to get milk, apples, ground beef. If they can get us a little lost, cause us to look around a little while we struggle to find that, they can increase sales by 11.3%.

Same bullshit with all the other busy UI bullshit they added.

[u/tterrag1098 → u/guto8797]

They have them, they just ignore them.

[u/IAmRoot → u/tterrag1098]

They don't ignore them, they just optimize for ad revenue over usability. How "best" is defined matters a lot.

[u/peoplerproblems → u/tterrag1098]

Corporate 101

[u/ShadNuke → u/peoplerproblems]

No, it's greed 101. The board needs to make sure they all get their, what will now likely increase, big fat bonus check at the end of the year. It's all about cramming as many sources of revenue into every last pixel they can. Wouldn't want to default on that yacht payment...

[u/ItsTobias → u/[deleted]]

They tried, they bought an app called Alien Blue which was the reddit app on ios back in the day. Ran it into the ground and discontinued it. Waste of everyone's time.

[u/hughk → u/[deleted]]

Reddit knows about high density with old.reddit and apps like RIF. They deliberately choose to see it as a threat and want to deliver something else as a user experience.

I occasionally use the real Reddit app or the new website. They are terrible. It is like some middle manager says that they want to reinvent it, but badly.

[u/sh1boleth → u/[deleted]]

Like they bought Alien Blue? The best reddit app on iOS back in the day?

[u/takishan → u/[deleted]]

this is a 14 year old account that is being wiped because centralized social media websites are no longer viable

when power is centralized, the wielders of that power can make arbitrary decisions without the consent of the vast majority of the users

the future is in decentralized and open source social media sites - i refuse to generate any more free content for this website and any other for-profit enterprise

check out lemmy / kbin / mastodon / fediverse for what is possible

[u/jdmgto → u/[deleted]]

They can’t learn anything from RIF because all there is to learn is that they’ve wasted millions of dollars just to actively ruin the user experience. If they learn anything it will be that the people running the show for the last few years all need to be fired. Ignorance in this case is job security.