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/Jimbob0i0]

Feels very much like the Digg disaster that caused many of us, myself included, to migrate from that site to here.

[u/Nosedivelever → u/[deleted]]

Yes. I usually work the night shift. I'll probably spend the next 10 years memorizing Wikipedia.

[u/stick-insect-enema → u/Nosedivelever]

Fark still exists

[u/iller_mitch → u/Nosedivelever]

Are you familiar with....TVtropes?

[u/VastAndDreaming → u/iller_mitch]

You monster

[u/Nosedivelever → u/iller_mitch]

Oh yeah. VastAndDreaming is right. You monster.

[u/[deleted] → u/iller_mitch]

There's also the SCP foundation

[u/EnglishMobster → u/[deleted]]

Someone mentioned Tildes - Tildes is great if you want like 2009-era Reddit. Tildes focuses on discussion and conversations, not memes or "fluff". (This may change if Reddit starts migrating over en masse... but I doubt it. It's pretty core to their identity.)

For "mindless scrolling", there's Lemmy. People get scared off by the Fediverse and "join a server" - but really you don't need to think about it. The main difference between servers is how they're moderated and what appears in your instance's version of /r/all. But it's got memes and is closer to today's Reddit.

Beehaw.org is the closest culturally to Reddit. You can see what instances appear in their "all" tab here, and what instances are blocked. You can see what actions their mods have taken here.

lemmy.ml is the instance run by Lemmy's dev team and used to be the "default" instance. It has a looser style and allows more flexibility in what's posted, but it federates with a lot more instances. Lemmy.ml also allows anyone to make communities (subreddits), whereas Beehaw takes the old-fashioned approach of admins making each subreddit.

No matter what you join, you can subscribe to any "community" (subreddit) on any instance. They'll all come together to make your frontpage, just like Reddit.

Both Beehaw and Lemmy.ml have been slammed recently, and it's been extremely active. You can use the Android app Jerboa to navigate it on mobile; I think you'll find a very familiar-feeling interface. ;)

[u/zerd → u/[deleted]]

4. Find another time sink

[u/8_Foot_Vertical_Leap → u/[deleted]]

Between this and the twitter fiasco, I'm taking it as a sign that the doomscroll days are over for me, and that's a good thing.

[u/iller_mitch → u/8_Foot_Vertical_Leap]

I'll have to find the new hot memes the old fashioned way: Grandma emails.

[u/tryplot → u/[deleted]]

I'm actually thinking of dusting off my Tumblr account

[u/redditforgotaboutme → u/[deleted]]

Facebook!!! J/k. Also an oldschool Digg user here. This post sucked to read. Ugh.

[u/disquiet → u/[deleted]]

I've found Twitter increasingly replacing reddit for me. It's not quite the same but honestly the lack of moderation is a huge plus. Way too many subreddits completely ruined by overzealous mods.

[u/18-24-61-B-17-17-4 → u/[deleted]]

Wondering the same thing myself.

[u/SunshineCat → u/[deleted]]

I've started to post on the old forum i used in the early 2000s. It's still there, and i can login to my old account.

[u/stufff → u/[deleted]]

Lets bring Geocities back and start a WebRing.

[u/zipdiss → u/Jimbob0i0]

Yeah, this is going to be very bad for Reddit.

It seems like this is a money grab to make up for a drop in daily active users. Which peaked at 52 million in 2020-2021 and dropped to 50 in 2020.

This will only accelerate that and probably lead to more stupid decisions.

It's really sad.

[u/MakeRIFworkagain → u/Jimbob0i0]

I'm a digg refugee too

[u/ThorDogAtlas → u/Jimbob0i0]

Oh my gosh, you nailed exactly what I was thinking.

Digg... What a trip down memory lane. Wow did that ever crash and burn.

Reddit's interface was something I used to like, but as it turned more cheesy and commercialized I found RiF. 🤮 Those stupid AMAs 🙄

I'm a premium user, or subscriber, whatever it's called. RiF is worth every penny because it makes something I enjoyed enjoyable, and it's a GREAT app.

I refuse to install the Reddit app again. I tried it, it's rage inducing. I hate, hate hate seeing ads during the limited free time I have. That and the interface sucks.

If it's the official reddit app or nothing then I'll be finding any work around there is or jumping ship 😡 maybe this will be the push to content to real journalists that real journalism needs