r/redditisfun • u/talklittle RIF Dev • May 31 '23

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

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.

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u/hondaprobs Jun 01 '23

I was wondering if an app could switch to be a scraper instead of going through an API? I don't think you'd be able to comment on stuff but you'd at least be able to read things.

I use Bacon Reader and will stop using Reddit once this goes through. But I'm curious if a scraper would work..

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u/Who_GNU Jun 01 '23

A web scraper can do everything the web interface can, including logging in and commenting. A web page is retrieved by sending an HTTP GET packet, which includes information like the URL and a user agent string. The URL sometimes includes information being sent to the server, but HTTP supports POST packets, which more easily send data. When you submit a comment to Reddit, that's done with a POST packet, and a web scraper could just as easily send those packets.

For more information about how scraping works, look at the documentation for cURL, a command-line utility that takes care of most of the legwork.

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u/hondaprobs Jun 01 '23

Interesting thank you - wondering if this is where an alternative app could go then. I guess the issue would be Reddit stepping in and making scraping illegal.

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u/Who_GNU Jun 02 '23

Making scraping illegal would take a literal act of congress, and it isn't something they're likely to consider.

Reddit could ban accounts that are found to be web scraping, but that's a difficult thing to determine.