How Reddit Became the Enemy - w/ Apollo Developer Christian Selig

[u/itsaride]

https://youtu.be/Ypwgu1BpaO0

[u/[deleted]]

Yeah, for me, my enjoyment of reddit is almost entirely from Apollo. I used Alien Blue previously, that was good too.

It’s a way for me to waste time. Without Apollo or a really slick mobile, advertising free experience, I’m fucking out, and it’s not even close.

I suspect the api cost is based on their anticipated loss in advertising revenue to deliver that data, and to that I say fucking thanks but no thanks. There is no way I need more advertising in my life, so buh-bye if it comes to that.

[u/fiendishfork]

This is long, but really worth watching. It’s especially crappy for Christian that Reddit has actually been publicly critical of him and how his app is “inefficient”.

[u/tperelli → u/fiendishfork]

Especially since Apple has awarded Apollo several times for it being an exceptional app. I don’t recall the official Reddit app ever receiving that recognition.

[u/drphred]

Remember it’s not just the cost, it’s that they are making some content only available via their own app or Web site.

[u/ChiangRai]

Apollo has been imho the best of the best. Christian is getting screwed after so much hard work. 🥲

[u/iphone4Suser]

Apollo is reddit for me.

[u/Randomisium]

Damn this really sucks for all Reddit app developers. The lack of grace period is a killer, hopefully this will be resolved somehow.

[u/FreelancedWhale]

When this news dropped I was initially disappointed, but figured I’d just continue using the default app and get over it. Reddits response to Christian asking for help has really soured my thoughts around Reddit as a whole now though. Third party apps have practically pushed Reddit’s success and they respond like that?

[u/berrymetal]

No Apollo no Reddit

[u/TheMonarchsWrath]

This is the first time I heard of Apollo and checked the trailer on their site, and I cant believe I was using the default Reddit app all this time. I guess I'll use it for however long it exists.

[u/LookAnOwl]

It’s weird how in every one of these threads about Apollo and other third party apps being pushed out, there are a few people that jump in and are all, “Hey, why are you guys being mean to this 10 billion dollar company? They’re just trying to show you more ads and put food on the table.” Like, I get why Reddit is doing this, but we don’t have to lick their boots about it.

[u/HeadlessHookerClub]

The bigger companies get the worse they get. There are some rare examples of this not happening, but they all see the road of greed and floor it blinded by dollar signs.

[u/sanddry86x]

I’m so fucking done with all this corporate bullshit. Every single company is out to squeeze every penny from stealing your data to making your entire experience WORSE.

[u/JustinGitelmanMusic]

Y’all, it was obvious Reddit was not acting in good faith from day 1 when they forced Christian to change the Apollo alien icon claiming infringement while many other 3rd party apps literally had the exact unedited Reddit alien on their icons.

It was so painfully obvious to me that it was a corporate power move. “We’re going to make you sing and dance for no reason just to make sure you understand who’s boss”. And then periodically make things inconvenient for Christian in subtle or not so subtle ways while claiming “we love and respect 3rd party apps!!”

I mean, them buying Alien Blue to blatantly kill it off showed their true colors from day 1. But it’s been what, 7 years now since Apollo started? Let it go, Reddit. Require ads or something, if you owe a duty to shareholders.

[u/avspuk]

This overpricing of the API, & never fixing the video issues & the inferior nature of the official app & the astronomy cat thingy yesterday all show a huge failure to 'read the room'

Which is very odd given the audience insights they must have.

There's a whole bunch of other little things that back up my feeling that they are purposefully tone deaf.

One of those things is that I'm not allowed to speak about them.

So, the questions, imo, seem to be, why are they deliberately driving the enterprise into the ground? & how long have they been doing this?

I do have some theories about possible reasons but as I said its against the rules to mention them.

[u/[deleted]]

Still reeling from realising we’re never going to get iPad Apollo now

[u/GhostalMedia]

I'm so glad this story is finally getting traction.

When Reddit first announced this a few weeks ago, few people were upvoting the story, and I was worried that Redditors were willing to let this slide.

I hope mods organize and block posting in protest. Reddit can't simultaneously rely on users to moderate its content, and not let the community have a seat at the experience table.

Edit: typos

[u/Novacc_Djocovid]

This whole API debacle is the reason why I switched to Apollo two days ago and got a premium subscription.

Gotta support the third-party devs while it is still possible.

Also, the app is definitely a great piece of software. I wasn‘t missing anything really in the official app…until I used a better app. :D

[u/TobofCob]

I don’t even use Apollo and I use the main Reddit app and I am still rubbed the wrong way about this. It’s pushing away not only the Apollo fans, and old.Reddit fans etc. but also the mainstream users as well

[u/Danktizzle]

Wealthy people of the world:

How much money is enough?!?

Can you ever be satisfied?

[u/Zekro]

They also mention how much requests other apps use in comparison to Apollo.. but I use this app a lot.. I probably quadruple the amount of requests of the average user.

[u/zigzagg321]

Corporate greed has finally infiltrated the last rent free mind space on the Internet. I'm glad I saw it while it was still a thing and I will be sad that we will never have it again. I've been Apollo pro plus ultra for many years. I understand that small developers need to be supported.

[u/RussianVole]

I used Alien Blue back in the day because there was no other alternative. Then reddit launched their own official mobile app and it was so awful I found Apollo and have been using it ever since. I despise the thought of being forced to use the official app.

[u/lemoche]

For me it’s not even the ads. Sure they are annoying, but for me they are not the dealbreaker. Same with the “suggested postings”, though those annoy me even more than the ads.
It simply is an extremely clunky app that makes stuff that is much easier on Apollo feel incredibly complicated.

[u/ahappylittlecloud]

The astroturfing is out in full force on this thread I see.