Reddit starts charging for API access, fiasco ensues...

[P789]

On Reddit, the Admins there decided that 3rd party Apps should pay according to their API Policies, prompting 3rd Party Apps to Stop their Applications that ultimately, stops their income.

Reddit Admins announcing that there will be API Changes

3rd Party App Developer Was Accused on Blackmailing the Admin

Admin AMA

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xGqqR_ewLo&ab_channel=penguinz0

Edit: Seems that the owner of Reddit does not want to negotiate with its 3rd party apps while at the same time, updating their app to have moderation features, even though the mobile app consumes so much in space.

Edit 2: Now digging further, I realized why they need to charge users of their API, they are going public i.e. as said by MJ in his latest book, if some company goes public or gets bought buy a bigger company, things change drastically.

Breakingviews - Reddit’s golden geese foul up its IPO plans

Reddit is used to brawls between its 57 million daily users. Now its keyboard warriors are directing their ire at its CEO, Steve Huffman. Thousands of moderators overseeing the site’s so-called subreddits are on strike. It’s a wrinkle in Reddit’s plan to go public, and a sign that plan is premature.

www.reuters.com

 

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[xShepherdx]

On Reddit, the Admins there decided that 3rd party Apps should pay according to their API Policies, prompting 3rd Party Apps to Stop their Applications that ultimately, stops their income.

Reddit Admins announcing that there will be API Changes

3rd Party App Developer Was Accused on Blackmailing the Admin

Admin AMA

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xGqqR_ewLo&ab_channel=penguinz0

Saw this go down and immediately thought of the commandment of Control.

It's a sucky situation for them, but that's what happens when you violate the commandment of Control.

 

[jpcoder]

Saw this go down and immediately thought of the commandment of Control.

It's a sucky situation for them, but that's what happens when you violate the commandment of Control.

Did you see about many of the top subreddits going private in protest of Reddit's change? This means loss of ad revenue for Reddit. The commandment of control goes both ways.

Reddit communities to ‘go dark’ in protest over third-party app charges

Thousands of subreddits to become ‘private’ after plans to charge other companies for access to data

www.theguardian.com

 

[Private Witt]

Did you see about many of the top subreddits going private in protest of Reddit's change? This means loss of ad revenue for Reddit. The commandment of control goes both ways.

Reddit communities to ‘go dark’ in protest over third-party app charges

Thousands of subreddits to become ‘private’ after plans to charge other companies for access to data

www.theguardian.com

I love this as it's a substantial amount of viewers that actually can't see on private mode. One of the 7k subreddits on strike has 30 million subscribers and I'm sure the amount of ad loss is staggering. I do really well with Reddit, have made the front page and gotten major media coverage from it that I made money off of, but it's such a pit and it's great to see them suffer. Even better if Reddit is the one that implodes which would be good for humanity as is one of the big social media holes of society.

 

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[xShepherdx]

Did you see about many of the top subreddits going private in protest of Reddit's change? This means loss of ad revenue for Reddit. The commandment of control goes both ways.

Reddit communities to ‘go dark’ in protest over third-party app charges

Thousands of subreddits to become ‘private’ after plans to charge other companies for access to data

www.theguardian.com

I don't see the communities going dark as a violation of Control. Reddit still owns the website and those communities/pages/advertising space. And people are probably still buying their dumb "awards" lol.

Instead, this seems like a classic "not listening to our users because we know best" move and now they have to suffer the repercussions. But that's different than the commandment of Contol IMO.

Overall a dumb idea by Reddit, but they didn't violate CENTS. The people who built all the 3rd party apps that relied on Reddit's API did though.

 

[jpcoder]

I don't see the communities going dark as a violation of Control. Reddit still owns the website and those communities/pages/advertising space. And people are probably still buying their dumb "awards" lol.

Instead, this seems like a classic "not listening to our users because we know best" move and now they have to suffer the repercussions. But that's different than the commandment of Contol IMO.

Overall a dumb idea by Reddit, but they didn't violate CENTS. The people who built all the 3rd party apps that relied on Reddit's API did though.

Those subreddit's going private means all the non subscribing eyeballs that were once seeing that content and the ads associated with it are no longer able to view that content and ads. Ad revenue is basically pulled out from under Reddit by it's own users. Does Reddit technically have the control and ability to switch those groups back to public? Sure, but that would seem to me to be more harmful to their rep than the API change. So from my point of view, they lost control.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Reddit will survive. Especially when your protests are scheduled to end. Like saying, “let’s boycott bud light for 3 days!”

 

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[P789]

“let’s boycott bud light for 3 days!”

that is according to the moderators as they are planning to extend the boycott further if the admins never hear their demands. It can be 1 week, 1 month, or more, doesn't matter.

Source; A rumor.

 

[jpcoder]

Reddit will survive. Especially when your protests are scheduled to end. Like saying, “let’s boycott bud light for 3 days!”

Yea, and it's unclear how much damage they are actually doing. But if it is actually causing some significant monetary pain and this minority of users (subreddit admins) can do something that affects their income then that seems like a control point they might want to look at.

 

[JAJT]

Reddit will keep getting away with the games they play until a genuinely viable alternative is in place to "scoop up" the disgruntled users.

Digg died when they played games with their users not because of the games they played, but rather because they played games with an audience that had an easy, available, viable place to go in protest.

People have been trying to clone reddit's success for years and they all fall flat in some unpalatable way.

This is why competition is so important and why monopolies and oligopolies and cartels and such are so terrible - competition is the one major market force that keeps corporate behavior accountable.

 

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[MitchC]

Anyone see the reddit blackout thing?

I couldn’t give a F*ck about it but there’s a couple lessons to be learned.

1. Commandment of control.

Some dude built a 3rd party app that was making 500k a year in subscription revenue, nice income, just him running it, then reddit changed the rules and now it’s dead.

They gave him 30 days notice on the rule change after telling him don’t worry we’ll make it reasonable.

These are 50,000 people paying $10 yearly, so now not only has he lost his entire business, he probably will have to refund close to $500k in subscriptions and I’m guessing eat the fees.

2. Pick your market carefully.

Reddit is the 9th most visited website in the world and they aren’t profitable.

They make 500m a year in revenue. Pathetic.

There would be online businesses with way lower traffic, doing way more revenue, and doing it profitably.

They’re trying to ipo and their userbase is throwing a tantrum trying to mess it up.

Don’t make your target market broke crybabies who hate “capitalism”.

I remember starting a business once to help people who were stressed. I made like 100 sales and had like 20 of the most angry stressed customer service emails I’ve ever had. Shut it down right then and refunded them all.

There’s so many other markets to choose from.

That golf cart modification parts business @Kak posted earlier in this thread is a good example.

You got a super chill market, that’s rich, and spends money. I mean @Kak is a customer. That’s who you would be dealing with.

Guys who understand business, capitalism, providing value.

I bet you could F*ck up a $1000 order for a customer in that store and they’d be super understanding.

Meanwhile you got people on the other end of the spectrum complaining that the free website they use every day wants to charge people who are making money off it with 3rd party apps.

The websites free, it’s the 9th most visited website in the world, 500m in revenue isn’t profitable, it’s users are on it daily, and yet the refuse to click on the ads.

F*ck owning that business.

 

[ZF Lee]

1. Commandment of control.

Some dude built a 3rd party app that was making 500k a year in subscription revenue, nice income, just him running it, then reddit changed the rules and now it’s dead.

They gave him 30 days notice on the rule change after telling him don’t worry we’ll make it reasonable.

These are 50,000 people paying $10 yearly, so now not only has he lost his entire business, he probably will have to refund close to $500k in subscriptions and I’m guessing eat the fees.

The sad thing is that mods for many subreddits rely on the 3rd party apps to help filter out the spam.

If the mods can't do their jobs, let's say the toxicity we see on Reddit today will be like a fart in the wind, compared to what is to come. And if the more popular subreddits decide to indefinitely shut down, and head over to Discord, Reddit might be seeing its sunset soon.

Additionally, in the copywriting circle, somehow 'research Reddit' keeps getting trumpeted.

If Reddit goes further down the drain, let's say folks who use Reddit as their ONLY research method to draw up offers or sales pitches are in for a rude shaking...

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Anyone see the reddit blackout thing?

I couldn’t give a F*ck about it but there’s a couple lessons to be learned.

1. Commandment of control.

Some dude built a 3rd party app that was making 500k a year in subscription revenue, nice income, just him running it, then reddit changed the rules and now it’s dead.

They gave him 30 days notice on the rule change after telling him don’t worry we’ll make it reasonable.

These are 50,000 people paying $10 yearly, so now not only has he lost his entire business, he probably will have to refund close to $500k in subscriptions and I’m guessing eat the fees.

2. Pick your market carefully.

Reddit is the 9th most visited website in the world and they aren’t profitable.

They make 500m a year in revenue. Pathetic.

There would be online businesses with way lower traffic, doing way more revenue, and doing it profitably.

They’re trying to ipo and their userbase is throwing a tantrum trying to mess it up.

Don’t make your target market broke crybabies who hate “capitalism”.

I remember starting a business once to help people who were stressed. I made like 100 sales and had like 20 of the most angry stressed customer service emails I’ve ever had. Shut it down right then and refunded them all.

There’s so many other markets to choose from.

That golf cart modification parts business @Kak posted earlier in this thread is a good example.

You got a super chill market, that’s rich, and spends money. I mean @Kak is a customer. That’s who you would be dealing with.

Guys who understand business, capitalism, providing value.

I bet you could F*ck up a $1000 order for a customer in that store and they’d be super understanding.

Meanwhile you got people on the other end of the spectrum complaining that the free website they use every day wants to charge people who are making money off it with 3rd party apps.

The websites free, it’s the 9th most visited website in the world, 500m in revenue isn’t profitable, it’s users are on it daily, and yet the refuse to click on the ads.

F*ck owning that business.

I moved your comment to the Reddit thread.

 

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[msufan]

I remember starting a business once to help people who were stressed. I made like 100 sales and had like 20 of the most angry stressed customer service emails I’ve ever had. Shut it down right then and refunded them all.

This is comedy gold right here. You could write an ebook about this one topic alone. It seems obvious in hindsight but I wouldn't have seen it coming either.

 

[Oso]

Reddit will keep getting away with the games they play until a genuinely viable alternative is in place to "scoop up" the disgruntled users.

Digg died when they played games with their users not because of the games they played, but rather because they played games with an audience that had an easy, available, viable place to go in protest.

People have been trying to clone reddit's success for years and they all fall flat in some unpalatable way.

This is why competition is so important and why monopolies and oligopolies and cartels and such are so terrible - competition is the one major market force that keeps corporate behavior accountable.

I love this because I swear all of these big companies need competition now more than ever.

YouTube
Twitch
Reddit
Facebook
Instagram
Etsy
Netflix
Hulu
Ebay
Amazon
Twitter
Etc.

The vast majority of these platforms have gotten more obnoxious/censored/greedy over the years and they continue to get away with it because they have 0 competition.

The audiences are already there, entrepreneurs simply need to figure out how to take advantage of a handful of USPs and amazing execution.

So, heads up to the 150 billion entrepreneurs that "can't find an idea:" there are already billion dollar ideas in front of your face, you simply need to execute on them better than the people that came before you did.

 

[MitchC]

This is comedy gold right here. You could write an ebook about this one topic alone. It seems obvious in hindsight but I wouldn't have seen it coming either.

I wanted to help these people, I thought they’d be grateful

One guy was so angry I refunded him and told him to never order from us again

He then was angry about me telling him that, like he didn’t just say how unhappy he was with us

I should log in to the email account and find it, I’ll never forget that

 

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[P789]

Update to the Blackout: Some minor and major subreddits like 2Asia4U and noncredibledefense had now been back online for about 48 hours after they go private.

Edit: Recent information had surfaced that Admins are allegedly banning moderators who keeps several subreddits private.

Example is AdviceAnimals where they "forced" the subreddit to be open in public.

 

[WillHurtDontCare]

I foresee maany new SaaS companies being built on OpenAI's API learning this lesson in the coming months / years.

 

[P789]

Edit 2: Now digging further, I realized why they need to charge users of their API, they are going public i.e. as said by MJ in his latest book, if some company goes public or gets bought buy a bigger company, things change drastically.

Breakingviews - Reddit’s golden geese foul up its IPO plans

Reddit is used to brawls between its 57 million daily users. Now its keyboard warriors are directing their ire at its CEO, Steve Huffman. Thousands of moderators overseeing the site’s so-called subreddits are on strike. It’s a wrinkle in Reddit’s plan to go public, and a sign that plan is premature.

www.reuters.com

and some subreddits like WSB, the same subreddit who bought GameStop shares as a revenge against a Hedge Fund, stated that their IPO will fail as they are not profitable.

https://www.reddit.com/r/wallstreetbets/comments/u6cjj8 View: https://www.reddit.com/r/wallstreetbets/comments/u6cjj8/why_the_reddit_ipo_is_doomed_to_fail/

 

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