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Posted

Someone explain the current Reddit broohaha?

In Laymans terms :D

So third party API's are blocked unless they pay?

I am not a "Reddit'er" but many of you are. Does this in any way affect the various cigar communities on Reddit? I hope not. 

 

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Posted

Reddit wants money from high usage third parties. Currently Reddit doesn't charge anyone access to their API (Application Programming Interface). Third party apps like Sync, RIF and Apollo allow users to access a more streamlined and user friendly version of Reddit platform from their mobile devices. AI researchers also use Reddit data to train their AI language models, like GPT-4.

How does this affect Reddit communities? If you access Reddit via the web platform, diddily squat. On a mobile device? Yeah, all those third party apps will shut down, and you will be stuck using Reddit's lame proprietary app.

One thing that should be noted, Reddit is not charging everyone for access to the API. As long as you do not monetise your app or exceed their usage rates. The charge is only going to those high usage third party apps. But it is those apps that increase the usage of Reddit.

So, who's gonna blink first? Elon tried to charge USD40,000/month for access to the Twitter API, then dropped it down to USD5,000/month, but that was still too high for many or they had already shut down by then.

 

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Posted

Just to add on to what @Fuzz mentioned, this also includes auto-moderator bot accounts as well as third party mod tools that a large amount of mods use. Many mods are displeased that they're already providing free labor, and the job is going to get substantially harder in the near future. 

I personally won't browse reddit as much anymore, since I've had RiF downloaded for 10 years and refuse to use the absolutely abysmal official app. 

Also, this is all just ahead of them announcing IPO in the coming months, so they can funnel all traffic to thier app and bump the bottom line if anyone pays for API access

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Posted

I’m not even sure what a third party app is, but I’m pretty sure that’s because I don’t use one....and because I’m just a regular dude who lives in ignorant bliss when it comes to techy stuff. But based on the discussions I’ve followed on the Cuban cigar sub, I’m gathering that the moderators rely heavily on third party apps to do their (unpaid) job, because using the Reddit toolbox apparently sucks. So this seems to be affecting them more than most average users, I think.

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Posted

Anything accessing the Reddit system thats not made by reddit (like the app and maybe some other partner things) is probably classed as a third party. And so prime for rinsing $$$ from. As has been said above a lot of moderators or sub owners will have written some code to automate a lot of their mod activities. So these will have been impacted. And obvs removing this auto-moderation means a loooot more work for mods!

However I've just noticed a message from reddit saying they are adding exemptions for moderator bots. So this is good for all. Amazing they had to break it first then give it back.

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Posted
6 hours ago, Silverstix said:

I like turtles

I’m in the same camp on this subject. I think I’m learning though…kinda

Posted

I hope Reddit dies and something better emerges. A year ago the reddit admins dictated that every tobacco subreddit has to mark its post as NSFW just like the pornography and gore subs. No such stipulation exists for alcohol and most of the drug subreddits. Hypocrisy at its finest.

Some moderators tried reasoning with the admins but were rebuffed and they provided no justification for it.

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Posted
39 minutes ago, amberleaf said:

I hope Reddit dies and something better emerges. A year ago the reddit admins dictated that every tobacco subreddit has to mark its post as NSFW just like the pornography and gore subs. No such stipulation exists for alcohol and most of the drug subreddits. Hypocrisy at its finest.

Some moderators tried reasoning with the admins but were rebuffed and they provided no justification for it.

yeah a cigar is NSFW but jars of weed are all good for our viewing pleasure.....so dumb

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Posted

Nice summary CS/ John. 

Massively frustrating for the mods/community. Hopefully taking a step back may just turn out to be a blessing .:thumbsup:

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Posted
22 minutes ago, El Presidente said:

Nice summary CS/ John. 

Massively frustrating for the mods/community. Hopefully taking a step back may just turn out to be a blessing .:thumbsup:

I keep telling Aaron at DP that we're going to reach 100 reviews for the year and he keeps saying:

Rookie Numbers GIFs | Tenor

  • Haha 3
Posted

Eh, I'm not going to be popular...

i am SSM (sole surviving moderator) for two Reddit communities with low traffic and membership (less than 20K members).

I couldn't care less as to what is happening.

A company that owns a product is changing the manner in which that product is used/available.  They will succeed or fail.

I also used to volunteer my time to help people navigate the public hiking trails near where I live.  The city bollocksed that one up for everyone with red tape and fences and chains.

As a comparison I also am the neighborhood lead for my small community on nextdoor.com and if you want to see what the destruction of a community based website that once flourished is like then that's where we are with Nextdoor now.  Could that be Reddit?  Sure!  Other than my countless wasted hours trying to make it a better place I simply don't care - it's not my property.  I have no "leverage".  Turn it into the next "Myspace.com" with greed.  Go for it.  We'll still be here.

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Posted
16 hours ago, Cigar Surgeon said:

  The Apollo developer broke out a cost comparison of 50M API calls from Imgur ($166) versus 50M API calls from Reddit's new pricing ($12,000).

I don't know how accurate that figure is. Imgur has a free amount of requests per month under a subscription for RapidAPI, and if you exceed that they charge $0.001 per request. Maybe Apollo has a legacy rate, but who knows.

image.png.fea4a0469d77a32792323796ee18aaaa.png

  • Like 1
Posted
12 hours ago, Fuzz said:

I don't know how accurate that figure is. Imgur has a free amount of requests per month under a subscription for RapidAPI, and if you exceed that they charge $0.001 per request. Maybe Apollo has a legacy rate, but who knows.

image.png.fea4a0469d77a32792323796ee18aaaa.png

If we take those rates as gospel (6.6 x $500 / mo for 50M, or 0.3x $10,000 / mo although I would assume it would scale less expensive which is why he quoted the $166 rate) , that would still be putting Reddit's API calls more than 3.6x - the rate of Imgur.  Again, Reddit can charge whatever they want but the whole thing reeks of bad faith after they failed to initially develop a mobile application and encouraged third party developers but now have decided to give them F.O. pricing.

But that is one issue in a long list of issues that have come to a head as a result of the API decision.

Either way the Reddit IPO should be an interesting one to watch and I will keep my investment funds far, far away. 

 

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Posted
On 6/19/2023 at 6:38 PM, Jack said:

Eh, I'm not going to be popular...

i am SSM (sole surviving moderator) for two Reddit communities with low traffic and membership (less than 20K members).

I couldn't care less as to what is happening.

Eh, I'd say most people probably feel that way but many are afraid to voice their opinion for fear of being shouted down.

The latest in this whole saga is that in another form of protest some larger subreddits voluntarily switched to NSFW.  Perfectly within in the rules, but because it's NSFW it means Reddit cannot run advertisements in that subreddit.  Rather clever if you ask me.

Of course this is the result as of this morning:

image.png.38611495dab6957e621316041ef839ca.png

image.png.19734bf227e57b13d3fa757a14addf27.png

The entire moderator team on multiple subreddits were nuked.

Strap yourselves in because this is going to get spicier before things "blow over" as Spez put it.

  • Like 1
Posted
7 hours ago, Cigar Surgeon said:

The entire moderator team on multiple subreddits were nuked.

Strap yourselves in because this is going to get spicier before things "blow over" as Spez put it.

I disagree.  It will blow over quickly and things will get back to normal - albeit a "new normal".  Just my opinion, of course.

Reddit was quite clear - if moderators abandon a subreddit then it will become open to new moderation.  There's even a subreddit to request permission to take over abandoned subs!

There will always be people to step up in forums like Reddit.  Those who wanted to be in charge, but couldn't be or those who were slighted by the mods years ago, or people who simply don't agree that closing the place down is the only option.

Posted
14 hours ago, Jack said:

I disagree.  It will blow over quickly and things will get back to normal - albeit a "new normal".  Just my opinion, of course.

Reddit was quite clear - if moderators abandon a subreddit then it will become open to new moderation.  There's even a subreddit to request permission to take over abandoned subs!

There will always be people to step up in forums like Reddit.  Those who wanted to be in charge, but couldn't be or those who were slighted by the mods years ago, or people who simply don't agree that closing the place down is the only option.

We shall see. My take is that this is Reddit's "Digg" moment and this signals the future sharp decline of the site.

All the subreddits that went private, or NSFW, or whatever else they were doing in protest were still being actively moderated. As far as people stepping up to moderate; I think that's very much true on the smaller subreddits.  But /r/interestas... which is a front page top subreddit is still without a moderator team.

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