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/venn177 Jun 01 '23

But the amount of old hats leaving is microscopic compared to the amount that are coming in. Especially with the Twitter debacle. Onboarding and simplicity and claiming all of that is much more important than keeping a few people who have been around since /r/reddit.com.

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u/[deleted] Jun 01 '23

[deleted]

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u/venn177 Jun 01 '23

Reddit getting more popular is definitely not an assumption.

Here's the subscriber history for /r/pics since late 2012.

Aside from moderation - which I admittedly don't have stats for and am just kind of 'hunching' - I don't see what old hat redditors that use adblockers and non-official apps really bring to the site.

I guess we're pretty good at bitching about change?

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u/SlowRollingBoil Jun 01 '23

That's a default sub so any user account will be subscribed. There are SOOOOOO many bots and scam accounts.

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u/Deon555 Jun 01 '23

Defaults haven't been used for years. Reddit uses algorithms ✨ to decide which subs to recommend to a user when they sign up

That said, those same algorithms may well suggest /r/pics