Relay for Reddit app stays as one of the few remaining third party apps for Reddit and they are forced to go to a subscription model but the cost of such a subscription is related to how many API calls per user are done.

This screenshot was taken from the yet working patched Sync for Reddit app.

  • sky@leminal.space
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    1 year ago

    Your users shouldn’t even really need to know what an API is, much less be rationing requests like it’s early SMS plans or something, geez.

    • empireOfLove@lemmy.one
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      1 year ago

      And mind you, the only reason early SMS messages were so expensive was… because they could. The SMS protocol literally piggybacks on existing handshake datastreams already present in the GSM standard and only requires adding a small message handling server to a carrier’s network. But because it was new and a novelty, and little to no competition existed in the cellular space, cellular companies (being the money grabbing corporations they are) would charge exorbitant rates for this add-on service that cost almost nothing to provide. Which is effectively reddit’s stance too… fuck you, pay me.

      • Vashti@feddit.uk
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        1 year ago

        SMS was free on some networks initially. They only even realised they could charge for it later.

  • Lakija@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    That’s messed up. I wouldn’t put up with that shit. It’s like counting digital calories

  • XYZinferno@lemmy.basedcount.com
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    1 year ago

    The message should shift from pressuring Reddit to change to pressuring users to leave. Reddit is fully aware of the consequences of their actions and won’t do a 180 and start acting in the best interests of their users again. They’re in too deep.

    Users of Reddit should accept the fact that no social media is worth micro-managing every button press in fear of incurring a cost of any kind. I’m sure Relay’s devs are doing the best they can, but the users need to take a look in the mirror and ask themselves if they’re going to let a tech company push them around like this for the sake of internet content.

    • ɢᴜᴍᴅʀᴏᴘʙᴜɴɴɪᴇꜱ@lib.lgbt
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      1 year ago

      Their bullshit AMA about third party apps and general “it’ll all blow over in a week” attitude should’ve made that apparent to more people. It’s why I left as soon as RIF stopped working, and why many of us are here now.

      I’ll never give that shitshow of a website any traffic again

      • XYZinferno@lemmy.basedcount.com
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        1 year ago

        Yeah, I was planning on doing the same, leaving when RIF shut down. Though I came to the same realization that you did, and just left a week early, because it felt wrong to delay the inevitable and sink time into a platform I knew I wouldn’t be using in a week’s time. I’m glad that a lot of people came to the same realization as well, and hopefully a lot more Reddit users do too. Social media addiction is a bitch.

    • qupada@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      It was obvious right from the outset that Reddit’s assertions as to the costs and motivations were not remotely genuine.

      There was a comment early on to the effect of “it should only cost about $1 per user per month”. Were that in fact the case, they could easily have added their own payment method to collect said dollar directly from users, allowing API / 3rd-party client access on a per-account basis. No weird limitations, just the experience you were already enjoying for a nominal fee.

      The whole principle was from the outset pants-on-head idiotic, and it’s clear the few times I have been to Reddit since that both the quality and quantity of content has noticeably reduced. Who could have predicted that the “freeloading” 3rd-party app users were the ones providing the bulk of the content (y’know, that content that, for all purposes, is Reddit, and they get to sell ads against).

  • rapscallion@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Reddit’s only allowing a handful of these apps to limp along for now to keep up the fiction that they didn’t kill 3rd-party apps altogether. These devs are doing all this work to eke out revenue models based on hypothetical costs that can change any time Reddit updates their APIs, changes API call pricing, or updates the site’s functionality. Reddit’s management was completely unrepentant about lying to and about 3rd-party devs just a couple of months ago, and all of the risk around underestimating API costs are on these devs. I hope that none of them get billed or sued into bankruptcy over this.

  • kobra@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    I am still astonished that there are people over there still dealing with this shit.

    mindblown.jpg

  • Meho_Nohome@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    It’s like when you used to pay for internet by the minute. Is it worth seeing what that picture will look like in 4 minutes when it’s done downloading?

  • set_secret@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    lucky for them soon reddit will be a ghost town, so api calls will be very reasonable vs subscription price I guess. thanks SPEZ!

  • Fantomas@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    If my patched version of revanced ever stops I can’t say I’ll ever go back to all my lovely lil niche subs.

  • Swim@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    At least they have a subscription model based on fees incurred by accessing the reddit API. Sync for lemmy charging a monthly sub to remove the adds the creator put in.

    • stephen01king@lemmy.zip
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      1 year ago

      You do know you can pay one time if you just want to remove ads. You’re here suggesting the dev should just work on the app for free or something?

      • kratoz29@lemm.eeOP
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        1 year ago

        You’re here suggesting the dev should just work on the app for free or something?

        According to what he replied to you, yes…

      • Swim@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        Relay has a reason to charge a monthly fee, and sync does not.

        • lessthanthree@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          1 year ago

          A developer wanting to get something in return for their work is a reason. It’s also an option for the user. Sync offers a one time payment for Ad Free and for their “Plus” features. It also has the option for a monthly subscription.

          • Swim@lemmy.ca
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            1 year ago

            135$ for the full app… sync is like the star citizen of lemmy apps

            • somedaysoon@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              I have a rooted device with AdAway and that is backed up by Adguard Home running on my network so I can use Sync without ads at no costs. And I uninstalled it after a few days. Now that Infinity (now called Eternity) released, there will be no looking back to it from me. I even will prefer Jerboa over Sync when Jerboa gets default comment sorting. Sync is really over-rated in my opinion.

              I’ve tried every lemmy client but only Jerboa, Eternity, and Voyager remain on my phone right now.

              • Swim@lemmy.ca
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                1 year ago

                Thanks for the tip, I’ll have to check eternity out. Any advice for the pihole, I’ve been thinking of getting one of them

                • somedaysoon@lemmy.world
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                  1 year ago

                  If you only want to run pihole or adguard home for ads then just buy a used Pi3 on eBay for $15-$30 and follow the instructions on pi-hole.net

                  But if you want to get into selfhosting other things, and it’s highly likely you will go down that rabbit hole, it’s addictive, then I would recommend starting with a used ThinkCentre M93p from eBay for $80-$120. Install OpenMediaVault on it, get your feet wet setting up a few services with docker. Some of the more popular services selfhosters run are: pihole, airsonic, nextcloud, paperless-ngx, immich, sonarr, lidarr… I could go on, but I don’t want to overwhelm you. If you are interested in the other things, take a look at this extensive list of selfhostable services, and sub to the selfhosting sublems. The selfhosting communities are pretty active and friendly here on Lemmy.

    • kratoz29@lemm.eeOP
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      1 year ago

      Dude, I don’t care, I use Sync and pay no shit, but I would gladly do so when it gets more robust (and I already think it is one of the best).

      We already have some great options, myself am rocking Voyager, Sync and Summit whenever I feel like to.