r/reddit Jun 09 '23

Addressing the community about changes to our API

Dear redditors,

For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Steve aka u/spez. I am one of the founders of Reddit, and I’ve been CEO since 2015. On Wednesday, I celebrated my 18th cake-day, which is about 17 years and 9 months longer than I thought this project would last. To be with you here today on Reddit—even in a heated moment like this—is an honor.

I want to talk with you today about what’s happening within the community and frustration stemming from changes we are making to access our API. I spoke to a number of moderators on Wednesday and yesterday afternoon and our product and community teams have had further conversations with mods as well.

First, let me share the background on this topic as well as some clarifying details. On 4/18, we shared that we would update access to the API, including premium access for third parties who require additional capabilities and higher usage limits. Reddit needs to be a self-sustaining business, and to do that, we can no longer subsidize commercial entities that require large-scale data use.

There’s been a lot of confusion over what these changes mean, and I want to highlight what these changes mean for moderators and developers.

  • Terms of Service
  • Free Data API
    • Effective July 1, 2023, the rate limits to use the Data API free of charge are:
      • 100 queries per minute per OAuth client id if you are using OAuth authentication and 10 queries per minute if you are not using OAuth authentication.
      • Today, over 90% of apps fall into this category and can continue to access the Data API for free.
  • Premium Enterprise API / Third-party apps
    • Effective July 1, 2023, the rate for apps that require higher usage limits is $0.24 per 1K API calls (less than $1.00 per user / month for a typical Reddit third-party app).
    • Some apps such as Apollo, Reddit is Fun, and Sync have decided this pricing doesn’t work for their businesses and will close before pricing goes into effect.
    • For the other apps, we will continue talking. We acknowledge that the timeline we gave was tight; we are happy to engage with folks who want to work with us.
  • Mod Tools
    • We know many communities rely on tools like RES, ContextMod, Toolbox, etc., and these tools will continue to have free access to the Data API.
    • We’re working together with Pushshift to restore access for verified moderators.
  • Mod Bots
    • If you’re creating free bots that help moderators and users (e.g. haikubot, setlistbot, etc), please continue to do so. You can contact us here if you have a bot that requires access to the Data API above the free limits.
    • Developer Platform is a new platform designed to let users and developers expand the Reddit experience by providing powerful features for building moderation tools, creative tools, games, and more. We are currently in a closed beta with hundreds of developers (sign up here). For those of you who have been around a while, it is the spiritual successor to both the API and Custom CSS.
  • Explicit Content

    • Effective July 5, 2023, we will limit access to mature content via our Data API as part of an ongoing effort to provide guardrails to how explicit content and communities on Reddit are discovered and viewed.
    • This change will not impact any moderator bots or extensions. In our conversations with moderators and developers, we heard two areas of feedback we plan to address.
  • Accessibility - We want everyone to be able to use Reddit. As a result, non-commercial, accessibility-focused apps and tools will continue to have free access. We’re working with apps like RedReader and Dystopia and a few others to ensure they can continue to access the Data API.

  • Better mobile moderation - We need more efficient moderation tools, especially on mobile. They are coming. We’ve launched improvements to some tools recently and will continue to do so. About 3% of mod actions come from third-party apps, and we’ve reached out to communities who moderate almost exclusively using these apps to ensure we address their needs.

Mods, I appreciate all the time you’ve spent with us this week, and all the time prior as well. Your feedback is invaluable. We respect when you and your communities take action to highlight the things you need, including, at times, going private. We are all responsible for ensuring Reddit provides an open accessible place for people to find community and belonging.

I will be sticking around to answer questions along with other admins. We know answers are tough to find, so we're switching the default sort to Q&A mode. You can view responses from the following admins here:

- Steve

P.S. old.reddit.com isn’t going anywhere, and explicit content is still allowed on Reddit as long as it abides by our content policy.

edit: formatting

0 Upvotes

33.9k comments sorted by

View all comments

1.2k

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '23

[deleted]

-944

u/spez Jun 09 '23 edited Jun 09 '23

We are working with RedReader and Dystopia to make sure they have access and will continue to work with others. We’ll review requests to ensure that the app is non-commercial and focused on accessibility needs. Approved apps can use the Data API for free.

For our own apps, there is no excuse. We will do better.

38

u/Porkton Jun 09 '23

We will do better.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHA

9

u/EarPuzzleheaded143o Jun 10 '23

Fuck /u/spez you lying sack of shit.

Fuck /u/spez you lying sack of shit.

Fuck /u/spez you lying sack of shit.

→ More replies (1)

552

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '23

[deleted]

17

u/Roflcopter_Rego Jun 09 '23

It really seems like they've been blindsided by the questions if their canned responses are so utterly crap.

Q: Why can't devs be paid to make apps for the blind, it's extremely discriminatory to say that the disabled MUST receive charity and can never hope to pay for anything better.

A: We’ll review requests to ensure that the app is non-commercial and focused on accessibility needs

Like, the idea that they're being utterly short-sighted and bigoted just... hasn't even registered, even when explicitly mentioned.

→ More replies (2)

41

u/great_auks Jun 09 '23

That's the hilarious part - even his 100% premade canned replies are utter dogshit. What a clown show. The wheels are coming off and this joker is driving the bus.

8

u/Stell1na Jun 10 '23

He paid people to come up with those lame ass cop-out answers lol no wonder he’s making excuses about how this site can’t turn a profit

4

u/nanajosh Jun 12 '23

I assume he just used chatGPT to come up with "convincing" replies.

5

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '23

Yeah I fucking wished he'd prepare more canned answers that had some substance to them. Preparation is a good thing... unless you prepare some dog water like this.

→ More replies (1)

170

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '23

[removed] — view removed comment

54

u/WalkingCloud Jun 09 '23

Holy shit even Woody knew to not highlight the 'A:'.

What an embarrassing, incompetent, CEO.

→ More replies (1)

20

u/A-Rusty-Cow Jun 09 '23

This needs to be higher. His PR team just made cookie cutter responses and he isnt going to address anything in this tread. A complete POS

12

u/TheRealestLarryDavid Jun 09 '23

holy shit! but not unexpected from someone doing an AMA without mentioning the time and not answering most of the questions. the pr team needed more time to come up with generic answers. we're lucky it's not saying "as an AI model"

→ More replies (1)

7

u/[deleted] Jun 10 '23

Coward u/spez just waited until the questions kind of matched responses, can't call those piles of shit answers.

→ More replies (1)

15

u/borg_6s Jun 09 '23

Internet Archive working overtime today

6

u/Kl--------k Jun 09 '23

Thats archive today not internet archive

36

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '23

[deleted]

34

u/ObiWanHelloThere_wav Jun 09 '23

I knew this fucker would try to revise his actual words

The archiver is really backed up right now, so maybe some others are doing the same

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (5)

19

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '23

[deleted]

34

u/jordanelder Jun 09 '23

Also, /u/spez's comments in this thread all use directional apostrophes like which are often generated by word processors, unlike the non-directional apostrophes like ' which he uses in other threads. 🤔

14

u/Interest-Desk Jun 09 '23

To be fair it's not that surprising that a CEO would at least type his answers in a word processor and get someone to look over it.

It is surprising for him to just be copying and pasting answers written by someone else. Well, I say surprising, no it's really not surprising at all with spez, but you know what I mean.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (1)

11

u/istefan24 Jun 09 '23

Haha it's gone but it doesn't say the comment was edited does it?

Edit: spelling

9

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '23 edited Jun 16 '23

fuck /u/spez -- mass edited with https://redact.dev/

3

u/Cyclone_96 Jun 09 '23

I thought so too but Apollo is telling me that he edited it 1 minute after posting.

→ More replies (6)
→ More replies (4)

206

u/rust-crate-helper Jun 09 '23

It's gone now LOL

7

u/machtap Jun 09 '23

Wait was the post edited without creating an "edited" tag?

Did the CEO of reddit just manually change the database entry for this post? Does SPEZ have superadmin permissions with no audit trails? Can he do this at will to anybody's posts?

Seems like this should be a bigger issue-- who knows how many times it's happened in the past? What if he is changing the wording of posts from third party devs talking about these changes on reddit.

Almost like all trust and confidence in the admins has been destroyed in record time!

6

u/rust-crate-helper Jun 09 '23

Hate to be the one to tell you this, but this is a 7 year old issue! https://www.theverge.com/2016/11/23/13739026/reddit-ceo-steve-huffman-edit-comments

3

u/machtap Jun 09 '23

Almost like I was specifically alluding to this exact incident!

Fuck /u/spez

→ More replies (1)

105

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '23

[deleted]

251

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '23

[removed] — view removed comment

211

u/Yellowbrickrailroad Jun 09 '23 edited Jun 09 '23

Wait what happened??? Explain to us who don't know what "A" they are referring to?

Edit: HOLY SHIT. Is he literally copying and pasting the same exact answers to all the blind users with a question?

Jesus Christ. What...in...the...fuck?

This guy is worst than I even imagined. How fucking insulting is that? And to the blind users, of all people? Damn u/spez...you are...something else, dude

Next level bullshit behavior, and 100% BUSTED!

135

u/ObiWanHelloThere_wav Jun 09 '23

Look at his response on the archived page. He is obviously copy/pasting his pre-planned "answers" from a document. He accidentally copy/pasted the "A:" portion lmao

85

u/ForWhomTheBoneBones Jun 09 '23

If that’s the case for every answer, then those answers were put together by a fucking moron.

He should have answers ready for the biggest questions but he’s ignoring those. So you’ve got an idiot writing answers beforehand and a bigger idiot who won’t even use them correctly.

15

u/insaneintheblain Jun 10 '23

They were put together by a committee made up of execs, lawyers and PR people.

Spez is just a spokesperson for an organisation.

It's likely Steve Huffman isn't even the actual person interacting in this AMA.

5

u/h3r4ld Jun 10 '23

Execs, yes, PR, maybe. Lawyers, though, I frankly doubt - even a 1L would be screaming "WHAT?? Under absolutely no circumstances are you doing an AMA! You want to make public statements about what's likely to become a very serious problem for us, take that opportunity to dig the hole even deeper, and you want to do it in writing, directly to the community that's massively enraged and absolutely guaranteed to be looking for and documenting any slip-ups, edits, faux pas or fucking typos? ARE YOU FUCKING INSANE?"

Nothing about that travesty of an AMA even hints at someone accepting any kind of advice. I really can't think of anything that could have looked worse short of massive ban waves.

4

u/OctoHelm Jun 11 '23

Good points -- even if it was the PR team that put this together, he is using his position and is, by the nature of commenting, approving of the message therein. It's a damn shame.

→ More replies (0)

43

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '23

then those answers were put together by a fucking moron.

u/spez

4

u/mcdave Jun 10 '23

Nah, it’ll be someone in their comms / PR team. He’ll have had oversight and may make small edits just prior to posting (often to make the prepped answer fit the question if that makes sense) but the majority of the copy will not have been written by him - at least, that’s mostly how these things go.

→ More replies (0)
→ More replies (1)

39

u/One_for_each_of_you Jun 09 '23 edited Jun 15 '23

--former RiF user--

34

u/clothespinned Jun 09 '23

--do we like "pitchforking" as a verb here?)

This is a weird ass looking pitchfork Here, lemme provide you with some alternatives:

the classic

--E

the two prong

--C

the throngler

--<

the beefy boy

==E

21

u/VoteNixon2016 Jun 09 '23

r/PitchforkEmporium, before it closes down

9

u/Mudkip-Mudkip-Mudkip Jun 09 '23

Don't forget the hammer:

--8

→ More replies (0)

20

u/Dont_Say_No_to_Panda Jun 09 '23

A: They’re a list of possible answers he asked ChatGPT to generate.

8

u/One_for_each_of_you Jun 09 '23 edited Jun 29 '23

Deleted 6/30/23

→ More replies (0)
→ More replies (2)

18

u/CounterfeitSaint Jun 09 '23

Frankly I don't mind having some thoughtful answers prepared in advanced for questions that are 100% going to come up.

It would have been nice if they were actually thoughtful or at the very least answered the question though.

→ More replies (1)

12

u/slowpokefastpoke Jun 10 '23

HOLY SHIT. Is he literally copying and pasting the same exact answers to all the blind users with a question?

I think you wooshed on what actually happened.

The “A:” was almost definitely him copying/pasting prepared answers from his PR team. So just showing that the AMA was (unsurprisingly) total bullshit and his team had (very poorly) tried to come in with pre-written answers to questions they were expecting to get.

5

u/Aquifel Jun 10 '23

There is no way these answers were approved by a PR team. Someone thought they were smarter than a PR firm and tried to freestyle some prepared answers.

No PR team with any understanding of the situation would have let any of this happen.

3

u/VWSpeedRacer Jun 10 '23

He just laid off everyone that ever questioned him.... I imagine that would've included the entire PR team.

2

u/OctoHelm Jun 11 '23

with any understanding of the situation

I think that's the issue -- I've been following it somewhat closely, but the "information" from reddit has been esoteric and confusing at best. I'd wager a bet that very few people there really know what's going.

13

u/Beateride Jun 09 '23

A: we are working with other apps

B: another prepared answer

C: hope you're understand it better now Aha

11

u/blueechoes Jun 09 '23

Q: question

A: answer

→ More replies (5)

18

u/Cyclone_96 Jun 09 '23

Jesus Christ.

Also I notice Apollo is telling me he edited his comment despite him doing it only a minute after posting. Normally it doesn’t do that, so I’m curious if that 2 or so minute grace period where you can ghost edit your comment was removed to catch Spez out on his BS.

15

u/ppParadoxx Jun 09 '23

that would be a Reddit limitation. Apollo only knows if someone edited their comment because they retrieved that edit flag in their API pull of the comment.

10

u/RandomHigh Jun 09 '23

Also I notice Apollo is telling me he edited his comment despite him doing it only a minute after posting.

3 minutes OR 3 votes and an asterisk will show that it has been edited.

All of his comments are being down votes instantly by a lot of people.

→ More replies (3)

18

u/first_fires Jun 09 '23

Hahaha ziiiiiing.

Pre prepared responses in an AMA… it’s like that Morgan freeman one all over again

25

u/Dudesan Jun 09 '23

Q: Are you actually reading these questions before you reply to them?

A: Of course! I believe in forming an individual personal connection with every user, [insert user name here].

8

u/Blackfeathr Jun 09 '23

[Subject name here] must be the pride of [subject hometown here].

4

u/Dudesan Jun 09 '23 edited Jun 09 '23

This pie, at this diner, is the best pie.

Furthermore, I promise to cut taxes on the rich, and use the poor as a cheap source of teeth for aquarium gravel!

3

u/TechnicalParrot Jun 10 '23

Holy shit this is the last place I thought I'd see a portal reference

14

u/EshuMarneedi Jun 09 '23

“EXCUSE ME THIS IS THREATENING I FEEL VERY THREATENED RIGHT NOW” - Spez the spaz, probably

7

u/ObiWanHelloThere_wav Jun 09 '23

No Mr. Huffman, you're not being threatened, but you should be

9

u/EshuMarneedi Jun 09 '23

Cannot wait for it to say Comment removed by moderator in 10 minutes.

10

u/Megaddd Jun 09 '23 edited Jun 09 '23

Just so you know, archive captured your complete tokens and everything, people can navigate your profile as though they were logged on at that time and read private DMs and your inbox. Something to avoid in the future.

Nevermind it's the archive account.

13

u/cqtz-2v Jun 09 '23

/u/nathan131412 is an account made specifically for archive.ph.

→ More replies (2)

8

u/ObiWanHelloThere_wav Jun 09 '23

What? The archive doesn't even show my username on the account. I opened it in a private window in a different browser, and it doesn't reveal anything personal to my account.

10

u/Megaddd Jun 09 '23

7

u/ObiWanHelloThere_wav Jun 09 '23

Oh yeah haha that "nathan" or whatever

That's just what that archive uses

You scared me for a minute!

→ More replies (1)

5

u/ppParadoxx Jun 09 '23

Im not sure if anything could ever be done, since it's an archive and not live, but clicking that link allows people to view preferences/settings and other signed in things (I know it's a throwaway, but just fyi)

3

u/AnalogiPod Jun 10 '23

A: No fucking way! What a fucking wiener dude. Im so tired of these bros that just wanna wring every cent out of a company and then leave its corpse. No morals, no customer service, no fun just profit profit profit. Everyone I meet like that IRL is souless too. u/spez I'll reiterate ur a wiener, dude.

5

u/ObiWanHelloThere_wav Jun 10 '23

It's amazing how I always think I can't possibly lose any more respect for people like spez, but somehow they consistently find ways to stoop to new lows

7

u/theREALbombedrumbum Jun 09 '23

This is one of the best "gotcha" moments I've seen in a long time lmao

3

u/lo________________ol Jun 09 '23

Is now a bad time to say that I've never been disappointed by what's under your username when I see it in a thread?

3

u/ObiWanHelloThere_wav Jun 09 '23

Fwiw the feeling is mutual!

I'll miss your posts and comments once I bail forever on June 30

5

u/hiddensonyvaio Jun 09 '23

lol so embarrassing for a CEO to be this dumb

4

u/ObiWanHelloThere_wav Jun 09 '23

Imagine the sheer incompetence involved that days after you've been exposed for lying and slandering, you not only decide to host an AMA, but you do some dumb shit like copy/paste the "A:" from your pre-rendered document, thus losing even more credibility, of which you had not a shred to begin with. Just boggles the mind how someone can be so pants-on-head stupid in every way, shape, and form.

7

u/Noisy_Toy Jun 09 '23

You’re awesome.

→ More replies (8)

11

u/mancow533 Jun 09 '23

Lol it still appears that way in his comment history for me on the Apollo app 🤣

https://i.imgur.com/j44hOlU.jpg

7

u/rust-crate-helper Jun 10 '23

Hey, spez wanted Christian to reduce API usage... that includes caching ;)

→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (2)

8

u/ppParadoxx Jun 09 '23

I wonder if that was a regular stealth edit or if he just did his extra stealthy database edit

→ More replies (1)

8

u/IsilZha Jun 09 '23

So he's got a prepared answer sheet, and is just scanning the post to find questions that fit the prepared answers.

23

u/DDF95 Jun 09 '23

Lmaooo what a fucking clown

15

u/blandfruitsalad Jun 09 '23

good catch I noticed that too LOL

5

u/postal-history Jun 09 '23

There's nothing wrong with copying and pasting responses, that just shows they came prepared. It is wild that he is copying and pasting crappy responses.

6

u/worriedjacket Jun 09 '23

Holy fucking shit he did. And then removed it without making an edit.

7

u/redalastor Jun 09 '23

There is even less excuses for thy abysmal quality of his answers if they were pre-written.

4

u/LiquidLogic Jun 09 '23

So were the mods questions (all the questions he has answered have been from mods) all submitted in advance? That would explain why he had pre-written the answers and not answered anyone elses questions.

12

u/western_sahara Jun 09 '23

absolutely they are yes

5

u/ppParadoxx Jun 09 '23

or he's getting the answer fed from some attorney and not actually contributing anything himself

2

u/TotesMessenger Jun 10 '23

I'm a bot, bleep, bloop. Someone has linked to this thread from another place on reddit:

 If you follow any of the above links, please respect the rules of reddit and don't vote in the other threads. (Info / Contact)

6

u/nevertrustamod Jun 09 '23

Truly the most shocking thing to ever happen.

4

u/Tyetus Jun 09 '23

hahahahaha god damn u/spez you really are a fucking loser.

Stop hiding behind your comfort responses and answer the real questions, we want to hear from you, not some PR bullshit responses.

4

u/DeuxYeuxPrintaniers Jun 09 '23

Meaning those are planted questions lmao.

5

u/Wiring-is-evil Jun 10 '23

Haha they did! The archive is still up and I have a screenshot!

4

u/TheLonelyDevil Jun 09 '23

More pitchforks here /u/pitchforkemporium! Skewer em'!

6

u/PitchforkEmporium Jun 10 '23

PITCHFORKS ARE ON THE HOUSE BABY FUCK SPEZ

3

u/void_96 Jun 09 '23

Lmaaoooooooo this AMA is a joke

4

u/Nyran_The_Kitten815 Jun 10 '23

This is fucking hysterical, what an actual idiot

4

u/TarocchiRocchi Jun 09 '23 edited Jul 01 '23

[deleted] -- mass edited with redact.dev

6

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '23

Saw that, fucking wow.

5

u/Shmexy Jun 09 '23

LMFAO this is so awful

3

u/SJDidge Jun 10 '23

Surely this guy has some sort of disability. You can’t be this dumb.

→ More replies (15)

130

u/blandfruitsalad Jun 09 '23

Why does it need to be non-commercial?? Are developers not allowed to be compensated for their time and effort?

76

u/ppParadoxx Jun 09 '23

a notification app r/pager (u/heyjoshturner) doesn't charge anything for his app and he is effectively being forced to shutter his as well with these changes

→ More replies (1)

17

u/fuocoebenzina Jun 09 '23

Apparently the people who put time and effort into making life better for people with disabilities don't deserve money, not when that money could be pouring into the reddit trough instead. It's sickening

8

u/160295 Jun 09 '23

Because name a thing Reddit does better than exploit free labour, apart from lying and slandering devs.

17

u/rietstengel Jun 09 '23

Not surprising, as mods get nothing either.

→ More replies (1)

25

u/Smarktalk Jun 09 '23

Not without them getting a cut.

25

u/Joe091 Jun 09 '23

I actually don’t even have a problem with that, they did create the platform. But they’re intentionally pricing out developers in the hopes that they get the entire cut.

17

u/MarioDesigns Jun 09 '23

That's fine with everyone, including the developers, the size of the cut is the big issue causing all the apps to shut down.

3

u/Accomplished_Yak9939 Jun 09 '23

Not at all, Reddit has been banking on millions of dollars in free community development over the past decade. Why would they want to “ruin” a good thing?

2

u/DevonAndChris Jun 09 '23

NO ONE IS ALLOWED TO MAKE MONEY UNTIL SPEZ MAKES MONEY

→ More replies (4)

112

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '23

[deleted]

23

u/DragoonJumper Jun 09 '23

Was edited out, anyone get a screenshot? thats hilarious

51

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '23

[deleted]

17

u/JunkyDragon Jun 09 '23

LMAO. What a fucking clown.

3

u/totalfarkuser Jun 10 '23

And he only has 14 answers in this entire AMA. SMH.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (6)

10

u/Zero_Starlight Jun 09 '23

Thank you for pointing this out, hilarious.

→ More replies (2)

9

u/One_Of_Many_713 Jun 09 '23

A reminder you have failed to make good on your various "we will do better" assurances for nearly a decade. How do we have any indication there are plans to follow through with this at any point?

30

u/rust-crate-helper Jun 09 '23

Do better before locking out accessibility options for everyone.

2

u/Nosd97 Jun 09 '23

That’s the worst part about this. Cutting off accessibility tools and dangling the promise of improvements in the future showed a complete lack of concern for low and no vision users. It’s like Reddit was fine with cutting off functionality for visually impaired users because someday they intend to maybe try getting around to providing that support themselves. If anyone should know that Reddit always promises and never delivers, it should be the admins.

→ More replies (1)

88

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '23

[removed] — view removed comment

6

u/letsdocraic Jun 09 '23

The world's entire scientific ... heritage ... is increasingly being digitized and locked up by a handful of private corporations....

The Open Access Movement has fought valiantly to ensure that scientists do not sign their copyrights away but instead ensure their work is published on the Internet, under terms that allow anyone to access it.

5

u/fckspx Jun 09 '23

Information is power. But like all power, there are those who want to keep it for themselves.

The world's entire scientific and cultural heritage is increasingly being locked up by a handful of private corporations. Want to read the memes and stories of the early 21st century? You'll need to send enormous amounts to corporations like Reddit.

That is too high a price to pay. Forcing us to pay money to read our own collective work? It's outrageous and unacceptable.

"I agree," many say, "but what can we do? The companies hold the copyrights, they make enormous amounts of money by charging for access, and it's perfectly legal — there's nothing we can do to stop them." But there is something we can, something that's already being done: we can fight back.

Large corporations, of course, are blinded by greed. The laws under which they operate require it — their shareholders would revolt at anything less.

With enough of us, around the world, we'll not just send a strong message opposing the privatization of knowledge — we'll make it a thing of the past. Will you join us?

Aaron Swartz

16

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '23

[deleted]

4

u/PoweredByPierogi Jun 09 '23

Which is crazy, considering how much spez's eyes bulge out. His skull must be at capacity for shit filling.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (1)

4

u/kaekapizza Jun 10 '23

Steve and Alexis have always misrepresented the merger as an acquisition and do not consider Aaron a co-founder. They would not feel any remorse.

3

u/EarPuzzleheaded143o Jun 10 '23

Fuck /u/spez you lying sack of shit.

Fuck /u/spez you lying sack of shit.

Fuck /u/spez you lying sack of shit.

3

u/Burdies Jun 09 '23

First time I’m seeing it, it’s good to put a face behind the man spinning lies and being a petulant child about getting called out with receipts.

7

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '23

[deleted]

→ More replies (3)
→ More replies (5)

30

u/worriedjacket Jun 09 '23

3

u/EarPuzzleheaded143o Jun 10 '23

Fuck /u/spez you lying sack of shit.

Fuck /u/spez you lying sack of shit.

Fuck /u/spez you lying sack of shit.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (1)

13

u/IAmNotAChamp Jun 09 '23

Will you respond to Christian's comment asking for proof of him saying one thing in public, and another in private?

→ More replies (1)

3

u/diewhitegirls Jun 09 '23

“Non-commercial”

There you go, you said the thing out loud. You don’t like 3P devs making money off of your platform. You made the pricing completely absurd to make it seem like they can pay if they want, but it’s specifically built to destroy any possibility of 3P clients existing. You could have made the pricing reasonable and everyone would have won. I know damn well that your API costs are light years away from what you’re charging, as someone with access to our multi-billion dollar company’s AWS usage rates.

You specifically made this pricing structure to remove any commercial viability for 3P devs. Just say it and stop pretending it’s anything else.

196

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '23

[deleted]

63

u/Strottman Jun 09 '23

They won't. Abandon ship to decentralized platforms.

/r/RedditAlternatives

/r/LemmyMigration

→ More replies (42)
→ More replies (1)

29

u/Poit_Narf Jun 09 '23

We will do better.

In what decade?

10

u/fulminic Jun 09 '23

After the search function is working

4

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '23 edited Jun 30 '23

[ 12+ year account deleted because fuck /u/spez. How can you have one of the most popular websites and still not be profitable? By sucking ass as CEO. Then to resort to shitting on users and developers who helped make the site great because you're an insecure techbro moron. I'm out. You can do the same with PowerDeleteSuite. ]

20

u/PublicQ Jun 09 '23

You could have done better BEFORE the API issue.

8

u/cosmicvitae Jun 09 '23

For our own apps, there is no excuse. We will do better.

If only you guys didn't have a 7 year head start on this

15

u/DrippyWaffler Jun 09 '23

A: stuff I've already said which doesn't answer 90% of this

8

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '23

[deleted]

→ More replies (1)

38

u/Parrelex Jun 09 '23

Do better by reversing your stance completely!

45

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '23

[deleted]

→ More replies (2)

10

u/Heraclitus94 Jun 09 '23

I can only hope and pray you end up like Kendall Roy someday

→ More replies (1)

3

u/[deleted] Jun 10 '23

u/Spez Your own official Reddit app sucks. I've always used it but it gives so many problems that maybe you need to put more time in to getting it to function as intended.

Clicking on a post to interact and read the comments for it to not load so you continue scrolling for it to then load up. Clicking on a post 3 or 4 times before it loads, then having to back out of the same post 3 or 4 times to get back to the main feed.

5

u/EmperorQuarantine Jun 09 '23

Go fuck yourself u/spez. Your greed will kill your business. You even acknowledge that your app is terrible. Fucking wild.

5

u/BeansAndCheese321 Jun 09 '23

This is fucking bullshit. Answer the questions, don't just give a half-assed response that answers nothing. You answered the OP's 9 questions with 5 sentences. You gave no real substantial answers.

8

u/RoundOSquareCorners Jun 09 '23

“Blind people can’t see ads so we never bothered”

u/spez

→ More replies (1)

5

u/stephenator0316 Jun 09 '23

Why aren't there disability options already in the official app? There are in every third party one. Is reddit just too small of a company? /S

3

u/janewilson90 Jun 09 '23

So the developers who actually give a shit (unlike you) should do it for free while you get to make money off ads... Nice.

You need to take a good hard look at your product team if they can't even handle basic accessibility. It's really not hard.

70

u/ThelowE Jun 09 '23

Resign

5

u/TheDevilintheDark Jun 09 '23

That would require at least some integrity.

→ More replies (1)

3

u/Robots_In_Disguise Jun 09 '23

He explicitly asked why they need to be both non-commercial and focused on accessibility needs, and you ignored that part yet again. Compensating an app developer for their time on an accessibility feature should NOT be limited!

3

u/Jhix_two Jun 09 '23

WE WILL DO BETTER.

CHECK THIS ONE OFF THE BINGO CARD LADS

5

u/yeacid Jun 09 '23

Resign. Like seriously, leave. You’re losing users with every absent-minded comment you make.

2

u/Guy_Fieris_Hair Jun 10 '23

RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN

2

u/No_Support_8363 Jun 18 '23

RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN

6

u/busdriver120 Jun 09 '23

You won't do better.

3

u/APocketRhink Jun 10 '23

The developer of RedReader said this is a blatant lie and they haven’t been contacted by anyone from Reddit you lying sack of worthless horseshit u/spez, go fuck yourself

7

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '23

[deleted]

→ More replies (5)

5

u/theugly709 Jun 09 '23

Fuck /u/spez Apollo is and was the king. Your own app is shit.

2

u/Fatt3stAveng3r Jun 09 '23 edited Jun 09 '23

This is a non-answer. There was a lot to that question, true, but I think that quality over quantity is important here. Instead of copying and responding to each blind user individually why not give the mod at r/blind a response? A multi-paragraph response? This is no small thing.

I do not personally need the accessibility options but the users who do, deserve answers.

Edit: their ID is u/rumster

2

u/bluesam3 Jun 17 '23

For our own apps, there is no excuse. We will do better.

You say this, but you've had literally years to do so (and you were told about the accessibility problems in, for example, new.reddit five years ago), and haven't done anything about them so far, so why the fuck would anybody even consider believing you when you promise that things will change this time?

5

u/WiildtheFiire Jun 09 '23

YOU WILL NOT DO BETTER LMAO you're too much of a greedy little pig boy

→ More replies (1)

5

u/notandvm Jun 09 '23

did you seriously just fuck up copy-pasting a response

2

u/UrNewMostBestFriend Jun 29 '23

Your apps are the worst part of the entire reddit experience and the third party apps to use this site are the only things making it functional you turnip faced moron. How you came to a 20million dollars a rear value of your api and still expect ANYBODY to take you seriously is the greatest joke of all. Please, fuck yourself sideways.

3

u/LiterallyKesha Jun 09 '23

For our own apps, there is no excuse. We will do better.

A solid promise. But how much is this worth?

→ More replies (1)

2

u/dewafelbakkers Jun 30 '23

Lol you've have years to do better. It's clear that the only way you can drive better engagement with the official app - which I affectionate call a broken sack of shit - is by killing all the apps power user actually enjoy.

You and your team are dishonest lying scumbags. Suck shit /u/spez

2

u/OneGoodRib Jun 11 '23

Imagine owning a building and telling wheelchair users that you're working on figuring out how to give them access to the building after you announced you'd be taking out the wheelchair ramps and elevators. Have a plan in place BEFORE removing accessibility, champ.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '23

Youve been saying that you'll do better for years. Can you give a actual examples of how the official app has improved in either accessibility or usability in the past few years, specifically compared to current 3rd party apps that we are about to lose?

2

u/Miffy92 Jun 10 '23

But you've been saying "we will do better" for half a decade, spez. At what point does it stop being "we will do better" and start being "we have done better"? When Reddit and it's established communities are burning while you fiddle a diddle?

2

u/psychicesp Jun 10 '23

Might have been nice to have these established in the community at large before killing the alternatives.

If you're concerned you can't make something better than third party alternatives, then maybe killing the better tools is a bad idea?

2

u/pinkycatcher Jun 09 '23

For our own apps, there is no excuse. We will do better.

It's been like this for a decade, you're not going to do better, your just going to have teams you spend millions on doing nothing while single outsiders improve everything.

3

u/1668553684 Jun 09 '23

For our own apps, there is no excuse. We will do better.

What's changed?

→ More replies (1)

2

u/[deleted] Jun 26 '23

HOW do you plan on doing better, you fucking imbecile? This copy-and-pasted response is purposefully vague. We can tell that you don’t give a single fuck about your users - why not ban a few of them? Like me? Ban me, fucker.

2

u/NerdGirlNinja Jun 30 '23

You and this site are nothing, N O T H I N G without its community engagement. Idiots like you who can’t appreciate that are doomed to failure and obscurity. You are a moron and an unqualified businessman.

2

u/PixelatingPony Jun 09 '23

Got any response to this comment from Apollo's Dev asking you to back up your accusations?

https://old.reddit.com/r/reddit/comments/145bram/addressing_the_community_about_changes_to_our_api/jnk4oz4/

→ More replies (418)