Comment on Monday Daily Questions (Newbie Friendly) - Aug 28, 2023
gcgallant@sub.wetshaving.social 1 year agoThank you. I’ve looked around and haven’t found anything. Since Lemmy looks like reddit but exists in the fediverse I hoped that someone would write an app that supported both the reddit and fediverse APIs to provide a consistent UI for those who want to exist in both seamlessly.
PorkButtsNTaters666@sub.wetshaving.social 1 year ago
It’s unlikely that anyone will write an app using reddit’s API, because this is a huge financial risk (the blackout was about this).
gcgallant@sub.wetshaving.social 1 year ago
You are probably right.
I am aware of Reddit’s change in policy that went into effect in July. $12,000 for 50 million API requests and free for “non-commercial accessibility apps” (Reddit’s term). Since Reddit is a for-profit business and is owned by a company (Advance Publications) that wants to be publicly traded, this all makes sense to me. 50 million API requests is probably a pretty high bar to meet for an app that facilitates a move from Reddit to the Fediverse, and if the app received non-commercial status it would be fine. And an app could use a subscription policy to cover API costs, which some of the Reddit apps have moved to.
From a practical standpoint, I don’t see this as a “huge financial risk”. I see it as a solvable problem. I don’t think there’s enough obvious benefit to motivate a developer to expend the effort, however.
djundjila@sub.wetshaving.social 1 year ago
I’m not quite sure about that. I’m missing something, because you should be right, but the effort is already expended, yet still many reddit apps have shut down rather than switching to a subscription model. There was no technical change to the API. For example sync for Reddit and sync for Lemmy could be the same app and you just pay if you want to use the Reddit part, but that’s not the way the devs decided. They preferred writing off their investment into the Reddit API.
I find this confusing.
gcgallant@sub.wetshaving.social 1 year ago
As do I. It comes across to me as more of an idealistic choice than a pragmatic one.