Reddit app 'Apollo' is shutting down over Reddit's prices

eightzero

AppleInsider said:

If he removes the Reddit API from Apollo, the app will lose the ability to retrieve Reddit content. As a result, many users will likely ask for a refund on their annual app subscriptions.

Selig anticipates that he could be responsible for a substantial sum of $250,000 if that happens. As a result, it's more affordable for him to shut down.

Read on AppleInsider

I'm not following: won't people that paid for an annual subscription be asking for a refund if they shut down too?

And herein is the issue with "subscriptions." As the old saying goes: any warranty is only as good as the company issuing it. When they disappear, so does your warranty. 

I would have thought developers escrowed any advance they receive for services for just this situation. Guess that's not the case, hunh? 

chutzpah

eightzero said:

AppleInsider said:

If he removes the Reddit API from Apollo, the app will lose the ability to retrieve Reddit content. As a result, many users will likely ask for a refund on their annual app subscriptions.

Selig anticipates that he could be responsible for a substantial sum of $250,000 if that happens. As a result, it's more affordable for him to shut down.

Read on AppleInsider

I'm not following: won't people that paid for an annual subscription be asking for a refund if they shut down too?

And herein is the issue with "subscriptions." As the old saying goes: any warranty is only as good as the company issuing it. When they disappear, so does your warranty. 

I would have thought developers escrowed any advance they receive for services for just this situation. Guess that's not the case, hunh? 

That's the point.  He's on the hook for $250k of subscription refunds, but that pales in comparison to the $20 million he'd have to pay Reddit in API fees if he were to try and keep going and honour the subscription service.  He'd understandly rather give the refunds.

I guess all the Reddit channel black outs achieved diddly squat.

bakerzdosen

I can't see anyone who has been paying attention that's surprised by this.

Reddit has said they don't want to shut down 3rd party client apps, but they also just want to be paid for the infrastructure they have built and maintain.

dogpaw

eightzero said:

I would have thought developers escrowed any advance they receive for services for just this situation. Guess that's not the case, hunh? 

I'm not really a fan of the subscription model, but at least if you're paying small amount every month and Reddit pulls the rug out from under you like they did the with API fees, then you cancel and it's over. If you paid a year in advance or a one-time/lifetime purchase then you're out even more.

You're also talking about making developers bridge the gap in the event that an API they use decides to change their ToS. I don't think that's something they should necessarily be responsible for.

tzm41

bakerzdosen said:

I can't see anyone who has been paying attention that's surprised by this.

Reddit has said they don't want to shut down 3rd party client apps, but they also just want to be paid for the infrastructure they have built and maintain.

I see both sides of this story, but considering how chatty Apollo is with Reddit's API, this was one of only three possible outcomes:

• Reddit caves on their pricing demands
• Apollo shuts down
• Apollo is re-written to be more efficient in its communication.

The protest is supposed to accomplish the first point [narrator: it won't], and the developer has said the third point wasn't really feasible, so... surprise! We get option 2.

So users suffer and Reddit gets a black eye. But the internet has a really short memory

Can you elaborate on the "chatty" point? From reading the dev's reddit post, his app uses about 345 requests per user per day, compared to maybe 100 of some other apps. That does not look wildly inefficient to me. Reddit limits API use to 60 per minute per user, so 345 is a tiny fraction of that limit. Maybe users are just on Apollo longer, maybe Apollo is a tiny bit more inefficient. Nothing outrageous.

The main issue though, is that Reddit gave the dev a month from announcing the new rate before starting to pay at the rate. There's no chance a dev can roll out a significantly more efficient version in a month.