I was actively using the app on my phone and it suddenly crashed at 4:10pm PDT. I thought it was just my phone acting up but then I realized that’s about 12am UTC. With the death of Apollo also goes the metaphorical death of all the best parts (IMO) of the internet: open-source, creativity, entrepreneurial spirit. Sad day. I guess I’ll go outside now.<p>Edit: sorry, Apollo wasn’t open source. That’s what happens when I make a post while two beers deep I guess. Hopefully you get the general spirit of what I was trying to convey.
I remember signing up for Reddit as a college freshman. I was a digg user and joined Reddit in the aftermath of that fiasco. I sometimes laugh looking over my post history for the past decade plus. If you read the posts linearly, you can trace my evolution from a kid arguing passionately over politics and culture (things he didn't really know much about), to a more mature young adult who rarely waded into discussions unless he had something meaningful to contribute. To me now, as a 31 year old man, who mainly posts on a few private subreddits full of likeminded people (and still occasionally gets into arguments about things he knows nothing about).<p>Until today I had not really mentally processed that Reddit as we knew it was going away. Until a hour or two ago I started get Rate Limits on Reddit Sync. At first I thought it was some kind of bug. Then noticed the date.<p>Like others mentioned, it will take some getting used to not having it. I've already noticed since the blackouts that "site:reddit.com" is less effective than it was even a month or two ago: some of the key subreddits I used have gone and stayed dark. I wish the owners of Reddit the best in turning their website into TikTok. But if I have need for mindless entertainment, I'll probably just use TikTok directly. The small communities of likeminded people are not as easy to replace, and will be missed.
I’ve long used Apollo to hold an alt account.<p>I just downloaded the official app and logged in. In 3 minutes I deleted it.<p>Ignoring design issues, all of a sudden the official app grabbed ALL Reddit links and if I viewed Reddit in Safari there was an unremovable “Open in the app” banner <i>above</i> the Safari content that couldn’t be removed.<p>No way. Deleted.<p>The last year has just destroyed so much of the value I get out of the internet.
RIP Bacon Reader.<p>Reddit, you’ve burned so much goodwill.<p>I’ve been an enthusiastic user for over 14 years. Now I’m planning to delete my content.<p>At one point recently, I got excited about applying for an engineering leadership position with you, but this debacle has made me realize your senior leadership is not who I want to be reporting to.
I tried Apollo early on and it was a bit too bare-bones.<p>After all the news, I gave it another whirl for the past month and it’s <i>very nice</i>. After previously using the official app, it was a breath of fresh air to see a native video player, native share sheets, and so much more. Super nice, useful details like image counts on galleries. Such a shame that Reddit’s huge team is actively working in the opposite direction.<p>Amazing work, Christian. Really unfortunate that Reddit has gone in this direction and truly shameful and disgusting how they’ve handled it.
If you care about this stuff, please at least give the fediverse a try. Yes it's inadequate right now in all kinds of ways. But the main reason is that not enough people are there. It needs critical mass.<p>Pick whatever you want - kbin, lemmy, mastodon. Go there, find your community (it will probably look very sad compared to Reddit). And contribute something positive - comment, post, whatever. If everybody just did that, we would kickstart something durable that couldn't be destroyed and take back the internet that everybody is pining for.
I am still somewhat shocked that they went through with this.<p>I built a Reddit API[1] alternative as a form of protest, they responded by blocking my personal Reddit account. Very sad what Reddit has become.<p>1 - <a href="https://api.reddiw.com" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://api.reddiw.com</a>
I'm one of the first Reddit users, joining in October 2005.<p>My usage has gone up and down over the years, but for the first time ever for me, Reddit doesn't have a bookmark, a pinned app, or any way for me to get to it other than typing in the URL.<p>I don't care about all of the API drama beyond the fact that I was paying for a Reddit premium subscription AND Apollo to have a good experience using Reddit and, now that that isn't an option, I am stepping away for the time being.<p>Reddit will forever have a special place in my heart.
What's so sad about this is how easily it could have been avoided. Reddit could have done their equivalent of Musk's blue checkmark push and actually <i>succeeded</i> by simply requiring a paid user account for third party API access. Plans and pricing would have been implementation details to hash out, but they literally had everything they needed for it already in place.<p>Instead they came up with a half-baked approach that's a terrible fit for how apps in the Apple and Android ecosystems are <i>allowed to charge</i> and gave developers 30 days to be ready for it - or ~75 if you want to be generous and go back to when they said "hey, we were wrong a few months ago, we are going to a paid API after all." Sure Narwhal has negotiated an extension (the developer declines to say anything about it, but he's not eating months of API charges) while he prepares <i>a completely rewritten version of his app</i> that will work with the new subscriptions. *slow clap* I wish him well.
Sync is also dead. They just sent out a push notification: <i>"Sync for reddit had shutdown. Thank you for using Sync. It's been one hell of a ride."</i>
When I was younger and in college I remember Spez coming to my city to visit friends and gave a small talk, detailing how they got started. I was enraptured by Reddit, tech and coding at the time so I really looked up to him and what they were doing.<p>I am sorely disappointed in how things have turned out. Tech as we know it has become this sick, twisted battle for clicks and eye-balls and exits. Not to discount those that are doing great work, but where did all the integrity go?<p>Edit: remember when Google had the audacity to have the catchphrase “don’t be evil”? Bahahaha. Good stuff.
Bye, Apollo. I kind of feel like a drug has been taken away from me. It’s is going to take a bit to adjust to not using Reddit on my phone, as I refuse to use their app.
I am actually quite sad about this. I noticed the same thing re Apollo app no longer working. I used Apollo to interact with a number of communities and have tried the official app and the website (both new and old) and simply cannot use them in the same manner as I used Apollo. I am done with Reddit now and the void created by losing the communities I interacted with has left me with a feeling of loneliness. Damn you u/spez.
There will be a spiritual successor though, for kbin/Lemmy, called Artemis: <a href="https://kbin.social/m/ArtemisApp" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://kbin.social/m/ArtemisApp</a><p>Right now it's in a closed beta, and the size of the closed beta is increasing slowly through the end of the month. The goal is for it to be public around the start of August. That kbin magazine has a link to a signup sheet for the closed beta.<p>(disclosure? I was an alpha tester for it, and so far it looks AMAZING. The dev is awesome, it's a really friendly community, and the amount of progress in just 2 weeks of development is really impressive.)
I started reading the Wheel of Time books this year and I discovered their surprisingly active subreddit where they have an active read-along including spoiler free first time reader threads.<p>I listen to the No Dumb Questions podcast and the official episode discussion threads are on Reddit. As are the official discussion threads for the Nebula original Jet Lag episodes. As are the best unofficial discussion threads for newly aired TV show episodes.<p>When new Age of Empires or Planet Zoo patches/expansions drop the only place to find thoughtful discussion is the subreddits for the games. The actual game developers hang out there as well. The subreddit wiki for Cities Skylines is the best guide to mods available on the internet. If you need to talk Civ strategy or want to follow the latest Smash Bros tournament then Reddit is the best place to go.<p>Similar to when new music drops from a major artist - the best interactive discussion happens on Reddit.<p>I haven't found anywhere that's as good as /r/NFL for game threads during the season.<p>-----<p>I've long given up looking at Reddit for any meaningful discussion.<p>Every major sub is infected with noxious politics. Technology/programming subreddits are flooded with confidently stated but mostly uninformed opinions. Trying to post something helpful feels like swimming against the tide.<p>But I still go to Reddit for discussion about media be it books, podcasts, video games, music, sports, or others.<p>I really hope someone migrates those communities somewhere else so I can finally ignore the site.
This is sad, but the silver lining is that the official app is horrible enough that it will more or less force me to go cold turkey on breaking my Reddit addiction.
I pretty much only like Reddit for niche communities and fighting shit google results.<p>The latter is a necessity but for the former there’s other communities to satiate my needs. It’s just that it’s a bit of a fragmented way of diving into my interests.<p>Is there such a thing as a forum aggregator?
Sad day indeed. Swiping to refresh and just seeing blank views everywhere was such an abrupt and matter of fact ending.<p>I’m wondering a few things:<p>1. Will the app ever be made open source<p>2. Could an endeavor be undertaken to give everyone their own ability to auth to the api themselves? Then instead of relying on the Apollo oauth keys you plug your own in and/or run your own self-hosted auth infra. These days it’s so easy to spin up an app on Fly or similar. Could see small communities a-La mastodon where one person operates an auth/api server for themselves and a few others (distribute the api load to many tiny api instances) versus the Apollo situation where one dev is footing the bill for every user.<p>Hate to see what is hands down the best iOS app of all time just poof disappear.
So many sites and companies have turned on the users that put them on the map. Twitter, Red Hat, Reddit. It's like they're saying "we don't need the users anymore."
Still using Boost with the ReVanced patch[0]. No telling how long that will last though. Regardless, I'm massively scaling back my use of Reddit.<p>[0] <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wHvqQwCYdJrQg4BKlGIVDLksPN0KpOnJWniT6PbZSrI/edit?usp=drivesdk" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wHvqQwCYdJrQg4BKlGIVDLks...</a><p>Edit: For those interested, the patch just lets you use your own API key. But the dev is no longer supporting the app and there's no telling whether the bring-your-own-key strategy will work in the long term, considering Reddit's recent behavior.
>Edit: sorry, Apollo wasn’t open source. That’s what happens when I make a post while two beers deep I guess.<p>Well, the server backend was recently opened:<p><a href="https://github.com/christianselig/apollo-backend">https://github.com/christianselig/apollo-backend</a>
RedReader for Android, and Dystopia for iOS were both granted exemptions to the new API pricing by Reddit due to their accessibility and non-commercial nature.
Thank you Apollo for all the fun times. You made it way too easy to use Reddit. While you will be missed, I’m glad this is giving me time back in my life.<p>I’ve already finished two books since the new API pricing was revealed, and I am NOT a book reader (having read less than 10 books in my lifetime, and I’m turning 40 this year). But I’m happy to be becoming one.<p>Bye Reddit. I hope one day your corporate leaders will look back and realize the error of their ways and how they single-handedly destroyed countless online communities practically overnight.
I can honestly say that I have no intention to continue using reddit on any mobile device without apps like Apollo, Sync etc. A real shame, because I found reddit communities made over hobbies to be such a good source of anecdotal information.
I'm going to miss reddit. I was one of the people who came over from digg. I deleted the app and stopped using the site when the protest happened. There's a missing itch for me for short to medium form content that isn't straight news, or straight memes. A thousand person discord server works differently than a 10k person reddit.<p>Part of me wonders if this is inevitable. We used to do this ever few years. Hoping from aim/man/yahoo to Skype to discord. I guess we figured things had gotten stable enough. Maybe this is a good thing. Maybe we all got too comfortable and thought our content consumption habits could stay the same for ever. The internet has changed from when I first got on Reddit. I wont say for better or worse. I don't like it as much.
GeoCities redux.<p>Corporations don't like communities unless they can profit. One day the Greater Community will arise as a non-profit under the control of its contributers.<p>"The community literally helped this site grow to what it is today by engaging with and creating content, creating communities (sub-reddits), and moderators who assisted in developing those communities for free." -- <a href="https://old.reddit.com/r/Save3rdPartyApps/comments/14kjohc/never_forget_how_reddit_began_as_an_empty_website" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://old.reddit.com/r/Save3rdPartyApps/comments/14kjohc/n...</a>
This happens to coincide with the date that a new law (singed May 12th) goes into effect in Virginia requiring commercial entities that publish or distribute "material harmful to minors" to verify the age of the users. Commercial entities violating that may suffer civil penalties.<p><a href="https://legiscan.com/VA/text/SB1515/2023" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://legiscan.com/VA/text/SB1515/2023</a>
Yup, same thing, wasn't sure what timezone it was gonna happen in, then all of a sudden it did. Screenshotted a couple pages of my (cached) home page for the memories.
Probably would have been interesting to relaunch the Apollo with its own backend as a direct competitor to Reddit. I think one simple push notification would've pulled millions of the most active users over to the new service
> the death of Apollo also goes the metaphorical death of all the best parts (IMO) of the internet: open-source, creativity, entrepreneurial spirit.<p>It died years ago for me. I don't want go get too nostalgic, but it depresses how amazing the early internet was compared to what it is today. The early years of web 2.0 (2002 - 2007ish) were the golden age imo.<p>Then Facebook and the smart phone came along... From that point on the internet was no longer a place for geeks on their desktop computers to chat on forums and build cool stuff for other geeks. It became mainstream. Boomers got online. Children got online. Then the corporations monetised everything.<p>Everything happening to Reddit today is a result of boomers, children and corporations going online. Edgey content gets banned or boomers complain. Everything gets age-gated or censored because, "think of the kids". And all you're left with is sterile advertiser friendly content served next to half a dozen ads.
Official post as shared over here earlier (<a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36541886">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36541886</a>)<p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/apolloapp/comments/14nb5qs/today_is_apollo_for_reddits_last_day_and_i_just/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.reddit.com/r/apolloapp/comments/14nb5qs/today_is...</a>
WefWef [1] is a Lemmy client that looks and feels very similar to Apollo and even supports importing the data exports created by Apollo. It feels almost native despite being a web app. For anyone looking for a Reddit/Apollo alternative I would recommend checking it out.<p>[1]: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36488016">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36488016</a>
The last two weeks I noticed an onset depression in my life and I think it was because I basically stopped using Reddit since the blackout started and I have no intent to go back. I swear it was an addiction withdrawal.<p>I’ve been feeling better the past 2 days but I do miss having a place that helps me keep in touch with the parts of the world I cared about.
I’ve only really used Apollo on Reddit. The official app never stuck for me and I don’t have it installed. It’s one of the few apps I only really use on my phone, so I don’t have it bookmarked or anything. At this point, I’m burned and so I’ll take my ball and go home.<p>I bought the screensavers though. Thanks for all the good times Apollo.
> metaphorical death of all the best parts (IMO) of the internet: open-source, creativity, entrepreneurial spirit.<p>That's a weird connection to make. Reddit isn't be-all-end-all of open source (given that it or most of the major apps were never open source anyway)
Narwhal (a 3rd-party iOS Reddit app) is still going and it turns out not biting the hand that feeds you works pretty well.<p>Respect to the Apollo guy for having the confidence that he could get Reddit to back down through a well-organized PR campaign. But he could’ve had a decent business if he’d just backed down, given in a little, and not tried to make Spez look like a bigger idiot/liar than he already did.<p>I love a good risky David v. Goliath gamble and would’ve liked to see him win, but sometimes you lose it all.
I came here from Apollo today. I think I’ll be happier having a news feed without all the ridiculous stuff. Hopefully the community is decent.<p>Edit: I will genuinely miss Apollo, but it was what made reddit useable for me. It was one of those rare pieces of software that was so elegant that at a first glance you would assume it was only a few hundred lines of code. That kind of elegance is rare and beautiful. It belongs in some sort of software hall of fame.
I'm curious what happens to reddit now. I'm guessing just auto pilot of low effort content. Don't think it'll truly die as far as numbers go.
Yeah you’re drunk. Apollo was a cash grab and selig admitted as such. That being said no one can give any points to Reddit for how they handled things either.
Centralization of internet forums was always going to end like this. I hope this accelerates the decline of Reddit dot com. The moderation and the censorship is pretty much universal across the large boards. You will find tons of deleted comments on anything which challenges the common view remotely. Can't say I'm not glad the site is going down, or enough alternatives pop up.
I'm pouring one out for Apollo tonight, I tried the official Reddit app and it's hot garbage and the Reddit website is somehow worse.<p>Mastodon and Lemmy are fine, but I'm old enough to remember the web I grew up with and that what I would really like to see is a Renaissance of niche bulletin boards and RSS based blogs. I'm not holding my breath though.
Remember Alien Blue before Reddit bought it? That app still appears to work:<p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AlienBlue/comments/14nimob/alien_blue_still_functions/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.reddit.com/r/AlienBlue/comments/14nimob/alien_bl...</a>
At this point I'm more angry at the mods than I am the evil corporation. They were afraid of Reddit ruining Reddit so they went ahead and burned it down themselves first. Congratulations, you got to be the ones to light the match.
I am confused, 12:00am UTC is 8:00pm EDT. So UTC 12:00 should be 11:00 pm PDF. It is 7:40 EDT as I type this on June 30<p>EDIT: was in junethack while typing this, yes 5pm PDT is 12 UTC :)
Oh that's dumb. I forgot to check my inbox before midnight. I had offered Tildes invites and don't have the password to that account (but have been logged in since years, can access the auth token, etc., but reddit doesn't want you to recover from this scenario, so that's gone forever).<p>Well... anyone here needs a Tildes invite?