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AMAs are the latest casualty in Reddit’s API war

By: Scharon Harding
CLOSE UP OF PRESS CONFERENCE MICROPHONES

Enlarge (credit: Getty)

Ask Me Anything (AMA) has been a Reddit staple that helped popularize the social media platform. It delivered some unique, personal, and, at times, fiery interviews between public figures and people who submitted questions. The Q&A format became so popular that many people host so-called AMAs these days, but the main subreddit has been r/IAmA, where the likes of then-US President Barack Obama and Bill Gates have sat in the virtual hot seat. But that subreddit, which has been called its own "juggernaut of a media brand," is about to look a lot different and likely less reputable.

On July 1, Reddit moved forward with changes to its API pricing that has infuriated a large and influential portion of its user base. High pricing and a 30-day adjustment period resulted in many third-party Reddit apps closing and others moving to paid-for models that developers are unsure are sustainable.

The latest casualty in the Reddit battle has a profound impact on one of the most famous forms of Reddit content and signals a potential trend in Reddit content changing for the worse.

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Popular Reddit App Apollo Shutting Down After Today, Pixel Pals Migration Feature Added

By: Juli Clover
Popular third-party Reddit app Apollo is set to shut down after today as Reddit will be implementing its paid API changes tomorrow. Apollo's shuttering was announced earlier in June after developer Christian Selig was unable to work out a deal with Reddit to keep the app functional.


Reddit as of tomorrow will be charging third-party developers who use its API. Every 1,000 API calls will be priced at $0.24, with 50 million available for $12,000. With the number of users that Apollo has and the average API calls used per person, Selig calculated that he would need to pay $1.7 million per month or $20 million per year to keep Apollo functional, a price point that he was not able to work with.

Selig was only given 30 days notice to implement changes before Reddit would begin charging for API access, which he said was not enough time to change Apollo's business model and make the necessary updates to accommodate the fees. Apollo has free tier users, those who pay by month, lifetime subscription users, and yearly subscribers, a complicated mix that would leave Selig without sufficient monthly revenue to pay for the API usage within Reddit's timeline.

Apollo's yearly subscribers will receive a refund for the time remaining on their subscriptions, but those who have enjoyed Apollo during the time that it was available have the option to decline the refund. Selig estimates that he will need to pay around $250,000 to refund subscribers. "It's been the pleasure of a lifetime building Apollo for you over the last nine years. I thank you so much for your kindness, input, and generosity over the years," Selig wrote yesterday.

Customers who do not want a refund can log into the Apollo app and turn it down, otherwise the refunds are automatic. Selig plans to shut down Apollo in the hours ahead of July 1 to avoid Reddit's fees. Other Reddit apps like Reddit is Fun will also be shutting down prior to tomorrow.

I released the final update to Apollo for Reddit! It tidies up things for the closure later today, adds some really cool easter eggs, and lets you migrate your pixel pals from Apollo to the separate Pixel Pals app, which also unlocks an Apollo Pixel Pal so he can live on ❤️ pic.twitter.com/MJgPTiqccF

— Christian Selig (@ChristianSelig) June 30, 2023

Apollo today received one last update ahead of the app's shutdown, with Selig implementing a feature that allows Apollo users to transfer their Pixel Pals to the official Pixel Pals app. [Direct Link]
Tags: Apollo, Reddit

This article, "Popular Reddit App Apollo Shutting Down After Today, Pixel Pals Migration Feature Added" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Reddit should have to identify users who discussed piracy, film studios tell court

By: Jon Brodkin
Illustration of a laptop with the skull-and-crossbones pirate symbol on the screen.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | natatravel)

Film studios that filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against a cable Internet provider are trying to force Reddit to identify users who posted comments about piracy.

The lawsuit was filed in 2021 against cable company RCN in the US District Court in New Jersey by Bodyguard Productions, Millennium Media, and other film companies over downloads of 34 movies such as Hellboy, Rambo V: Last Blood, Tesla, and The Hitman's Bodyguard. In an attempt to prove that RCN turned a blind eye to users downloading copyrighted movies, the plaintiffs sent a subpoena to Reddit last month seeking identifying information for nine users.

Plaintiffs specifically asked Reddit for "IP address registration and logs from 1/1/2016 to present, name, email address and other account registration information" for nine users. Reddit's response provided at least some information about one user but no information on any of the other eight. According to the film studios, Reddit argued that "the requests for identifying information associated with the additional eight accounts are more in the nature of a fishing expedition and are neither relevant nor permissible under the First Amendment."

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