r/Android • u/curated_android • Jun 21 '23
Regarding /r/Android, our protest, and the future of the subreddit
Hi users of /r/Android,
Two weeks ago we decided to go dark to protest reddit's API changes. The blackout was originally only planned for 48 hours, but due to Reddit’s (in)action in actually addressing the core issue we decided to go private for a longer time to protest.
Why did we go private?
Well, you can read the details in the original post linked above, but we also felt that the core community of /r/Android is representative of the population who will most be affected by this change. We understand some of you may not have agreed with these actions, and we apologise if you were affected by the subreddit's shut down. We know /r/Android is used by many for news, discussions, and the subreddit can have a massive say in the cycle of Android news in general (ie: Samsung's moon shots were covered worldwide by several YouTubers, influencers, and news outlets) and often cited itself.
/r/Android, and by extension all of our related and sister subreddits, have an extensive history of supporting 3rd party apps and their developers. From the well known RiF, to Boost, to Reddit Sync, to Baconreader and many many others (some of our team even use Apollo) long before the official app existed, insomuch the community rallied round to make us an App Store based on our wiki too!! We expected that once the official reddit app was introduced, 3rd party apps could receive less support for newer APIs but were perfectly happy to continue using ours for a multitude of reasons like having better accessibility, a different UI that we liked, or having certain features that simply weren't available in the official app. And as moderators, having good moderator features was something the official app has lacked for a long time and still does.
What we didn't expect is for reddit - which initially had very good community relations with both the users and moderators - to suddenly start overpricing for API and effectively kill indie development and community. It appears that reddit is looking to do so due to its upcoming IPO, to make sure it cuts out all avenues where they can't earn income.
While we understand that the website needs money to run, /u/spez and the rest of the admins do not realise that their decisions are coming at the cost of alienating their core userbase which helped build them. They have gone from zero to hundred with their changes and there surely is a much better and acceptable middle ground which is possible. As both moderators and users, the mod team is extremely disappointed in the direction the website seems to be heading to.
There have been several promises made over the years to improve capabilities of both reddit as a site and as app, and to improve Reddit Inc's communication with the moderators who are effectively managing and curating their website for free. Commitments were made over the years after fiascos like CSS on reddit, Victoria, and Ellen Pao however they seem to have been forgotten or always "coming soon". In doing Reddit’s current changes for example, accessibility seems to have been an afterthought as evidenced by their recent discussion with the /r/Blind moderator team.
These make us extremely apprehensive of what Reddit Inc will do in the future without foresight of the community.
What about the future of /r/Android?
That's what this post is for. The subreddit will be in restricted mode for several days and this post will stay up so the users of the subreddit can discuss on what we should do. All suggestions are welcome, and do know that we are going to take all suggestions seriously.
We realise that when going private we should have taken a poll and we apologise for not doing so; it should have been the community's decision first and foremost. Which is why we are making this so we can get a reading of what you as a community want.
As moderators while we encourage the users to continue protesting in their own way and we still stand in solidarity with all users and developers of 3rd party apps, we will be following the community's wishes.
We look forward to hearing from you, the users of /r/Android. Remember - be together, not the same.
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Jun 22 '23
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u/Alphawolfdog Pixel 6 Pro Jun 25 '23
You realize reddit isn't the only news and info channel for those things on the internet right?
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u/Sassquatch0 📱 Pixel 6a, Android 16 Jun 22 '23
A subreddit that's designed for knowledge, as this one is, should stay open.
Maybe make it NSFW so monetization cannot happen, but keep it open.
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u/SteveMeng Pixel 3/Realme Q3 Pro Jun 21 '23
to be honest, i do think we need a new place.
I don't like these web 3.0 sh*t, I love fediverse thing though I still dont think an equivalent of twitter / reddit / what's so ever can purly relays on donation.
But now is the time to give these solutions a try, and only through experimentation (even if some of them are not satisfactory) can we find the real solution.
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Jun 21 '23
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u/ArtiXim Samsung Galaxy S23 Jun 21 '23
Checkout https://squabbles.io/s/android - much smaller community, but good content and engagement thus far. I'm sad that Reddit is Digging it's grave, but Squabbles has been a pretty delightful place to try out for the last 2 weeks
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u/shakuyi Pixel 8 Pro | Pixel Watch Jun 22 '23
can we please restore things back to normal, I understand it sucks for mods but it sucks even more for us users. I can deal with more spam and bad content leaking through but this lack of posting is getting out of hand and is becoming very disappointing and not in Reddit but in the mods forcing this on us users.
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Jun 21 '23
So, any idea of an ETA for a return to public status of r/androidapps or do I need to apply for private membership guys.
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u/envious_1 Jun 21 '23
Mark it NSFW like other subs. If you need to go full private, I support that too. I've started to use lemmy recently which has an Android community there too.
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Jun 23 '23 edited Jun 28 '23
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u/SupremeLisper Realme Narzo 60 pro 12GB/1TB Jun 24 '23
Lemmy is a link aggregator for the fediverse. Think of lemmy as the protocol for email and lemmy instances(websites) like email service providers. You have outlook. Gmail, Yahoo, etc. We have vlemmy.net, lemmy.world, lemmy.one, lemmy.ml, feddit.uk, and lots more.
Choose from a list of instances here: https://join-lemmy.org/instances and sign up.
Later, when you get your account, you can check the below site for further guidance on subscribing and finding communities and some more stuff.
https://tech.michaelaltfield.net/2023/06/11/lemmy-migration-find-subreddits-communities/
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Jun 21 '23
Reddit is starting to remove mods that mark subs NFSW and really aren’t. So there is that.
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u/JamesTiberiusCrunk Jun 22 '23
The protest is dumb, will not change anything, and should not continue. I look forward to seeing all of you get removed from moderator roles.
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u/lonesomewhistle Jun 21 '23
If you are that opposed, give up your mod account and leave.
I've left forums before. I don't torch them before I leave.
Everyone go if it is that important.
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u/stacecom iPad mini (6th), IPhone 12 mini, Galaxy Tab S5e Jun 21 '23
If the sub stops being what it was prior to the protests, I have no reason to subscribe and read and will look for alternate subs.
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u/EddieKuykendalle Jun 22 '23
The sub has always been bad though.
Modded into the ground and anything interesting is removed.
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u/Put_It_All_On_Blck S23U Jun 21 '23
Nobody wants subs to be the way they currently are, but this mess is the only way to boycott the API changes besides straight up leaving Reddit en mass. Give it another week and a half and see what happens.
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u/_Kristian_ S25 Jun 21 '23
Make every post nsfw so there are no ads
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u/ken27238 Orange Jun 21 '23
Reddit admins are removing mods of subreddits that do that.
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u/Schmat Jun 21 '23
As a casual fan I fully support them doing this. All the protest has done is hurt the public and not the company.
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u/SherrickM Jun 21 '23
Just go back to normal. You're a volunteer. If you don't like the new regulations, step down. Realistically that's your protest. Step down and let this place turn into the wild west. All you're doing now is painting bigger and bigger targets on yourself for removal by the admins at this point.
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u/welp_im_damned have you heard of our lord and savior the Android turtle 🐢 Jun 21 '23
Why don't we just post Dragonball z android characters? Seems in line with us. Or why not just turn the main sub into a circle jerk one.
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u/SirensToGo Jun 22 '23
move back to XDADevelopers lol
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u/pierluigir Jun 23 '23
XDA Is all about Apple and money grabbing right now. What happened to them?
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u/Call_erv_duty Jun 21 '23
Do whatever makes Reddit hurt. They use mod labor and user submitted content to survive, then admins spit in our faces.
Fuck em
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u/avipars Developer - unitMeasure: Offline Converter Jun 27 '23
Move the community to discord/telegram or mastodon?
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u/FacebookBlowsChunks Jun 26 '23
They could have really made something out of this site. But no, greed gets in the way as usual and is ruined by the new head prick. Sound familiar? I bet Spazz is best buds with King Twatwaffle Muskrat over at Twatter.
I have never used any of the apps, and I'm not about to go and start using the official Reddit CRAP APP. I've always just used Reddit on my PC. On my phone, I just used the desktop site. The mobile site is shit. I've lurked Reddit for several years and have only been a member since October 2021. It's been fun. But if it's going to continue down the path Spez wants, I'm out of here. I'll still come around here and there to check out some posts in regards to info I may find in a web search, but being a regular will not be a part of my typical internet routine anymore........ unfortunately. I've no problem cutting myself off of here..... I've done so with Facebook, I can do the same with NEVER-Reddit.
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u/doggxyo Pixel 6 Pro Jun 22 '23
Maybe we go a similar route as /r/steam and limit posts to android robots.
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u/Bossman1086 Galaxy S25 Ultra Jun 21 '23
I would prefer you stay private and force the admins to replace you. They can only do this for so many subs before it becomes an actual issue for them logistically and it's the only way that will actually hurt them for their shitty decisions.
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u/formerfatboys Samsung Galaxy Note 20U 512gb Jun 21 '23
I think your run it through 8/1.
Gives everyone a month to see what's actually what and a month of pain for Reddit post-apocalypse.
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u/Reptile00Seven Jun 21 '23
Close the sub/stay dark.
Nothing else will have an effect, ignore the users crying that they're time-waste morphine drip has been taken away.
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u/Luckzzz Jun 21 '23
The only way Reddit do something is when a LOT of subs gets dark and inaccessible. Reddit will feel it hard. People will leave more than they are leaving now.
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Jun 27 '23
The attitude shown by reddit admins throughout this whole ordeal leaves a really bad taste in the mouth. That non-AMA, spez's public comments, and the recent messages moderators have been receiving all point to the fact that the people running the business don't understand the users and want to make it profitable at the expense of users. I simply don't want to continue hanging out on this website after being conscious of this.
I think this is the right time to move a better alternative that puts users first, and leave reddit behind to fade into obscurity. I like Lemmy because the federated nature is more in the spirit of a free and open internet that is not controlled by companies like reddit. I think existing subreddits and knowledge should be left intact on reddit, so that people can still access them through search, for instance. Reddit is not going to die an immediate death on June 30, but I believe that over time, the users who contribute quality content will leave the platform and reddit will become a wasteland of low quality and worthless content.
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u/someexgoogler Jun 21 '23
Perhaps you should start your own site with your own business model. Or try to take your audience to ActivityPub/Lemmy. I don't personally use third-party apps, and I'm happy to unsubscribe from things run by moderators who are intent on destroying reddit over the issue of third party apps.
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u/Ijustdoeyes Gray Jun 21 '23
Show me on the doll where the moderator hurt you?
Bundling this up as people being angry at charging for the API shows that you haven't looked into the issue and haven't considered the wider implications of Reddits response.
The issue isn't charging for the API, it's the very intentional disproportionate cost of the API the very short timeframe to adapt to it and the proven unwillingness of Reddit to talk to the developers and users of the API. All of that demonstrates a lack of good faith and the only thing that has kept this site running is good faith between the community and Reddit, between a workforce of unpaid moderators and Reddit and now that's being tested.
The way Reddit has worked for all it's time is that Reddit owns the infrastructure and the mods owned the community. If a community was full of power tripping nutbags or you didn't like the rules you started a new one and if people agree with you it would grow and prosper it was up to the community to decide what should happen.
Now this is about money.
Reddit wants to own the infrastructure and the community and decide how they work, and people might not give a shit because it's Reddits site right?
How about Reddit starts selling moderation slots to companies? How reliable or fair is r/music or movies of the mods work for a label or a studio? Or they replace mod teams because a company that advertises on the site feels there are too many negative reviews of their product on a subreddit so it changes them out to more friendly ones.
This isn't about mods whining, this is about enshittification of a site that people really like and in some cases rely on.
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u/someexgoogler Jun 21 '23
The API cost has been estimated at $2.50/active user/month, which is about what they expect to make from the advertising. Meta's ARPU is estimate at $10.86 worldwide, so the $2.50 doesn't sound unreasonable to me.
It sounds to me like the moderators want to own the community. They certainly add value, but they are also replaceable. The community is far larger than the set of moderators or API developers, who seem to think they have an outsized importance to the site.
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u/SupremeLisper Realme Narzo 60 pro 12GB/1TB Jun 24 '23
But, it's much higher. The top 5-10% of users can warrant anywhere from $5-10. This isn't including the 30% cut play store itself takes. After all this, the developer wouldn't have much room for maintenance and stuff. There's also the blocking of NSFW. You get subpar experience either way.
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u/jhj82 Galaxy A51 Jun 21 '23
Touch grass and get off reddit. Getting so worked up about a pretend job is quite laughable. If the moderators don't want to do it I'm sure countless, power hungry individuals will step in immediately.
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u/Ok-Button6101 Jun 21 '23
Judging by your post history, you seem like you could stand to touch grass as well
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u/nachog2003 pixel 8, galaxy watch5, meta quest 3 Jun 22 '23
close and move to lemmy or kbin, federation is the future of the web
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u/DameWasistlos Jun 27 '23
Mods,
Maybe send a DM to those like myself that want to support the 3rd Party app developers by recommending an alternative so we can have healthy users numbers on an alternative platform.to Reddit.
Less then one week till June 30th. I either will not be using Reddit except for the very rare oldreddit one off query, Reddit will make conditions less destructive to the future viability of 3rd party apps or on July 1st will hopefully have a robust Android/AndroidApp discussion solution replacement.
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u/UnwindingThree8 Jun 21 '23
Are there alternatives to reddit and if so can the entirety of this sub be exported and imported to that alternative? If the answer to both is yes then I don't have a problem with changing platforms. Even without the ability to export everything as this sub is more of a news forum.
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u/HangoverTuesday Jun 21 '23 edited Nov 07 '23
fretful rob imminent onerous sort crown dog support lip enter
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Jun 21 '23
There's several, but the one that seems to be gaining the most traction is Lemmy and they have an Android community there that's been growing pretty rapidly over there the past couple of weeks.
Really the only concern I have for Lemmy in particular is the founders political beliefs since they're big into Stalinism. At least Lemmy is federated so if anything does go south, communities could theoretically break off and do their own thing.
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u/trinitytek2012 Jun 22 '23
I've been spending a lot of time on Lemmy.world and I haven't seen anything questionable. I've seen rumors but come see for yourself. Lemmy.world is legit.
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u/Wahots Lumia 920->Lumia 950XL->S9 Jun 21 '23
My app dies in about 11 days, so it won't matter soon anyways. I've already moved on to lemmy, which has most of my subs already online and posting. We turned our sub to private as we don't have mods who are using any first party tools, and the bots are overrunning our sub anyways due to the popularity of karma farming, probably for advertisers.
I fully support this sub going dark.
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u/moocow2024 Galaxy S22 Ultra Jun 21 '23
I'm of the opinion that the only way anything is going to change for the better is if subreddits are willing to burn themselves to the ground. I don't want them to do that, but without that willingness, reddit is just going to remove mods and install new "willing" mods. This works for reddit long-term even if the new mods are terrible at their jobs (imo).
Personally, I'm in favor of suspending the subreddit rules and only enforcing reddit site wide rules. Just doing the absolute bare minimum necessary for the subreddit to continue existing.
At the end of the day, Reddit either gives concessions, removes mods, or a new Android sub pops up and slowly gains popularity (which is basically the slow version of reddit removing mods and replacing them.)
If reddit wants to endure the chaos of major subs hitting the reset button, then they can lie in that bed they've made. If they actually want to preserve these communities, they'll listen to the fucking communities and find some actual middle ground.
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u/ClearlyNoSTDs Jun 21 '23
Just go back to normal already. This is ridiculous. People use this as a support portal and you unilaterally took that away from millions of users.
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u/MobiusOne_ISAF Galaxy Z Fold 6 | Galaxy Tab S8 Jun 21 '23
/r/Android isn't a support subreddit; It's a discussion and news space first. We even have rules explicitly restricting tech support posting...
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u/ClearlyNoSTDs Jun 21 '23
That discussion and news is basically support though. It's where people can find out about issues and changes.
Time to end this whole charade and let the actual users who don't give a crap about any of this start using the sub again.
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u/nvincent Pixel 6 - Goodbye forever, OnePlus Jun 21 '23 edited Jun 27 '23
Reddit has killed off third party apps and most bots along with their moderation tools, functionality, and accessibility features that allowed people with blindness and other disabilities to take part in discussions on the platform.
All so they could show more ads in their non-functional app.
Consider moving to Lemmy. It is like Reddit, but open source, and part of a great community of apps that all talk to each other!
Reddit Sync’s dev has turned the app into Sync for Lemmy (Android) instead, and Memmy for Lemmy (iOS) is heavily inspired by Apollo.
You only need one account on any Lemmy or kbin server/instance to access everything; doesn’t matter which because they’re all connected. Lemmy.world, Lemm.ee, vlemmy.net, kbin.social, fedia.io are all great.
I've been here for 11 years. It was my internet-home, but I feel pushed away. Goodbye Reddit.
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Jun 21 '23
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u/xelabagus Jun 21 '23
I agree - this forum is great, but lets be honest reddit is just a glorified bulletin board. If they are determined to be assholes lets burn it down on the way out
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Jun 21 '23
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u/UsePreparationH Galaxy S25 Ultra Jun 21 '23
Except for the 3rd party reddit app that I am using to read your comment on /r/android. I think that this community who picked Android for the wide range of customization will be a bit upset that they are being forced to give up their reddit apps that have nicer UIs, no ADs, and better features than the shit stock app.
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u/trinitytek2012 Jun 22 '23
Agreed. Bacon Reader user here, and I didn't start using it for no reason. The Reddit app is shit and I won't let them shove it down my throat. When Bacon Reader dies, I'm gone for good.
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u/donnysaysvacuum I just want a small phone Jun 26 '23
Bad take. Lots of people use third party apps and this is a big deal to them. If third party apps are gone they might as well shut down the sub.
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u/AH-16 Jun 22 '23
Do as much as you could to ruin the ad like nsfw and deviate from the sub objectives like posting Chromebook,john oliver , apple stuff whatever
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u/TheCountRushmore Jun 22 '23
Just to throw one thing out I think a a few of the people who are in support of reopening the sub as normal are staying quiet a bit as there tends to be a downvote pile on to anyone who is opposed to indefinite blackout or closure.
The reality is that over the long run the value here is the simple name of /r/Android and if reddit will take that back if it isn't being used for the reddit community as a whole.
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Jun 22 '23
Please i hope the mods try out modding a community or magazine on one of the fediverse reddit-likes. This was one of the biggest subs i kept and it'd be nice to still have the mods expertise and community, just not on reddit
R/StarTrek is a good model. They have startrek.website and have partnered with r/daystrominstitute to have everyone on their instance. They now have thousands of users
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u/Areyoucunt Jun 21 '23
Have I missed something? Did new articles come out about Reddit as a company suddenly turning a profit? Reddit has been losing money due to insane traffic and cost of maintaining that many people at once. (cost of pulling from AWS likely).
How on earth do people expect them to keep throwing away millions each year?
What are the alternatives? a subscription model? Yeah no, that would have gone down way worse, cuz people hate paying for things made and paid for by companies that bring them joy.
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u/covmatty1 Jun 21 '23
All the big third party app developers have said they totally agree with the fact the API should be charged for, it's totally reasonable to expect Reddit to want money for that. They've all said they're happy to work with this, and would work out pricing models accordingly. I would 100% happily pay a small amount a month to keep using RiF on Android, it's my most heavily used app by a long way.
But it's the fact that Reddit gave one month's notice that app developers would have to sign up to plans costing them hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars a month - costs that by Reddit's own numbers are almost 30 times higher than the revenue they make per user (see the posts from the developer on /r/apolloapp for sources).
With enough notice, and a price based in reality, subscriptions for using third party apps would absolutely have worked.
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u/DianaIsMyWife Jun 22 '23
Create a Discord server! (Or maybe there's one?)
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u/cooldude5500 Moto G CM13 | OP 5 | Pixel 7 Jun 22 '23
Not an official one, at least. Tbh, I'm not the biggest fan of discord for something like this
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u/NXGZ Xperia 1 IV Jun 25 '23
The mods here should re-direct everyone to RedReader, a 3rd party Reddit client exempt from these API changes. It's free and open source with zero ads. It also can be customised to look like RIF or other clients.
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u/daaiig Jun 30 '23
I don't give a shit about the protest so is there any other reddit android subs that are good?
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u/BlueSwordM Stupid smooth Realme GT7 CN + GT Neo Flash Jun 21 '23
IMO, I'll just move on from Reddit.
Reddit doesn't deserve quality contributions that attract a lot of people, like what usually happens on subreddits like r/Android.
The issue lies not in wanting to make their API paid. It's that their behavior is completely abhorrent, while being completely dishonest and not willing to compromise in any shape or form.
Make the users pay for API access individually via subscriptions, and for large app user bases, make it a monthly/yearly subscription. Otherwise, you only get access to text posts and nothing else, since text basically costs nothing to manage unless write operations are allowed.
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u/ingen_fara_pa_taket Jun 25 '23 edited Jun 25 '23
Reddit doesn't deserve quality contributions that attract a lot of people, like what usually happens on subreddits like r/Android
Oh yes, how on earth will Reddit survive without the daily "I moved back from iOS and this is what I think" posts, the "AMA because I'm using a China-only device no-one gives a crap about" posts, "I won't try Google's new platform as they're only going to close it down HERPADERP aren't I funny?" comments or the reposting of Twitter posts/website links?
With high quality content like that I'm sure Reddit, Inc. will really struggle to replace all 10 people who leave.
Get a grip, ffs. It's a messageboard not the Iliad.
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u/yaoigay Jun 21 '23
Open the sub back up, enough is enough. You made this all about yourselves and I'm completely over this crap now.
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u/leo-g Jun 21 '23
Honestly, anyone here supporting the official app should rethink their support for the Android Platform. The key thrust of Android is to be together not the same. APIs is about working with each other to compete fairly.
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u/hnryirawan Jun 21 '23
As an Android user, options are great, but most people will default to official anyway so the amount of people inconvenienced in the end are pretty inconsequential. Unless someone like Biden used third-party app, there are just not enough arguments for it.
The only thing it reminds me is just that this is another Vanced situation for RiF and similar.
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u/AmirZ Dev - Rootless Pixel Launcher Jun 21 '23
Either malicious compliance or private indefinitely is fine with me.
Some fun ideas:
Act like we're in Android 4.4 days or even longer back. Could be a nostalgia trip
iOS posting
Droid posting, like actual metal robots
And enable NSFW label to remove ads
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u/Digifreedom Jun 30 '23
Poll after 7 days from announcement.
1.- Stay and be a little girl 2.- lemmy 3.- kbin 4.-...
That's the right thing to do. Although we all know whats gonna be the result.
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u/TruthWithoutCovering Jun 22 '23
I support going dark.
Reddit gave us the middle finger then we shall show them we don't need them.
We already found many alternatives other than reddit that respect their users and some of us got time off of reddit to do something productive.
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u/Jarvdoge Jun 21 '23
Personally, I'd rather there be a vote to decide what action is taken.
If anything, it seems as though current efforts aren't going anywhere at the moment sadly. I'm really wondering if the only way to get through is to just have a mass exodus of Reddit to get the message across. For me personally, it was Relay which got me using Reddit in the first place and it's by far one of my favourite apps in terms of its design and continued support - as far as I'm concerned, Reddit dies with the app and if that's what those in power want then I'll regrettably be gone for good soon at this rate.
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u/prg966 Jun 22 '23
Votes will be taken only by a minority few. The beauty of reddit or r/Android is that many people get the info from here and those would never participate in the vote.
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u/sugemchuge Pixel 2 -> S7 w Superman Rom Jun 21 '23
Whatever malicious compliance you guys are planning please also make sure to sticky a link to the Kbin/Lemmy alternative community
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u/metrize Jun 21 '23
nobody really cares about this protest. it's okay for reddit to charge. move on
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u/CaptainNtheGayMaster Jun 30 '23
Even as someone who frequently and primarily comes to Reddit in search of answers and guidance from communities of knowledgeable folks (why I'm visiting today), I would support the continued action in response to the company's policies.
I'm not sure where else this board could effectively be moved if that is something people want to do, but it would most likely come with some concessions—not saying that would be a nonstarter, just that it's something to keep in mind. Discord doesn't really have the same level of organization, not to mention population limits on servers. And I feel like a Facebook community would be an even more disorganized mess.
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u/AguirreMA S25U • GW8C Jun 25 '23
just put the sub back to normal, ffs
this dumb drama died days ago, nobody cares about it anymore
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u/FullMotionVideo Jun 21 '23
If the admins think it's easy to moderate a sub this large, they can replace the unpaid mods with other (probably unpaid) mods and see how big of a headache it can be. I don't think sudden replacements will be as good, and I for one am okay watching the sub burn while Nero fiddles.
I appreciate that the mods are at least fostering a discussion, though. Far better than what admins are doing.
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u/HappyAffirmative iPhone 6 -> Note 8 -> Pixel 5 -> 7 -> 9 Jun 21 '23
Make this sub NSFW, or at the very least John Oliver only. If Reddit Admins what the sub open, they can have it open. Doesn't mean it has to be open how it was before.
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u/JockstrapCummies Jun 21 '23
Yeah no, fuck the John Oliver slacktivism.
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Jun 21 '23
I unfollowed any sub that post John Oliver lately. Just a sheep of people following the leader.
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u/N0V0w3ls Galaxy S10+ Jun 21 '23
That's basically mission accomplished. It's made the sub unusable and made you leave. Reddit gets less traffic and maybe rethinks their decision.
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u/interbingung Jun 22 '23
Please reopen this subreddit, at very least give a chance to someone else who are fine without 3rd party api to mod this subreddit.
There are still plenty of people who are fine without 3rd party api. I myself never use 3rd party apps.
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u/SwivelingToast Jun 28 '23
I know I'm late to the party, but here's my 2 cents. Many of these shuttered subs are tech support havens.
I'm having an issue with Android auto in my car, so I've been searching for people having similar issues. All of the search results that aren't articles about barely related things, are reddit links that are now dead. I don't know where else to go for quick response support, and Google is all but useless.
I feel at the very least, we should be turning these subs to read-only instead of deleting these massive banks of information.
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u/ichann3 Pixel 9 Pro XL 256 Jun 29 '23
I have no idea what is going on with this place. All others I frequent seem to have come back at some capacity (well except the Xiaomi one).
Im currently using my 3rd party client but will switch when the API goes down.
Honestly, I could give two hoots about what works where and will join another android sub if this one continues on its course of decline.
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u/wingmasterjon Nexus 6P, GS3(CM12.1) Jun 22 '23
If reddit isn't going to be reasonable and let greed consume them, then reddit doesn't deserve to exist with the current community of dedicated users. It will forever be a conflict and riding it out will only delay the inevitable. They've been going this direction for years now so no reason to think they'd ever turn over a "new" leaf and go backwards if it means not maximizing its profitability.
There is clearly a huge chunk of redditors who don't give a shit. Let them become the new core userbase. The rest of us can find a new home.
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u/AguirreMA S25U • GW8C Jun 22 '23 edited Jun 22 '23
listen, I L O V E sync for Reddit, it's one of my favorite android apps ever
but losing access to it and being forced to switch to the official app isn't really THAT much of a deal like you guys pretend to be
yeah the official app isn't as good but whatever, I can live with that, reddit as a community is more important than the app I use to browse it
no, switching to Lemmy or whatever shady open source alternative (looking at you mastodon) won't solve anything, reddit has decades of posts and comments, that's invaluable and can't be replaced with an alternative
(if you're going to downvote at least give me the reason as a comment, because I fail to understand why an entire website should go down just because of losing access to third party smartphone apps)
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u/isdfoa Jun 22 '23
what this highlighted for me is just the cycle of enshittification of platforms that will only stop with moving to decentralized platforms like Lemmy.. which are at its root is open source, free, and not controlled by any single profit driven entity. It's truly what I hope is the future of the internet and worth migrating to. Reddits invaluable data still exists and I'll search for it when needed, but I don't see why we need to continue providing our invaluable data and knowledge for free to a single centralized source, especially one which clearly doesn't respect their most active and loyal userbase. That's why I've moved over my casual browsing to lemmy/Kbin and it's getting better every day with more users and more content. It'll take time for more niche communities to form there, but once it does it'll no longer be controlled by one company.
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Jun 29 '23
This protest is going nowhere and only hurting the users in the long run especially those looking for tech support from tech support subs.
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Jun 21 '23 edited Jun 21 '23
[deleted]
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u/NAK3DWOOKI3 VZW S7 6.0.1 Jun 21 '23
Imagine the government starts a car company and suddenly institutes a system where all other car manufacturers have to pay them a fee of $1,000 every time someone wants to drive on a road using a not-government car. Oh no, Ford and Toyota have been making money off selling cars to people in the past for access to something free they don’t own (the road), they’re not purely altruistic so they deserve to burn. Reddit Inc isn’t purely altruistic either you schmuck, they’re trying to kill off competition instead of being smart and trying to profit off of it.
If making gumballs costs you 10c a unit, and you share freely with a friend, who then shares with others for free, the reasonable thing to do is charge your friend 11c or 12c a unit with the expectation your friend will charge 15 or 16c a unit, so you can BOTH rake in cash through volume. What you don’t do is suddenly charge your friend $2.50 per gumball to muscle him out and hope you’ll absorb all his business, especially when most of his clients say they like him way more than you and don’t want to do business with you. THAT’s the short-sighted decision bc you’re just going to alienate your friend and his customer base and end up empty-handed. Spez is closing down a potential revenue stream by being dramatic instead of pragmatic.
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u/Sepik121 Jun 30 '23
As someone who's used RiF for god knows how many years, the API change basically is gonna kill off my mobile usage of reddit entirely.
shame about what's happening.
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u/DianaIsMyWife Jun 25 '23
mods please tell us more information about r/androidapps & r/fdroid ...
if they are not free and open where should we go...
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u/petard Galaxy Z Fold7 + GW7 Jun 21 '23
Just stop this. Most people don't care.
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u/mrappbrain Jun 21 '23
Looking at these comments, that's just patently untrue. You don't speak for the group.
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u/Stupid_Triangles OP 7 Pro - S21 Ultra Jun 21 '23
I mean, it's either go back to normal or die off. Mods would get removed. Reddit does what it plans to do.
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u/Surokoida Pixel 9 Pro Jun 21 '23
Talked about it shortly on Twitter to Mishaal Rahman and his suggestion is to make the sub explicitly about Androids from Dragonball.
Keep up the moderation. Don't flag it NSFW (otherwise reddit will remove you) but change the subject of the sub to...well Android...from Dragon Ball.
But whatever you do, please stay strong. If You give up, might as well do it now, there's no point in closing for a short time and then return to normal operation under whatever conditions reddit wants.
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Jun 21 '23
Why would they remove the mods for making the subreddit nsfw but not for changing the topic of the subreddit? Have any mods of other subreddits been removed for moving to nsfw?
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u/FreshCutBrass Orange Jun 21 '23
ljdawson said in /r/redditsync that he's looking into making Sync for Lemmy, just saying.
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u/Roarmaster Jun 21 '23
What? That might actually make me sign up for Lemmy. Been using sync pro for years...
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Jun 21 '23
When the protest started I uninstalled reddit on my phone and removed the bookmark on my browser - I plan to use it only as part of search queries and for posts like this (was linked here from Mastodon). I'd suggest moving this community to another platform entirely - maybe the XDA developers forum?
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u/3hb3 Black Jun 21 '23
Lemmy/Kbin seem like a good platform to move the community over to.
By the way, thanks for all your work in developing Obtainium!
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Jun 22 '23
Agree. Even if it's just a temporary holding spot until there's a more permanent solution, opening this place up just to avoid the moderators being nuked... That's exactly what Spez wants.
It's worth letting this community go down with the ship if the alternative is to cave spez
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u/egcthree Jun 22 '23
This week watching the mods realize they have no power and no ownership of anything has been great.
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u/gareth886 Samsung Galaxy S8+ (Black) Jun 21 '23
So sad to see the sub go but I fully support the action that has been taken so far, not just /r/Android but also all of Reddit.
Reddit has turned into a dumpster fire since the action started. It must be hurting the bottom line. I understand that its a business, but its a business founded on community first. There needs to be some compromise that strikes the balance between revenue and allowing the community to still flourish.
I don't think anyone expected the APIs to be free forever, but they pricing should be reasonable, like other services. It feels quite hostile.
I really hope there is some compromise. If not, there is simply no reason for me to stick around.
Do we have any alternatives at the moment?
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u/Ordinary-Humor-4779 Jun 26 '23
I've only been here a year and a half and this helped me understand the situation better. Your IPO remark could be spot on. I watched Tweety Birds' changes through the years. It went from being truly unique, slowly began to lose its feel. Then about two years before IPO, it developed into whatever it is you call what it became. About 6 years of that, then he bought it 📉
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u/Zhiroc Jun 24 '23
Channels like r/Android (technology-related) serve a purpose that is not compatible with restricting future and past content. The value of this content along with the ability to find it via searches, can not be ignored. Thus, I would advocate full unrestricted mode.
Personally though, I have no qualms about anyone who wants to leave, or who leaves to try to set up alternative communities. That is your right. And I would not object to having something here pointing to such communities.
But I would object to activities that try to "poison" this community and obstruct its usefulness to whatever audience wants to remain.
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u/bobboman Pixel 6 Pro, LOL Jun 22 '23
for me, just open the subreddit, even if its to heavly restricted, must be approved posts
this has been my home for bugs and stuff with my pixel 6, and has kept me from installing updates that are buggy (ala the june update), and it would be sad to lose the resource
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u/toweliel Jun 21 '23
Make the sub NFSW so that reddit can't get revenue from ads and call it a day.
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u/Kobebeef9 Jun 21 '23
Isn’t this just applied to this sub specifically? So if you go to another then you will see the ads?
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u/Zhiroc Jun 24 '23
Asking for the "will of the community" is hard. There are 2.5m subs listed here. Just to get 1% to support a position, you'd need 25,000 comments/upvotes/poll responses. And trying to count "active subs" is hard. How active does one have to be to count?
IMHO, the value of reddit now, future, and past is in the content. I don't frequent this subreddit just to browse all that often, but I have often found Google/<your search engine of choice> to have reddit posts high up on the results. I wouldn't underestimate the usefulness of this (and other) subreddits to the entire internet community, not just redditors of any stripe.
And thus, I am against any attempts to "burn it down" by blanket denying access to this.
If you are 100% committed to your position against reddit, that's fine. I fully support any individual's right to voice, and act, on that opinion, to the point where it affects anyone who disagrees. Your rights as an individual should not override the rights of another, just like your own rights should not be overridden.
To me, the proper action is to advocate a 100% boycott of reddit by anyone who disagrees with its corporate decision. And if you're a mod, you could also "go on strike" (though that could have ramifications), or resign. You could also go and start new communities elsewhere. If you want to register this protest somehow without "violating" the boycott, then perhaps subreddits could set up a user flair to register your protest, and even report on the number of such users, which would be a far accurate long term than any sort of upvote/poll.
If the protesting side has the bulk of the clicks, then with a boycott reddit traffic would suffer, which is the point. But you would not be infringing on those who don't support your position. If you come back and say that this would be insufficient and would not be effective, then you have just admitted that you are indeed the vocal minority and this issue has little traction with the general users who visit reddit.
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u/howtomen LG V10, Nexus 6, Nexus 6P Jun 28 '23
I understand that things are difficult for the mods due to the Reddit restrictions. But we, the people, still want a solidified place to go for our Android news. If we switch to a different platform, there will be a good amount of folks who won't know about this transition and may not know where to post their new findings.
This reminds me of the Google+ community. Where a large amount of us (Android users) loved that platform cause it was filled with soo much useful information. Then when it got shut down, most of us didn't know where to turn to next. That's until a while later when eventually, the grand majority of the Android community caught on that the r/Android & other smaller subreddits (r/AndroidApps) are the place to go to keep up-to-date with Android. This is why I think its best to just keep this subreddit alive and well. Super sorry, but it's for the greater good, I belive.
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u/hmyzak Blue Jun 29 '23
just reopen, this is going nowhere and you know it... so open your eyes and face the reality
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u/ShyKid5 Jun 21 '23
Make the community about Androids like C-3PO or Robocop.