Comment by Xaxxon on 20/04/2023 at 11:44 UTC

1 upvotes, 1 direct replies (showing 1)

View submission: An Update Regarding Reddit’s API

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makes revenue on displaying ads to people

that's the point- they AREN'T making money on people who use the api.

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Comment by hedgecore77 at 20/04/2023 at 12:54 UTC

4 upvotes, 1 direct replies

Excellent point.

So let's examine our user base.

App users are likely more technical than your average browser user. Their reasons for using third party apps likely stems from not wanting to ads, not being satisfied with the official UI, etc.

• Are app users likely to be converted into official app / browser users?

• Are app users likely to find other ways to circumvent ads?

So at this point, does reddit take punitive actions? You're left with two postulates here.

The first is that an app user contribute to the site via content submissions and engagement (comments).

The second is that an app user does not contribute to the site. (lurker)

Both use an indeterminate amount of server resources. Is it worth losing (or potentially losing) a decent swath of your userbase?

(I'm not posing any really huge assumptions in the above, but if I were to, they would be that:

• the majority of reddit mods use third party applications

• the majority of 'hot' content is coming from app users

• the majority of third party app users are older accounts who have contributed greatly to the foundation of the site over the past 15 years)