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Comment by jchw | Hacker News Reader

> ...calling out the developer, Christian Selig’s, “behavior and communications” as being “all over the place” and saying he couldn’t see Reddit working with the developer further.

Yes, there's only one problem spez, aside from your track record, we also have basically every other major API user voicing the exact same concerns. Maybe the somewhat erratic communications have something to do with breaking over a decade of trust and giving only a few weeks notice.

On another note, I definitely can't see myself working with or using Reddit in any way in the future.

Reddit is another notch. They got to where they were by building goodwill. It was open source, the APIs were openly accessible, they fought against censorship and they were relatively measured in their moderation. Now? It's just another fucking ad company. There's nothing left.

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I was hoping that Spez would say something like "we're reviewing our decisions based on feedback" or similar, but no. The AMA clenched it for me, and I deleted the Apollo apps off my phone and iPad in solidarity with Selig.

It was fun, Reddit. Best of luck. I'm outta here.

You can delete any value you created for them by purging your comments/posts https://github.com/x89/Shreddit

Maybe keep the app around if you have a subscription; Selig is going to do refunds for Apollo subscriptions, and you will probably need to have the app installed to decline the refund (if you want to continue to support him rather than get your money back).

Great point! I bought the forever license way back when, but if I were a subscriber, I'd tell him to keep it.

Thanks for that advice. I definitely don’t want an automatic refund. Feel like I’ve received my money’s worth.

Christian also built the app out of college and is now thrust into C-level conversations? I would nominate him next CEO of Reddit if he wasn't a bit all over the place.

It’s extremely clear that Spez doesn’t know how to handle Christian.

Christian hasn’t been beaten down by years of corporate ladder climbing. He knows how to protect himself, but does it in ways that others don’t often see in the business world.

Even the whole “$10m extortion” thing feels overblown. Like I can’t believe a CEO would ever take a comment like that anymore seriously than a passing joke/jesting comment in that situation. Christian’s point is true. If Reddit is having such a hard time delivering a quality app, they can buy any third party app.

The fact that Spez seems so stuck on that seems to indicate the success of Apollo is really weighing on him.

>The fact that Spez seems so stuck on that seems to indicate the success of Apollo is really weighing on him.

He could've just listened to users. Instead, Reddit became what it became. Users derided the various changes and redesigns, even its own app. Yet the entire time, and I've said it elsewhere on HN, Reddit's attitude towards users has essentially been, "Nope, we know what's best, you are wrong. The beatings will continue until morale improves."

It's his own fault.

I'm not so quick to assume that Reddit hasn't listened to users.

I read something that only 10% (or less) of people are still using old.reddit.com. There very well could be data indicating that 90% of users are just as happy and engaged on the new site.

But what percentage of each are the users that provide Reddit’s core value?

A small subset of users provide most of the content and most importantly the moderation.

This feels a lot like Twitter trying to tax their power users when they provided the content the masses came to Twitter to read (and see ads)

I can only speculate.

That being said, my impression is the “legacy” users are a vocal minority. I suspect legacy users will notice a decline in quality, but “new” users won’t. The new experience is already so muzzled that it’s barely even the same communities.

Christian would be a much better CEO than Steve Huffman, despite his clear lack of negotiation skills. Reddit is phenomenally mismanaged, it's somehow worse than both incarnations of Twitter

> Now? It's just another fucking ad company.

Good ol' enshittification.

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