Reddit Shows No Signs Of Backing Down From Controversial API Changes In Heated AMA – SlashGear

Addressing the imminent shutdown of apps like Apollo, Huffman wrote that they “have decided this pricing doesn’t work for their businesses and will close before pricing goes into effect.” However, some Redditors are claiming that Huffman is lying about the situation, citing the call; transcripts, and recordings that were shared by Apollo creator Christian Selig in a detailed post. Additionally, a cursory look at the main AMA page’s comments section suggests that most Reddit users are not buying into Huffman’s arguments.

As far as the “charitable” aspect of Reddit goes, it will only be reserved for tools that make Reddit a good place, and which rely on the hard work of unpaid moderators. The only concession being made is that the APIs will be free for “non-commercial, accessibility-focused apps,” or bots and tools that help moderators keep the conversations from descending into absolute chaos.

It’s evident that Reddit will no longer allow free API access to products that make a profit. It is unclear if Reddit ever internally explored an option where it could share a cut of the revenue generated by apps that rely on high-volume API calls to its servers. According to Selig, he was exploring an Apollo sale to Reddit, but those discussions never took off. For now, it looks like Reddit is okay with the death of its most popular third-party clients because it couldn’t milk money from them, even though the official Reddit mobile continues to remain a butt of jokes.