Ask HN: How many of us have (nearly) abandoned Reddit over the API debacle?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37188573

by gcanyon • 3 years ago

23 26 3 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

gcanyon• 3 years ago

I was an Apollo user, and when it shut down my usage dropped from "daily, whenever I'm standing in line or otherwise waiting" to "once or twice a month when I need to look something up."

It's been replaced by: HN, AP News, and the NYT.

nocoiner• 3 years ago

Same here. I’ll visit if I’m searching for something, and there’s a responsive page, but otherwise I’ve quit it altogether.

I don’t feel like I’m missing anything except something to fill time when I’m bored. Instead I’ve mostly filled that time by reading books on the Kindle app.

bravetraveler• 3 years ago

I totally abandoned it. Spend more time here, focusing on work, or offline

I don't miss it in the slightest, my mood has improved from less pedantry

hruzgar• 3 years ago

started using lemmy. But the community over there is so based

JimtheCoder• 3 years ago

I've abandoned it because larger and larger amounts of Reddit users seem to have become more insufferable over the last year or two.

That, and the mobile experience sucks.

longitudinal93• 3 years ago

I miss some of the real communities that were there but I haven't been back. I may try Lemmy or go back to RES and a desktop browser.

sen• 3 years ago

Had already “mostly” abandoned it a year or so ago but the changes were the final straw and I don’t think I’ve been back since (maybe once or twice when someone linked something).

Replaced with carrying my kindle around and reading more often, so it’s been a great change for me personally.

mandmandam• 3 years ago

Cut it drastically.

I am saving hours a week for vastly more productive and less irritating pastimes.

The quality dropped off so hard over the last decade anyways. It had long passed the point of 'more trouble than it's worth, really'; but losing Apollo, and spez's patronizing lies, made it easier to quit.

I used to really enjoy the site, before it got hollowed out by various scumbuckets at every level. It's sad to see how far it fell.

hnaccter• 3 years ago

I have reduced my usage of Reddit by 99%. Unfortunately, I still see it as the king of hyper local or hyper niche, but that’s mostly coming up in searches. The fediverse confusion didn’t help with offering viable options to those communities.

endisneigh• 3 years ago

Didn’t care about the API stuff since I used the mobile site. Still use it.

albert_e• 3 years ago

I have virtually stopped using Reddit.

I have been aware of a growing addiction / habit of spending many hours daily online.

Used the API blackout to cut myself off. Occassionally miss it for technical forums where I want to see or post specific ideas or reviews or help. Holding out so far.

Still spend too much time online -- HN and Twitter.

EDIT: used this opportunity to re-enable noprocrast setting on my HN user profile (with a little less aggressive controls this time, hoping it sticks)

ryaneager• 3 years ago

I was an Apollo Ultra user, went from 2-3 hours a day before the blackout to zero now, outside the occasional Google search.

nonstopdev• 3 years ago

Apollo user with multiple active accounts that was on daily. Active for 12 years with karma for posts and comments.

Basically use the old website on a laptop once every few weeks now and never engage with any content anymore. Mostly check news, click a link maybe, and move on but has been replaced by other information sources.

neontomo• 3 years ago

Deleted my account the other day. Not because of the API changes, but because I've noticed the content becoming more and more toxic (and damaging to my mental health).

I was trying for a long time to hide toxic subreddits and individual posts I didn't enjoy, and even tried blocking keywords with uBlock, but in the end it was only putting a bandaid on a fatal wound. The content seems to be gearing towards toxic internet trends, hateful content, rage-bait, people actually dying on video and a whole lot of people telling other people what to think about social issues. I like nuanced discussions, not shaming people into submission on either side of the political spectrum.

I admit, this has always been on the platform but I used to go on Reddit to find interesting stories, cute stuff and really bizarre articles about how the world works (like mantis shrimps being able to crush a fish tank glass with a single punch, and so on). I find less of it now, and the main use for Reddit is while trying to solve a problem. For example:

Google: site:reddit.com How do I boot my Mac into Safe Mode

Side-note, I really miss old internet culture. I feel there's less spaces for people to just have chats about stuff without it being "content" or a way to make money/internet points. I find it here still, and it used to be What.CD forums/IRC too.

MattBearman• 3 years ago

I’ve not casually browsed reddit since apollo shut down, occasionally I’ll end up on a post from a search, or my wife will show me something she’s seen, but that’s it. I was a pretty heavy user before as well.

Before apollo stopped I had set my phone to limit me to half an hour a day, a limit I hit almost every day, and regularly exceeded.

I don’t really miss it though, so it’s probably been a net benefit for me, but I’m still pissed off at how it went down

appplication• 3 years ago

I would agree with just about all of this. Personally, I was ok with it being deleted because of how much time I truthfully wasted on Apollo.

I also deleted all of my post data on impulse one day, and I definitely regret doing that, at least a little. My comment history was 10+ years of my own often detailed thoughts on the world. It was a mini-timeline of who I was, digitally and anonymously.

Now that I’m a little older, I’m a fair bit less interested in engaging with most internet content. I write a few comments here, but I’m not sure there will ever be a platform I really comment on as consistently again.

I don’t know that I fully am into the principles opposing the 3rd party app shutdown, but it all seemed sort of sad how it played out. There, in broad daylight we had this massively democratic venue, or at least many of its members thought of it that way. It had it’s golden moment to band together and show the power of their collective voices. And they were just… unceremoniously and unquestionably crushed. Principled moderators humiliated and forced to publicly recant or be silently shuffled out.

I get why Reddit the company felt entitled to do what they did. It was just sad to see the illusion of free, self-forming digital communities be swept away and replaced by a more sober reality. One in which almost all of the internet as we know it is really just a series of corporate and well tended gardens, with public passage at the sole behest of our faceless corporate overlords.

jamisonbryant• 3 years ago

I did. The only time I end up there anymore is when the occasional post gets posted here or one turns up in my search results. Usually loaded up in my mobile browser, with super tiny text and ads blocked.

The funny thing is, before the brouhaha I wasn't even using a third party app to access the site or any 3rd-party platform (that I'm aware of) that used the API. I was using the native vanilla app and I found it just fine.

But, as a developer I could not in good conscience continue voting with my wallet by viewing ads for a company that clearly didn't care to play nice with the developers that were part of making the platform great.

wizzerking• 3 years ago

I still go to Aww once a week, rather than every day Is till go to programming once a week But no longer visit politics or television or funny The only people posting are the mods as far as I can tell

wojciii• 3 years ago

I did. I used their client but it got so bad that I decided to stop using Reddit instead of trying to use it.

The app was bad and required restarts often because video wouldn't play. Then they fucked up some of the modes I used to read some reedits in.. which together with the way they handled the API debacle made me remove my user after 10 years.

Daeraxa• 3 years ago

Been using Reddit since 2011, stopped using it almost entirely now that I can no longer use RIF to browse it. More than happy with Lemmy.

nunez• 3 years ago

I did. I don't post, and I only browse when I need help finding a place to eat in a new city. I used to browse every day for at least an hour.

KomoD• 3 years ago

Still use it.

polski-g• 3 years ago

I patched Boost to work through the API changes, so it's been a very non-noticeable change. Only thing is that porn is no longer accessible through the API.

mdwalters• 3 years ago

Not really. I'm still trying to adjust to Lemmy.

mikewarot• 3 years ago

I deleted my account (that I started in 2006), and have actively avoided the domain ever since. I'm never going back.

ottoludd• 3 years ago

my Infinity installation on Android (obtained via fdroid) continues to work, without prompting me to make any payments, so I'm still using it. however, the general quality of content and discussion seems to have dropped significantly. all interesting discussion on the comment section is obscured by tired and banal "reddit culture " attempts at humor, or political flamewars, since literally everything is politicized now. I don't find Reddit nearly as useful, interesting or entertaining as I once did.

Ask HN: How many of us have (nearly) abandoned Reddit over the API debacle?

Related Stories