Apollo founder Christian Selig said he’s “heartbroken” about pulling the plug on the third-party app following Reddit’s API pricing changes.
I used Reddit for over a decade, and much of that was with Apollo. Not going back purely because of how they treated Christian and the other 3rd party devs
I’ve said this before elsewhere, but all of the spez BS aside, I used RiF for reddit. To me, that was Reddit. 95% of my time on reddit was through the lens of RiF.
They are effectively getting rid of reddit for me by forcing RiF to shutdown.
Good way of putting it. Their app was so horrible that I went from PAYING and using their app to moving to Apollo. I tried using it after they bought Blue Alien but it got worse and worse and finally I gave up paying and moved. Reddit died with third party useful apps.
Before the APIcalypse, I thought about quitting reddit. Now that my 3rd party app died, quitting has never been easier. I tried to check the site with a mobile browser, but I can’t collapse comments, so that ended up being a very quick visit.
Exactly my scenario. They really fucked the chicken up with the move to charge for API access.
It’s amazing how history always finds a way of repeating itself. The ignorance to not acknowledge what happened to digg, and what sent so many to deadit is laughable. I would be very interested to see what traffic looks like now to reddit, and how much of it is coming from their app, which I think they said they will start charging a monthly subscription fee for. That CEO should have the cheese touch after that debacle.
THEY ARE CHARGING FOR THE APP???
What alternate reality are they living in?
FFS. It doesn’t even work half the time.
You’d think that knowing they were going to do this they’d have put some effort into making it work a bit better, but no.
Lmao a subscription to use the app
Really a subscription for the basic tier app? That would be madness.
Of course it’s madness now that they charge $50/year now for premium. It was paying the highest’ tier of Apollo and it was $10/year and actually had features I wanted.
I used Apollo and I feel ya. I used to keep the default app installed so I could claim free gifts but it wasn’t worth ending up in the official Reddit app on accident while browsing the web :P Yeah, it’s that bad.
100% agree, hate to see it go down like that but they made their decisions
Hell yeah. 16 years here, and as part of some big happenings early on. (RIP I_RAPE_CATS)
Haven’t touched Reddit since Apollo died.
Yep, deleted mine yesterday. Their disdain for the mods that provide free labor and for the users in general with their lazy “they’ll get over it” attitude was the deal breaker. Fuuuuuck Reddit.
After Apollo’s API token was invalid, I deleted my account. I know it’s a minuscule drop in the ocean for Reddit, but not matter, I’m with Lemmy and the fediverse come what may.
Same, in the optional feedback box, I told them to fire Spez
Same. Can’t do much, but I think voting with our feet is the right thing to do.
It’s pretty cozy here tbh, really liking it so far and it’s way more busy than I was expecting.
Honestly I thought it would be tougher to switch. I know Reddit has a depth of content in niche communities and it’s tragic to lose that, but I’ve been delighted to find myself enjoying exploring a new system and all the weird and clever instances that are popping up.
I think this is also true for a lot of long term power-users of reddit. So, LOTS of drops in the ocean.
I can confirm. The drop wouldn’t impact me until they drop
old.reddit.com, but I dropped Reddit because of moral reasons.
I also deleted my account on Friday. Yea, we are just few drops, but enough drops have an impact.
I haven’t deleted my account, but I deleted every post and comment.
worth keeping your account on the off chance someone with a brain takes over and unfucks the place or you can find a good price to sell it to spammers.
I’ve also kept my account for the time being in case they want to revert any comments. Will be deleting in a few days.
Everyone keeps commenting on how federation feels “emptier” than Reddit, but honestly all I did after 15 or so years on Reddit is doom scroll. I just lurked and felt miserable. There IS less content here and because of that I visit for a shorter period of time and that FREEs me up to do other, more productive things with people I know outside of social media. After the past few weeks of learning about the tech and the why and how of the land I think I like the balance here.
Nine year redditor here; I never fell into the doomscrolling that so many others talk about, and I will miss Reddit, but something I’ve discovered is that while it’s difficult to get a “toe hold” in the fediverse, once you do, there is way more content here than I ever knew about on Reddit.
Not saying that Reddit didn’t have it, but rather that I never got curious enough to poke around beyond my main block of subs that I’d curated over that decade. There are entire domains here devoted to science or philosophy or retro gaming, and it really does look like they’re vibrant and active. Finding them is the issue, which really is the big problem with the fediverse in the first place.
There really isn’t a great cut-and-switch over to Lemmy that will make a redditor feel like nothing has changed, but the discovery process isn’t too much different from Reddit, and I think people need to remember that their Reddit experience wasn’t built in a day. My suggestion is to take a more curious approach rather than the “Reddit’s dead, what’s its identical replacement?” that I see, because there really isn’t one and, even if there was, it’d be just as susceptible to the same disease that is currently killing Reddit (and Twitter).
I think this is great. It’s a new opportunity for all of us to define something new - whatever that means to each of us.
See, I have to agree with how it feels empty. I very carefully curated the subs I looked at on reddit. I was there for very specific news and discussion and memes about my various hobbies and interests all compiled into a single easy to access place. This does not fill my needs yet. But hopefully we can start filling that niche going forward.
That’s exactly my experience- Reddit was really my only social media for most of the last 5 years. I had everything I wanted in one place, and multireddits in Apollo kept it all running smoothly
Totally agree that I want more variety. As with any adventure only time will tell if this is worth it as far as a time investment.
Rather than simply look to Lemmy as a replacement, I’ve also been trying not just not need to look at a screen constantly.
Honestly, in addition to the doom scrolling, because there is less here at the moment, I feel like I can contribute more without feeling like I’m talking to an empty field after a festival. This place will grow, but hopefully it doesn’t turn out to be as Reddit is.
It feels like Lemmy has gotten significantly better over the last few days. I’m having to close out much less frequently
I haven’t read more than a handful of books in the last decade; I’m sure it’s because I got my reading fix on Reddit instead. I’m really curious how this will change in the future.
Stopped using Reddit on mobile for a while when they announced they were killing 3rd party apps. Replaced it with the Apple “Books” app, and I’ve gone through 2 books already. Highly recommend it lol
I’m the same way - I don’t read anymore. I have a BA in English. I should love reading. I am also in a career that involves a bunch of reading and writing, so I am also kinda burned out at the end of the day by stressful content; and Reddit did always have something fun and dumb to look at along with the doom. (Oh, can’t forget about the great Google search sourcing - I do miss that)
Yeah I agree. Of course it feels empty. But so did reddit. it’s just a different kind of empty. At reddit it was like walking lonely halls that went on forever. Here, at least, it feels like there’s only twenty-seven people all stuck on the face of a brand new habitable planet. It really feels like a fresh start, and it’s up to us to make this place better for everyone.
Yep, smaller, but a tighter group of like-minded folks.
Crazy question, I’ve seen the phrase doom scroll a few times- I get the scroll, but not the doom? I feel like I’m missing something
Happy to explain! For me doom scrolling is the tendency to be attracted to the top trending posts of the last 24 hours on Reddit - specifically bad or triggering news. Perhaps for some people that would be news only about social movements or political policies that are frightening for them or their loved ones. Hence a sense of “doom” when scrolling through the feed. Another example might be posts related to Ukraine and Putin’s tactical nukes being moved to Belarus. It all depends on the individual but it’s usually triggering shit that you really don’t need to see more of …
That’s an interesting take and would have been much harder to digest if I saw a comment like that on reddit. However, most of the things I was viewing were all doom and gloom with some exceptions.
I would start the day, looking at doom and gloom and wonder why my anxiety and stress seemed to coincide at the same time. 2 days now and I can clearly see how even scrolling through that stuff was bad for my mental health. I’m still interested in keeping an eye on news but not to that same level again. I kind of feel reset if that makes any sense. While I think the CEO is a dumbass for doing that, I think as time goes on, I might actually be thankful that it happened.
Either way, realizing now how the constant scrolling was a negative impact for me, and dipped my bucket every single morning, I am now aware and can try to learn from it.
I take it to mean people just scrolling and scrolling their life away, because they are addicted to see what else will appear next. A lot of social media tries to get this happening on purpose so people use their service more and more.
Never heard of that term, but making a blind guess… “doom scroll” is basically searching for world/daily tragedies and projecting one’s insecurities towards such, i.e “HAHA that guy deserved to be trashed!.. even more than I do.”
I’m a part of that group. I see 24 people wish I’d kick rocks haha, I get it.
Look, I’m sure most of the refugees agree with me. If we don’t fit in we’ll leave.
So far I’m digging Lemmy. I wish it was more active, but if it’s gonna grow it will.
It broke my heart to leave Reddit after 15-16 years, but it’s not that same place any more any way.
So, hello fellow Apollo refugees.
Not being able to browse on mobile killed it for me. Most of my browsing was on mobile via Apollo. I refuse to get the official app after this stunt so now I’m just not using Reddit.
Luckily wefwef is making the transition easy and familiar.
I used reddit is fun but it’s the same story. Literally 15 years using that website daily.
Same here, since 2017. I cannot recommend wefwef enough if you’re not already on it.
👋
Reddit is Fun user here… I had 15 years on reddit, I was part of their FCC filing in favor of Net Neutrality… I’m not going back.
It’s not just about shutting down the apps, it’s about the utter disdain they showed the communities and the users.
hey, that’s me! I’m a redditor that walked away after Apollo shutdown!
Same here - I’m loving wefwef so far, has a very similar UI 🙌
hello! glad you walked in here.
Wefwef has been an amazing replacement so far.
Samesies, I wish someone at Reddit would leak how many users deleted their account on July 1st and leading up to it compared to a normal month of people coming and going.
Apollo refugee reporting in!
ONE OF US!
Reddit was becoming complete trash. The only thing that kept me was Apollo because it had an awesome feature where I could filter out all the keywords I didn’t want to see. Well, Apollo is now gone, so I’m done with Reddit and have started using lemmy.
I spent the last 3 years curating my feed by filtering the subs I didn’t want to see on r/all in Apollo. I can’t get that back and the front page is just garbage.
So yeah, I’m here now unless a better platform pops up.
I spent the last 3 years curating my feed by filtering the subs I didn’t want to see on r/all in Apollo. I can’t get that back and the front page is just garbage.
So yeah, I’m here now unless a better platform pops up.
I deleted my Reddit account. I almost exclusively browsed on mobile and I won’t be caught dead using Reddit’s useless official ap. Hi Lemmy.
Hi! I’m in the same boat. Part of me is sad to leave (15 year account) but the more bigger part of me is looking forward to seeing how lemmy grows with this migration.
It does genuinely feel like a new world even though I’d only been on reddit for a half-dozen years.
I’ve actually been using the Reddit app for quite some time now and I don’t get the hate. Regardless of that, the way Reddit handled all of this was enough for me to leave anyway. Hi Lemmy!
I used sync on Android for about 10 years, and reddit is fun (“rif”) for maybe a year before that. I used the official app yesterday to look for any top posts about the lost traffic on reddit and the app was stuttery and was impossible to find even the easiest of things. They’ve had their requirements and priorities change over the years as middle management comes and goes and so the app doesn’t have a unified and streamlined experience, which many of us on 3rd party apps have gotten used to. Which is sad since most 3rd party apps are the efforts of a single individual vs a 100s of employee, first party company.
IIRC, the official Reddit app used to be third party app Alien Blue. They didn’t even build their official app, they just bought a premade one.
Nothing of Alien Blue was really left, they just destroyed it and replaced it with their own crap
Goes to show how difficult it can be for teams to build good products when there’s a million stakeholders involved vs one stakeholder (plus users). It can be done of course, but only if managed well. Which Reddit obviously didn’t.
I tried the official app 5 or 6 years ago but it really sucked, was way too bright and killed my phone’s battery life. Settled for RedReader and never looked back.
RedReader only got better, the Reddit app had some features slowly trickle in years too late, and got worse and had bugs that took ages to fix.
I was using it enough that I would have considered paying for premium or gold if Reddit was to co-operate to add-in API features like poll voting. But with their such antagonistic approach, I started winding down my Reddit usage in late April and ramping up with Lemmy. Despite RedReader being given an exception, I’m leaving it permanently. I’m not posting or commenting anymore.
Try wefwef.app my fellow ex-Apollo users
I stepped away from Reddit after Apollo shut down in part out of spite and to stand against the crap from Reddit but mostly because Apollo made Reddit usable.
I’ve been using WefWef to browse Lemmy and it feels so perfectly familiar. Makes me very happy.
Same. Just starting out but it already feels like home.
Same here
Never used Apollo but after seeing how Huffman lied about it, plus al of the misleading messaging, it was more than enough to cut that tie
Same. Reddit could walk back everything they said and literally prove they would be unable to do it again by some act of god that I still wouldn’t go back. They have completely erased my goodwill towards them.
I bought the wallpapers to support Christian and had a really emotional evening.
When the blackout started I joined Lemmy and started to stop using Reddit to show my support by not producing any traffic.
On the last day I opened up apollo again and it was so terrifying, knowing the way I used Reddit for years will be gone. I used PDS but will wait with the deletion of my accounts to be safe that Reddit doesn’t restore my comments.
I still keep my fingers crossed that Christian will make an Apollo App for Lemmy, but I can totally understand the he got other things to do.
Just remember, he got called out from Spez and one of his income sources just disappeared because a business partner just wanted to fuck him up. I hope his friends and family will be there for him.
BTW: Made a little fan icon. Just for the dreams.
Have you tried wefwef? I’m also coming from Apollo and finding it very familiar :)
Yeah I did and currently I’m switching between wefwef and Memmy. I have to say that I’m positively shocked how fast those Apps developed in the last two weeks.
Maybe I would like to see the original Apollo App, because I used it for years and it’s more about the emotional bonding.
I never used Apollo (I’m an Android user) but I tried wefwef for the first time today and I’m surprised at how natural it feels. If this is what Apollo was like I’m sad I didn’t get a chance to experience it.
Same here I never really got into reddit until I found an app that I actually enjoyed browsing on…. Apollo
Is that what Apollo was like? I’m an android user, so never actually used Apollo. The sliding to vote, collapse, and reply is kinda neat (if perhaps not very obvious at first – I saw a comment mention it, which is the main reason I even knew it was there).
As a native App it felt of course more smooth and everything was more polished. But the whole UI is exactly like Apollo, still missing some QOL features (like favorite communities).
There were a lot of features which you would never ask for in the beginning but when you’re used to it, they are great. For example: You want to share some reddit content with friends who don’t use reddit? Here, take the native video downloader and just share the video and not a link. Or you could share a thread/comment as a big vertical screenshot, so your friends could read it on their mobile device.
And being able to share as image with the title, for those images that needed context
Yes, very much. It had even a few more really useful tricks like press and hold on a comment and a menu would pop up to let you do different actions, like reply, quote, select text, save the comment or even translate it using google translate. It was really awesome, clean and intuitive.
Yes, very much. It had even a few more really useful tricks like press and hold on a comment and a menu would pop up to let you do different actions, like reply, quote, select text, save the comment or even translate it using google translate. It was really awesome, clean and intuitive.
Yeah this was exactly how Apollo worked. I went from Sync on Android to Apollo when I switched to iOS and love both
I wish I knew about wefwef sooner I don’t know how I can transfer my data from Apollo now
Seriously, wefwef has made the transition so easy for me with such a familiar interface.
I’m using mlem; it’s in active development and the TestFlight beta has come a VERY long way in even just the week since I first installed it. It appears to be striving to be an Apollo clone. Still a long way to go but incredible progress, I’m excited to see what the next month will bring to the app!
Love the icon!
Yes, quite the odd feeling! On the bright side, I expect Christian probably made enough from app sales to not have to worry for many, many years.
That’s adorable!!!
I’m pissed at HOW they did it. Without an ounce of respect for the user base. They could have made it affordable and turned a profit out of 3rd party apps, they could have been more civil on the communications, they could have explained the problem and asked suggestions, even if they had no intentions on doing something else.
But they choosed a huge FU, not only to it’s end users, but to people that were trying to make reddit a better place, either at barely a profit, or with volunteer work.
Judging from the slowdowns and hiccups around here, yeah, I’d say that was “some”. And we’re not done yet either. Plenty of people in the world party on friday and saturday. Plenty of people in the US are camping or something on an extended weekend.
Everyone checks it eventually as the week rolls on though. Kinda fortunate for us, really. Spreads the influx out.
Do you know if there are usage stats posted somewhere? I would like to see how much people joins in the upcoming weeks.
There are a few different sites that keep track of it. I like the way https://fedidb.org/software/Lemmy presents the stats. The dip in users that they show though is from them removing a bunch of bot instances from their metrics.
I’ve seen a few stats posted throughout the day. Around 6hrs ago I saw just lemmy.world activity had risen 40% since yesterday.
I’m one of the new ones so I don’t know where stats came from tho.
I was posting and encouraging Lemmy.world and wefwef like crazy until Apollo died.
I’m one that left after RiF got shut down. Lemmy.world just announced an increase of 20k new users over the weekend (about a 40% increase), so I’d say there’s quite a few of us
I haven’t willingly been back since the 12th. Shithead CEOs aren’t going to profit off my contributions. If everyone did the same it would evaporate overnight
I don’t know about everyone but I am the same
Same
Let’s be realistic here, there’s very little chance that a significant portion of users migrate out. It’s cool. We don’t have to obsess about our ex.
