[Software] The end of Reddit? Why the blackout is still going – and what happens next

[Blackfire]

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• Update (Wednesday, June 14): we've updated this article with news about a leaked memo from Reddit's CEO, which could prolong the blackout. 

  The Reddit blackout continues as we roll into day three of the protests, with thousands of subreddits still dark as part of the planned 48-hour pushback against new developer charges – and now a leaked internal memo from Reddit's CEO has added further fuel to the fire.

   

• A copy of the memo, picked up by The Verge, contains some bombshells that certainly isn't going to help the situation and could prolong the site's issues. According to the leak, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman said: "There’s a lot of noise with this one. Among the noisiest we’ve seen. Please know that our teams are on it, and like all blowups on Reddit, this one will pass as well"

• This reflects the Reddit management's confidence that the protests won't have long-term ramifications, with the site telling us "we're not planning any changes to the API updates we’ve previously announced".

   

• The blackout was scheduled to last for 48 hours from Monday, June 11 and, while some have returned, almost 7,000 subreddits are still dark, according to the very useful Reddit blackout tracker. Hundreds have also now pledged to remain dark indefinitely.

  These protests have been possible because Reddit relies on a vast army of volunteer moderators who keep discussions on topic and remove comments – but can also make subreddits private, or effectively take them 'dark'.

  On Monday June 12, Reddit actually crashed due to the blackout, with the site's status page reporting a "major outage". Those have now seemingly been resolved, with the Reddit status tracker showing a more healthy "all systems operational".

  But what happens next? And when are you going to be able to get your fix of r/funny, r/aww, and r/catswithjobs again? Here's all the latest news about the self-styled "front page of the internet

• Back in April, Reddit announced that it would start charging developers for access to its API. This API has allowed developers to build po[CENSORED]r, alternative smartphones apps like Apollo, which they did well before Reddit introduced its own official app in 2016.

  Those charges are due to come into play from June 19, which is why many third-party apps – including Apollo and Reddit is Fun – have announced that they'll no longer be available. 

  That said, not all third-party apps will be wiped out – for example, the developer of Relay for Reddit has said in a new post that "a monthly subscription price of $3 (or less) might be achievable". 

  The leaked internal memo from Reddit CEO Steve Huffman also states: "While the two biggest third-party apps, Apollo and RIF, along with a couple others, have said they plan to shut down at the end of the month, we are still in conversation with some of the others. And as I mentioned in my post last week, we will exempt accessibility-focused apps and so far have agreements with RedReader and Dystopia."

   

• Still, while Reddit hasn't officially revealed its new API pricing details, some developers have lifted the lid on the potential costs. In a post on r/apolloapp, the developer Christian Selig said that based on the "7 billion requests" (or times a user has triggered a need for API access) it would cost him $1.7 million (around £1.35m / AU$2.51m) per month.

• Although Selig stated that he is "deeply disappointed in this price", particularly as it has echoes of a similar policy by Twitter that he says was "publicly ridiculed", Reddit has denied that it has priced out developers of all third-party apps. 

  We asked Reddit for official comment and it told us that "expansive access to data has impact and costs involved" and that it spends "millions of dollars on hosting fees". 

  Reddit added that Apollo is "notably less efficient than other third-party apps" and that "the vast majority of API users will not have to pay for access". According to the site, "the Reddit Data API is free to use within the published rate limits so long as apps are not monetized".

   

• But the issue is that many existing apps like Apollo aren't really feasible as entirely free propositions, given the developer work involved, which is why many of the most po[CENSORED]r third-party apps (if not all of them) have stated that they'll be unable to continue from June 19 when the API charges start.

• [https://www.techradar.com/news/the-end-of-reddit-heres-why-most-of-the-site-is-down-and-what-happens-next]