As most of you know, there has been quite an uproar lately with Reddit forcing moderators to reopen subreddits that had gone private in protest. The recent API changes have made it unaffordable for many third-party Reddit readers to access the platform's content. This impacts not only the app creators but also us, the users (and mods), who rely on these readers for a seamless experience without all the superfluous junk and ads.

/r/biggerthanyouthought had gone private but now we are being forced to make the subreddit public again or risk getting demoted.

Anyway, it is their platform and somewhere in their 20-page terms of service, I'm sure there is something that says they are allowed to do so. So what can we do about it?

Well for starters, we can move out. I have spent the past year building a Reddit alternative called Spyke. We're currently in beta and are app-only and are essentially a Reddit alternative without all the unnecessary fluff and a superior UI. Think of it as a Reddit where /u/spez actually listened to what the community had to say.

So here's the plan. I would love to open up the Spyke API to third-party Reddit browsers so that they can continue delivering their excellent offerings without relying on Reddit. Of course, the only way that idea will even appeal to third-party developers is if there are actual users using the platform.

Spyke supports video, photo and text uploads and the server infrastructure is also very scalable.

We're nowhere close to Reddit user numbers. But I'm sure we can get there with your help. So please join us in the beta here.

See you on the other side :)

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PS A website is on the way as well for you desktop folk.