What's going on?

A recent Reddit policy change expected on July 1, 2023 threatens to kill many beloved third-party mobile apps, making a great many quality-of-life features not seen in the official mobile app permanently inaccessible to users.

On May 31, 2023, Reddit announced they were raising the price to make calls to their API from being free to a level that will kill every third party app on Reddit, from Apollo to Reddit is Fun to Narwhal to BaconReader, to Sync for Reddit. Reddit's planned API changes on July 1 would cost the Apollo app developer nearly USD 20 million a year in API fees.

Even if you're not a mobile user and don't use any of those apps, this is a step toward killing other ways of customizing Reddit, such as Reddit Enhancement Suite or the use of the old.reddit.com web browser interface.

This isn't only a problem on the user level: many subreddit moderators depend on tools only available outside the official app to keep their communities on-topic and spam-free; tools that are dependent on access to the API.

For some visually impaired Redditors, the decision is disastrous as the official apps are inferior or even unusable for some compared to the various third-party mobile apps available today.

What's the plan?

On June 12th, many subreddits will be locked down to protest this policy. Some will return after 48 hours: others will go away permanently unless the issue is adequately addressed, since many moderators aren't able to put in the work they do with the poor tools available through the official app. This isn't something any of us do lightly: we mods do what we do because we love Reddit and the communities we are responsible for, and we truly believe this change will make it impossible to keep doing what we love.

The two-day blackout isn't the goal, and it isn't the end. Should things reach the 14th with no sign of Reddit choosing to fix what they've broken, further actions will be necessary.

What can you do?

1. Complain.

   • Message the mods of /r/reddit.com, who are the admins of the site.
   • Message /u/reddit/.
   • Submit a support request.
   • Leave a comment on any relevant threads on /r/reddit, such as this one.
   • Leave a comment of support in any and all relevant threads on the site, including this post.

2. Spread the word. Rabble-rouse on related subreddits. Meme it up, make it spicy. Suggest anyone you know who moderates a subreddit join us at /r/ModCoord/.

3. Boycott and spread the word...to Reddit's competition! Stay off Reddit entirely on June 12th through the end of the day on 13th- instead, take to your favorite non-Reddit platform of choice and make some noise in support!

4. Don't be a jerk. As upsetting this may be, threats, profanity and vandalism will be worse than useless in getting people on our side. Please make every effort to be as restrained, polite, reasonable and law-abiding as possible.

5. Sign the Open Letter regarding API pricing.

Further reading

https://www.reddit.com/r/Save3rdPartyApps/comments/13yh0jf/dont_let_reddit_kill_3rd_party_apps/

https://www.reddit.com/r/apolloapp/comments/13ws4w3/had_a_call_with_reddit_to_discuss_pricing_bad/

https://old.reddit.com/r/ModCoord/comments/1401qw5/incomplete_and_growing_list_of_participating/

https://www.reddit.com/r/SubredditDrama/comments/1404hwj/mods_of_rblind_reveal_that_removing_3rd_party/

https://www.reddit.com/r/redditdev/comments/13wsiks/api_update_enterprise_level_tier_for_large_scale/jmolrhn/?context=3