tl;dr: Reddit is effectively killing third party apps (Apollo, RIF, Boost, etc.) on July 1, 2023. Why does this matter? There are a lot of users who use and prefer third party apps over the woefully inadequate official mobile app. Lots of moderators all over Reddit also use third party apps and bots in order to effectively run their subreddits. Once this change is in effect you can expect many subreddits' quality to drastically decrease, since we can't effectively or as frequently moderate without these apps and tools. In protest, many subreddits all over Reddit will be protesting by going dark (private).

The long version: Don't let Reddit kill third party apps:

What's going on?

A recent Reddit policy change 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.

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 desktop 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.

What's the plan?

On June 12th, many subreddits will be going dark 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 do what we do because we love Reddit, 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, we'll use the community and buzz we've built between then and now as a tool for further action.

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: comment in relevant threads on /r/reddit, such as this one, leave a negative review on their official iOS or Android app- and sign your username in support to this post.
2. Spread the word. Rabble-rouse on related subreddits. Meme it up, make it spicy. Bitch about it to your cat. 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 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.

More links:

1. An open letter on the state of affairs regarding the API pricing and third party apps and how that will impact moderators and communities. (r/ModCoord)
2. Reddit’s API pricing results in shocking $20 million-a-year bill for Apollo (ArsTechnica)
3. Comment from Apollo developer regarding malicious pricing of API fees (r/modnews)
4. RIF dev here - Reddit's API changes will likely kill RIF and other apps, on July 1, 2023 (r/redditisfun)
5. Reddit sparks outrage after a popular app developer said it wants him to pay $20 million a year for data access (CNN)

A very good ELI5 post: https://redd.it/142kct8

On a personal note:

Despite 7 accounts on our mod list, I pretty much moderate this ~800k subreddit all by myself. I don't know how or why, but holy shit did this sub explode in popularity in the past few years. I try to be consistent and fair and accommodating whilst moderating, and it's often overwhelming - I have a real life job and family to attend to - but I obsessively check up on the queue, spam and reports at least once an hour while I'm awake (unfortunately I'm really behind on modmail and I'm really trying to catch up - sorry).

The only way I can properly moderate during the day is to use a third party app called Boost for Reddit. I go through every single profile of people who post here to determine how legit they are; how spammy they are; if their age is consistent in other posts; to check if it's a bot account or some shady stuff going on; etc. Then I make a user-tag of that person (which I also use to keep track of infractions, such as repost amount, how many times they've broken the rules, etc.) in order to determine whether they're allowed to post here or not. Permanent bans are exclusively for spam or people who blatantly and consistently break the rules.

All of those user-notes are stored locally on my phone and accessed within Boost. If that app stops working, so do I. That's the crux of it.

The official Reddit mobile app is dogshit and I applaud anyone who manages to tolerate it. If push comes to shove, the only way I'll be able to continue to moderate this sub is to set it to 'Restricted' and only go through the queue, spam, etc. once a night when I get time to sit behind a PC. This is not ideal - especially for a large subreddit such as r/OBSF.

So that's where we are at the moment. I know this is just another porn sub, who cares. But I do work really hard to make this a quality subreddit that is free of spam and only hosts legitimate content. If you'd like to support us and others who rely on third party services, please be patient and participate in the above-mentioned suggested actions.

• Cheers, Charles