Apollo’s Christian Selig explains his fight with Reddit — and why users revolted
3 years ago by sparky@lemmy.pt to c/reddit
Me too, but I think the Reddit and Lemmy APIs are sufficiently different that he would effectively have to rebuild most of the app. I have high hopes for https://github.com/buresdv/Mlem, I'm in the TestFlight, but it's too incomplete to actually use currently. Still, I'll miss Apollo itself far more than Reddit.
Yeah, I’m using Mlem for now. It’s pretty crashy right now and feature incomplete but hope to see it get better
I really like Mlem so far. It’s a lot more stable and put-together than I would have expected for such an early dev version. I also have high hopes for the app.
With that said, Apollo was the app I used the most on my phone and it was probably one of the best-designed apps out there. I will really miss it come the end of this month.
I was thinking of getting a shiny new iPhone but then I realized, what would I even do on it without Apollo? I hope Mlem continues to improve and the momentum of Lemmy stays strong.
This pleases me. It has so much potential but right now, compared to Apollo, it feels like taking a step back to the Stone Age.
I just want to say that I agree with this, but it’s not an indictment of the dev(s)! I understand that they’ve had way less time/resources to work on this when compared with Apollo, and I’m sure Mlem will become an app I love over time
On the android side, jabroa is kinda clunky. Hoping some other people step up to the plate.
Jabroa isn't fully fleshed out yet either, but it does at least have a more complete feature set at the momeent. It's mostly usable for day to day Lemmy browsing. Mlem isn't there yet. Sounds like the dev is making great strides, so hopefully soon.
It's got more done in two days than "progress" on reddits trash app has made in 8 years. Imagine that.
Man, really fuck Spez. Christian just seems like such a genuinely good guy, who just was trying to build something great using Apple’s tools. The way he details the huge shift of direction from early 2023 to now in regards to them having no plans to change the API smells a lot like corpo-influence sinking their teeth in Spez and forcing this change ahead of the IPO.
Hopefully we can prove that this new model works and can be sustained long-term, and Christian can be enticed to revamp Apollo for the fediverse.
I agree with the anger toward spez, but I think many of us are missing that he isn't a lone actor. He is solely the face. Based on his history, he doesn't have the skills to strongarm an entire company with the size and influence of Reddit. There's an entire board and team of assistants and consultants that are advising him. He is the face of a larger group that is pushing this movement, while he is mostly voicing that group's opinion. I really think that this understanding needs to spread among us because that group can merely change the face of the voice to continue their trajectory without any true change, causing us to be caught off guard and falling for their self-centered greed.
Right now, the Fediverse, specifically Lemmy and kbin, have a lot of momentum going due to recent events related to Apollo, spez's AMA, and the blackout. This momentum is capable of making the Fediverse a success stable alternative to Reddit, but it will only succeed if the pressure for it to succeed continues. However, while many of us here are dead set on never returning to Reddit, we need to hit a critical mass of determined refugees to sustain this movement. Therefore, all Reddit really needs to do is come out with some way of reducing that momentum for long enough to quell the movement. After that, they can go back to implementing their changes. While I don't have Reddit's finances available, I'm assuming they have or can access the financial means to slow the momentum down enough to quell the rebellion.
If some of those apps were able to be functional with their interfaces over here it sure would help. Sounded like the Red Reader dev, even though it's safe on Reddit for now, is looking at making it compatible with multiple platforms, presumably including Fediverse. Hope they can come soon enough to keep up the momentum.
u/spez is Steve Huffman (if you even genuinely believe he's been running the account these days).
The u/spez account will likely die along with his position. Meanwhile, Steve Huffman will get a golden parachute and laugh all the way to the bank.
Do not forget his name is Steve Huffman. Also, do not forget that he used to be a mod of r/jailbait and is almost certainly a paedophile.
This is what doesn't make sense to me. You want to cut down on reply bots? Sure, they're kinda annoying anyway. You want to do other things to limit the API? Ok. But to just outright make the price so high as to make it impossible to pay? They're literally losing millions of users like you. A lot of Apollo users will NEVER install the official app or use new Reddit. It just seems like the dumbest decision ever. Maybe they've got data that most new sign ups are from tiktok/Facebook/Instagram. So they're just going to ride out the wave until active user count is back at what it was. It just seems extremely dumb to basically tank they're active user count especially as they're trying to do an IPO.
I'm glad to see Christian has kept his head in all of this craziness. If you pay attention, he has not once pointed the finger back at Reddit and said outright "they are trying to kill 3rd party apps". He has been careful to keep the line open in case Reddit comes calling.
I hope he does something else past his Pixel Pals app because I am excited to follow him into his next project. We can all only hope it's an app for the fediverse!
This is an excellent interview that lays out the situation really well, though it's not really new information if you've been following the story. Sounds like Christian really would have been willing to work with them and they just threw that opportunity away at every possible point.
Christian is such a class act. He doesn't take things personal; he doesn't get angry or play their game. He just shares his truth in a calm, objective, but confident manner. I would love for him to become more prominent outside of Reddit drama because I'm sure that anything he works on will become successful and mutually beneficial to all parties involved. If I managed a large tech organization, I'd be calling to recruit him. Certainly, other tech corporations are following this and wondering how they can get him to come work for them.
Class act is a great way to put it. I agree, he’s a credit to indie developers everywhere. And actually his “take the high road” approach is such a contrast with Spez’s unprofessional behaviour, that it just serves to make the latter look even worse.
That's a very informative interview, I hope it gets some reach. It's the details that make this case so damning.
I'm so done with reddit. This won't be the end I'm sure, it's too big to die, but it can only get worse from here.
Facebook was a massive step ahead in UX compared to Myspace. Lemmy, thus far, isn't. It's actually more difficult to start using. The idea behind it is great and worth supporting, but there needs to be a way to streamline the process of signing up on an instance. The fact that over half of the well known ones require approval alone is enough to make someone give up.
I’m happy to talk whenever, but I just haven’t been able to reach them.
Sounds like a recurring theme based on the AMA. It's almost as if Reddit is being disingenuous when they keep talking about how eager they are to work with 3rd-party devs.
Christian did an interview a week ago with Snazzy Labs, worth a watch!
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I know he wants a break. But I would love to see Apollo for Lemmy
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