HACKER Q&A
📣 gcanyon

How many of us have (nearly) abandoned Reddit over the API debacle?


How many of us have (nearly) abandoned Reddit over the API debacle?


  👤 hnaccter Accepted Answer ✓
I have reduced my usage of Reddit by 99%. Unfortunately, I still see it as the king of hyper local or hyper niche, but that’s mostly coming up in searches. The fediverse confusion didn’t help with offering viable options to those communities.

👤 gcanyon
I was an Apollo user, and when it shut down my usage dropped from "daily, whenever I'm standing in line or otherwise waiting" to "once or twice a month when I need to look something up."

It's been replaced by: HN, AP News, and the NYT.


👤 sen
Had already “mostly” abandoned it a year or so ago but the changes were the final straw and I don’t think I’ve been back since (maybe once or twice when someone linked something).

Replaced with carrying my kindle around and reading more often, so it’s been a great change for me personally.


👤 longitudinal93
I miss some of the real communities that were there but I haven't been back. I may try Lemmy or go back to RES and a desktop browser.

👤 bravetraveler
I totally abandoned it. Spend more time here, focusing on work, or offline

I don't miss it in the slightest, my mood has improved from less pedantry


👤 mandmandam
Cut it drastically.

I am saving hours a week for vastly more productive and less irritating pastimes.

The quality dropped off so hard over the last decade anyways. It had long passed the point of 'more trouble than it's worth, really'; but losing Apollo, and spez's patronizing lies, made it easier to quit.

I used to really enjoy the site, before it got hollowed out by various scumbuckets at every level. It's sad to see how far it fell.


👤 hruzgar
started using lemmy. But the community over there is so based

👤 JimtheCoder
I've abandoned it because larger and larger amounts of Reddit users seem to have become more insufferable over the last year or two.

That, and the mobile experience sucks.


👤 albert_e
I have virtually stopped using Reddit.

I have been aware of a growing addiction / habit of spending many hours daily online.

Used the API blackout to cut myself off. Occassionally miss it for technical forums where I want to see or post specific ideas or reviews or help. Holding out so far.

Still spend too much time online -- HN and Twitter.

EDIT: used this opportunity to re-enable noprocrast setting on my HN user profile (with a little less aggressive controls this time, hoping it sticks)


👤 endisneigh
Didn’t care about the API stuff since I used the mobile site. Still use it.

👤 ryaneager
I was an Apollo Ultra user, went from 2-3 hours a day before the blackout to zero now, outside the occasional Google search.

👤 neontomo
Deleted my account the other day. Not because of the API changes, but because I've noticed the content becoming more and more toxic (and damaging to my mental health).

I was trying for a long time to hide toxic subreddits and individual posts I didn't enjoy, and even tried blocking keywords with uBlock, but in the end it was only putting a bandaid on a fatal wound. The content seems to be gearing towards toxic internet trends, hateful content, rage-bait, people actually dying on video and a whole lot of people telling other people what to think about social issues. I like nuanced discussions, not shaming people into submission on either side of the political spectrum.

I admit, this has always been on the platform but I used to go on Reddit to find interesting stories, cute stuff and really bizarre articles about how the world works (like mantis shrimps being able to crush a fish tank glass with a single punch, and so on). I find less of it now, and the main use for Reddit is while trying to solve a problem. For example:

Google: site:reddit.com How do I boot my Mac into Safe Mode

Side-note, I really miss old internet culture. I feel there's less spaces for people to just have chats about stuff without it being "content" or a way to make money/internet points. I find it here still, and it used to be What.CD forums/IRC too.


👤 nonstopdev
Apollo user with multiple active accounts that was on daily. Active for 12 years with karma for posts and comments.

Basically use the old website on a laptop once every few weeks now and never engage with any content anymore. Mostly check news, click a link maybe, and move on but has been replaced by other information sources.


👤 MattBearman
I’ve not casually browsed reddit since apollo shut down, occasionally I’ll end up on a post from a search, or my wife will show me something she’s seen, but that’s it. I was a pretty heavy user before as well.

Before apollo stopped I had set my phone to limit me to half an hour a day, a limit I hit almost every day, and regularly exceeded.

I don’t really miss it though, so it’s probably been a net benefit for me, but I’m still pissed off at how it went down


👤 nunez
I did. I don't post, and I only browse when I need help finding a place to eat in a new city. I used to browse every day for at least an hour.

👤 jamisonbryant
I did. The only time I end up there anymore is when the occasional post gets posted here or one turns up in my search results. Usually loaded up in my mobile browser, with super tiny text and ads blocked.

The funny thing is, before the brouhaha I wasn't even using a third party app to access the site or any 3rd-party platform (that I'm aware of) that used the API. I was using the native vanilla app and I found it just fine.

But, as a developer I could not in good conscience continue voting with my wallet by viewing ads for a company that clearly didn't care to play nice with the developers that were part of making the platform great.


👤 wojciii
I did. I used their client but it got so bad that I decided to stop using Reddit instead of trying to use it.

The app was bad and required restarts often because video wouldn't play. Then they fucked up some of the modes I used to read some reedits in.. which together with the way they handled the API debacle made me remove my user after 10 years.


👤 wizzerking
I still go to Aww once a week, rather than every day Is till go to programming once a week But no longer visit politics or television or funny The only people posting are the mods as far as I can tell

👤 Daeraxa
Been using Reddit since 2011, stopped using it almost entirely now that I can no longer use RIF to browse it. More than happy with Lemmy.

👤 KomoD
Still use it.

👤 polski-g
I patched Boost to work through the API changes, so it's been a very non-noticeable change. Only thing is that porn is no longer accessible through the API.

👤 mdwalters
[delayed]

👤 mikewarot
I deleted my account (that I started in 2006), and have actively avoided the domain ever since. I'm never going back.

👤 ottoludd
my Infinity installation on Android (obtained via fdroid) continues to work, without prompting me to make any payments, so I'm still using it. however, the general quality of content and discussion seems to have dropped significantly. all interesting discussion on the comment section is obscured by tired and banal "reddit culture " attempts at humor, or political flamewars, since literally everything is politicized now. I don't find Reddit nearly as useful, interesting or entertaining as I once did.