The WoW Subreddit has gone private in protest of Reddit’s recent and planned changes to the API, heavily impacting third-party tools, accessibility, and moderation ability.
r/WOW joins the many subreddits that have gone dark in protest of Reddit’s new API pricing. The new API updates have sparked outrage among developers and users, as the changes negatively impact their third-party apps.
Despite exemptions for accessibility-oriented apps, many developers are forced to shut down their Reddit apps, including popular ones like Appolo for Reddit, due to the financial burden imposed by the API changes.
Apollo for Reddit developer Christian Selig revealed he would have to pay a whopping $20 million per year for 7 billion API requests every month due to the changes, just to keep his app working.
As reported by The Verge, Selig is “deeply disappointed in this price” and “while Reddit has been communicative and civil throughout this process, he doesn’t see how this pricing is anything based in reality or remotely reasonable”.
Reddit’s decision to monetize its API comes just months before Reddit is expected to file for an initial public offering (IPO).
Many users claim they will be leaving Reddit when they can’t use third-party apps.
We’ll have to wait and see what the future holds for the popular platform!
