Narwhal (a 3rd-party iOS Reddit app) is still going and it turns out not biting the hand that feeds you works pretty well.
Respect to the Apollo guy for having the confidence that he could get Reddit to back down through a well-organized PR campaign. But he could’ve had a decent business if he’d just backed down, given in a little, and not tried to make Spez look like a bigger idiot/liar than he already did.
I love a good risky David v. Goliath gamble and would’ve liked to see him win, but sometimes you lose it all.
Reddit didn't win. Sometimes you're going to be lunch whether you want to or not, but you don't have to be a pleasant lunch. Reddit is dead; it just doesn't know it yet.
Sure, if you call simply posting his experiences on his own subreddit for his own app a PR campaign.
He certainly did a better job than Reddit did, blatantly lying about their conversation, timelines, and motivations for killing 3rd party apps.
Reddit is trying to pivot to the TikTok and YouTube comment section population of the internet, while the HN commenter types were simply costing them money.
> Sure, if you call simply posting his experiences on his own subreddit for his own app a PR campaign.
Yes, this and the organized blackout and anti-Reddit posts among the biggest subreddits is a coordinated PR campaign.
Remember that the headline narrative they were pushing was “Reddit is killing 3rd-party apps.” It was buried in walls of text that in fact Reddit was making 3rd-party apps pay more than they wanted to pay.
If Reddit was in fact killing 3rd-party apps why does Narwhal still work?
And yes, I understand that you are quite bright and understood exactly what was going on. But the whole point of the campaign was to appeal to people not like you and get them on the side of the developers. Although admittedly getting Redditors to post “fuck /u/spez” is only marginally harder than shooting fish in a barrel.
I’m not throwing shade. Respect to them for shooting their shot. But see it for what it was: an attempt to control a narrative, get the public on their side, and achieve a desired outcome. If that’s not PR, what is?
>If Reddit was in fact killing 3rd-party apps why does Narwhal still work?
Come back to me in 6 months and see how that statement rings. I wish the best but history serves that Reddit's user have never heen able to put their money where their mouth is. I believe Relay is also doing this, but they seem ready to shut down if users don't pay up.
Well organized PR campaign? You're giving reddit users and Christian too much credit.
Christian got caught up in this becsuse the Reddit CEO is a walking PR disaster, and Reddit's protests are a cute diversion at best. Anyone wanting to truly damage reddit should have been planning migrations, not shit posts.
>I love a good risky David v. Goliath gamble and would’ve liked to see him win, but sometimes you lose it all.
I don't think Christian is being put out on the street over this decision. You're on Hacker News and think an app dev with almost 15 years of experience is left with nothing?
I honestly wouldn't be surprised if he was close to retirement levels of money. At the very least he can have a very long leisurely location before his next venture.
Respect to the Apollo guy for having the confidence that he could get Reddit to back down through a well-organized PR campaign. But he could’ve had a decent business if he’d just backed down, given in a little, and not tried to make Spez look like a bigger idiot/liar than he already did.
I love a good risky David v. Goliath gamble and would’ve liked to see him win, but sometimes you lose it all.