[wldcordeiro]

The third-party apps predate the first-party even. Reddit had been a website only for years then bought the most popular iOS third-party client as a starting point so like you said it's very much a rug-pull.

[csallen]

This is why you don't build a business on top of someone else's rug.

[matwood]

Businesses are almost always built on top of someone else. What you need to make sure of is that your financial interests are aligned.

[User23]

Which is to say have a contract that your counterparty can’t redefine freely.

[rs999gti]

Was there a contract or SLA for the free Reddit API?

If not, then there isn't much to complain about

[User23]

The terms of service are the default contract. Presumably it has a we-can-screw-you-whenever clause, but sometimes the corporate lawyers screw up and you can actually get them for violating their own ToS.

[satvikpendem]

Indeed, Courtland, and even on IndieHackers you see a lot of stories about platform risk, platforms which indie hackers often use to build a good product but always seem surprised that they got rugged, as if the previous X stories didn't show that it inevitably happens.

[toomuchtodo]

Build your own rug before the rug pull comes.

[djbusby]

Its rugs all the way down!

[majormajor]

> then bought the most popular iOS third-party client as a starting point

If you're ever in a situation where this happens, consider it you're big flashing warning sign about trying to run a competing offering!

(Mac users of a certain age will remember Apple buying SoundJam MP.)

[plorkyeran]

Alien Blue was bought out nearly 9 years ago, so that wasn't actually a sign that bad things were coming soon for other third-party clients.

[alasarmas]

I remember SoundJam MP very well, I still have the box somewhere. The box that I bought from some store in a strip mall on Route 1, maybe CompUSA? Circuit City? The Wiz?

It came with a stereo RCA to 1/8th inch adapter cable, for digitizing audio files straight from your record player / cassette player.

I also remember being bummed that iTunes never properly supported aliases [0] when running under Mac OS 9. And I remember Audion [1]. Heady days indeed!

0. https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/La...

1. https://www.panic.com/extras/audionstory/

[garbagecoder]

Mac users of a certain age will remember this happening several times and it almost always ended up being better when it was just built in. Reddit's app is garbo.