[Raicuparta]

I'm guessing you don't know much about the subject, and didn't read too deeply into it. Third party apps are only a part of the problem (which you're also misrepresenting), and not the one referenced in the comment you answered to. I suggest following the links in the post to understand the full depth of the problem.

[that_guy_iain]

I've read deeply into the problem. And I've come to the conclusion the problem is cheap reddit users who don't want to pay for software.

There are complaints that the offical app isn't accessible. Ok, pay for accessible software or complain enough to Reddit to fix their app. There are laws I believe to force them to have an accessible app.

Mods use tools to moderate. Ok. You want to have a little hobby of moderating a community. Fair enough, pay for your hobby. If not. Let Reddit fix the spam problem when it becomes a problem, because it will become a problem and Reddit will be forced to fix it because the users will hate it and it'll harm growth. If not, pay for the software to do your little hobby.

Just because someone has a different opinion doesn't mean they haven't read into it. It's that they have a different opinion than you.

I think software should cost money. Because I write software for a living and I think people should value what I do to the point they pay money for it. I know a lot of techies like to make our work worthless but I don't.

[autoexec]

>I think software should cost money.

What an odd opinion to have about software, but not about labor or content. Perhaps reddit should have to pay every moderator for the work that they do. Perhaps they should pay ever user who upvotes or downvotes since they're sorting content for reddit and not getting paid. Maybe reddit should pay for everyone who posts or leaves comments since the only reason reddit is worth anything at all is the content provided by those "cheap users" you think are freeloading.

If reddit wants to have a hobby where they run a website collecting the labor of others they should pay for it right?

The internet is a better place when everyone who uses a website isn't required for fork over hard cash. Not every means of displaying web content or interacting with websites should require someone to fork over money to those websites either. Worst of all though is how dumb reddit is being to cut off these third party tools and interfaces which have features that are in high demand. Reddit will lose users if those users are forced to use their shitty interface, but worse reddit will lose a ton of data on what sorts of features their users desire but which reddit has never considered offering.

One of the great things about having a bunch of third parties writing software (mostly for free) that interacts with reddit is that reddit can (as they have in the past) poach ideas from those apps and improve their service which will only make them more successful.

The people who work for reddit (by which I mean the people who are currently paid to work for reddit since most of the people doing work for reddit are entirely unpaid) are not impoverished. No one is suggesting that they deserve nothing at all. It's perfectly fine for them to make money, it's not fine for them to try to make money by screwing over others (including themselves). This is shortsighted greed on reddit's part that will ultimately result in reddit being worse. It's no wonder so many people are against it.

[that_guy_iain]

Trying to be clever. This isn't it. "You're not that guy" as they say.

> What an odd opinion to have about software, but not about labor or content.

At what point have I promoted slavery? I think paying content creators is great and has done wonders for YouTube for example.

> Perhaps reddit should have to pay every moderator for the work that they do.

I would much prefer that. That way we would stop having such annoying power trippy moderators. We would also see a more consistant approach to moderating. But that would deny these moderators their little hobby.

> If reddit wants to have a hobby where they run a website collecting the labor of others they should pay for it right?

Do they collect? They don't. Collecting would mean they go out and get it. Even in such a simple position like that your logic falls part very simply. They allow others to use their services.

I wasn't againist Reddit providing a free API just like I am not againist others providing free things. If people wish to charge for their content or charge for moderating then I fully support them and would speak out against any nay-sayers.

> The internet is a better place when everyone who uses a website isn't required for fork over hard cash.

There are no plans to charge for the website. Just plans to charge for an API. These are two very separate things. As pointed out, some of the users of the API are direct competitors of Reddit.

[johnnyanmac]

>You want to have a little hobby of moderating a community. Fair enough, pay for your hobby.

not sure I agree with this angle. If anything it's the opposite. just like how software dev is a job, so is community management. Reddit already has what amounts to free custodial labor, growing and fostering the site for them. They should be paying people to moderate that if they don't want their admins/internal Community Managers to bother with anything more than legally threatening content.

[that_guy_iain]

True.

But just like software development, people do community management for a hobby.

[johnnyanmac]

To each their own, but you can't even pay me to deal with angry users who can't read the rules of the forum they want to post to, day in and day out. I'll never understand people who do so in their own personal time. Again, not unless they are using that as "portfolio fodder" to pivot into a professional CM role.

[voxelghost]

    Mods use tools to moderate. Ok. You want to have a little hobby of moderating a community. Fair enough, pay for your hobby. If not. Let Reddit fix the spam problem when it becomes a problem, because it will become a problem and Reddit will be forced to fix it because the users will hate it and it'll harm growth. If not, pay for the software to do your little hobby.

Actually, I think this is one point where Reddit could score some good will points by letting moderators use the API for free to access the communities they moderate.

[that_guy_iain]

Personally, I would. But they announced that they're working on their own tools to improve it so maybe they're literally just going to provide all those tools for free. Who knows.