[yosito]

GitHub repo link, in case Reddit deletes the thread: https://github.com/christianselig/apollo-backend

Interestingly, this seems to just be a proof of concept, and the repo is archived. While the developer of the Apollo front end is getting screwed in this whole debacle, this seems to me like an opportunity. He could literally build an alternate Reddit back end (ok, pay someone to do it, if he doesn't want to do it himself), switch Apollo to use that API instead, and get an instant network of hundreds of thousands of Apollo users. A mass migration from Reddit to a new Apollo back end seems like an amazing way to start a new social news website.

[aniforprez]

This backend does very very little outside of continually polling the reddit API for new messages and some other sundry tasks for operating the iOS app. There's nothing here that suggests any of this could be built out to a full fledged social media backend that is similar to reddit. Not to detract from the work being done but it's for a very specific use case: supporting adding features to the app frontend

[andremedeiros]

This is bang on.

[londons_explore]

Yep - but the backend could be rewritten to work from a new datastore. The actual data model isn't complex.

The entire public reddit database of posts, comments, and users could be imported as a starting point.

[delfinom]

> He could literally build an alternate Reddit back end

He says he has no desire to do so as he wants to develop products, not manage a product.

https://old.reddit.com/r/apolloapp/comments/144f6xm/apollo_w...

>I've received so many messages of kind people offering to work with me to build a competitor to Reddit, and while I'm very flattered, that's not something I'm interested in doing. I'm a product guy, I like building fun apps for people to use, and I'm just not personally interested in something more managerial.

>These last several months have also been incredibly exhausting and mentally draining, I don't have it in me to engage in something so enormous.

Not everyone wants to throw away their soul for money ;)

[chenandrew]

The interesting thing is this exact same thing happened in Hong Kong. There was an app for a popular web forum. It got banned and the developers released the code and subsequently someone turned that into the “Reddit of Hong Kong” and outgrew the original forum.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/LIHKG

[andremedeiros]

I promise you this is very much what’s running in production.

[bee_rider]

Running a social media site and handling all the moderation and other legal issues seems like

* a giant headache

* a totally different skill set from building an app

Anyway the code is o̶p̶e̶n̶ ̶s̶o̶u̶r̶c̶e̶ probably going to be open source soon and his company is probably not going to keep working on it now that Reddit has basically wiped out their business model, so we may as well ask why don’t you or I fork the code and then create the social media site?

[lolinder]

It's not open source yet, it has no license. Upthread the author says they're going to go check with the app dev and decide what they want to do license-wise:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36256596

[bee_rider]

Good point.

[that_guy_iain]

Realistically, it would cost more to start a new Reddit using Apollo than it would to pay Reddit for API fees.

Sure the server costs for the API costs alone aren't 1.2m a month for Reddit. But when you add in all the things that need to operate. Databases, storage, data transfer, etc. It would realistically be more than 1.2m in server costs. That's without paying people to build and maintain it.

[rovr138]

That’s also one way to kill all credibility from users.