Joey for Reddit went down today - eviltoast

It was one of those few 3rd party Apps that still worked. Apparently dev was in talks with Reddit in obtaining Paid-API-Access, but now they cut off his API-Access mid talks without informing him

  • hoodlem@hoodlem.me
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    1 year ago

    Another sign Reddit was never interested in having third party apps at all. They want all mobile traffic through their own app.

    • DigitalAudio@sopuli.xyz
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      1 year ago

      Which would be fine at all, you know. It’s their platform and their servers, and they can do what they want.

      Except for the fact that the official app is several orders of magnitude more primitive, inefficient and uncomfortable to use. Even more so for Android than for iOS

      • ryno364@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Also for the fact that they lie through their teeth and can’t even give the decency of honest business.

        Why the fuck would we trust these idiots with our data/hard work?

        • Brudder Aaron@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Which is why people should scrub their comments. A lot of people are holding on to “The good times.” with their posts and comments. It doesn’t matter if reddit can technically undo the work, I’m still going to check and make sure it stays gone. Without that content, reddit is nothing.

          • DigitalAudio@sopuli.xyz
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            1 year ago

            To be honest, I respect that position, but I don’t hold enough contempt against them to do that, and on the other hand I do value Reddit as an archive of online knowledge and debate. I can just leave it if I don’t want it in my life anymore. I would like any comments I made on specific topics I’m knowledgeable about to be accessible and used as reference in the future.

            • circuscritic@lemmy.ca
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              1 year ago

              You can request your data in a simple form submission and the ndownload it, all in .csv and other text formats. The request takes about a week.

              Afterwards, use Violentmonkey or another script manager to overwrite and delete all your comments.

              I’ve already done it on an account that was over a decade old, no regrets.

              • DigitalAudio@sopuli.xyz
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                1 year ago

                But that’s not the point. I’m not saying I’m super important, but I believe I have helped several people with technical or academic questions on Reddit before, and anyone looking that up could access my comments and they might help other people in the future.

                I don’t hate Reddit as a corporation enough to erase what might be useful to someone else in the future, and they can profit off of it if they want, since I didn’t make those comments with my profit in mind anyway.

                I understand wanting to erase your data from Reddit, and I realize it’s also a responsible decision, but I personally don’t like the idea of wiping clean one of the greatest hubs of information in the entire internet, even if I disagree with their corporate practices.

            • EricKendrick@feddit.uk
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              1 year ago

              I’m sure there are places like the internet archive who have copies, your stuff isn’t gone if you delete it.

              Reddit is like the ex who cheated on you, that person isn’t the person you knew. Now you can leave behind your stuff at their place, but why would you? You are rewarding them by gifting your stuff, making them more respectable and credible, than you know they really are.

              People say move on. Move on, and take your stuff with you.

              • Aielman15@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                I appreciate the answer.

                Unfortunately it it’s down because of the Reddit API changes. I hope it’s coming back.

                • circuscritic@lemmy.ca
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                  1 year ago

                  Use a script manager like Greasemonkey or Violent Monkey, and then load a purpose built script like the one I linked to in my previous comment.

                  It doesn’t rely on the API, it’s all done local in your browser.

          • dns@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            How long before they claim that’s against some of the ToS and restore the comments I wonder?

      • deweydecibel@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Who gives that platform value? Who fills it with content for them to profit off of? Who moderates it for them, for free?

        Users.

        And they should be able to interact with the site they built up however the hell they please.

      • danielton@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Except that they were very friendly to third-party app developers for 15 years and are now claiming they didn’t know third-party apps existed.

          • danielton@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            It’s telling that they got angry about the recording being released more than anything.

            Before this went down, Christian and other app developers had nothing but great things to say about Reddit, especially regarding their communication regarding upcoming changes that could break their third-party apps, so I’m not buying the “We didn’t know they were using the API to download all of Reddit!” argument at all. There are a few YouTubers making that argument as well, that Reddit didn’t know app developers were making third party apps and the API wasn’t intended for it.

      • nocturne213@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I used the Android app for a long while before I found out there were 3rd party apps. By the time I tried them I was so used to the horrible Reddit app I Just stuck with it. My biggest gripe with it was that they would make huge sweeping changes that changed how the app worked with no warning, no way to go back, and you Just had to change the way you browsed.

        Then when I switched to an iPhone every time I tabbed out of the app (to read a link or whatever) then went back into Reddit the app would scroll me all the way to the top of whatever feed I was reading at the time.

      • Anamnesis@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        The fact that you still can’t change text size on Android, when people were asking for that feature seven years ago, is a travesty.

        • danielton@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Oh yeah, the benefit on Android was always the sheer number of third-party Reddit apps in spite of the official one being worse than the iOS version. I missed Relay and Boost once I switched to iPhone.

          Now I wonder how they expect Android users to be able to use Reddit on mobile anymore.

      • Astroturfed@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I would literally be fine with scrolling past some ads if the shit worked. Their app (and the god awful redesigned site, always used the old.reddit when on a PC) was just so freaking bad. Like I’ll tolerate some corporate bullshit and ads if IT WORKS WELL. You can’t make me consume ads to use a broken half functional product.

        • hahattpro@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Did you know that, new Reddit was designed so user spend more time on Reddit?

          Less content on page mean reduce mental fatigue, mean more time spend scrolling.

          Less content mean each content will have more of you attention. Meaning that an ads insert in the scroll will get more click.

          • MBM@lemmings.world
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            1 year ago

            It’s all so dystopian, I wonder how many people there are in the world whose entire job is to use psychology to benefit the company at the cost of the user

    • unwinagainstable@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Dystopia for Reddit seems like it has the best staying power since it serves an accessibility need that the bloated official app can’t. I’m down to that and Old Reddit. If they kill off both, I’m probably done.

    • Soad@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Their mobile site is far superior to their app still. Especially when you switch it to the classic style. If only res worked on a mobile browser it would be perfect.

      • DoomBot5@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I absolutely hate their mobile site. It’s nothing compared to the mobile oriented experience I got from Sync.

    • ohlaph@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Exactly. They are trying to monetize everyone they can before their IPO. They don’t admit it, but we all know the truth.

  • jaybirrd@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Ah yes another prime example of them working with those who were willing to work with them. That’s what they said, right?

  • TheSaneWriter@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Unfortunate but predictable. Reddit and u/spez have decided that third-party apps are going to die, and nothing is going to stop them. The “talks” they were offering to interested devs were always just a show, as this clearly demonstrates.

  • No_Me_Jodas@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Seems like you can’t trust a guy who edits user comments behind the scenes and lies about being extorted.

  • tryagain@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    How fucking shitty. It just proves that everything spez said about negotiating with developers in good faith was bullshit.

  • EuroNutellaMan@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    That goes to show it was never about gettimg paid to use the AI, it was just to shut down all 3rd party apps. Even those who wnated to cooperate

    • randint@feddit.nl
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      1 year ago

      Yeah! “We can’t just give away stuff for free blah blah blah.” They just don’t want 3rd party apps.

    • phareous@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      There are a few staying like narwhal. Really strange to cut off access during negotiations but reddit is a dumpster fire so no surprise

  • Wolf_359@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    My prediction: Reddit is moving toward a YouTube-esque format.

    They are going to monetize by allowing creators to make money from their content. This is why they’re getting rid of awards. Of course, they’ll take a cut which is probably why they’re going toward this model.

    They have also been moving toward more detailed, identifiable profiles as well.

    They’re trying to make the new social media.

    • Move to lemm.ee@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      This will just turn the site into a massive shill fest full of people pandering and not to mention huge scale botting. AIs will be churning shite out.

      Real quality will go elsewhere.

      • antonim@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        This will just turn the site into a massive shill fest full of people pandering

        Ummm…

        • Lemdee@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          It for sure has it now but this will increase it tenfold, easily. It’s about to get so much worse in the coming year as these changes have time to work.

    • anewbeginning@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      This is the problem of starting internet businesses without monetisation planning. They start by doing whatever gains users, and then when they want to be profitable they must try to change whilst holding on to the users.

      The exact opposite to how businesses ought to be grown.

    • another_lemming@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Nah.

      Killing comments and make a subscription-based visibility booster for them and posts seems more like what they want.

    • DigitalAudio@sopuli.xyz
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      1 year ago

      That would be an extremely interesting turn of events, and one much better than I personally imagined, to be honest.

      • Wolf_359@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I don’t agree personally, but I think I understand your thought process.

        My issue with them changing this up so much is that we already have YouTube and TikTok. We have ways for creators to make money.

        Involving money makes Reddit far less likely to be a discussion forum where people have higher-quality discussions based largely on intellectual curiosity. You didn’t post to make a dollar, you posted because you wanted to and because you had a desire to share something you know.

        There was always room for memes and jokes, of course. There was room for gaming and funny cat videos too. But those were extras for a community that was (long ago) built on being nerdy, tech savvy, interested in science, politically progressive, anti-religious, etc.

        Reddit has been drifting away from that for a very long time unfortunately. But this will be the final nail in the coffin.

    • hairysonorth@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Wait, they’re wiping awards completely? That’d be the best thing they’ve done if it wasn’t purely for greed

    • tunnus1@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Truly. Joey was so damn good. Honestly I would’ve paid 20 bucks monthly to keep using it.

  • Zella111@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I’m here because Joey went down too. I stayed as long as Joey worked but I won’t use the reddit app. I hope they can pivot to creating something for Lemmy.

    • KrashKrunal@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I’m in exactly the same shoes… stayed on Reddit as long as Joey was working, now… goodbye.

      Still use it for info, but won’t download the main app. Hated it so much that I had to find something better and was so happy with Joey. I can’t go back.

      This current Lemmy app I’m using (LiftOff) seems to be good for now, but looking for something better.

        • pulverizedcoccyx@lemmy.ca
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          1 year ago

          I signed up for the beta via the play store to get the next comment and previous comment buttons. As long as I don’t change too many settings it’s stable.

          Oh now I see that got added to latest stable 6hrs ago.

    • SpooneyOdin@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      Same here. I actually had just posted to Lemmy that I was still browsing reddit through Joey but then checked and got the message it had veen shut down

      RIP Joey

    • The_Nostromo@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      It was objectively the best reddit app. So many people missed out. Was a great ride. Here’s hoping he develops a similar app for this platform.

        • Zzombiee2361@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I don’t know if this made it the best app, but joey had this arrow up button on every comment. It will collapse all previous sibling comment so you can easily see the parent comments and find the context.

          For example when you tap the up arrow on comment G this is what happens:

          • A collapsed
          • B
            • C collapsed
            • D
              • E collapsed
              • F collapsed
              • G

          As you can see it preserve the comment chain and quickly remind you of the context. This is extremely useful on a busy thread. I haven’t seen this feature on any other reddit apps. I wish lemmy apps could adopt this feature

          • Gestrid@lemmy.ca
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            1 year ago

            Seems like the newest version of the Connect for Lemmy app has a version of this feature. If you tap a comment, an option comes up that says “< Parent”. Tapping it will automatically scroll you up to the very top parent comment. For example, doing that on my comment here would scroll you up to Saneless’s comment above that started this whole conversation.

            • Zzombiee2361@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              I just knew this, that’s very useful! But sometimes I just want to go up a few comment chain, not to the very top

          • gggg@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            i miss the arrows that let you skip to the next top level comment. it also did the immersive browsing thing really, really well. very missed app.

        • wipeitonthedog@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          It has insane customization.

          The dev was very receptive to feature requests.

          I can recall one such feature. Some use wanted to way in which he can change all occurres “fuck” in his feed to “duck”. Dev worked on it and made the feature available in just a few days. Off course it wasn’t limited to just these words. Any used could set “word swap” for any words that they wished

      • sweeny@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        I hope they notice the popularity of this post and take it as a sign to make joey for Lemmy!

    • Mittyfresh@lemmy.one
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      1 year ago

      I loved Joey, definitely one of the best. Rip in peace buddy, Here hoping that the developer brings their talent to Lemmy.