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this post was submitted on 08 Jun 2023
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Technology
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Wow, RedReader somehow managed to get spared due to its accessibility features. Was not on my bingo card at all. I guess somehow I can still manage to use Reddit completely ad free, but who knows for how long. Even better, the RedReader dev might have plans to integrate Lemmy into it.
I don't know how RedReader will survive without monetisation, either since the conditions are they are "non-commercial". It's such bullshit and just a ploy to further profit off free labour.
I feel like that's gone a bit under reported. Reddit is basically saying that their current apps aren't usable for users who need accessibility features, so they're relaxing rules for apps that have better accessibility features, but those apps can't be "commercial".
So basically they don't want to improve their own apps, and they don't want to allow people who build apps with good accessibility to make any money, which means the only conclusion is that they put literally zero value on users who require those apps. Or, alternatively, they put zero value on developers of those apps, which makes their decision to charge other developers tens of millions of dollars to use the API almost inconceivably hypocritcal.
Yeah, but I'm sure that that's only until the official app can add those features, and they've already stated that they're actively working on that. Even for apps like RedReader, their days are numbered. Maybe a larger number than the rest of the apps, but still numbered.
What I struggle with a bit is that making apps accessible on iOS is pretty straight forward. You almost have to go out of your way to not do it. I don't have experience in Android development, but would imagine it's at least similar? So I can only conclude that it's something reddit really doesn't care about. Not even an after-thought. So I'm sceptical of any company with that sort of mindset being able to do a good job.
Agreed on RedReader. I wouldn't be putting any time, effort, or money in to developing a reddit app or bot right now. The writing's on the wall.
I haven't compiled for Android in years, so can't speak to the present, but in the past it wasn't too terribly hard to make an app accessible, just adding a few libraries and linking them properly. So, yeah, they're just not caring to do any of that. Iirc, they didn't even build their "official app" anyway, they bought it and rebranded it.
I hadn’t thought about it that way, but you’re right. It’s consistent with Reddit’s past philosophy too: if Reddit doesn’t want to devote the resources to add a feature, they let third party developers do it for them for free.
RedReader has never been monetized. They don't have servers to support and distribute for free on f-droid and the play store. It's a small open source project and an influx of users won't change costs for them. The app acts purely as a reddit client for each user and doesn't need a go between server. They accept donations through Patreon and you can find the link on their GitHub repo.
In the case that reddit eventually cuts off their api access too, they're planning on adding support for Lemmy, HackerNews, Tildes and RSS in a future refactor but that's probably not any time soon.
TIL! Thanks for the explanation!