Ask HN: Why isn’t there an open source Reddit app where I can use my own API key
If there was a personal app I could install on my phone locally, using and paying for my own API access, I wouldn’t mind so much about losing access to Apollo app. Probably because it wont last for long. The key issue is Reddit is not profitable and they're being anal because they want to control the app and ads. If its a third party app then you can avoid the ads and it makes implementation difficult If Reddit gave any paid account an API key that could be used for x-thousand calls per day, where that account API key could be added to a third party app, there'd be literally no problem at all. This is a nonsense problem, since they have a way of making revenue with very inexpensive monthly accounts that doesn't in any way break their existing model other than cutting keys off after x-thousand calls per month. Yes but then they have no control over the platform i.e you can escape viewing ads. Their problem is they aren't making money so they are being very difficult about correcting it I think the point is that a paid api is a replacement for the ad based monetisation model. So if the user is paying for using the api, they no longer should be seeing ads. Precisely. Price individual account access at the same price that user would have generated with advertising MRR, but with a reasonable number of API calls/month to be used for when the user is browsing via a third party app. It's totally nutso that it's not their approach.