zlacker

>>stanis+(OP)
I don't really understand why it had to be this way. It's so easy to think of other ways this could have been handled. Even just announcing the same change with 6 months of lead time rather than 1 month would have gone over better. Or boil the frog and gradually introduce API restrictions. It's as if the CEO is purposefully being as belligerent as possible to rile people up.

>>extr+k4
My guess is that 3rd party apps have reached a user threshold where they pose a potential future risk of pulling the rug out from under Reddit enough to give some non-negligible traction to an alternative. After all, once you've got the app installed, the back end server can be replaced with something else and you can find ways to streamline new user account creation where needed especially if they are paying customers, even offering to reserve existing Reddit usernames on other platforms.

If a Reddit IPO is coming, then this could simply be a form of de-risking. It's a double edged blade, because higher quality 3rd party apps may increase the platform's value while you're on their good side, but rub 3rd party app developers the wrong way and they might start getting clever ideas. A short notification period may reduce the chance of clever ideas reaching manifestation.