zlacker

He should seriously consider starting his own Reddit alternative. He has a sea of enthusiastic supporters that potentially have enough critical mass to get it started. Unlike attempts to create Reddit alternatives in the past, this group isn't full of racists and others who were kicked off the site for engaging in reprehensible topics.

>>bigthy+(OP)
His group is instead full of people who don’t want to pay for things and who don’t like ads. Good luck bootstrapping the next Reddit with that.

>>bigthy+(OP)
Agreed. It’s a small but sizable community that, as you said, wouldn’t cause problems like the group that left Reddit for Voat. I realize it’s a much bigger challenge as a one man team to create a full Reddit clone and not just a nice client for it. But I really hope the Apollo dev considers teaming up with others to go for it.

>>paulco+He
Counterpoint - most of that group paid him money for Apollo…

>>paulco+He
I don’t think that is necessarily true. There’s two payed tiers of the app, and they seem to sell at least well enough to support the development of the app.

>>paulco+He
What makes you think people who use Apollo don't want to pay for things? I literally pay for Apollo

>>paulco+He
I, and many others, have paid for the Pro version of Apollo. Would happily pay more to continue using it over the official app!

>>paulco+He
Reddit itself was bootstrapped with that.

>>spider+Ej
Also all iOS users, who are more valuable, and probably harder to use bots/easier to permaban (compared to Android or web). On the other side, Apple will kill your app, maybe without warning, if you don't moderate strongly enough for their liking.

>>buildb+di
They paid him money to access something that they could access in another way for free because it was just that good.

>>ladber+dl
Yeah, I’ve paid for Ultra or whatever the top tier is. But I’m not naive enough to think there are enough people like me and you to fund some new Reddit with a tiny fraction of the content.

>>spider+Ej
Because most people don’t want to pay for things they can get for “free” — look at literally every thread on HN about ads or every paywalled article here w/ an “archive” link. They’ll twist themselves into knots justifying to themselves that they’re entitled to something for nothing.

Just because you pay for Apollo (I pay for it as well) isn’t evidence that most of the Apollo user base is ready to open their wallets to the point of starting Reddit 2.0.

>>bigthy+(OP)
He made a nice frontend for _Reddit_. That's what they paid for and that's what they want. Not some alternative Reddit. And the people that actually install and use a dedicated Reddit app, like this one, is miniscule. It's a self-selecting group and if he actually tried to make an alternative backend then it will just be Voat or worse.

>>paulco+He
I've paid for the app, the top tier. I am not on the app to avoid ads. The ads on the Reddit app aren't why I hate it. The entire UX is crap. There are zero features on the official app that are usable to me.

I would happily pay for Apollo on its own backend, and more than happily see ads.

All I am asking for is the Apollo apps front end, this app is the only thing that makes Reddit or a site like Reddit usable for me.

>>paulco+He
You have a point. He has a lot of power users and many don't want to pay. Many others may be willing to, but I don't think paid users alone is enough to sustain a site.

However, of all of the Reddit alternatives that have popped up and failed, this one seems promising because there is a broad base of users that are all angry at once. In the past, it has always been fringe groups that have been banned and sought another site. Because of that, the subject matter of the new site always had challenges getting site hosts and advertisers on board. This is different. Having power users hurts on ad revenue but potentially helps on site quality. I don't know what will happen but this is a uniquely promising opportunity. We'll see how it goes.

>>VWWHFS+Wq
You're right that it's a minuscule part of Reddit, but I'd disagree that most of those who chose Apollo are deeply stuck to Reddit.

I think most people going out their way to pay for an alternative Reddit client have a beef with Reddit in the first place, and it's the client that keeps them on the platform.

Would they be happy with Reddit alternatives ? who knows. But they'd probably give a fair shake at it to see if it fits their needs, and not just dismiss it at first glance. Also would such a service be profitable ? depends if service such a minuscule group is done efficiently enough to keep the running costs low.

IMO Apollo users probably aren't on Reddit for the mainstream stuff, Mastodon or Bluesky could probably take that role. Niche communities could probably move on to smaller services and their users would follow.

PS: Voat was positively horrible, but I'd argue the circumstances that led to its conception where wildly different. This time we hopefully wouldn't have some "free speach" narrative baked into it, except for the NSFW bits perhaps.

>>paulco+1q
> look at literally every thread on HN about ads

I'm sorry, but in the case of ads this is a two way street. Ad companies have made it impossible to revoke consent for them to collect my data so ad blocking is the last refuge I have left. What entitles marketers to ignore the DNT flag and continue collecting info about me?

>>VWWHFS+Wq
He can make an alternative backend or shut down. Those are his choices. Adapt or perish.