Apollo will close down on June 30th

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The price they gave was $0.24 for 1,000 API calls. I quickly inputted this in my app, and saw that it was not far off Twitter's outstandingly high API prices

In other words "Reddit are charging the same prices as their rivals". It's almost as though data is valuable

The one part I'm semi-interested in. He recorded the call about the "blackmailing"

Bizarre allegations by Reddit of Apollo "blackmailing" and "threatening" Reddit

About 24 hours after that call with Reddit, I received this odd message on Mastodon:

"Can you please comment publicly about the internal Reddit claim that you tried to “blackmail” them for a $10,000,000 payout to “stay quiet”?"

Then yesterday, moderators told me they were on a call with CEO Steve Huffman (spez), and he said the following per their transcript:

Steve: "Apollo threatened us, said they’ll “make it easy” if Reddit gave them $10 million." Steve: "This guy behind the scenes is coercing us. He's threatening us."

Wow. Because my memory is that you didn't take it as a threat, and you even apologized profusely when you admitted you misheard it. It's very easy to take a single line and make it look bad by removing all the rest of the context, so let's look at the full context.

I can only assume you didn't realize I was recording the call, because there's no way you'd be so blatantly lying if you did.

As said, a common suggestion across the many threads on this topic was "If third-party apps are costing Reddit so much money, why don't they just buy them out like they did Alien Blue?" That was the point I brought up. If running Apollo as it stands now would cost you $20 million yearly as you quote, I suggested you cut a check to me to end Apollo. I said I'd even do it for half that or six months worth: $10 million, what a deal!

The bizarre thing is - initially - on the call you interpreted that as a threat. Even giving you the benefit of the doubt that maybe my phrasing was confusing, I asked for you to elaborate on how you found what I said to be a threat, because I was incredibly confused how you interpreted it that way. You responded that I said "Hey, if you want this to go away…" Which is not at all what I said, so I reiterated that I said "If you want to Apollo to go quiet, as in it's quite loud in terms of API usage".

What did you then say?

Me: "I said 'If you want Apollo to go quiet'. Like in terms of- I would say it's quite loud in terms of its API usage." Reddit: "Oh. Go quiet as in that. Okay, got it. Got it. Sorry." Reddit: "That's a complete misinterpretation on my end. I apologize. I apologize immediately."

The admission that you mistook me, and the four subsequent apologies led me to believe that you acknowledged you mistook me and you were apologetic. The fact that you're pretending none of this happened (or was recorded), and instead espousing a different reality where instead of apologizing for taking it as a threat, you're instead going the complete opposite direction and saying "He threatened us!" is so low I almost don't believe it.

SHOW MORE

But again, I've recorded all my calls with you just in case you tried something like this.

Transcript of this part of the call: https://gist.github.com/christianselig/a9d00a47c99a4d1d3d16bc19e05419c0 Audio of this part of the call: http://christianselig.com/apollo-end/reddit-third-call-may-31-end.m4a

(If you take issue with the call being recorded please remember that I'm in Canada and so long as one participant in the call (me) consents to being recorded, it's legal. If anyone would like the recording of the full call, I'm happy to provide.)

I bring this up for two reasons:

I don't want Reddit slandering me to internal employees or public people by saying I threatened them when they reality is that they immediately apologized for misunderstanding me.

It shows why I've finally come to the conclusion that I don't think this situation is recoverable. If Reddit is willing to stoop to such deep lows as to slander individuals with blatant lies to try to get community favor back, I no longer have any faith they want this to work, or ever did.

One option many have suggested is to simply increase the price of Apollo to offset costs. The issue here is that Apollo has approximately 50,000 yearly subscribers at the moment. On average they paid $10/year many months ago, a price I chose based on operating costs I had at the time (server fees, icon design, having a part-time server engineer). Those users are owed service as they already prepaid for a year, but starting July 1st will (in the best case scenario) cost an additional $1/month each in Reddit fees. That's $50,000 in sudden monthly fee that will start incurring in 30 days.

So you see, even if I increase the price for new subscribers, I still have those many users to contend with. If I wait until their subscription expires, slowly month after month there will be less of them. First month $50,000, second month maybe $45,000, then $40,000, etc. until everything has expired, amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars. It would be cheaper to simply refund users.

So instead of changing the terms of the agreement for people who have prepaid and making them spend $20 more a year because he can't do that (?), he's just going to unilaterally shut down the whole thing.

As someone who paid for the app years ago, do you think I should try refundmaxxing? I don't care, I would do it because I can

Snapshots:

• undelete.pullpush.io

• archive.org

• ghostarchive.org

• archive.ph (click to archive)

Orange Site discussion :

• archive.org

• ghostarchive.org

• archive.ph (click to archive)

https://old.reddit.com/r/apolloapp/comments/144f6xm/apollo_will_close_down_on_june_30th_reddits/jnf6pzr/

Incredibly sad at this conclusion.

I hate to ask, but will there be anything different for folks who bought lifetime Apollo previously?

/u/iamthatis

Genius move of him to sell "lifetime apollo" when he knew the free ride would not last forever

Oh, bless your heart, it seems like you're a bit confused about the concept of lifetime software licensing. Don’t fret, my dear friend, I'll gladly take the time to enlighten you, assuming you're at least five years old and can grasp the intricacies of this topic.

So, picture this: when a software license claims to be "lifetime," it means it's valid for the duration of the product's existence, not your personal little existence. It's not like a magical spell that grants eternal software privileges to you, my naive friend. No, no, no. It's more like a limited-time offer, tied to the lifespan of that particular software.

You see, software developers are clever creatures, and they can't just hand out lifetime access to their creations without any limitations. They have to make a living too, you know! So, they use the term "lifetime" as a marketing gimmick to imply that you'll have access to their product for as long as it remains relevant and supported. But alas, even the most enduring software eventually becomes outdated and obsolete, much like your understanding of this matter.

So, before you go waving around your "lifetime" software license like a golden ticket to Willy Wonka's chocolate factory, remember that it comes with an expiration date. It's not a magic wand that grants you eternal access; it's more like a ticking time bomb counting down to the day when your software turns into a digital pumpkin.

But hey, don't let reality burst your bubble! Keep believing in the promises of "lifetime" software licenses, and maybe one day pigs will fly and software will truly last forever. Until then, my dear, enjoy your limited time in the software realm while it lasts, and perhaps consider expanding your understanding beyond the realm of simple childhood metaphors.

Cheers!

oh lol i just hadnt clicked over to this tab

i generally dont care about other peoples threads

Apollo more like ACKllo lmao

Does reddit even make money off 3rd party apps? What reason would reddit have to support them?