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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.

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.

:#marseyderp:

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Because my memory is that you didn't take it as a threat,

Well, he doesn't know how they took it. Rules to engagement and all that fun corporate stuff is to keep a poker face. They may have very well took it as Apollo trying to blackmail them and pretended like they were fine with it. Then they went behind the scenes and discussed how the guy will never get a dime. lol

Even if he releases the recording and Reddit says one thing, it doesn't mean they took it in another way and were faking their response. This is just business.

This is proof that codecels just need to sit in their codecel cage and not do the politics thing. He wanted $10 million, Reddit had all the power here, but they played corporate speak and made him feel comfortable enough to keep going. A shark such as myself would read into this, but this is a codecel with probably no social skills.


Krayon sexually assaulted his sister. https://i.rdrama.net/images/17118241526738973.webp https://i.rdrama.net/images/17118241426254768.webp https://i.rdrama.net/images/17156480765435808.webp

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The audio from the recorded call is in the post.

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yeah I guess I just don't want to listen. I don't think what they say is proof of what they are thinking. At least in an one-on-one conversation, you can read body language but on the phone you can't tell at all.


Krayon sexually assaulted his sister. https://i.rdrama.net/images/17118241526738973.webp https://i.rdrama.net/images/17118241426254768.webp https://i.rdrama.net/images/17156480765435808.webp

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Holy shit I just listened to it and this guy comes off as so fricking clueless. He said "Apollo can go quietly for 10m"but then said quietly meant" no api usage"

Or reddit can just shut you down at no cost?

This dev is so out of his depth here and has an inflated sense of importance.

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yep, I'm so glad I actually listened to it. I don't even think he realizes that they are patronizing him. It sounds like they are laughing at him. He's telling them it can go away for $10 million, but uhhhh it also goes away at $0. lmao Dude needs to just stick to coding.


Krayon sexually assaulted his sister. https://i.rdrama.net/images/17118241526738973.webp https://i.rdrama.net/images/17118241426254768.webp https://i.rdrama.net/images/17156480765435808.webp

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You should listen, it's short and apollo guy absolutely comes off as an italian mobster "i'm just makin you an offer here".

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lmao thank you for convincing me! I have a whole new perspective. They chuckled after he made the $10 million offer and I think they are patronizing him lmao I think they are making him repeat so that they make sure he says it more than once and buries himself hahaha. This shit is great!


Krayon sexually assaulted his sister. https://i.rdrama.net/images/17118241526738973.webp https://i.rdrama.net/images/17118241426254768.webp https://i.rdrama.net/images/17156480765435808.webp

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Yeah its very obviously intended and taken as a threat in the transcript. They even pretend not to have heard him to give him an out but he doubles down. Then when reddit starts getting agressive in response he realizes that he messed up and tries to play it off as a joke.

The number of illerate dramatards here is disappointing.

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My guess is that he thought the powerjannies were going to win so all of the drama would go away if they bought him out. He is an idiot.

Their response sounds like they were trying to find out if he was dumb enough to say what it seemed like he was saying.

That's what it sounds like to me too. I think they laugh at him in the beginning. It sounds like they wanted him to repeat himself to see if he thought about what he was saying and would change it up. lol


Krayon sexually assaulted his sister. https://i.rdrama.net/images/17118241526738973.webp https://i.rdrama.net/images/17118241426254768.webp https://i.rdrama.net/images/17156480765435808.webp

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His tone in the audio is pretty threatening and then he backtracked

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Plus his 10m offer makes no sense from reddits point of view. I would have taken it as a threat as well.

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Most interesting part for me was when he revealed he’s be grossing about $500k per year for many years with subscriptions fees to his app. You’ll note he only mentions 50 000 subscribers at $10 a year while not mentioning those who paid $5 once just to unlock the app….

Add to this fact that Apollo SERVES THEIR OWN ADS within the app and it’s evident quickly that this guy has made millions off Reddit while not giving them a dime in return for their API costs and he even got free tech support from Reddit engineers to make his app more efficient.

It was a good hustle while it lasted bud.


https://files.catbox.moe/y2zrro.png https://i.rdrama.net/images/172082001273549.webp

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And reddit, instead of negotiating a way to get in on the grift, decided to raise fees by an extortionate amount forcing him to shut down the app. Way to overplay your hand.

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I woulda paid buddy a couple million for his app and rebranded it, absorbed his revenue stream. Another stupid move by Reddit.

I guess they don’t need to now seeing as he’s made the source code public because his pride got hurt which was a really stupid move on his part.


https://files.catbox.moe/y2zrro.png https://i.rdrama.net/images/172082001273549.webp

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