Why did all the app devs give up on the idea of the user providing their own API key? : reddit

this post was submitted on 30 Jun 2023

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Why did all the app devs give up on the idea of the user providing their own API key? (self.reddit)

submitted 1 year ago by WhoRoger to c/reddit

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This is one thing that I'm still scratching my head about. Like, Reddit said no once, and everyone just shrugged and moved on.

I'd understand if most just threw in the towel completely and never wanted to work with Reddit at all, but it seems most would prefer continue to work on their apps.

And since most apps were free or even FOSS, why not say screw that, and make a (perhaps) last update with a field for the user to enter their own key?

Of course only a few users would take advantage of that, but then there's even less reason for Reddit to actually care about that, if they could even detect it at all.

I know some forks may pop up, I'm just wondering about the devs themselves.

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[–] WhoRoger 1 points 1 year ago

I still wonder if that's some actual rule - like what, "you can't make an app for other people to use" or "if you're a dev, you can't use other peoples apps"? That doesn't make any sense of you're providing an API. Sounds to me like Spez just said no without even knowing what's up.

As for wanting to use, well lots of people expressed interest, and devs wanted to keep their apps going, so I'm just surprised nobody actually entertained the idea. Changing a few fields from hardcoded to editable isn't that huge of a task. Most apps have gotten some end of life updates anyway.