this post was submitted on 02 Jul 2023
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Apollo founder Christian Selig said he's "heartbroken" about pulling the plug on the third-party app following Reddit's API pricing changes.

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[–] [email protected] 147 points 2 years ago (6 children)

After Apollo’s API token was invalid, I deleted my account. I know it’s a minuscule drop in the ocean for Reddit, but not matter, I’m with Lemmy and the fediverse come what may.

[–] phoneymouse 52 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Same, in the optional feedback box, I told them to fire Spez

[–] g0nz0li0 32 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Same. Can’t do much, but I think voting with our feet is the right thing to do.

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[–] [email protected] 36 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I think this is also true for a lot of long term power-users of reddit. So, LOTS of drops in the ocean.

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 2 years ago

I also deleted my account on Friday. Yea, we are just few drops, but enough drops have an impact.

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[–] Candelestine 104 points 2 years ago (4 children)

Judging from the slowdowns and hiccups around here, yeah, I'd say that was "some". And we're not done yet either. Plenty of people in the world party on friday and saturday. Plenty of people in the US are camping or something on an extended weekend.

Everyone checks it eventually as the week rolls on though. Kinda fortunate for us, really. Spreads the influx out.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 2 years ago (4 children)

Do you know if there are usage stats posted somewhere? I would like to see how much people joins in the upcoming weeks.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 2 years ago

There are a few different sites that keep track of it. I like the way https://fedidb.org/software/Lemmy presents the stats. The dip in users that they show though is from them removing a bunch of bot instances from their metrics.

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[–] fuckstick 79 points 2 years ago (3 children)

I used Reddit for over a decade, and much of that was with Apollo. Not going back purely because of how they treated Christian and the other 3rd party devs

[–] cybersandwich 41 points 2 years ago (9 children)

I've said this before elsewhere, but all of the spez BS aside, I used RiF for reddit. To me, that was Reddit. 95% of my time on reddit was through the lens of RiF.

They are effectively getting rid of reddit for me by forcing RiF to shutdown.

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[–] [email protected] 78 points 2 years ago (4 children)

Went straight from Apollo to wefwef. Smooth transition.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 2 years ago (4 children)

It's surprisingly good, for a project that started just 20 days ago. And I don't want to jinx it but the pace of development is quite good as well, they keep releasing updates every few hours or so.

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[–] docmox 20 points 2 years ago

Same here. So far so good.

Not as much activity as Reddit obviously, but I’m embracing it by seeking out the more active communities. I definitely fell into a rut on Reddit by only sticking to a handful of subs. This transition is forcing me to develop new interests, it’s great!

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[–] grizzledgrizzly 76 points 2 years ago (15 children)

Everyone keeps commenting on how federation feels “emptier” than Reddit, but honestly all I did after 15 or so years on Reddit is doom scroll. I just lurked and felt miserable. There IS less content here and because of that I visit for a shorter period of time and that FREEs me up to do other, more productive things with people I know outside of social media. After the past few weeks of learning about the tech and the why and how of the land I think I like the balance here.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Nine year redditor here; I never fell into the doomscrolling that so many others talk about, and I will miss Reddit, but something I've discovered is that while it's difficult to get a "toe hold" in the fediverse, once you do, there is way more content here than I ever knew about on Reddit.

Not saying that Reddit didn't have it, but rather that I never got curious enough to poke around beyond my main block of subs that I'd curated over that decade. There are entire domains here devoted to science or philosophy or retro gaming, and it really does look like they're vibrant and active. Finding them is the issue, which really is the big problem with the fediverse in the first place.

There really isn't a great cut-and-switch over to Lemmy that will make a redditor feel like nothing has changed, but the discovery process isn't too much different from Reddit, and I think people need to remember that their Reddit experience wasn't built in a day. My suggestion is to take a more curious approach rather than the "Reddit's dead, what's its identical replacement?" that I see, because there really isn't one and, even if there was, it'd be just as susceptible to the same disease that is currently killing Reddit (and Twitter).

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[–] Zibani 20 points 2 years ago (2 children)

See, I have to agree with how it feels empty. I very carefully curated the subs I looked at on reddit. I was there for very specific news and discussion and memes about my various hobbies and interests all compiled into a single easy to access place. This does not fill my needs yet. But hopefully we can start filling that niche going forward.

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[–] theangryseal 69 points 2 years ago (8 children)

I’m a part of that group. I see 24 people wish I’d kick rocks haha, I get it.

Look, I’m sure most of the refugees agree with me. If we don’t fit in we’ll leave.

So far I’m digging Lemmy. I wish it was more active, but if it’s gonna grow it will.

It broke my heart to leave Reddit after 15-16 years, but it’s not that same place any more any way.

So, hello fellow Apollo refugees.

[–] Whatsit_Tooya 25 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (15 children)

Not being able to browse on mobile killed it for me. Most of my browsing was on mobile via Apollo. I refuse to get the official app after this stunt so now I’m just not using Reddit.

Luckily wefwef is making the transition easy and familiar.

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[–] LimaHotel807 58 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Yep, I’m one of them. RIP Apollo.

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[–] [email protected] 53 points 2 years ago (4 children)

Reddit is Fun user here... I had 15 years on reddit, I was part of their FCC filing in favor of Net Neutrality... I'm not going back.

It's not just about shutting down the apps, it's about the utter disdain they showed the communities and the users.

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[–] smulk 53 points 2 years ago (6 children)

hey, that’s me! I’m a redditor that walked away after Apollo shutdown!

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[–] abnormal_123 52 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Reddit was becoming complete trash. The only thing that kept me was Apollo because it had an awesome feature where I could filter out all the keywords I didn’t want to see. Well, Apollo is now gone, so I’m done with Reddit and have started using lemmy.

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[–] Clown_Tempura 44 points 2 years ago (8 children)

I deleted my Reddit account. I almost exclusively browsed on mobile and I won't be caught dead using Reddit's useless official ap. Hi Lemmy.

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[–] Saneless 43 points 2 years ago (2 children)

I haven't willingly been back since the 12th. Shithead CEOs aren't going to profit off my contributions. If everyone did the same it would evaporate overnight

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[–] shoobie 42 points 2 years ago (5 children)

Try wefwef.app my fellow ex-Apollo users

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[–] Shad0w 41 points 2 years ago (3 children)

I stepped away from Reddit after Apollo shut down in part out of spite and to stand against the crap from Reddit but mostly because Apollo made Reddit usable.

[–] TheRealKuni 21 points 2 years ago (2 children)

I’ve been using WefWef to browse Lemmy and it feels so perfectly familiar. Makes me very happy.

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[–] fuzzywombat 41 points 2 years ago

The writing is on the wall. I don't want to boiled slowly like a frog. Merely tolerating the disrespect from the CEO of Reddit is not a long term solution. I bet old.reddit.com is next on the chopping block for sure. For me I just bit the bullet and decided to move away now than eventual future.

[–] errer 39 points 2 years ago

Yep, here I am! I refuse to use any of Reddit official shit.

[–] Ddhuud 39 points 2 years ago (2 children)

I'm pissed at HOW they did it. Without an ounce of respect for the user base. They could have made it affordable and turned a profit out of 3rd party apps, they could have been more civil on the communications, they could have explained the problem and asked suggestions, even if they had no intentions on doing something else.

But they choosed a huge FU, not only to it's end users, but to people that were trying to make reddit a better place, either at barely a profit, or with volunteer work.

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[–] [email protected] 37 points 2 years ago (2 children)

I’m not an Apollo user but still quit reddit because of the disgusting handling not only of third party app but also of the mods and users. Reddit isn’t deserving any of my time anymore. So far I’m enjoying lemmy and hope it stays free of corporate greed!

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[–] [email protected] 37 points 2 years ago

I’m gone, I blocked Reddit on my firewall, it’s inaccessible from my home network or any of my personal devices. I’ve also added uBlacklist to all my browsers to exclude them from search results.

As far as I’m concerned, that site no longer exists.

[–] BrandoGil 35 points 2 years ago (10 children)

I deleted my 12 year 100k account at 11:59p Friday night. Had redact edit every old comment then delete them and closed the account. Some of my Google searches are still landing me over there. I don't even know what it would take to put me there permanently, again. I'm just hoping I can cultivate my experience here, enough, so that I won't have to find out.

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[–] [email protected] 35 points 2 years ago (17 children)

I bought the wallpapers to support Christian and had a really emotional evening.

When the blackout started I joined Lemmy and started to stop using Reddit to show my support by not producing any traffic.

On the last day I opened up apollo again and it was so terrifying, knowing the way I used Reddit for years will be gone. I used PDS but will wait with the deletion of my accounts to be safe that Reddit doesn’t restore my comments.

I still keep my fingers crossed that Christian will make an Apollo App for Lemmy, but I can totally understand the he got other things to do.

Just remember, he got called out from Spez and one of his income sources just disappeared because a business partner just wanted to fuck him up. I hope his friends and family will be there for him.

BTW: Made a little fan icon. Just for the dreams.

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[–] Coreidan 33 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (3 children)

Apollo shutting down forced me to confront my Reddit addiction. I used Reddit to escape my life. Even if it was just 5 minutes to take a break from work, or remove myself from reality to avoid anxiety or boredom. It became a crutch and an addiction. Instead of focusing on trying to change the moment or situation I’d escape instead.

It’s a lazy crutch to give yourself dopamine when in reality we all should be focusing on self improvement. Delayed gratification instead of immediate release. It sucks the various communities will die but at least my health can improve.

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[–] [email protected] 33 points 2 years ago (4 children)

Let's be realistic here, there's very little chance that a significant portion of users migrate out. It's cool. We don't have to obsess about our ex.

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[–] Sinister_Grape 31 points 2 years ago (3 children)
[–] [email protected] 26 points 2 years ago (6 children)

wefwef says it's inspired by apollo

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[–] SussItOut 30 points 2 years ago (4 children)

After 12 years, I walked away. No Apollo, no Reddit. I like it here just fine.

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[–] SudAnon 29 points 2 years ago

I stopped using reddit the second Apollo stopped working, and I don't think I've truly missed it once since then, I'm optimistic things will get far better with time as more people join lemmy.

[–] exoZeek 27 points 2 years ago

As soon as Apollo stopped working, i deleted it and moved Memmy to Apollo’s spot. I will miss it and enjoyed the developers work on it but I’m done with Reddit unless my troubleshooting work points me there.

Normally I would get my news from Reddit but I have Apple News and that works fine for now while Lemmy ramps up.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 2 years ago (3 children)

Sync user here. I've walked away.. Waiting on SyncForLemmy.

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 2 years ago (2 children)

I do not understand how there is no mention of the fediverse.

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[–] [email protected] 25 points 2 years ago (5 children)

Christian would be wise to start a Lemmy app. He would have a huge following right out the gate.

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[–] renrenPDX 23 points 2 years ago

Yup, that's me. I'm still a little surprised at how easy (thanks Spez) it actually was for being such a heavy consumer of Reddit. Doing Christian wrong like that, as well as the many popular 3rd party apps and their loyal users, just didn't sit right with me. Spez chose the nuclear option, instead of actually working with and potentially helping to grow the site along with 3rd party devs, so this is the resulting fallout. He asked for it, so he got it.

[–] tiagofal 20 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Apollo refugee here. Can confirm.

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[–] alouderback 20 points 2 years ago

I’m one of them! Loving wefwef so far

[–] [email protected] 20 points 2 years ago

I quit when rif went down. I've never used an official app, desktop site, mobile site etc. Rif was Reddit to me for 10 years. Maybe leaving as a collective will make some difference, maybe not, but I'm going to start being more firm on how much I'll let companies try to push me around expecting me to just take it. They built it on our backs, then just took it away so a literal select few can cash in, when they are already filthy rich and had other options.

I've been explaining it to others as if you broke your phone. Now it's frustrating getting used to a new phone, but it has lots of new features you never even thought of that make up for the inconveniences. Sure I could go back to my old phone, it's comfortable to use, but the screen is broken and it cuts me now and again, and over time it'll cut me more often. I'd rather get used to the new phone.

This past year I've dealt with food going up, gas, utilities, rent, hell cigarettes and even beer, my fishing license went up. Every single nook and cranny they can pull a cent from you they will.
I'm done choosing to let them. If they want my data, my attention, my content, they can pull it from my cold dead hands damnit.

Ok weird ass Braveheart speech over and out.

[–] Oisteink 20 points 2 years ago

I’ll still have a look every now and then on the pc with RES. But 95% of my Reddit time was on Apollo. Inreallly enjoyed alien blue before that, so it’s a mystery how they managed to fuckup that once they bought it

[–] [email protected] 20 points 2 years ago

Yupp. I jumped ship at approx 2 pm on Friday. Was a sad sad moment when Apollo stopped working :(

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