Nonsense. The API had clear terms of service that allowed for third party clients, and Reddit explicitly promoted and supported them in the past. The current Reddit app was even built on one such app (Alien Blue) that Reddit acquired.
For a platform hosting user generated content and with volunteer moderation having third party clients is usually a net positive despite the small loss in advertising revenue, purely because they have a very positive impact on content creation and curation. That keeps passive users coming to the site so they can be advertised to.
At some point after a platform matures there needs to be some additional monetisation of third party clients, especially as they begin to capture a larger share of users. It doesn’t have to result in the clients being killed off entirely.
Reddit is nothing without people voluntarily adding content to the site and good moderators voluntarily running subreddits. That’s especially true for special interest and high quality subs like AskHistorians.
For a platform hosting user generated content and with volunteer moderation having third party clients is usually a net positive despite the small loss in advertising revenue, purely because they have a very positive impact on content creation and curation. That keeps passive users coming to the site so they can be advertised to.
At some point after a platform matures there needs to be some additional monetisation of third party clients, especially as they begin to capture a larger share of users. It doesn’t have to result in the clients being killed off entirely.
Reddit is nothing without people voluntarily adding content to the site and good moderators voluntarily running subreddits. That’s especially true for special interest and high quality subs like AskHistorians.