All they had to do was make API access require Premium. $4/month and all the pieces were laying there. Thats twice as much monthly profit as their current super inflated API pricing would bring them for the same users.
Reddit made themselves a real mess here and it's all SO stupid.
No shit hey. Fucking rocket appliances apparently. Charge me $4 for premium and give devs 3 months to implement the changes or something. It feels so blindingly simple that this who mess is mind numbingly stupid.
It's stupid but you have to keep in mind Reddit's execs are liars. The API users aren't costing Reddit money and they're not the reason they have profitability problems.
Reddit wants to wrap all their content in a mobile app. There they can force ads without the option to blocking, they can force (paid for) "suggestions", and they can vacuum up all that sweet personalized data from every user.
Quick napkin math shows that they’re currently making about 10 cents in ad money per active user per month. Any subscription would bring an order of magnitude more income.
Reddit made themselves a real mess here and it's all SO stupid.