I’ve seen many comments and posts regarding the API fiasco on Reddit, with the claim that there will be a huge influx of users when that happens. I’m all for it, but I find it hard to believe that the average or even above average user will make the effort to switch.
Possibly, if 3rd party apps go dark and that’s all some people were waiting on. I assume a good chunk of people already started looking for alternatives around 6/12 when the blackout started, so I doubt it’ll be a huge bump. Anyone looking for alternatives after the 30th are the ones who may not even be that serious about it or don’t care about the protest, so they’re just as likely to just move over to the “official” Reddit app (formerly a 3rd party app itself called Alien Blue), just as Reddit intended.
I was already planning on deleting my comments/posts/accounts on 6/30 if Reddit didn’t back down, and given that their behavior has gotten even worse I’m not seeing any reason to back down from that. Hell, at this point, even if they backed down on the API thing, just their behavior since 6/12 has shown me that I don’t really want to have anything to do with that site anymore.
Most if not all 3rd party apps have already put up announcements that they will cease to function on 7/1. I suspect most people will just use the official app if they haven’t already abandoned reddit.