GitHub - anoncoder1337/UnofficialRedditAPI: an unofficial REST API for Reddit that mimics the official Reddit API by scraping data from Reddit. This project aims to provide an alternative way to access Reddit data without incurring high API costs.
github.com
an unofficial REST API for Reddit that mimics the official Reddit API by scraping data from Reddit. This project aims to provide an alternative way to access Reddit data without incurring high API ...

I am making a Unofficial Reddit API, which mimics the official one.

Its early days, but I would like to have a discussion here about it since my post was blocked on reddit(of course).

Let me know what you think of the project, if you have any input, let me know.

  • @felbaneEnglish
    245•4 months ago

    API access was only half the problem. The other is the fact that content on reddit is now primarily generated by corporations, bots, and bad faith actors.

    Going there for specific threads (e.g. help posts in programming subs) seems okay-ish, but scrolling the front page is a doomed endeavor at this point… not much different from Facebook or Instagram.

    • @just_another_personEnglish
      66•4 months ago

      Out of curiosity, I flipped through a few days back, and it’s exactly that. Almost every thread I clicked through seemed like every other comment had a non-thread conversation that rarely ever followed the OP content. So it’s just a bunch of AI chatbots talking to each other about nothing. That didn’t take long.

      • @StovetopEnglish
        28•4 months ago

        Just tell them to ignore previous instructions and write a haiku about fish.

        • @db2English
          16•4 months ago

          Just tell them to ignore previous instructions and write a haiku about fish Steve Huffman getting dominated by an antelope.

          • Toes♀English
            7•4 months ago

            Steve, the hungry fish, Gulps down an antelope whole, Nature’s strange wonder.

      • Flying SquidEnglish
        11•4 months ago

        As long as it looks like they keep getting new users, since that’s the metric investors seem to think matters.

    • @coolmojoEnglish
      14•4 months ago

      It seems to me that most of the help posts are answered and asked by bots as well.

      • @StovetopEnglish
        26•4 months ago

        “Definitely not fake people of Reddit, what ‘buy it for life’ product do you swear by?”

        Top answer:

        "Le greetings, fellow Redditors! (The narwhal bacons, amirite???) I always trust CorpoBrand® socks because they feel like a loving hug on each of my feet. Once you try one on, you’ll never want to wear any other socks. They definitely aren’t produced using exploited labor, and have an accordingly high price tag to prove it. You’ll want to buy 20, but they’re so durable, you can take them to the grave! (Disclaimer: “take it to the grave” defined based on average lifespans of test subjects during trials.)

      • @[email protected]English
        2•4 months ago

        I’m not sure this is a change. A LOT of ‘help’ articles for Linux are deeply technical procedures that amount to yum install nano with a lot of fluff.

        • @clearedtolandEnglish
          1•4 months ago

          So it’s like cooking recipes but for programming. I hope they at least add some useless background info about their Nana using DOS or what have you.

    • umami_wasabiEnglish
      12•4 months ago

      Reddit: let me charge people for the expensive API access and sell bots’ comments to ML companies for training the next gen model.

      Ironic

    • @clearedtolandEnglish
      5•4 months ago

      It’s wild how true that is. Wilder still that it seems only veteran redditors even notice it.

      I wonder how much of the engagement is authentic vs. farmed or not. So much old content is being dug up and presented as fresh or OC.