Spazless (proposed)
In mid-2023, Reddit announced dramatic API pricing changes that would make third-party apps like Apollo economically unviable. Apollo's developer, a solo creator with 50,000 paying users generating $500k annually, suddenly faced $20 million annual API costs—a 40x increase. When Reddit CEO Steve Huffman allegedly mischaracterized the developer's reasonable proposal to acquire the app (framed as an alternative to massive server costs), the situation escalated into a full-scale crisis.
Moderators across Reddit—28,000 volunteers managing 7,000+ subreddits with zero compensation—recognized the existential threat. These unpaid workers keep Reddit's massive communities functional, fighting spam and toxicity daily. Unlike Facebook (spending $200-300M annually on moderation) or Twitter, Reddit outsources all moderation to volunteers. The moderators realized they had leverage: if Reddit kills third-party tools and eliminates moderator-friendly features, they'd have to either pay for professional moderation or watch the platform decay. By July 2023, 93% of subreddits (7,240 out of 7,806) went private in a coordinated blackout.
The timing paralleled how Digg's mishandling of user needs had driven users to Reddit a decade earlier. The proposed solution: Spazless, a nonprofit social forum identical to Reddit in structure and design but fundamentally different in governance. The tagline: "Reddit without Spaz" (referencing CEO Steve Huffman's username). Rather than prioritizing venture capital returns and IPO valuations, Spazless would reinvest all revenue into communities and moderators—aligning incentives with users rather than shareholders.
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