Weekend Cheer for Developers: Reddit to Debut a New Developer Platform Soon

This week, Reddit teased an upcoming developer platform for developers to create new experiences on the aggregation and discussion website. With the Reddit Developer Platform, the company intends to enable third-party developers to build software, bots, and other tools that can serve as “meaningful Reddit extensions.”

Developers would need to sign up for the Opens a new window Reddit Developer Platform, a collection of dedicated tools that can be leveraged to create and host bots, automate tasks, create custom services, etc., discoverable across 100,000 active communities.

“Currently, third-party developers on Reddit operate primarily as siloed resources for the communities they care about, utilizing limited resources and ad-hoc support,” Reddit said in a blog postOpens a new window . “The Developer Platform team is focused on creating offerings that improve support, flexibility, and performance for our third-party developers.”

Some of the existing bots created for Reddit include u/SaveVideo, and u/RemindMeBot, which, as evident from their names, enable developers to download any video on Reddit and set a prompt for any post on the platform.

Bots on Reddit can perform various operations, from user-centric tasks to commercial ones. They can often help drive followers and potential customers, increase brand awareness, value, etc. However, bots are also perceived to be a negative influence, especially for the propagation of malicious content or misinformation.

See More: Developers: Are Your Enterprise Apps Healthy? Ensure Every API Follows this Criteria

Currently, some 21,500 moderators, most unpaid volunteers, are tasked with regulating content and comments. Still, the deluge of content often makes it challenging to address malice, mis/disinformation, or any rising trend.

For instance, when r/WallStreetBets members short squeezed GameStop in January 2021, shooting up its share price by over 1,700% and costing hedge funds billions of U.S. dollars along the way, bots were blamedOpens a new window for it. Similarly, the promotion of Dogecoin and meme stocks such as AMC was also attributed to bots.

According to a study by computer scientists at Northwestern University and the University of Minnesota, Reddit moderators worked a minimum of 466 hours per day in 2020 with limited tools such as keyword filters and custom rate limiters. Based on the median hourly wage for comparable content moderation services in the U.S., these hours amount to $3.4 million annually.

However, the availability of the Reddit Developer Platform could prove to be a win-win for users, developers, as well as moderators alike, given the toolset can also be leveraged to build additional moderation tools.

Moreover, existing tools will also be paired/integrated with the Developer Platform to make it easier to find them.

Let us know if you enjoyed reading this news on LinkedInOpens a new window , TwitterOpens a new window , or FacebookOpens a new window . We would love to hear from you!

MORE ON SOFTWARE/APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT

• Low Code Strategies for the Long Haul
• Features-as-a-Service Is Making a Comeback for Application Development
• 4 Reasons CFOs Should Pay Attention to the Low-code Movement
• Automation Is Key for Businesses In 2022; Here’s How To Implement It the Right Way