When Reddit forced Apollo to shutdown, its developer, Christian Selig, was one of the most beloved figures in the Reddit community. But after the shutdown, the tone shifted. The same person who had been celebrated for years was suddenly seen as a greedy developer trying to squeeze money from his supporters.
Why did it turn out that way? I can’t say for sure. My guess is that there were always people who disliked Christian, but they either didn’t dare to speak up before, or their voices were drowned out by his supporters. Then, when Christian left Reddit, he was no longer “one of us”, so it became safe to attack him.
When Elon Musk took over Twitter, the community split into four: Threads, Bluesky, Mastodon, and X. Very few people actively participate in more than one of these spaces. Yes, cross-posting happens, but that’s not real participation. It’s more like treating other platforms as write-only, and people can tell the difference.
Many indie developers fled to Mastodon. The problem is, Mastodon is small and niche. Even if your followers join you there, it’s still hard for them to use because there’s no discovery. Casual users don’t understand your complaints about Liquid Glass. Over time, you risk no longer being “one of us” as well. (This isn’t a criticism of Mastodon, you’d face the same problem no matter which platform you choose.)
This dynamic builds animosity between regular users and developers. And that’s bad news for the indie app ecosystem. I mean, what are the notable indie apps that came out since the balkanization of Twitter?
