Reddit is starting to test the first of its own plugins created through its developer platform. The company’s first plugins, available for a small number of subreddits and only for mods, will include tools for mods to more easily monitor and delete comment threads; ban spammers and remove their content; and for sports-focused subreddits, create posts that are live leaderboards, says spokesperson Courtney Geesey-Dorr. The edge.
Reddit announced the developer platform in August 2022 as a way for developers to more easily host and develop things like apps, bots, and modding tools for Reddit. At the time, Reddit opened a waiting list for interested developers, and while the platform is still in closed beta, Geesey-Dorr says a “handful” of moderators and bot developers have already created moderation tools that They are being tested in selected communities.
Geesey-Dorr declined to share a date for when the platform will be generally available to developers, but says this beta testing of its tools “will serve as a way to gather learnings and test different functionality of how a publishing plugin will be used.” “. and test the stability of the platform before opening it to more communities and moderators.” The company’s vision is that the plugins will eventually be available to all Reddit users.
Geesey-Dorr says the Reddit leaderboard plugin will be available first with “football league communities” and that Reddit is in talks with “an additional handful” of other subreddits. The company is also prototyping other plugins, such as variations on polls and posts with countdown timers, which it will “probably” begin testing over “the next couple of months,” according to Geesey-Dorr.
The first plugins for Reddit’s developer platform will arrive near the end of what has been a tumultuous year for the company. Earlier this year, after it became clear that the company’s usage-based API pricing costs would be too expensive for developers of some third-party apps, many users protested and some subreddits went dark. The protests have largely ended and many third-party apps no longer exist, but some apps have survived by offering subscriptions.
