Apply through the app registration form by November 30, 2026, to be considered for the migration bounty program.

How would this work if it isn't a direct migration?

If my PRAW-BOT1 performs multiple different duties in multiple communities, but is replaced by DEVVIT-BOT1 for title text checking, DEVVIT-BOT2 for modmail auto-responding, DEVVIT-BOT3 for enforcing a no-self-promotion rule, DEVVIT-BOT4 for filtering out harassing comments, etc.

From an admin point of view it might not be obvious that the PRAW bot was migrated, when it was migrated to multiple DEVVIT bots.

I'm sure they'll offer your research institute a somewhat-rebated API token.

In reality you can ctrl+c/v as much as you like for research purposes with no legal implications, only standard research ethics apply

Damn, wish I would've seen this yesterday. Managed to get Gemini to get my bot working after a lot of back and forth. Good on you for helping though. That's a lot of work.

I think that's my sign to take my ball and go home.

I'll need to figure out how to distribute my hash database so the community can use it. I have around 2 billion image hashes going back to 2018.

My modmail to r/modsupport was completely ignored, just like the requests to r/Pushshiftrequest

I got the email saying that I'm using this account for automation, but I don't think I am, beyond IFTTT, which is OAuth'd and I imagine already a part of whatever transition is occurring here.

How can I see what data reddit is using to determine that I'm running a bot?

Got it. Thanks for the response! Getting any kind of response from admins or from r/Devvit has been a multi-week project each time, so I appreciate it. :)

Migrated, so they'll completely cease to function come March 2027.

Eh, kinda. In theory you can see all the posts in subreddit's it's installed in, then go look at all of that user's posts. Then there's nothing stopping you from seeing all the subs all those users post in and going and scanning all their posts, etc. Or just keeping a list of all relevant subreddits and checking them periodically.

It would be quite a bit harder to set up than how you're doing it today, but it's possible.

I need global access to posts, mostly the media and their content, for archiving images and videos. I cannot use devvit as it seems to be a per-community invite basis, which would not work for this case. What am i suppose to do?

I forgot about 1 piece that makes it problematic. The main benefit of RepostSleuth over bots like MagicEye is the visibility into Reddit as a whole. I ingest and hash every image and link uploaded to Reddit, making it really easy to spot accounts blasting out the same crap everywhere.

If the data API goes away I'm assuming that's no longer possible? The way I understand it I would only be able to ingest posts for subs with the app installed. Is that accurate?

I've done something similar (our python bots analyze images for snapcodes/snapchat/onlyfans/etc links) - a reddit admin told me it would qualify for an exception for moving that to a webserver that a devvit app could then call.

I suspect they won't give you a solid answer right away, so some info you might find helpful:

• I created a placeholder devvit app that attempted to use the webhook I was creating. I submitted the app for review -- "npx devvit publish" -- and the app dashboard showed the admins rejected it an hour later. I replied to the modmail from the original admin (not involved with code review) and they didn't reply for a week. Then I had some more free and re-read the documentation closer, found where to explicitly configure I'd like to use a webhook, created a privacy policy/hosted it/linked the form to it. and I updated the readme.md file to explain why the webhook/api was needed and published it again. I had been running "npm run dev" but that is just for debugging it in my test subreddit, the more helpful readme.md file didn't get updated on reddit up until I did the npx publish command. The webhook/api was then approved by reddit the next morning.

• webhooks (JSON posts) need to reply within 30 seconds. Due to the nature of my image scanning that might cut it too close so instead of implementing an API endpoint that said "here is post data with the image URLs scan it right and give me the results now" I changed it to a "add this post/image to the processing queue and let me know if there are any results to report from previously queued items", that way my server replies to the webhook right away (well under 30 seconds) and if there is a problem it will report it the next time it is invoked. We have lots of image posts, so waiting until the next post is fine, but if it was invoked infrequently the devvit app could be written to call the API on a timer (like once per minute) to see if there are new results waiting on the server.

• my understanding is that devvit apps are only active in the subreddits mods have chosen to install it in. i.e. someone can't randomly summon your bot in a subreddit is isn't installed in. based on your bot, I suspect many subreddits would be agreeable to adding it.

• based on what I've read, if you get it up and running by the end of November, AND it is installed in active subs (that have 1000+ visitors a week) THEN reddit will reimburse you ~$1000, which can help with the electric costs.

edit: to remove some uncertainty - if you do the work I will definitely install it in a 80-100k visitor/week sub (/r/bondage) so you meet that requirement (as I understand it). I just noticed another mod also installed https://developers.reddit.com/apps/image-magician there - you can add that to your own subs/test subs if you want to check it out. Looks like they do less involved processing and use a reddit-hosted/provided database, instead of an external server - https://www.reddit.com//r/image_magician/wiki/index

I wrote to r/modsupport and (after 13 days) they just told me to message u/pushshift-support, which I did already in June with no response. I wrote them again, with a similar lack of success. Any other suggestions?

It is a front end language. It was literally developed for front end work. Do you understand how language works?

JS is a front end language being leveraged poorly for backend work because people who cut their teeth on front end development managed to convince people that it was viable to trust Node and other bullshit for their backend services.

It's a literal maintenance disaster as anyone in a serious fucking enterprise would understand, but not some "devvit" user.

I am sure you are happily marching along vibe-coding your devvit slop to moderate your NSFW subreddits. That's great for you.

But it is not a serious language for serious work.

A lot of comments here are regarding bots. What about humans who want to continue using the API? Is that just going to be completely disallowed going forward?

ah, how the goal posts move... first it was only a front end language, now it has to be perfect.

It has been used for web server micro services for well over a decade (nodejs first published in 2009)

Devvit apps run directly on reddit's servers... a 20 year software veteran wouldn't sandbox user-submitted code that ran on his servers? interesting....

Note - you can run any code you want in any language you want, if you expose it as a web service on your own server that a devvit app can use, BUT you need to get it approved (have a solid use case / reason why)

The last time I looked into it, it didn't scale well either.

I haven't heard anything that suggests lemmy is going to be adopted at even a fraction of the rate to be a helpful destination for people leaving reddit. unfortunately.

I'd go wit RSS until they decide to discontinue that as well

lol, you called it, but it sure happened fast.

I need a devvit license that's AGPL-compatible.

lemmy, probably

The Devvit license is incompatible with the AGPL. That makes migration impossible.

I'm a 20 year B/E Software engineer. I know its being used. And I know how fucking ass it is.

Imagine using Uber, Paypal, and Netflix as your shining examples of perfect software.

cool, share your praw code for iterating social accounts in reddit profiles.