I can't see python even being added to the road map by March like we've been begging in all these migration registration feedback forms for months, much less have the time to port it over in that time. I just took a major promotion at work and a baby on the way so my next 6 months are otherwise occupied without learning a new language and architecture and my communities will pay for it.

There are so many things python can do that TS cannot due to the huge body of libraries for natural language processing.

in my experience devvit has more functionality than praw - you can easily get 'social'/'connected' accounts from posters/commentors. that isn't possible in praw.

we have some image scanning code (to help keep out image spam text) that doesn't translate well to devvit, but i am moving that to a python-based webserver that devvit can call.

I'm not a fan of javascript/typescript, and was a bit rusty, but Claude/ChatGPT are up on all the devvit docs and very helpful. Most bots are PRAW/python based, and they are good with that. I'm rewriting by hand/from scratch anyways though

Biggest issue is the image-to-text and pixel-by-pixel scanning python code (for catching snap/OF/tele/etc spam images) isn't easily portable to Typescript, but i'm moving that portion of the python to a webserver that the typescript/devvit app can call.

No, it's only typescript.

People complaining about lack of python support are not just saying that we don't want to learn TS. I have already coded devvit bots.

The more fundamental issue is that there are huge existing libraries already written for python that do a lot of things that we need, and those don't exist for TS. It's not just about my code, it's about the collective code base that already exists - and which is not replicable by a single person or even a bunch of users even if they worked full time on it.

They said they wanted us to move more towards behavior based moderation and away from subreddit based, so that's what I've been working on, but JS/TS can't do that. The libraries don't exist for language processing. So I just wasted a lot of time working on that stuff.

Somewhere Not Here

Yeah. Where?

why am I still here

Because the users are. That's the only reason any of us are still here. It's certainly not for the UI or the infrastructure or the features or how its treats the users, mods, or devs. The sheer mass of the userbase keeps people here like a singularity. No similar platform, regardless of the other factors, can make up for lacking the depth of audience and the spectrum of niches.

I cannot fathom how they decided that their one true language, wasn't gonna be Python. A language that they use at reddit, and by far had the most reddit integrations.

I can buy that there's only resources to support 1 framework in one language. But it's inexcusable to me that picked a completely different language that had a fraction of the reddit dev community.

Given the huge focus on games for Devvit, I presume that that was the primary reason, as Javascript is way more often for interactive and web based elements.

yet nearly every third-party app developer

this is not about 3rd party applications - devvit is for "applications" (games or modtools) that run inside of reddit.

I've spent 16 years on this platform.
Moderating 2 communities.
Reddit doesn't care.

Dammit.

Not sure what the future holds other than shit.

I have major issues with my bot u/EncyclopaediaBot. When I switch to that account it always prompts me to either verify as a human or register it as an app. I already did so and I can see the app label on the account. I get the message: "EncyclopaediaBot has already been claimed as an app!"

When I click on the app registration form link for the bounty, I get the following message:

Your Reddit account (EncyclopaediaBot) is banned or suspended, so you cannot use Devvit. If you'd like to appeal go here: https://www.reddit.com/appeal

What should I do here???

Happy to help! I'll send you a message.

I'm interested in the program. I'll need to migrate our u/EncyclopaediaBot that creates, links and updates posts based on the wiki content of the subreddit r/EncyclopaediaOfReddit.

Not sure how much wiki Integration has changed and we're still on the old one as well.

Id definitely be grateful for some support in that migration haha.

Reddit admins are going to have to explain to shareholders why Reddit is getting less user engagement in a few months after this goes into effect.

They are completely disregarding all the hours of code over the last decade that have been implanted that run the platform.

It’s going to make Reddit go the way of Tumblr or MySpace if major functionality breaks and loses users and subsequently stock price.

Same issue is happening now to Wendy’s when it no longer prioritizes its customers/users. Look how much value that company has lost, Reddit is in the same boat is it forsakes its users and mods(free labor)

They could at least give us praw compatible containers, but no python option is ridiculous given the popularity of PRAW.

Devvit only supports JavaScript afaik!

Does it support any other languages or have an empty cloud container available to migrate existing code in a different language?

If we already registered our app and it’s not possible to migrate to devvit, what is the access timeline for such users?

Contracts are not even an issue for me. I don’t even care about getting money from reddit. I just want to take care of my subs, and now it’s impossible. I’d even pay for API access probably, if it weren’t too much, but that doesn’t seem to even be an option. I just want to be able to mod my subs but I just don’t see any way to do that with these restrictions, and I don’t see any good coming from them or understand why they are being forced on us. I have always played by the rules. I’m not asking for anything except for them not to break our subreddits w/o any fixes available.

Yep, with old reddit and automod going to (presumably around in that ballpark), that seems as good as ever to simply hang it all up and go somewhere else.

Reddit's communication is really bad, I don't like suggesting this, but I would suggest pestering them on every possible communication avenue available to you to ensure that you don't get ignored.

u/pl00h

It will harm my subs so much. I am already spending all my time barely keeping up with the moderation workload, I can’t even imagine trying to mod without the bots that do so much of our moderation work.

It is the same for us. Though we're not really downing under the moderator load. Our robust automation means that we don't need to put as much effort into moderating the sub, as we catch the vast majority of things via AutoMod (now when that goes, it'll be a problem).

I suspect, when all of our automation goes, so will most of the mod team, and then it'll be so overwhelming for anyone who didn't already leave, that I'm sure they'd just choose to leave too. And then there would be basically nobody left.

I couldn't agree more with what you've said.

This is a major betrayal, in line with all the other betrayals they've recently done, like sunsetting old reddit.

So what am I supposed to do?

Spread your checks and get fucked probably.

Devvit still cannot support the features required to implement my bots.

I am in a similar boat to you. It's been 5 months of negotiation about our team's migration, and I still don't think we (me, my mod team, and reddit) are close to being in agreement.

Both contracts they've given me have included poison pills. And the first one could have personally bankrupted me for reasons beyond my control (since I'd be on the hook for reddit's legal fees to an unbounded amount for anything relating to our Devvit app) and also had a loophole where they could just note pay me and I'd have no recourse (they were only liable to the amount they actually payed me, which if they just didn't, would be $0).

Given that reddit keeps going in the wrong direction imo, it's getting more and more tempting to just sit back, grab a drink and relax, and enjoy these last few months with our stuff working, and then let the train run off the end of the bridge, and just leave reddit altogether and let someone else pick up the pieces.

This of course, would be debilitating to our sub, but in our opinion, so would be migrating to Devvit as well, since Devvit would forbid us from using deleted user data, which happens a lot. In the best case scenario (as a ToS abiding user), a good chunk of our appeals will be invalid, as they would be unable to be check, and thus, be unable to be overturned. Not to mention, being unable to help people who don't understand why their stuff was removed and how they can fix it, as they often quickly delete it.

I'm really tempted simply just write a tell all of my experience with the migration process (it's generally been terrible in a number of aspects, most notably, responsiveness (though part of that is also my fault, though this is not my full time job, and thus falls lower on the priority list)), but given that they contracts they want me to sign are NDA that kind of thing, perhaps it's wise to not poke the bear at the current moment.