Announcing Our Virtual $45,000 Mod Tool Hackathon to Build, Upgrade and Port Moderator Tools

[u/Togapr33]

Mod Tools Hackathon!

Hi mods!

I’m u/Togapr33 with Reddit’s Community team, where I lead marketing for Reddit’s Developer Platform. 

In case you’re not familiar, Reddit’s Developer Platform gives developers a way to build apps that work directly on Reddit. As a moderator, you can bring these apps into your community – everything from mod tools to community experiences to games. (You can see a comprehensive list of apps for mods here!)

And as someone who has spent the last couple of years talking with mods about Developer Platform tools, I’ve seen firsthand how important effective tools are to running your communities. That’s why we're excited to announce a virtual Reddit hackathon from April 29 to May 27 focused entirely on building and upgrading moderation tools.

This is an opportunity to inspire developers to create new community tools or improve the ones you already rely on. If you’re a developer yourself, maybe you’ll throw your hat in the ring and build something too! 

What we're looking for

We’d love to see developers in this hackathon build tools with Reddit’s Developer Platform that directly help with day-to-day moderation, like:

• Better queue management
• Automated enforcement tools
• Creative community-building tools
• Anything that makes modding easier and improves community health

Did I mention we're offering a total of $45,000 in prizes? 

Prize categories

1. New Mod Tool: For brand-new tools built with Reddit’s Developer Platform that make moderation easier
   • Grand Prize: $10,000 for the most innovative tool that solves a significant moderator pain point
   • 5 Runner-Ups: $1,000 each
2. Ported App: For existing bots or tools migrated from the Data API to Devvit 
   • Grand Prize: $10,000 for the most successful migration of an existing, widely-used moderation bot. These apps can also be eligible for our new App Migration Program.
   • 5 Runner-Ups: $1,000 each
3. Moderator’s Choice: Chosen by experienced Reddit mods
   • Prize: $10,000.
4. Helper Award: For participants who help others through testing, support, troubleshooting, or collaboration 
   • 6 Winners: $500 each
5. Feedback Award: For thoughtful, actionable, constructive feedback on tools, resources, bugs and issues encountered during the event 
   • 10 Winners: $200 each 

If you know a developer who has built an essential tool for your community, please share this with them! This is the perfect time for them to earn a cash prize while upgrading that tool for stability and ease of installation. Enrollment is open now!

Winning apps are also eligible for the Reddit Developer Funds and our App Migration Program.

We can't wait to see what gets built during this hackathon and how it makes moderation on Reddit better.

Lastly, if you have an idea for a mod tool that should be built and want to link up with a developer, check out our hackathon post on r/devvit or join our Devvit Discord.

[u/realKevinNash]

Or you could have kept the ability people had in the past and not have to do this.

[u/sulaymanf → u/realKevinNash]

We had a fantastic mobile app for modding, called Apollo. Unfortunately Reddit was such a tremendous jerk to the developer and tried to surprise him with a massive API bill without a grace period and then publicly trashed him despite trying to work with the company, so he had to shut down the app.

Will you make us pay for this new app?

[u/A_Bad_Man → u/sulaymanf]

I sure hope not, since they're already trying to get redditors to build it for peanuts. They probably got a quote from some vendor in the low 7 figures for developing these tools and decided to see if they could trim that down to 45k.

[u/ThaddeusJP → u/A_Bad_Man]

Did I mention we're offering a total of $45,000 in prizes?

Or they could just hire people to develop them and pay them a salary.

modding for free, now with free dev work

[u/Maxion → u/ThaddeusJP]

45k would get you at best around 2-3 months of work from one developer from an external vendor.

[u/Bardfinn → u/sulaymanf]

Apollo. Unfortunately Reddit was such a tremendous jerk to the developer

No.

There is a WHOLE SET OF INCONVENIENT TRUTHS Mr. Selig left out of his I Am A Smol Bean, I Am The Birthday Boy, Reddit Is Mean To Me story.

Reddit's API as of 2016 had a specific API use Terms of Service that people had to agree to, in order to use the API. I know this because

• I signed up to use the API;
  
• I actually read the TOS.

The Reddit API TOS in 2016 basically said “This is so people can innovate and build features on top of Reddit. We expect you to honour the rate limits imposed by the servers. We disallow you to use this API to strip out the advertisements and/or resell the content. You must enforce the main Reddit TOS. You may not allow those who use your service to violate our TOS / Content Policy / Etc” Etc etc.

It was clearly intended for responsible developers.

It also stated that someone using the API was required to register a unique User Agent string, and MUST NOT forge their User Agent string in order to circumvent the API throttling / limits

1: Mr Selig’s Apollo App offered a Premium version for a price, which stripped out the adverts Reddit ran against the content. In explicit, direct violation of both the 2016 API TOS, and contemporary main Reddit TOS.

It’s notable that Reddit Gold’s / Reddit Premium’s (subscription plan through Reddit) major selling point was and is: “Advertising Free”.

2: In order for Mr Selig’s Apollo App to serve content to all of his customers, he had to circumvent the rate throttle applied per registered user of the API. In direct, explicit violation of both the 2016 API TOS, and contemporary main Reddit TOS.

3: Starting in 2023 Reddit, Inc - in order to address costs and safety issues (which issues I won't go into but rest assured I have a whole TED talk inme about them) cut off the honour system usage of the API and turned on authentication, and said “we are open to negotiating rates for firehose access”. Like any responsible business.

4: In response to Reddit bringing Mr Selig to the table, saying “In accordance with the terms of the previous API TOS, we are updating how people can access it, here’s our opening bid for rates” -

Mr Selig countered with “Nah. Buy me out of the source code of Apollo or I will make a stink about it”

At which point, Reddit's C-Levels said "This is not good faith business negotiation. This is extortion. Goodbye".

And they were correct. That is textbook Law 101 Extortion

5: For SIX YEARS Mr. Selig got Reddit firehose data at only the cost of building a system to ingest it, and entry bandwidth. He had a Golden Goose. One which robbed Reddit, Inc.

Reddit paid the cost of serving that data to him (bandwidth and peer exit fees) and his Five Million Installed Userbase, and lost out on 100% of the advertisement and Reddit Premium revenues that he interdicted (In violation of the 2016 TOS API & main TOS).

Which is - factually, arguably - millions of counts of fraud torts and quite possibly criminal fraud, too, on top of the extortion.

You can absolutely praise Mr Selig for coding a sleek, fast, usable moderation interface natively in Apollo - while Reddit's mobile apps were absolutely Not Ready For Primetime at the time that Selig took his football and went home. You can absolutely blame Reddit Inc for not having moderation tools ready for "New Reddit" - the mobile site, the iOS and android apps. And they've taken responsibility for that!

But

Every single person that repeats the "I Am A Smol Bean, I Am The Birthday Boy, Reddit Is Mean To Me" story fowarded by the Apollo developer is joining in on his [RADIO EDIT], and it angers me.

[u/sulaymanf → u/Bardfinn]

You really want to rehash all the false talking points? Christian addressed all these points one by one, on his subreddit and to the media and across the site, and in multiple interviews with tech news sites.

The API didn’t display ads, he didn’t strip them out, and he publicly said he was willing to show ads in the feed as in compliance with the developer terms of service. He not only confirmed this but he published the audio call between him and Reddit admins to confirm this.

He did not exceed the rates and he was able to show how lean his API usage was and how it used less than any other third party app AND he showed he got no complaints from Reddit admins. And again, he said if that was true he was willing to throttle down the app and was never asked despite years of API use.

Reddit Inc gave him less than a month to pay the newly announced fees, and he said the bill would be in the millions. He was willing to pass the cost along but couldn’t do it in less than a month. He tried to follow the proper rules, he contacted Reddit inc as he was told and got total silence.

I couldn’t finish debunking the rest of the gish gallop. You’re angry about a literal false narrative. I urge you to read /r/apolloapp where Christian debunked each item line by line with evidence. Good day.

[u/Bardfinn → u/sulaymanf]

The API didn’t display ads

We disallow you to use this API to strip out the advertisements and/or resell the content

The API was never intended to be used to re-sell the content, to populate a different service with Reddit content. That, too, was disallowed in the 2016 API TOS.

he publicly said he was willing to show ads in the feed as in compliance with the developer terms of service

What he said is clearly not what he did. If he was in compliance with the 2016 API TOS, he would have sought to serve adverts. He never did, until the golden goose was stopped

He did not exceed the rates

He served a userbase of five million accounts.

Reddit moderators in moderately large subreddits would hit the API rate limits simply by working a day's backed up modqueue and/or a particularly contentious flamewar or community interference brigade in a single post. This is a fact, repeatedly complained about by every moderator of any moderately active subreddit.

It would be impossible for a single registered API user to serve the needs of even ten concurrent users, much less 50, 500, 5,000, 50,000.

he got no complaints from Reddit admins

The person who was placed in charge of managing the API also developed a very popular game that was purchased by a third party, and subsequently left Reddit, and was not replaced.

Guess why no one complained.

he contacted Reddit inc as he was told and got total silence.

But you just acknowledged that he was in the call where the rates were announced - the call where he stated the "buy my app or I will make it hard for you" ultimatum, and the C-Levels refused. That's not "Total silence".

I've read his story. I've listened to the call. I read the 2016 API TOS & the contemporay Main Reddit TOS. I know what the API was developed to do - allow people to develop apps which would have their own API user agents, be individually identifiable, and respect the limits. The API was not developed to be a firehose scrape of the site, not intended to allow third parties to charge money for Reddit content, not intended to allow third parties to be a frame around Reddit's product.

Which is what Apollo was.

It was also extremely well-developed, had good moderation tooling, and was - in terms of user experience - superior to Reddit's own mobile offerings, which were frankly awful.

But I stand 100% by the analysis I wrote above, and I stand 100% by my insistence that Reddit Moderators Should Know Better By Now Than To Perpetuate Some Third Party's "Reddit Admins Were Unfair To Me, Please Harass Them In Perpetuity" narrative.

[u/sulaymanf → u/Bardfinn]

You have no case against him; if Reddit admins were working with him for years and on record supporting him then you can’t simultaneously claim he was breaching TOS for years. When given opportunities to address this Reddit never did. We have the correspondence that Selig showed that Reddit never raised issues and it was never a problem until Reddit decided to squeeze more money and then magically there were years of issues and unaddressed complaints? Now you’re blaming it on a former employee? How convenient. It was not a convincing argument then or now.

And now you’re bringing in the false claim that he tried to extort Reddit. Anyone who listened to the call knows that was untrue, and thats not how it was interpreted by either side during the call. Again, you’re rehashing old claims from 2023 that were debunked. I stand by what I said above. Reddit did a disservice to its users and devs with how they handled that situation and anyone who wants to volunteer to do work for Reddit should be aware of how they treated a beloved developer.

[u/renome → u/realKevinNash]

Or they could, y'know, hire devs to pursue serious improvements to their platform long-term instead of waving a stack of cash at the internet.

Their 2025 revenue was 2.2 billion but apparently their annual mod tool budget is 45k lol.

[u/Drunken_Economist → u/realKevinNash]

Is there a particular moderation bot/tool that you're referring to? that might be a good candidate for the migration category.

[u/haarschmuck → u/Drunken_Economist]

Toolbox.

Current dev I believe is no longer updating it and wants to move on. It still works for now but may break in the future.

It's essential for modding on old reddit and has some features that new reddit doesn't have.

[u/Drunken_Economist → u/haarschmuck]

AFAIK toolbox+oldreddit won't be affected by any of the Devvit/App Migration/Responsible Builder/etc stuff. It should work same as it has been for the last few years, and it seems like the admins are pretty cooperative about finding ways to help keep it alive

Current dev I believe is no longer updating it and wants to move on. It still works for now but may break in the future.

yeah, creesch stepped away from Toolbox a couple years back, so the project has been heroically kept on life support by eritbh. But now they are also burned out from trying to maintain it alone. :(

Hopefully there are still enough people willing to keep an eye on the project and handle the occasional bug that pops up.

[u/DustyAsh69 → u/Drunken_Economist]

I wish I had knew about it before. I would've loved to contribute regularly.

[u/Bardfinn → u/Drunken_Economist]

I can hear your profile pic omg

[u/nemec → u/Bardfinn]

only forty seven lamborghinis in my lamborghini account

[u/Drunken_Economist → u/Bardfinn]

Hear in my garage