The Developer Tinkerers Who Kept Reddit Open Are Quietly Walking Away

Two Reddit threads from March 2026 capture the end of something. One developer posted about being rejected for API access while trying to build a private reader — not a commercial product, not a viral client, just a quiet tool for two people ^[2]. Another posted a mock Reddit built with the JSON API, a portfolio project from a front-end course, and asked for feedback on the code ^[3]. The first thread reads as a dead end. The second reads as if the restrictions never happened — the JSON API…