[sadcodemonkey]

For a site that caters to a startup and entrepreneurial crowd, it's hilarious the number of comments here that amount to "tough cookies, bud" and "Yelp can do whatever they want, and because they can, you should just shut up."

They miss the spirit of this blog post entirely, which is to point out the overt hostility to and powerlessness of API users. That should be concerning to anyone working on projects that use APIs, which is, um... almost everyone, these days.

[Aurornis]

> which is to point out the overt hostility to and powerlessness of API users. That should be concerning to anyone working on projects that use APIs, which is, um... almost everyone, these days.

Not everyone. Business that build on top of other company's APIs will arrange contracts with their API providers. Those contracts generally include warning periods for changes or discontinuation and penalties for early termination.

The key here is that it was a free API with no contract or guarantees. Four days is short notice and frustrating, but it wouldn't have really changed the trajectory of his business if they had given him 180 days. If he didn't intend to pay for the API, he couldn't really sell an app that was going to stop working in a few months.

So I know we're supposed to be angry about the 4 days thing. It's not good, obviously. However, I don't think it actually changes the situation at all if he wasn't going to sign up anyway.

[WoodenChair]

> So I know we're supposed to be angry about the 4 days thing. It's not good, obviously. However, I don't think it actually changes the situation at all if he wasn't going to sign up anyway.

As I said in the post and comments here if it made financial sense and they gave me a more reasonable deadline with a less threatening email I would be willing to pay for the API. In this case it didn't make financial sense, so you're right at the current API prices it wouldn't make sense even with 6 months-notice.

That said, 6-months (your suggested time period) is a much better grace period for our shared users (users of Restaurants who use it as a frontend and continue to read more reviews at Yelp.com) and much more likely to make me convert to a paid API customer if it had made financial sense.

[yreg]

True, but that developer had zero chance to get Yelp to sign any such contract.

Just as I have zero chance of getting Apple to sign that they won't remove my app if they feel like it.

[burningChrome]

>> I don't think it actually changes the situation at all if he wasn't going to sign up anyway.

This is kind of the salient point.

Either you test on the free API and plan on paying for access slightly before its ready to go live, or you try the "free lunch" approach and see if you can get one by the tendy and see how long you can go before you get shut down and have to pony up the money.

Either way. they should've had the cost of the API in their budget.

We should all know by now. . . . nobody rides for free.

[bastardoperator]

I hear you, but this story keeps happening over and over and over. The reality is once these companies have you and your product by the balls, they will start squeezing. You can pay money to reduce the pressure, or leave and not be squeezed. I would argue using an unpaid API takes you into the unknown with considerable risk.

[Veuxdo]

> That should be concerning to anyone working on projects that use APIs

Well, free APIs anyway. If you are paying for API access, you hopefully have a contract which gives you power.

[dual_dingo]

Even if you pay, most likely you have a contract that effectively gives you close to no power because it's full of conditions favoring the service provider and trying to use the little power you have will be expensive because laywers and courts get involved.

[umanwizard]

Almost everyone is working on projects that “use APIs” in some general sense, sure. But I don’t think it’s the case that all or even most people are working on a project that entirely depends on a single third party’s API and is useless without it.

[pvg]

Please don't sneer, including at the rest of the community.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

[anigbrowl]

They miss the spirit of this blog post entirely, which is to point out the overt hostility to and powerlessness of API users.

Or, they completely get it but they work for large platforms that leverage API access commercially or strategically, so their response to unruly peasants is to figuratively chop their heads off.

[WoodenChair]

Thanks—yeah I actually think they mostly just didn't read the whole post since I addressed this in detail in the last two bold sections "Development Ends" and "Lessons Learned."

[lmm]

> They miss the spirit of this blog post entirely, which is to point out the overt hostility to and powerlessness of API users. That should be concerning to anyone working on projects that use APIs, which is, um... almost everyone, these days.

This has been known for like 20 years now. We all know that if you're relying on someone else's API that's a massive risk to your business. What more is there to say at this point? What sympathy is there to give when the inevitable happens?