Christian Selig, the iOS developer who ran the beloved third-party Reddit shopper Apollo, is becoming a member of the brand new iteration of Digg as an advisor.

Earlier this , Digg’s authentic founder Kevin Rose and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian acquired what was left of Digg in an try to revitalize what was previously generally known as “the web’s homepage.” Rose and Ohanian have been already an enchanting pairing — the 2 had beforehand seen one another as rivals, since Digg and Reddit have been fierce opponents.

By including Selig to the combination, Rose and Ohanian are additional signaling that the brand new Digg needs to shake issues up.

Selig performed a distinguished position within the backlash in opposition to Reddit’s elevated API pricing in 2023, which made free apps like Apollo — which provided an enhanced looking expertise for Reddit customers — impossible to run. In a Reddit post that went viral, Selig instructed customers that with a view to maintain Apollo operating as-is below the brand new API pricing, he would want to pay about $1.7 million monthly. Evidently, Apollo shut down, a lot to the Reddit neighborhood’s disappointment.

“We’re excited to have Selig deliver that very same craft and community-first considering to Digg, serving to us construct one thing that feels good to make use of and even higher to be part of,” stated Digg CEO Justin Mezzell in an announcement.

Digg is embarking on a quest to make the social web really feel enjoyable once more, versus its present state, the place AI shrimp Jesus and different artificially generated slop have taken over our feeds. However Digg isn’t fairly able to open to the general public simply but. Final month, Digg opened signups for an early-access program that it’s calling “Groundbreakers,” which asks for a one-time $5 payment to maintain bots out. (The proceeds from this system are being donated to nonprofits chosen by the Digg neighborhood.)

Within the announcement of Selig’s position, Mezzell included a cheeky reference to the API drama at Reddit. “I merely received’t touch upon that. We’re charting our personal course right here at Digg,” Mezzell stated. “But when I did remark, I might most likely say ‘[redact] me sideways, what a fumble.’ However that will solely be if I did say one thing publicly.”