Re:Unofficial APIs
by minimaxir on Wednesday May 20, 2020 @02:10PM
(#23249940)
From a practicality standpoint, I strongly discourage using unofficial APIs, as tech companies nowadays are very prone to sending out C&Ds. If you have a use case where the official API doesn't suffice, then do not redistribute anything obtained from the unofficial API, and definitely do not attempt to commercialize it.
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Re:Unofficial APIs
by altdatathrow on Wednesday May 20, 2020 @04:01PM
(#23251104)
Max remember this is Hacker news. You sound like you're on Nextdoor complaining about the neighbors who are in clear violation of HOA yard maintenance policies.
It's a warning to avoid wasting valuable time, speaking from experience.
I used to use unofficial APIs years ago. There's a reason I don't anymore.
Its hit or miss, the NHL for example powers their website from their API entirely yet its 100% open to the world and tons of people build all manner of things off of it yet they seem to give zero shits about people using it at all.
i sort of agree here. it would really suck to build something you love/proud of and maybe instead of getting a C&D, it simply changes or gets shut off and your project is dead. Rather put my efforts into something that I know will have more of a chance of surviving. at the same time i totally get if someone has an itch they just want to scratch on a weekend at the same time