It appears that Reddit is forcing me to use their app to see deep linked content(twitter.com)
twitter.com
It appears that Reddit is forcing me to use their app to see deep linked content
https://twitter.com/stevenhubertron/status/1405956220976910339
176 comments
Their new, but not really new anymore, redesign is so adversarial that the site is frustrating to use unless you use the old version or a different mobile app. Comments section cut off by a news feed, nested comments require loading a new page, but going back doesn't save your location because it was collapsed to show the news feed. The news feed preload lags way more. The new search basically has never worked.
It basically feels like you are constantly trying to fight the ui to show you what you want while trying to dodge the buffet of churned content they throw at you to try and keep you in the social media vortex. Like everything else that becomes mainstream popular, the demographic has shifted away from people who care about these things.
It basically feels like you are constantly trying to fight the ui to show you what you want while trying to dodge the buffet of churned content they throw at you to try and keep you in the social media vortex. Like everything else that becomes mainstream popular, the demographic has shifted away from people who care about these things.
The content also feels to have shifted from a somewhat rational tone and caring comunity to a focus on much more violent and hateful content and an emphasis on people antisocial behaviour
The mobile design isn't puzzling at all. It's infuriating, but easy to see why they're doing it. They want to force everyone onto the app because it's easier for them to advertise on.
And easier to monitor and track all aspects of a person privacy such as precise location, altitude, Wifi ID, device type and characteristics, screen size, and so on.
Also people are easier to track if they use the app.
Not arguing with that, but why they still allow 3rd party clients then?
To keep the power users happy, I guess!
I don't see them closing down their public api. It's pretty hard to police such things when you have one.
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If you're redirecting, might as well redirect to https://teddit.net/.
- Favors privacy by proxying everything - Works without javascript - No account, so no voting/commenting/posting but also no tracking
Teddit is to Reddit what Nitter is to Twitter or Invidious is to Youtube. There are even extensions taking care of redirecting those most common tracking websites
- Favors privacy by proxying everything - Works without javascript - No account, so no voting/commenting/posting but also no tracking
Teddit is to Reddit what Nitter is to Twitter or Invidious is to Youtube. There are even extensions taking care of redirecting those most common tracking websites
Came here to post this. At this point I just redirect to teddit on my desktop. The only regret is that I can’t automatically reflect websites on ios safari, but it doesn’t take me long to manually tap the address bar and replace “reddit.com” with “teddit.net”, normally as soon as I try to view a nested comment and reddit asks me to sign in.
Wow, this is very refreshing, thanks!
Active users have been exponentially climbing. The redesign is awful in comparison to what once was, but it's been incredibly successful as a vessel to make reddit into a Facebook replacement. Facebook users are a lot easier to profit off of than reddit users, and they're higher in volume.
> The negative feedback on the reddit redesign and the reddit app has been building for years, and they continue to push it. The motivation is puzzling.
The feedback is minimum, and the users who are complaining are not the users who make Reddit money. Like if you're not making them money they're not going to want to improve your experience. They're going to want to make it worse and push you into a better experience. Their motivation for this is clear, and I am confused as to why anyone would be puzzled why Reddit wants to control how people use their app, especially since if you use the app, you have to see ads and you are getting tracked. There are also notification possibilities to push more content to you. This all makes a lot of sense, and I am pretty sure revenue-wise, it's working.
People keep talking about Digg but Reddit has already had their Digg moments and are still standing and there are countless clones and countless apps that just mirror their content. Use them.
The feedback is minimum, and the users who are complaining are not the users who make Reddit money. Like if you're not making them money they're not going to want to improve your experience. They're going to want to make it worse and push you into a better experience. Their motivation for this is clear, and I am confused as to why anyone would be puzzled why Reddit wants to control how people use their app, especially since if you use the app, you have to see ads and you are getting tracked. There are also notification possibilities to push more content to you. This all makes a lot of sense, and I am pretty sure revenue-wise, it's working.
People keep talking about Digg but Reddit has already had their Digg moments and are still standing and there are countless clones and countless apps that just mirror their content. Use them.
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For reddit to follow Digg there has to be a viable alternative. People fed up with Digg could go to reddit. Where do people who are fed up with reddit go?
Check out this list of Reddit alternatives: https://www.reddit.com/r/RedditAlternatives/comments/km9468/...
They want to increase engagement by forcing a newsfeed type experience, but I hate it.
what? don't need an extension it's simply a user preference to always use old.
Lots of people lurk without an account or go private for a bit. The web app is basically crippled in those cases.
Just type old.reddit.com
It gets tedious having to type it manually.
If you're using Firefox on the desktop you can try out an extension that I wrote that allows you to change the version of reddit instead of changing the subdomain manually. I used it extensively on mobile but a couple of updates ago they only allow reviewed extensions to be installed.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/reddirect-new...
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/reddirect-new...
lolwut? just erase the 'https://www' and replace it with old.
just drag and over what you want to remove and add the '.old'
I also left reddit years ago but need it for certain things like builds for small/niche games or less popular programming/computer subs. The problem will be when they get rid of the '.old'.
I seriously think it will be soon, but then also wonder if it's possibly keeping so many old users at least visiting the platform they don't want to shoot themselves in the foot...but then I remember the redesign decision and all logic goes out the window.
Edit- after posting this I thought maybe this person was right, maybe they visit so many subs it does get tedious, so I apologize.
Then I thought, maybe a good solution would be some kind of browser add-on that could add '.old'.
Then I founds this [1] ,but as with all good addons now, it's for desktop only. Still, maybe it can help you!
Man firefox used to be the shit, now it's just shit ;(
[1] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/old-reddit-re...
just drag and over what you want to remove and add the '.old'
I also left reddit years ago but need it for certain things like builds for small/niche games or less popular programming/computer subs. The problem will be when they get rid of the '.old'.
I seriously think it will be soon, but then also wonder if it's possibly keeping so many old users at least visiting the platform they don't want to shoot themselves in the foot...but then I remember the redesign decision and all logic goes out the window.
Edit- after posting this I thought maybe this person was right, maybe they visit so many subs it does get tedious, so I apologize.
Then I thought, maybe a good solution would be some kind of browser add-on that could add '.old'.
Then I founds this [1] ,but as with all good addons now, it's for desktop only. Still, maybe it can help you!
Man firefox used to be the shit, now it's just shit ;(
[1] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/old-reddit-re...
Reddit likes to throw traps to pull you out of the old design, even with their preference toggle.
"does a company need money?"
the answer is yes.
the answer is yes.
I have a slightly controversial rewording:
“Does a company need more money? No. Does a company want more money? Yes”
Doesn’t matter if they wouldn’t know what to do with the extra money, or if they were sustainable before, they’ll want more.
“Does a company need more money? No. Does a company want more money? Yes”
Doesn’t matter if they wouldn’t know what to do with the extra money, or if they were sustainable before, they’ll want more.
Companies exist to maximize profits. If the owners don't think that's being done management will be replaced. In that way I think t's fair to say companies need to make money.
The mobile amp.reddit.com link-throughs from google results are even more obnoxious than any other way of viewing a thread. You're linked into some kind of snippet of a thread with other unrelated threads glommed onto the page. Terrible. It feels like an outbrain-style visual assault. For extra fun, see what the mobile amp links look like with javascript disabled. It's a sight to behold.
It's the worst. It only shows a few comments so 99% of the time you would need to load the normal page anyway. It also messes with the way Google indexes the date of the page, so the date of the page according to Google is almost always wrong for old threads.
The same extension is available on Firefox... but when you use the "old" or "ns" sub-domain, there are some reddit features that don't work like surveys
Reddit is one of a few websites (Twitter, LinkedIn) whose design has gotten progressively worse for as long as I can remember. I really wish someone would come along and execute on a clear design vision for the company. It's insane to me that it is this poorly built.
Reddit is leaning in to the 90/9/1 rule. The 1% of content creators know how to circumvent the barriers and are probably using an app anyway. The 90% of users just stumbling in from google get assaulted with prompts to login/download/read ads. They're the revenue providers.
Who are the remaining 9%?
90% viewers / consumers of content,
9% who contribute a little (comments and occasional posts,)
1% who actively generate majority of content
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1%25_rule_(Internet_culture)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1%25_rule_(Internet_culture)
It’s intentionally built - the purpose is to funnel people into the app which has an extremely high ads to content ratio compared to the old site, or most other social media platforms.
Their design vision is: more ads, more user tracking, more selling of user data.
All of this to the detriment of the actual content, readability, and user satisfaction. They’re betting it doesn’t matter. I for one hope they’re wrong.
Their design vision is: more ads, more user tracking, more selling of user data.
All of this to the detriment of the actual content, readability, and user satisfaction. They’re betting it doesn’t matter. I for one hope they’re wrong.
> progressively worse
For you.
Forcing users into an algorithmically-controlled scroll tunnel is probably great for their advertising sales though.
For you.
Forcing users into an algorithmically-controlled scroll tunnel is probably great for their advertising sales though.
The design is fine, but you can't make money by showing ads to a bunch of anonymous users and non-logged in visitors. Hence the dickbar for mobile users. Reddit have big investors now, and they are under pressure to monetize. Unfortunately their ad product is garbage, and the Reddit audience is notoriously ad-unfriendly.
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I could be wrong, but doesn't reddit make most of its money (which probably isn't that much) selling awards? It seems dumb to me, but people buy them.
That's like the concession stand for a sports team. It makes them some money, but nothing close to what they'd expect to bring in through a proper ad service.
Sure, I realize they want to make money on ads like facebook, but the reality is (admittedly I could be wrong) they make more on those trophy awards. It seems to have a lot to do with why they struggle to make a profit and go public.
dickbar is my new favorite word.
It was coined in 2011 by John Gruber: https://daringfireball.net/linked/2011/03/06/dickbar
Reddit web/mobile is painful to use, slow, ugly, and full of dark patterns so I get that. But why do you think Twitter is bad? Yeah they force ads on you, but the app itself is nice imo.
Even worse, when I clicked on "Continue in App" it didn't actually open the relevant page in the app, instead taking me to the product page for Reddit on the iOS app store.
I already have the app installed.
Native apps and URLs are like peanut butter and mayonnaise, they just don't go well together.
I already have the app installed.
Native apps and URLs are like peanut butter and mayonnaise, they just don't go well together.
This is a tangent on your metaphor, but PB&M has actually been a popular combination in the past. https://www.atlasobscura.com/foods/peanut-butter-mayonnaise-...
Oh wow. I never knew that was a thing. When I was 6 or 7, I decided to make the most disgusting sandwich I could think to make. I ended up "inventing" a PB&M on white bread.
I was pretty disappointed as it wasn't too bad.
I was pretty disappointed as it wasn't too bad.
Dunno how many 3rd Party apps do this, but on iOS, Apollo has a share extension that lets you open the page in that App. It can’t claim Reddit URLs because of Apple’s limits on devs, but this is a decent workaround that keeps 3rd Party apps viable.
I fixed this recently after finding the solution online somewhere.
Long press the “continue in app” or Reddit “open” button depending on how it displays. A menu pops up and you can select “open in “Reddit””
Doing this once completely solved the problem for me. It was driving me crazy. I hope it helps!
Long press the “continue in app” or Reddit “open” button depending on how it displays. A menu pops up and you can select “open in “Reddit””
Doing this once completely solved the problem for me. It was driving me crazy. I hope it helps!
Same exact thing happens to me. The link just takes you to the app store. No content linked at all, not even linking to open the reddit app!
I fixed this recently after finding the solution online somewhere.
Long press the “continue in app” or Reddit “open” button depending on how it displays. A menu pops up and you can select “open in “Reddit””
Doing this once completely solved the problem for me. It was driving me crazy. I hope it helps!
Long press the “continue in app” or Reddit “open” button depending on how it displays. A menu pops up and you can select “open in “Reddit””
Doing this once completely solved the problem for me. It was driving me crazy. I hope it helps!
haha that last line made me chuckle because there is an older guy in my office who swears a PB and Mayo sandwich is the shit. I will never try it, but he's been bragging about them for years, no joke.
Sounds like he hasn’t been introduced to banana with tomato ketchup yet.
Might be an issue with how Safari renders links, or maybe the app itself is not a default for opening Reddit links.
When I get the mobile page on Reddit, clicking "Open in App" on the popup works fine for a third party Android app (Now for Reddit).
When I get the mobile page on Reddit, clicking "Open in App" on the popup works fine for a third party Android app (Now for Reddit).
On android, it doesn't open official or unofficial reddit app for me. Anecdotes not data, but still. It launched the ios app større page for me too, ironically
It's not an issue with safari or the app. It's an issue with the website blocking you from seeing content that it advertises is on the web.
And it is on the web for others, but not for you!
And it is on the web for others, but not for you!
From what I remember of a class on mobile development during Uni, Android has things called "Intent(s)" which can also capture opened links to open an app, a specific view in an app etc.
Is that the same on iOS?
Is that the same on iOS?
Not nearly as powerful, they just have URI handlers.
However, that's all your browser is using on android anyway. It's a little different on iOS as your URI needs a custom scheme while android apps fan e.g. register themselves to handle reddit.com/* if anyone asks but Reddit already sniffs your platform to pick which app store URI and to show a safari or chrome logo
However, that's all your browser is using on android anyway. It's a little different on iOS as your URI needs a custom scheme while android apps fan e.g. register themselves to handle reddit.com/* if anyone asks but Reddit already sniffs your platform to pick which app store URI and to show a safari or chrome logo
Bizarre. Absolutely works for me and always has. (iOS 14 atm. Worked since about 9.)
My Reddit opens fine. However, and Google Maps links always go to Safari instead of the app installed on my phone. I don’t know what changed. It works fine on my partners iphone. Please fix Apple!
I browse in iOS Safari private mode. Reddit has now started to entirely block many subreddits from my view. It pops up “Continue in app/ go back to r/popular”. I do not know how it determines which to block; newer and less-popular seems to a pattern.
I have been finding ways to bypass their blocks, so my apologies if they decide to make it an entirely private site.
Edit: using the www prefix, not old or i.
I have been finding ways to bypass their blocks, so my apologies if they decide to make it an entirely private site.
Edit: using the www prefix, not old or i.
I reverse engineered it and it seems to be based on the "community_reviewed" flag in the https://www.reddit.com/r/:subreddit/about.json endpoint.
>I have been finding ways to bypass their blocks, so my apologies if they decide to make it an entirely private site.
using the i.reddit.com subdomain should work.
>I have been finding ways to bypass their blocks, so my apologies if they decide to make it an entirely private site.
using the i.reddit.com subdomain should work.
Just prepend old. Or I. Instead of www to the URL. Once you’re in old reddit it won’t switch you back to new reddit until your next session.
It’s not as convenient on mobile but reddit now is hostile to lurkers so it is what it is.
It’s not as convenient on mobile but reddit now is hostile to lurkers so it is what it is.
You have to create an account and login, even a throwaway is fine
a while back the new reddit site was popping up a questionare about stuff like "does this subreddit contain sexual or violent content"
I guess this is what they did with the results.
I guess this is what they did with the results.
Why not use Apollo instead?
For those who don't know, for _most_ content if you just prepend the old subdomain, you can bypass this behavior.
https://old.reddit.com/
https://old.reddit.com/
Also there are browser add ons to always redirect to the old (non broken) style.
When they drop old style they should be prepared for a huge migration of users away like what happened to Digg. Hoping someone has a viable competitor spinning up for when they decide to make their next decision that is terrible for the users.
When they drop old style they should be prepared for a huge migration of users away like what happened to Digg. Hoping someone has a viable competitor spinning up for when they decide to make their next decision that is terrible for the users.
I doubt there will be a huge migration. I think it's already a small minority of users holding on to "old". I've seen people on social media asking, "why would anyone use the old and broken Reddit design?"
I'm a moderator of a fairly large, nontechnical subreddit-
Reddit allows you to see your subreddit's statstistics, and the last time I checked, around 1/3 of our traffic is from old reddit. So definitely not just a small minority.
(Then again, it has been around a year since I checked, so perhaps the numbers have shifted.)
Reddit allows you to see your subreddit's statstistics, and the last time I checked, around 1/3 of our traffic is from old reddit. So definitely not just a small minority.
(Then again, it has been around a year since I checked, so perhaps the numbers have shifted.)
I mod a top 50 sub and less than 15% of our pageviews are on old reddit.
The number used to be falling much faster, but seems to be falling in a somewhat stable fashion around the 15% mark over the past year.
The number used to be falling much faster, but seems to be falling in a somewhat stable fashion around the 15% mark over the past year.
Is this based off the subdomain? If so the numbers might be flawed because logged in users that have the legacy design option selected in their user options would still possibly show up as www.
It's directly from the Reddit traffic page. I'm not sure how they categorize pageviews.
Maybe I’m a curmudgeon. To me the browsing experience and content density is night and day favoring the old style.
On the app I get 2, maybe 3 posts per screen and at least 1 ad taking up 30% or more of the screen. I don’t see how that’s an objectively better user experience unless someone desperately needs glasses.
Another factor is that communities can’t use CSS to style their pages with the new site. /r/nfl for example is a thousand times better with their CSS than the few tools for differentiation Reddit provides.
On the app I get 2, maybe 3 posts per screen and at least 1 ad taking up 30% or more of the screen. I don’t see how that’s an objectively better user experience unless someone desperately needs glasses.
Another factor is that communities can’t use CSS to style their pages with the new site. /r/nfl for example is a thousand times better with their CSS than the few tools for differentiation Reddit provides.
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Always viewing in old.reddit.com is an account setting. There are also extensions out there for Old Reddit redirection. Also, the Reddit Enhancement Suite is highly recommended for any desktop browsing.
They reset that account setting literally every week because they don't want people to use it.
Once they kill that I'm gone. 13 years...
Same. Also, moderator of a few large subs. They keep shitting on mod feature and abilities, still wanting us to mod 'efficiently'. One more major "fuck you" and I can promise I'm gone from all that.
Get more value and less hate from here, as it is.
Get more value and less hate from here, as it is.
Any good alternatives? I know of tildes.net and lobsters.rs from others.
There's a big list here: https://www.reddit.com/r/RedditAlternatives/comments/km9468/...
Infinite scroll is a very dangerous thing. Seriously should be regulated.
Reddit Enhancement Suite has had this for years btw. It's on by default but you can turn it off.
It's a dark pattern that was successfully imposed on us.
It used to work great but over time more and more threads are broken and cannot be viewed in old reddit, for example the poll threads, or the prediction threads, or threads with inline images mixed with texts.
Teddit.net is an even better privacy focused frontend
I noticed the other day when I wanted to watch a video in PiP and I went to go edit the DOM to do it, Reddit refreshed the page on me.
Must have been some MutationObserver hook to prevent people from fiddling.
I was pretty turned off after that. Anyway, that being said, browser perf is so bad with the new Reddit, you basically have to use the app.
Must have been some MutationObserver hook to prevent people from fiddling.
I was pretty turned off after that. Anyway, that being said, browser perf is so bad with the new Reddit, you basically have to use the app.
I stopped frequenting a while ago, but I do have the Firefox "Old Reddit" plugin for when I click on a reddit link. It works as you'd expect.
Similar to how quora forces you to sign up if you click a link coming from a Google search. I just avoid these sites altogether. Unfortunately, I’m but a drop in the ocean.
Quora is at that point in its lifecycle where it's barely any better than Yahoo Answers. The nice, knowledgeable people that used to provide detailed answers are long gone. Like Medium, it's full of content marketers and clout-chasers who've figured out that getting their answers on Quora is free SEO for their brand.
They don't actually remove the content, just hide it with an obnoxious scroll-down-to-trigger-login-spam JS and a blur content blocker. It's dismissed with one right-click -> inspect element -> delete div
Alternatively, typing '?share' at the end of the URL works too. Quora is awful these days though so I rarely use it anyway.
I remember reading Google would start penalizing these sites for using these dark patterns. Would losing traffic from Google search force them to change their ways?
A site like reddit? Very doubtful.
Apollo is the app that lets Reddit shine. The difference in polish and UX is night and day. One man vs. an entire team. Talent and passion vs. boring dayjobs.
I decided to just stop using Reddit a while ago. I can’t be bothered to use a website that is so hostile to being used.
On top of that their deeplinking doesn’t even work. It’s completely broken. It takes me to the App Store when I already have the app installed and it’s literally impossible to go from a google search to a reddit post in the app smoothly. It absolutely blows my mind that an app where deeplinking is particularly important (google search results) is so broken. If you don’t want to build your own deeplink framework, then there’s plenty out there you can get to integrate like branch.io
The phrase “deep linked content” might lead some people to ignore this as comments have been blocked for a while now, I wouldn’t have realized this specifically meant post content & toplevel comments from the title without coming from the Windows 11 design conventions thread.
Thanks for the suggestion, I updated the title.
This is how you actually use Reddit:
- It's unusable on mobile and always has been. Don't bother trying. Use unofficial apps, not the Reddit app. For example, Apollo on iOS is excellent. It's an indie app with a really great, responsive developer. Pay real money for an ad-free app like Apollo.
- For desktop, set your user settings to always visit old.reddit.com. Yes, this is an official setting that's part of the user profile settings. If you want to stay logged out, there are lots of Old Reddit redirect extensions.
- Always use Reddit Enhancement Suite on desktop, you're missing out if you don't.
I believe Reddit's leadership knows that a decent subset of their longer tenured audience values old.reddit.com, but at the same time I wouldn't want to necessarily blame them for wanting to get new users on the app and using the newer website.
For everyone that thinks they're "yet another Digg," I don't think so. They have deliberately made it so that their existing users are allowed to use Reddit in the old way that they want to.
We can get upset about the dark patterns, but it's also true that social media customers are categorically not willing to pay for that kind of product. If Reddit charged even a small fee like $10 a year they'd have probably 1/10th of the visitors they do now. It just doesn't make business sense not to run off of the "data vacuum" model. Sorry, the MBAs are right in this case.
As an example, there's a common Internet meme where people joke about how nobody in their right mind would pay for YouTube Premium, even though it's on many levels an excellent product and a fair business model to pay for the service without seeing personalized ads.
- It's unusable on mobile and always has been. Don't bother trying. Use unofficial apps, not the Reddit app. For example, Apollo on iOS is excellent. It's an indie app with a really great, responsive developer. Pay real money for an ad-free app like Apollo.
- For desktop, set your user settings to always visit old.reddit.com. Yes, this is an official setting that's part of the user profile settings. If you want to stay logged out, there are lots of Old Reddit redirect extensions.
- Always use Reddit Enhancement Suite on desktop, you're missing out if you don't.
I believe Reddit's leadership knows that a decent subset of their longer tenured audience values old.reddit.com, but at the same time I wouldn't want to necessarily blame them for wanting to get new users on the app and using the newer website.
For everyone that thinks they're "yet another Digg," I don't think so. They have deliberately made it so that their existing users are allowed to use Reddit in the old way that they want to.
We can get upset about the dark patterns, but it's also true that social media customers are categorically not willing to pay for that kind of product. If Reddit charged even a small fee like $10 a year they'd have probably 1/10th of the visitors they do now. It just doesn't make business sense not to run off of the "data vacuum" model. Sorry, the MBAs are right in this case.
As an example, there's a common Internet meme where people joke about how nobody in their right mind would pay for YouTube Premium, even though it's on many levels an excellent product and a fair business model to pay for the service without seeing personalized ads.
Thankfully BaconReader still works. It might be ugly, but it's still a thousand times more functional than that Reddit official crap.
BaconReader in stark contrast to the official Reddit app also features a UI not plastered over and over with irrelevant shit (so-called "advertisements").
If you're looking for an alternative to Reddit, check out https://sqwok.im
- realtime: every post has built-in slack quality chat w/markdown support.
- open: the site is completely open for anyone, if you want to chat, creating an account is a breeze w/no email required
- minimal: focus is on conversations w/low friction, designed so both tech and non-tech people can post, share, and easily join in a conversation.
- clean design: mobile/desktop web friendly
- new features dropping regularly
Most importantly, you don't need to download anything to view a post!
- realtime: every post has built-in slack quality chat w/markdown support.
- open: the site is completely open for anyone, if you want to chat, creating an account is a breeze w/no email required
- minimal: focus is on conversations w/low friction, designed so both tech and non-tech people can post, share, and easily join in a conversation.
- clean design: mobile/desktop web friendly
- new features dropping regularly
Most importantly, you don't need to download anything to view a post!
This is not really an alternative to reddit. I don't care about online users, and part of the point of using reddit is comment chains. Having a linear chat breaks that.
There have been numerous reddit clones. But the main issue is the lack of a community. People who like reddit... still use reddit for the most part. It'll take something like reddit killing the old ux to finally force enough people to move to an alternative such that a good, sizable community is formed.
There have been numerous reddit clones. But the main issue is the lack of a community. People who like reddit... still use reddit for the most part. It'll take something like reddit killing the old ux to finally force enough people to move to an alternative such that a good, sizable community is formed.
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No offense but this feels like nu-reddit but not fully realized yet.
-Javascript ridden mess to display text. Loading spinners left right and center. I bet you can display text in rows without executing more than 2 megabytes of javascript.
-Dark patterns like infinite scrolling
-Chat style discussions are a fertile ground for low quality messages
I'm jaded enough not to expect better by now but I think these are still worth mentioning if you are comparing yourself against nu-reddit.
-Javascript ridden mess to display text. Loading spinners left right and center. I bet you can display text in rows without executing more than 2 megabytes of javascript.
-Dark patterns like infinite scrolling
-Chat style discussions are a fertile ground for low quality messages
I'm jaded enough not to expect better by now but I think these are still worth mentioning if you are comparing yourself against nu-reddit.
The dream of the WWW is fading. Welcome to the new consumer network of siloed phone apps stewarded by Apple and Google. For a moment there was hope with PWAs but Apple snuffed that one out.
I wrote a line of business app that is similar to Fulcrum but with asset and work management integration. All PWA, works great on iOS and Android. PWAs are definitely not dead.
Not only are they forcing users to use their app, it's also a pretty low quality app.
A website that advertises itself as "the front page of the internet" should allow it's users to stay in their internet browsers.
I personally don't care for local dedicated apps for every little site or resturant I eat at. There's a large group of people that don't want load up their phone with Cheesecake Factory, Bestbuy, Sonos, and Reddit apps.
Browsers are really cool.
A website that advertises itself as "the front page of the internet" should allow it's users to stay in their internet browsers.
I personally don't care for local dedicated apps for every little site or resturant I eat at. There's a large group of people that don't want load up their phone with Cheesecake Factory, Bestbuy, Sonos, and Reddit apps.
Browsers are really cool.
I went cold turkey from Reddit recently after realizing my frequent usage was impacting my life and relationships.
Was harder and easier than I expected. I kept catching myself opening it in a new tab unconsciously. I learned to stop myself before I’d read a single link, or I’d get sucked in.
Deleted my 10+ year accounts a few weeks ago.
Hardly use it now, and have been able to use it more responsibly.
Deleted my 10+ year accounts a few weeks ago.
Hardly use it now, and have been able to use it more responsibly.
I noticed this the other day and wanted to scream. I pay for Apollo, the very good iOS Reddit client and love it, but the official app is just terrible. And being forced to use the app when trying to quickly browse things (or to want to maybe browse things without logging in) is just the worst sort of UX decision to try to game app usage I can think of.
Quite aside from the scummy behaviour, the assumptions behind it are a real bugbear. Just because I'm on a mobile browser it doesn't mean I'm able, or want to, install apps on my phone. What if it's a friend's phone, or I don't use Google Play, or it's an out of date version of Android, or any number of reasons.
old.reddit.com or even better teddit.net for an alternative privacy friendly front end.
Personally though I think you would be better off just avoid reddit, that place is horrible for people.
Personally though I think you would be better off just avoid reddit, that place is horrible for people.
I'm not aware of any better site to find information on special interests. Just avoid the toxic subreddits. Reddit is way too useful a resource to throw out the baby with the bathwater.
Thats like saying there are some nice berries growing in that minefield you can pick, you just need to avoid the mines.
You can say the same thing about the internet. Avoid the toxic sites. Go to the good sites. But you'd have a hard time arguing that the internet isn't a useful tool.
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I find it a bit funny that this is posted to twitter which won't load on my phone unless I use their app.
What phone? The Twitter mobile site / PWA is regarded as one of the better ones.
Twitter pwa often simply doesn't load the cintent, this has been discussed to death on HN. When it dies load I suppose it's decent and much faster than reddit indeed.
iPhone.
In the area where the Tweet would show, it instead says "Something went wrong" EDIT: it has been like this for several years so I assumed it was a dark pattern.
In the area where the Tweet would show, it instead says "Something went wrong" EDIT: it has been like this for several years so I assumed it was a dark pattern.
It’s some sort of spam/rate limiter - try reloading 3x.
It seems to be triggered by IPv6 combined with Apple telling cookies to go duck themselves.
It seems to be triggered by IPv6 combined with Apple telling cookies to go duck themselves.
So THAT's what they mean when they claim to be "the front page of the internet."
JUST the front page, it appears.
For a website that has been around so long and has been a fundamental building block of what most of us understand to be a diverse, open, and highly interconnected internet, this is quite close-minded.
JUST the front page, it appears.
For a website that has been around so long and has been a fundamental building block of what most of us understand to be a diverse, open, and highly interconnected internet, this is quite close-minded.
Reddit siphoned Pinterest’s growth team. It’s no surprise.
Wait, actually? As in they hired the same people? Is there a source for this?
Funny-not-funny to complain about that on Twitter, which in the past years became unusable without JavaScript and more times than not doesn't work in Tor Browser's "Safer" mode (1st party JS enabled).
Yes, it's become increasingly user hostile boiling a frog style.
It’s weird.
I guess as long as it “works”, i.e. as long as dirty tricks continue to increase certain metrics, we’ll see apps that use them.
Still, I’m surprised, because good UX seemed to be part of the core offering of this particular website.
Are they betting that the community won’t go anywhere? Do they want to attract so many new users that they don’t care about existing ones?
I guess as long as it “works”, i.e. as long as dirty tricks continue to increase certain metrics, we’ll see apps that use them.
Still, I’m surprised, because good UX seemed to be part of the core offering of this particular website.
Are they betting that the community won’t go anywhere? Do they want to attract so many new users that they don’t care about existing ones?
Yes. I have the app but theres 30-40% of URLs that send me to the browser which then asks me to download the app.
I dunno.
I dunno.
On my iPhone I just use a shortcut to take the current page and go to Narwhal, it's a little cumbersome but much better than using it on the web on a mobile device.
I don't understand how can you complain to public that some private website (like reddit, facebook, twitter) are not convenient. It's like you came to someone's private garden, whose owner benevolently let you visit for free (and you agree they sell your, say, photos), and you complain to everyone that its entrance is not convenient.
I'd rather let the owner know, or I can always build my own garden. Thankfully there are couple of free, ready-to-use DIY gardens, aka Federated social networks.
I'd rather let the owner know, or I can always build my own garden. Thankfully there are couple of free, ready-to-use DIY gardens, aka Federated social networks.
It is more like your neighbour the old lady with a nice garden moves and the person that moves in cuts down the nice flowers and bushes and fills the garden with adds.
Why not complain? Reddit got their users by word of mouth so surely it is just fair to warn users and sow dissent too.
Why not complain? Reddit got their users by word of mouth so surely it is just fair to warn users and sow dissent too.
He's the owner, he has right to burn it. Anyway, it would be more useful to complain to him, not to other neighbors.
what are you even trying to do? Can't seem to duplicate this. Android/Chrome it offers up on first load the 'open in app' or continue in browser option, select continue in browser and life goes on fine.
For both logged in and logged out.
It's a sketchy annoyance but hardly a problem. Or use old.reddit like everyone else suggests.
It's a sketchy annoyance but hardly a problem. Or use old.reddit like everyone else suggests.
>Can't seem to duplicate this. Android/Chrome it offers up on first load the 'open in app' or continue in browser option
Are you visiting the exact subreddit? I can reproduce it just fine. As I mentioned in another comment, the behavior is subreddit specific. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27554337
Are you visiting the exact subreddit? I can reproduce it just fine. As I mentioned in another comment, the behavior is subreddit specific. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27554337
ah ok, that exact thread then? Fairplay. Yeah, can duplicate. Weird/annoying.
(logs in, continues on merry way, in browser, all working)
(logs in, continues on merry way, in browser, all working)
What is going to be the successor to Reddit? Maybe some type of federated Mastodon-like thing?
It is hard because unfortunately, lots of these federated websites seem to attract the sort of person who was banned from Reddit... and not being banned from Reddit is a pretty low bar.
Lemmy seems OK, though (and IIRC is actively trying to avoid that fate somehow).
Lemmy seems OK, though (and IIRC is actively trying to avoid that fate somehow).
Scott Alexander talked about this six years ago[1]:
> HL Mencken once said that “the trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one’s time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.”
> There’s an unfortunate corollary to this, which is that if you try to create a libertarian paradise, you will attract three deeply virtuous people with a strong commitment to the principle of universal freedom, plus millions of scoundrels. Declare that you’re going to stop holding witch hunts, and your coalition is certain to include more than its share of witches.
1. https://slatestarcodex.com/2015/07/22/freedom-on-the-central...
> HL Mencken once said that “the trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one’s time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.”
> There’s an unfortunate corollary to this, which is that if you try to create a libertarian paradise, you will attract three deeply virtuous people with a strong commitment to the principle of universal freedom, plus millions of scoundrels. Declare that you’re going to stop holding witch hunts, and your coalition is certain to include more than its share of witches.
1. https://slatestarcodex.com/2015/07/22/freedom-on-the-central...
If that's the case then what makes rest if the internet as whole any different? Who gets to define what constitutes a scoundrel?
>If that's the case then what makes rest if the internet as whole any different?
Because it doesn't have the adverse selection problem since it appeals to mainstream audiences. That could be bad as well if your prior userbase was above average, ie. "eternal September"
>Who gets to define what constitutes a scoundrel?
I don't think thats worth discussing. You don't need an exact definition of a "scoundrel" to see why free speech reddit clones tend to attract a certain kind of user base.
Because it doesn't have the adverse selection problem since it appeals to mainstream audiences. That could be bad as well if your prior userbase was above average, ie. "eternal September"
>Who gets to define what constitutes a scoundrel?
I don't think thats worth discussing. You don't need an exact definition of a "scoundrel" to see why free speech reddit clones tend to attract a certain kind of user base.
It took a quarter of a century from inception to commercialization for mainstream audiences to have to access to the Internet (at least in the United States). Until then it was used by the very same groups of free speechers you take issue with: the cypherpunks, Usenet groupees, technically-inclined social pariahs, waggish college students, anarchists, etc. In short, the contrarians. Of course there is adverse selection if one is looking for remnants of an Internet before or some several years after Eternal September. Mainstream usage does not imply that something is free from scoundrels. The only change is in the kind of scoundrels preferred. Social media (i.e Facebook et al), on both the corporate and consumer sides, is a testament to that.
And I certainly think it's worth discussing what constitues a scoundrel. After all Scott Alexander himself has infamously been regarded as one by mainstream institutions like the New York Times. For him to be quoted as an expert on the subject is painfully ironic.
And I certainly think it's worth discussing what constitues a scoundrel. After all Scott Alexander himself has infamously been regarded as one by mainstream institutions like the New York Times. For him to be quoted as an expert on the subject is painfully ironic.
>It took a quarter of a century from inception to commercialization for mainstream audiences to have to access to the Internet (at least in the United States). Until then it was used by the very same groups of free speechers you take issue with: the cypherpunks, Usenet groupees, technically-inclined social pariahs, waggish college students, anarchists, etc. In short, the contrarians.
I don't think "contrarians" in the early internet are the "scoundrels" that alexander scott was talking about. Specifically, it's possible to be a contrarian but not be that type of contrarian that you get on voat. Also, how free speech are those venues in the early internet? Were they literally "as long as it's legal we'll let you post it"? Could you get away with spamming racist posts, or would you get shunned/blocked by the community?
>Of course there is adverse selection if one is looking for remnants of an Internet before or some several years after Eternal September. Mainstream usage does not imply that something is free from scoundrels.
It's not free of scoundrels, but they're diluted and moderated to the point that you don't notice them.
I don't think "contrarians" in the early internet are the "scoundrels" that alexander scott was talking about. Specifically, it's possible to be a contrarian but not be that type of contrarian that you get on voat. Also, how free speech are those venues in the early internet? Were they literally "as long as it's legal we'll let you post it"? Could you get away with spamming racist posts, or would you get shunned/blocked by the community?
>Of course there is adverse selection if one is looking for remnants of an Internet before or some several years after Eternal September. Mainstream usage does not imply that something is free from scoundrels.
It's not free of scoundrels, but they're diluted and moderated to the point that you don't notice them.
> Also, how free speech are those venues in the early internet? Were they literally "as long as it's legal we'll let you post it"?
The most absolutely illegal stuff was posted. And often as not where one would expect ordinary porn. It was well beyond Wild West, and much more depraved Epstein rape island.
It took quite a few years for reliably legal porn newsgroups to become a thing, and even longer to weed out the criminal image and video groups… if they even did; the web took off before Usenet solved its criminal porn problems.
Anything you can imagine and worse was available on the early Usenet. Absolutely nothing was being done to regulate it.
The most absolutely illegal stuff was posted. And often as not where one would expect ordinary porn. It was well beyond Wild West, and much more depraved Epstein rape island.
It took quite a few years for reliably legal porn newsgroups to become a thing, and even longer to weed out the criminal image and video groups… if they even did; the web took off before Usenet solved its criminal porn problems.
Anything you can imagine and worse was available on the early Usenet. Absolutely nothing was being done to regulate it.
>> Also, how free speech are those venues in the early internet? Were they literally "as long as it's legal we'll let you post it"?
Yes. On Usenet you could and still can post anything you want. Even if is/was illegal. Warez, drugs, and other less-then-savory stuff have had whole boards devoted to them.
>>Could you get away with spamming racist posts, or would you get shunned/blocked by the community?
Once again yes. On Usenet, you could get kicked from a particular discussion depending whether an admin thought one was racist, not racist enough, or for any reason at all. However, there was nothing stopping one from making a different account and continuing to use the same board. After all, there wasn't a real name or email requirement a la Facebook back then or even today. Think 4chan or early Reddit but with more academics. That's what Usenet was and, to a more limited extent, so were BBSs.
>>It's not free of scoundrels, but they're diluted and moderated to the point that you don't notice them.
The dilution you speak of is a passive one and never permanent. It just happens to exist because most people are ignorant and uninterested enough to not give to certain types of scoundrels for the time being much serious attention. Their ignorance serves as a buffer against the spread of ideas. But up to a point. That same ignorance breeds naiveté towards seriously considering certain critical issues and leaves them susceptible to manipulation when faced with an issue one "feels" is important, but lacks an internalized explanation for. At a some critical juncture - a word said, a topic raised - the once blissful, sleeping giant of collective ignorance thrusts itself into the tumult armed with nothing by shoddy memes and crackpot ideas peddled by the scoundrels of their choosing. Except those scoundrels don't call themselves "scoundrels". These mainstream-appealing types call themselves "Joe Blow", " just a guy like you", a "clinical expert", a "thinker", a "hard-hitting journalist", etc. Maybe they believe their own drek or maybe they sell their horseshit with knowing impunity. Either way, mainstream audiences are generally less well-equipped (and likely less interested) to actively think through their chosen scoundrels positions, despite the wishful thinking behind the "wisdom of the crowds"-types suggesting otherwise.
On a free speech platform, a la Voat or Usenet, you know what you're getting itself into without any of the pretensions. The value in the content is in digesting the premises and principles behind one's thinking. How close one is to recreating society or its proclaimed values is not the goal or the measure by which one delineates, or should delineate, scoundrels from non-scoundrels. Doing so just breeds stagnation and scoundrels of a different strain: empty-headed, hypocritical pundits.
Yes. On Usenet you could and still can post anything you want. Even if is/was illegal. Warez, drugs, and other less-then-savory stuff have had whole boards devoted to them.
>>Could you get away with spamming racist posts, or would you get shunned/blocked by the community?
Once again yes. On Usenet, you could get kicked from a particular discussion depending whether an admin thought one was racist, not racist enough, or for any reason at all. However, there was nothing stopping one from making a different account and continuing to use the same board. After all, there wasn't a real name or email requirement a la Facebook back then or even today. Think 4chan or early Reddit but with more academics. That's what Usenet was and, to a more limited extent, so were BBSs.
>>It's not free of scoundrels, but they're diluted and moderated to the point that you don't notice them.
The dilution you speak of is a passive one and never permanent. It just happens to exist because most people are ignorant and uninterested enough to not give to certain types of scoundrels for the time being much serious attention. Their ignorance serves as a buffer against the spread of ideas. But up to a point. That same ignorance breeds naiveté towards seriously considering certain critical issues and leaves them susceptible to manipulation when faced with an issue one "feels" is important, but lacks an internalized explanation for. At a some critical juncture - a word said, a topic raised - the once blissful, sleeping giant of collective ignorance thrusts itself into the tumult armed with nothing by shoddy memes and crackpot ideas peddled by the scoundrels of their choosing. Except those scoundrels don't call themselves "scoundrels". These mainstream-appealing types call themselves "Joe Blow", " just a guy like you", a "clinical expert", a "thinker", a "hard-hitting journalist", etc. Maybe they believe their own drek or maybe they sell their horseshit with knowing impunity. Either way, mainstream audiences are generally less well-equipped (and likely less interested) to actively think through their chosen scoundrels positions, despite the wishful thinking behind the "wisdom of the crowds"-types suggesting otherwise.
On a free speech platform, a la Voat or Usenet, you know what you're getting itself into without any of the pretensions. The value in the content is in digesting the premises and principles behind one's thinking. How close one is to recreating society or its proclaimed values is not the goal or the measure by which one delineates, or should delineate, scoundrels from non-scoundrels. Doing so just breeds stagnation and scoundrels of a different strain: empty-headed, hypocritical pundits.
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Federation means that each site can introduce their own standards for moderation, so that's hardly an insurmountable problem.
It's easy, just write something not entirely positive about transgenderism.
No, as decentralization merely complicates onboarding users while not really solving anything and creating new problems. The fediverse will still be nice for an alternative social media/blog sphere.
My guess is something will pop up with good UX and rules, that a critical mass moves to. Something akin to lemmy, but centralized.
My guess is something will pop up with good UX and rules, that a critical mass moves to. Something akin to lemmy, but centralized.
One of my favorite subreddits, longreads, doesn't even load anymore
Request Desktop Site
Reddit is the perfect storm of technical clown shoes, investor greed, and executive sociopathy and hypocrisy.
It’s a horrible platform that does more harm than good and is a major contributor to the extremely polarized society we are building for ourselves.
And spare me the whole “but some communities are good” hand waving. I’m sure you can find a flower growing in a minefield too.
It’s a horrible platform that does more harm than good and is a major contributor to the extremely polarized society we are building for ourselves.
And spare me the whole “but some communities are good” hand waving. I’m sure you can find a flower growing in a minefield too.
why not use a 3rd party app?
When I clicked on the link sent to me, it defaulted to the browser not Apollo which I prefer.
And you are forcing me to use Twitter!
Oh! The irony.
Oh! The irony.
I know this is offtopic and will probably be downvoted to hell (and so what?!), but I really dont get how adults can complain about such a thing in a public online space with phrasing that makes it sound like something terrible happened to the person tweeting. I really dont get the appeal of this. Is it another way to generate conversation?
For anyone else annoying by the reddit redesign, you can use the Redirector chrome extension to fix it w/the following...