[1] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.quantumbad...
1. Why are they forcing me to use their app so much? it's just not practical: for example if I quit the app and come back it doesn't return me to the page I was looking at; worse it often doesn't display comments for me (infinite loading).
2. Why is the web redesign so bad? Who are they trying to cater for? There's just so much friction in reading comments from multiple posts now, when I click on a post to read the comments an then outside it scroll back up to the beginning. Why can't I read comments if I'm not signed in?
Try https://www.reddit.com/r/Watches/ in an incognito window to see it in the new Reddit, then try it old reddit.
Having an account and using their mobile app makes it easier to track you, easier to show you ads and likely worth more per advertisement.
It's much more bearable if you always open posts in a new tab (I'm talking on desktop; on mobile use a third-party app). You can configure it in the feed settings. Then the view is very similar to old Reddit, and you keep the posts list unchanged.
* did someone pause on a post, mark it * time on page, * whatever other crazy metric you can show to advertisers * in-line advertisements
Also, the walled garden makes it so you get the endorphin hit of clicking the button and it can algorithmically entice you back with notifications and other engagements.
I can't tell you the number of times I thought I was having a meaningful conversation only to find out, after asking, that the user was a kid.
So, if I cannot get to old.reddit, I stop going there, very simple.
I am glad hackernews/ycombinator still has what I consider the best WEB/Comment setup I have ever seen.
1. Status customization. Apps and games based on communities have proved that this business model can bring lots of $$$, the whole idea is to let users customize the way they appear to others in exchange for money. Think "skins". I've heard even discord does it.
2. Competition platform. Trade will always flow if things work well, but how can people trade on your platform? Allow people to produce themes and plugins for communities, and create a marketplace for customizing your own community. Then take a cut.
Social Media isn't about innovation anymore. It's about buying a stake and rent seeking. And guess what nobody is going to sell you an acre to get started just because you feel like giving it the college try.
That hasn't stopped any company from total collapse before and it won't now. Other social media sites have people somewhat locked in since it's all about staying in contact with friends and following certain people. You need to push the entire crowd at once to have a good replacement, but those sites still die when they screw up enough. Reddit's a place where people mostly read comments, see some funny pictures or news, and then go about their day. There's a lot less keeping people from dropping it and moving on.
I'm sure they put a lot of effort into serving their own images and video and placing ads in just the right place for maximal accidental clickage but why would the user care?
Give me plain HTML, minimal CSS, and a template engine any day of the week.
This flow is obviously not ideal, and would be prevented with a little Javascript.
... Or better standards that don't require JavaScript. The jump from "we need seamless navigation" to "let's use a Turing-complete language" makes zero sense.
Modern reddit does not gracefully degrade: it requires JS to click buttons, to load images, to scroll, etc. Old reddit still works well without JS. So does Google for that matter.
I was really hoping WASM might fill this gap, and it still might, but it'll be a while from what I can tell.
But the web UI, combined with Google AMP, made it unusable.
I’ve gone back to the app but with iOS screen time restrictions.
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/apollo-for-reddit/id979274575
That is until they become even more greedy and ban third party apps. Probably by the end of next year. The reasons will be 'privacy of users' and 'letting users access reddit via a unified interface'. Or some bs like that
EDIT: Nevermind, after investigating the issue does not seem to be the CSS.
That's an awful trend.
Here’s a list of alternatives: https://www.reddit.com/r/RedditAlternatives/comments/hi97fz/...
Whereas if I go to the root page of reddit, I get content.
I think that's a huge turn off for alot of people.
Show interesting content, and let the product speak for itself.
If you go to Hacker News, you see content, you don't see a page explaining why Hacker News is great.
I just closed the Parler website rather than figure out what hoops I have to jump through to see content and what it's like.
If you're going to make an X alternative, you have cater to it's core audience. In Reddit's case, it's the power users (folks who post all the content) the moderators, and the commenters.
If you don't give them stuff Reddit won't, you won't do well. A new platform has to be significantly better for all of those groups or it doesn't have a chance
A good example of this is GitHub-style ``` ... ``` codeblocks, which don't work on old.reddit.com, but do in the new UI.
https://www.reddit.com/r/CalvinBot/comments/bdxb6h/why_are_p...
It's been over a year & the bug is still there.
Obligatory cred: first used reddit in...2006? Used it to chat with friends around the world on subjects of mutual interest. It was fun, of course. I've mainly lurked since then.
Now? If one sifts through the records there is great info in there, but most subs I want to enjoy are overrun with, how to say, self-congratulatory amateurs. It's neither useful nor entertaining.
Even joke subs feel tired and decadent.
Meanwhile, mob rule downvoting pervades.
It is broken.
Good riddance.
Is this a good thing? Of all social media, Reddit seems to me like it has the most potential to actually do something positive for society. They’ve seriously been dropping the ball with execution in the past several years but I don’t know that we’d be better off with them disappearing without a better alternative.
For now, you can still edit the target URL manually.
Note that I have my mobile settings to use the desktop version and I only use the old interface.
It's possible there's a bug that rolled out affecting galleries posted after 1AM UTC.
(14 days ago) https://www.reddit.com/r/ModSupport/comments/jrmclg/gallery_...
