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Reddit is actually facing a lot of flak for their plan of disabling CSS. This has made several of the subreddits announce themselves as Pro-CSS - sort of a rebe

by ktta 9y ago

Reddit is actually facing a lot of flak for their plan of disabling CSS. This has made several of the subreddits announce themselves as Pro-CSS - sort of a rebel against the admins. https://www.reddit.com/r/modnews/comments/66q4is/the_web_redesign_css_and_mod_tools/ https://www.reddit.com/r/modnews/comments/66q4is/the_web_red... https://www.reddit.com/r/ProCSS/ https://www.reddit.com/r/ProCSS/

sillysaurus3 9y ago
I've been following some of that. It's difficult to call, but I don't think it's a serious problem for Reddit, if they do it right. Situations like this are extremely difficult to predict accurately. It could become a big problem. But it has a decent chance of blowing over. The main issue is to harness the energy that the moderators currently put into their subreddit. They're not sad that CSS is going away. They're sad their toys are being taken away from them. That's not to trivialize it, not at all -- people like to tinker, and playing with your subreddit and putting your markings on it is a toy for adults. It's a game. It's necessary to replace that with something that feels equally deep and immersive. Or, you know, just don't mess with the status quo. But if you're going to do it, I think that's why people are rebelling. Not because the functionality is gone, but because they're losing a creative outlet.
dzhiurgis 9y ago
I haven't seen a single sub where CSS would add value. The worst example is r/science where colourful tags make it especially noisy.
- elgenie 9y ago
  CSS adds tons of value in sports subreddits. It's used to display stuff like the league standings and details on the day's game.
- dredmorbius 9y ago
  https://reddit.com/r/dredmorbius https://reddit.com/r/dredmorbius Availability hueristic and personal bias. There are others. CSS is a tool. Often, but not always misused.
- epmatsw 9y ago
  Besides spoiler tags, check out any of the sports subs: r/cfb, r/NFL, r/NBA have team flair, schedules, and scoreboards. Without those and the inline images, those communities would lose a lot of their fun.
  - yxhuvud 9y ago
    Spoiler tags is something that really should get a nonCSS solution though, as they work really crappy on mobile.
  - paganel 9y ago
    r/soccer would most probably become half-dead over-night if the team flairs were to disappear. Almost each and every time when I'm reading a comment on there I first look at the flair of the redditor who had made the comment, so that I know who am I answering to. Sports-related discussions are a lot more heated and personal compared to what usually happens on sites like HN or how r/programming was at the beginning. I've actually seen grown people cry with real tears because of a football match, I'm yet to see a programmer cry because some other programmer has used spaces instead of tabs or vice-versa.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- SomeStupidPoint 9y ago
  ....So turn it off? Reddit has a setting to disable custom CSS on subreddits, so it doesn't make sense why you'd force the subreddits not to have it.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - dzhiurgis 9y ago
    I did disable sitewise around a year ago, but occasionally get reminded when browsing in incognito.
- twic 9y ago
  r/rust used CSS on April Fool's day to add overenthusiastic Rust Evangelism Strike Force-type exclamations to the end of everyone's posts. That was pretty funny. FEARLESS CONCURRENCY!
- verall 9y ago
  Lots of meme subs hold a lot of their value in their CSS.
sorenjan 9y ago
They've since decided to keep the custom CSS: https://www.reddit.com/r/modnews/comments/6auyq9/reddit_is_procss/ https://www.reddit.com/r/modnews/comments/6auyq9/reddit_is_p... What's worse is that their new mobile site and their profile pages use more whitespace. A sign of things to come probably.
- SomeStupidPoint 9y ago
  I can't even use their mobile website, I have to just use the desktop one (which has a delayed popup banner that shifts the page a second after load telling me to download their app).
  - foepys 9y ago
    You can use https://i.reddit.com https://i.reddit.com. it is so much faster than m.reddit.com, it's unbelievable. Really shows how those JavaScript frameworks slow down everything and have a severe impact on my browsing experience. When reddit closes down i.reddit.com, I will not use Reddit on mobile anymore; maybe not even on desktop.
    - icefo 9y ago
      Thanks I had no idea that i.reddit existed. It's so much better than the standard mobile version. I don't understand why they don't focus on making reddit fast and reliable. Making it beautiful with nice animations should come second and the mobile version still crash a few times a day for me.
  - pbhjpbhj 9y ago
    They've been dicking about with it making it harder to choose the mobile version. One time, earlier this year, I got a "use the app" screen with no option to continue - you could block the overlay though. Recently they added a useless interstitial. It's interesting to me they say the app is faster; presumably they're artificially slowing the mobile site just to push app installs.
    - 9y ago

by ktta 9y ago

sillysaurus3 9y ago

I've been following some of that. It's difficult to call, but I don't think it's a serious problem for Reddit, if they do it right. Situations like this are extremely difficult to predict accurately. It could become a big problem. But it has a decent chance of blowing over. The main issue is to harness the energy that the moderators currently put into their subreddit. They're not sad that CSS is going away. They're sad their toys are being taken away from them. That's not to trivialize it, not at all -- people like to tinker, and playing with your subreddit and putting your markings on it is a toy for adults. It's a game. It's necessary to replace that with something that feels equally deep and immersive. Or, you know, just don't mess with the status quo. But if you're going to do it, I think that's why people are rebelling. Not because the functionality is gone, but because they're losing a creative outlet.

dzhiurgis 9y ago

I haven't seen a single sub where CSS would add value. The worst example is r/science where colourful tags make it especially noisy.

elgenie 9y ago
CSS adds tons of value in sports subreddits. It's used to display stuff like the league standings and details on the day's game.
dredmorbius 9y ago
https://reddit.com/r/dredmorbius https://reddit.com/r/dredmorbius Availability hueristic and personal bias. There are others. CSS is a tool. Often, but not always misused.
epmatsw 9y ago
Besides spoiler tags, check out any of the sports subs: r/cfb, r/NFL, r/NBA have team flair, schedules, and scoreboards. Without those and the inline images, those communities would lose a lot of their fun.
- yxhuvud 9y ago
  Spoiler tags is something that really should get a nonCSS solution though, as they work really crappy on mobile.
- paganel 9y ago
  r/soccer would most probably become half-dead over-night if the team flairs were to disappear. Almost each and every time when I'm reading a comment on there I first look at the flair of the redditor who had made the comment, so that I know who am I answering to. Sports-related discussions are a lot more heated and personal compared to what usually happens on sites like HN or how r/programming was at the beginning. I've actually seen grown people cry with real tears because of a football match, I'm yet to see a programmer cry because some other programmer has used spaces instead of tabs or vice-versa.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
SomeStupidPoint 9y ago
....So turn it off? Reddit has a setting to disable custom CSS on subreddits, so it doesn't make sense why you'd force the subreddits not to have it.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- dzhiurgis 9y ago
  I did disable sitewise around a year ago, but occasionally get reminded when browsing in incognito.
twic 9y ago
r/rust used CSS on April Fool's day to add overenthusiastic Rust Evangelism Strike Force-type exclamations to the end of everyone's posts. That was pretty funny. FEARLESS CONCURRENCY!
verall 9y ago
Lots of meme subs hold a lot of their value in their CSS.

sorenjan 9y ago

They've since decided to keep the custom CSS: https://www.reddit.com/r/modnews/comments/6auyq9/reddit_is_procss/ https://www.reddit.com/r/modnews/comments/6auyq9/reddit_is_p... What's worse is that their new mobile site and their profile pages use more whitespace. A sign of things to come probably.

SomeStupidPoint 9y ago
I can't even use their mobile website, I have to just use the desktop one (which has a delayed popup banner that shifts the page a second after load telling me to download their app).
- foepys 9y ago
  You can use https://i.reddit.com https://i.reddit.com. it is so much faster than m.reddit.com, it's unbelievable. Really shows how those JavaScript frameworks slow down everything and have a severe impact on my browsing experience. When reddit closes down i.reddit.com, I will not use Reddit on mobile anymore; maybe not even on desktop.
  - icefo 9y ago
    Thanks I had no idea that i.reddit existed. It's so much better than the standard mobile version. I don't understand why they don't focus on making reddit fast and reliable. Making it beautiful with nice animations should come second and the mobile version still crash a few times a day for me.
- pbhjpbhj 9y ago
  They've been dicking about with it making it harder to choose the mobile version. One time, earlier this year, I got a "use the app" screen with no option to continue - you could block the overlay though. Recently they added a useless interstitial. It's interesting to me they say the app is faster; presumably they're artificially slowing the mobile site just to push app installs.
  - 9y ago