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With their redesign and a few other choices, Reddit has gone from one of the most beautiful places on the web to the second most hostile UX that I put up with.

With their redesign and a few other choices, Reddit has gone from one of the most beautiful places on the web to the second most hostile UX that I put up with. I don't want to "GET NEW REDDIT" as I'm urged to in the top left of every page because I don't want a card-based layout. The whole reason I and so many others left Digg for Reddit to begin with was for a highly skimmable, information-dense site! Similarly, I don't want to install a mobile app. The page worked fine on mobile when I got my first iPod Touch a decade ago. Why do I have to see a huge USE APP button in the nav bar and then lose another 20% of the page at the bottom to a See Reddit In section at the bottom that's also urging me to install a native app? Infinite scroll actually slows down my browsing experience too, since it no longer loads as many entries at a time and I have to keep waiting for pagination.

zinfour 7y ago
Regarding card-based layout on the new reddit, you can change from card based layout in the top left corner on the new site.
- karmakaze 7y ago
  Sweet! The compact view is even better than old.reddit
OrgNet 7y ago
I use https://ns.reddit.com https://ns.reddit.com along with Firefox's Redirector add-on to make sure that I always stay on that domain... not sure how much longer it will stay around though
- windsurfer 7y ago
  https://old.reddit.com https://old.reddit.com is the "official" version of that, I believe. Here's a pretty popular redirector extension to go to that: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/old-reddit-redirect/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/old-reddit-re...
DoingIsLearning 7y ago
For desktop old.reddit.com or for mobile reddit.com/.compact Both are low nuissance and both still work for me, although I am not sure if that is region based.
- PopeDotNinja 7y ago
  > or for mobile > reddit.com/.compact I didn't know about that option. Bookmarked. Thanks for sharing!
- AlchemistCamp 7y ago
  > old.reddit.com It doesn't put a big red "GET NEW REDDIT" in the upper left that does a single-click update of your account settings? What region are you in? > reddit.com/.compact I just tried that and the top 40% of my screen was spent on a banner telling me, "You've been invited to try out Reddit's new mobile website!" Clicking that lead me to a page where both the top bar and the bottom section harass me to install their mobile app.
  - karmakaze 7y ago
    > reddit.com/.compact Desktop site [x]
  - rcfox 7y ago
    I use a uBlock Origin rule to hide the upper-left button.
    - DoingIsLearning 7y ago
      Indeed I overlooked the fact that I am also using ff+ublock.
- johnzim 7y ago
  I'd also recommend Apollo if you're on iOS and are happy using an App to get your reddit fix. Fast, reliable and well designed. I really enjoy using it. https://apolloapp.io https://apolloapp.io
nothis 7y ago
Check out tildes.net
- lunchables 7y ago
  Apparently it's invite-only alpha, but it is beautiful. Any idea when it will be open for general registration?
  - Deimorz 7y ago
    (Tildes is my site) I don't have any specific plans about opening the registration up yet, but you (or anyone else) can just email me for an invite. It's not intended to be difficult to get one, I just want to keep the site's growth under control. The address to email (and a lot more info about the site's goals) are in the announcement post: https://blog.tildes.net/announcing-tildes https://blog.tildes.net/announcing-tildes
thekingshorses 7y ago
https://reddit.premii.com/ https://reddit.premii.com/ - Works in the browser including incognito for your NSFW needs. No Ads.
- stevenjohns 7y ago
  > Cross-Origin Request Blocked: The Same Origin Policy disallows reading the remote resource at https://www.reddit.com/r/all/best.json https://www.reddit.com/r/all/best.json. (Reason: CORS request did not succeed). > The resource at “https://www.reddit.com/r/all/best.json” https://www.reddit.com/r/all/best.json” was blocked because content blocking is enabled. When I try to go to that URL in latest Firefox on MacOS.
bromuro 7y ago
How are Reddit’s marketing choices related to this article?
- NullPrefix 7y ago
  JavaScript. They use too much of it.
  - threeseed 7y ago
    Javascript has nothing to do with those decisions. It is purely design.
    - AlchemistCamp 7y ago
      > Javascript has nothing to do with those decisions. It is purely design. How do you implement infinite scroll without JavaScript? The theme tying all their choices together is costs they're willing to inflict upon their users. Bloated JS payloads are simply one example.
      - NullPrefix 7y ago
        > How do you implement infinite scroll without JavaScript? Technically it's possible. Render the website server side as an image. Chrome 75+ supports native lazy loading of images, so a series of them stacked vertically is needed. Each image represents a new page, scroll through them to navigate. Click detection can be done with a <map> tag.
        furyofantares 7y ago
        I think you can also just keep sending html. Send a page with page2.png at the bottom and keep the connection open. This is a sentinel image to detect scrolling — when page2.png is requested, use this as a command to tell the server to start sending html for page 2 on the original connection, which would have page3.png at the bottom.
kristopolous 7y ago
You can remove the nagware in your preferences on Reddit. Still unacceptable but it's there
dzhiurgis 7y ago
Reddit in 2019 === Facebook of 2010
InafuSabi 7y ago
https://old.reddit.com https://old.reddit.com is the only way to look at that site. Reddit new style also eats way more cpu cycles than needed, which is very important when you visit the site on potato hardware
andrepd 7y ago
Re mobile: use i.reddit.com. Have been using it for 8 years now!
epidemian 7y ago
Completely agree. I use this extension to always redirect to the "old." reddit design: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/old-reddit-redirect/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/old-reddit-re... The slowdown of the new design is really noticeable whenever I visit reddit on another browser or computer.

zinfour 7y ago

Regarding card-based layout on the new reddit, you can change from card based layout in the top left corner on the new site.

karmakaze 7y ago
Sweet! The compact view is even better than old.reddit

OrgNet 7y ago

I use https://ns.reddit.com https://ns.reddit.com along with Firefox's Redirector add-on to make sure that I always stay on that domain... not sure how much longer it will stay around though

windsurfer 7y ago
https://old.reddit.com https://old.reddit.com is the "official" version of that, I believe. Here's a pretty popular redirector extension to go to that: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/old-reddit-redirect/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/old-reddit-re...

DoingIsLearning 7y ago

For desktop old.reddit.com or for mobile reddit.com/.compact Both are low nuissance and both still work for me, although I am not sure if that is region based.

PopeDotNinja 7y ago
> or for mobile > reddit.com/.compact I didn't know about that option. Bookmarked. Thanks for sharing!
AlchemistCamp 7y ago
> old.reddit.com It doesn't put a big red "GET NEW REDDIT" in the upper left that does a single-click update of your account settings? What region are you in? > reddit.com/.compact I just tried that and the top 40% of my screen was spent on a banner telling me, "You've been invited to try out Reddit's new mobile website!" Clicking that lead me to a page where both the top bar and the bottom section harass me to install their mobile app.
- karmakaze 7y ago
  > reddit.com/.compact Desktop site [x]
- rcfox 7y ago
  I use a uBlock Origin rule to hide the upper-left button.
  - DoingIsLearning 7y ago
    Indeed I overlooked the fact that I am also using ff+ublock.
johnzim 7y ago
I'd also recommend Apollo if you're on iOS and are happy using an App to get your reddit fix. Fast, reliable and well designed. I really enjoy using it. https://apolloapp.io https://apolloapp.io

nothis 7y ago

Check out tildes.net

lunchables 7y ago
Apparently it's invite-only alpha, but it is beautiful. Any idea when it will be open for general registration?
- Deimorz 7y ago
  (Tildes is my site) I don't have any specific plans about opening the registration up yet, but you (or anyone else) can just email me for an invite. It's not intended to be difficult to get one, I just want to keep the site's growth under control. The address to email (and a lot more info about the site's goals) are in the announcement post: https://blog.tildes.net/announcing-tildes https://blog.tildes.net/announcing-tildes

thekingshorses 7y ago

https://reddit.premii.com/ https://reddit.premii.com/ - Works in the browser including incognito for your NSFW needs. No Ads.

stevenjohns 7y ago
> Cross-Origin Request Blocked: The Same Origin Policy disallows reading the remote resource at https://www.reddit.com/r/all/best.json https://www.reddit.com/r/all/best.json. (Reason: CORS request did not succeed). > The resource at “https://www.reddit.com/r/all/best.json” https://www.reddit.com/r/all/best.json” was blocked because content blocking is enabled. When I try to go to that URL in latest Firefox on MacOS.

bromuro 7y ago

How are Reddit’s marketing choices related to this article?

NullPrefix 7y ago
JavaScript. They use too much of it.
- threeseed 7y ago
  Javascript has nothing to do with those decisions. It is purely design.
  - AlchemistCamp 7y ago
    > Javascript has nothing to do with those decisions. It is purely design. How do you implement infinite scroll without JavaScript? The theme tying all their choices together is costs they're willing to inflict upon their users. Bloated JS payloads are simply one example.
    - NullPrefix 7y ago
      > How do you implement infinite scroll without JavaScript? Technically it's possible. Render the website server side as an image. Chrome 75+ supports native lazy loading of images, so a series of them stacked vertically is needed. Each image represents a new page, scroll through them to navigate. Click detection can be done with a <map> tag.
      - furyofantares 7y ago
        I think you can also just keep sending html. Send a page with page2.png at the bottom and keep the connection open. This is a sentinel image to detect scrolling — when page2.png is requested, use this as a command to tell the server to start sending html for page 2 on the original connection, which would have page3.png at the bottom.

kristopolous 7y ago

You can remove the nagware in your preferences on Reddit. Still unacceptable but it's there

dzhiurgis 7y ago

Reddit in 2019 === Facebook of 2010

InafuSabi 7y ago

https://old.reddit.com https://old.reddit.com is the only way to look at that site. Reddit new style also eats way more cpu cycles than needed, which is very important when you visit the site on potato hardware

andrepd 7y ago

Re mobile: use i.reddit.com. Have been using it for 8 years now!

epidemian 7y ago

Completely agree. I use this extension to always redirect to the "old." reddit design: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/old-reddit-redirect/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/old-reddit-re... The slowdown of the new design is really noticeable whenever I visit reddit on another browser or computer.