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In my opinion Apollo retains the biggest flaw of the reddit redesign, which is sad: By making the post body, and especially pictures, the first class citizen y

In my opinion Apollo retains the biggest flaw of the reddit redesign, which is sad: By making the post body, and especially pictures, the first class citizen you incentivize all the wrong things: * It is inviting to mindlessly scroll * Attracting karma is paramount: The game is "upvote this in the 2 seconds I am spending scrolling past it or not" * This in turn incentivizes shallow posts, strong, polarizing messages with no depth At the same time, the mechanisms why I use(d) reddit over all the other escapism-in-a-bottle platforms are all discouraged: * Reading comments, engaging in discussion. You don't even have to open the comment section anymore, so why would you? And if, you will only ever read one or two top comments, inviting the same lowest common denominator battle as with posts themselves. * Building community, in-depth analysis, being exposed to alternating view points. Well, no place for that in the framework of rapid swiping and shouting in the void. Good job on the Apollo team to at least include what they call "compact mode" (showcased about a second in the promo video), but the problem with these effects is that they are negatively affecting quality overall, whether or not you as a individual choose to sidestep them. I hope a new community aggregator like the old reddit will arise soon...

bnt 7y ago
I think the age of a mindfull, usefull Reddit are gone. It’s been trolls and crap content for years now, and it’s only getting worse IMHO. I think at some point the usefull, good communities will migrate somewhere else in the coming years
- jcims 7y ago
  As long as your subreddit is small enough (500-25k) and never hits the front page it can be ok
  - forgotmypw77 7y ago
    mods are still allowed to opt out of front page. i encourage mods to do this.
    - jcims 7y ago
      Nice! I hope it’s just a button that says Innoculate.
- JustSomeNobody 7y ago
  Reddit still has good subs. If you limit yourself to those, you never see the bad stuff.
- walrus01 7y ago
  The only thing you can really do is unsubscribe from literally everything, and choose much more boutique groups that are related to your specific interests. For example /r/multicopter/ is a half decent resource for quadcopters and various hobby drones, or /r/destinythegame is a useful resource for a specific video game. The page /r/alaskanmalamute is a friendly community of people who own Malamute dogs. Everything that has millions of random people joined to it has become a cesspool of lowest common denominator clickbait posts and photos.
- jessriedel 7y ago
  /r/SpaceX is still spectacular, and there doesn't seem much reason to migrate away.
- cerberusss 7y ago
  Trolls and crap content? Aren't you being overly broad here? I find the r/swift and r/iOSProgramming communities pretty informative. And the r/ProgrammerHumor is good for a smile. https://www.reddit.com/r/swift/ https://www.reddit.com/r/swift/ https://www.reddit.com/r/iOSProgramming/ https://www.reddit.com/r/iOSProgramming/ https://www.reddit.com/r/ProgrammerHumor/ https://www.reddit.com/r/ProgrammerHumor/
  - saagarjha 7y ago
    ProgrammerHumor used to be so good but I think it reached the front page too many times so now it’s just jokes for people for a passing interest in computers and bad volume sliders. I can’t stand being there anymore…
iamthatis 7y ago
Yo, Apollo dev here. FWIW there's no team, just me. To answer some of these, Apollo was created well before the Reddit redesign, I started working on it back in 2014. I'm not sure I 100% understand the criticism though. Inviting you to scroll through an app is a pretty normal thing, isn't it? What's the alternative? I'm gathering you'd prefer more of a comments-focused experience rather than one focused around the posts themselves specifically? I've been on Reddit for over a decade, as far as I remember the posts have always been paramount and what attract people to the site, even though the discussions are great too. They're just a tap away. As you mentioned you can go into compact mode, then disable the thumbnails and you've basically got Hacker News, haha. Your criticism seems like more of a comment on Reddit as a platform/community rather than a specific app (though I'm not sure what you mean by "old Reddit", Alien Blue?), but if I'm wrong about that I'm happy to hear any criticism.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- mentos 7y ago
  Incredible work really oozes polish and intuitive design. Have you been chipping away at this since 2014 or did something change in your motivation recently where you decided to complete it? What would your reaction be to someone suggesting a rewrite in Electron so you could achieve crossplatform support?
  - morpheuskafka 7y ago
    I think what makes Apollo great is how closely it integrates with the iOS interface and design language. Its value proposition is that it matches expectations of iOS users and is fast and intuitive on that platform. If you re-wrote it in Electron I think it would become "just another reddit client."
    - vpEfljFL 7y ago
      Just to pint out using Electron will be able to allow publish this beautiful application to other systems. Electron not an issue here, vs code is written on it and it's loved text editor for thousands of software engineers which use it every day for several hours.
1123581321 7y ago
I don’t agree. Apollo makes it so much easier to read comments than reddit.com does because of its design choices and the way it handles collapsed comments. I also write longer comments when I’m using it. The “skimability” of the posts you scroll through depend so much on what you subscribe to. I don’t have that issue due to what I read on there. I don’t think it’s Apollo’s place to make photo subs or askreddit harder to scan.
- stevewillows 7y ago
  The main struggle with reddit apps are the lack of mod tools. Only Alien Blue and Apollo have a simple method for working a queue. I still prefer Alien Blue's tools in this respect, but a lot of content fails to load with it. Apollo should be the official app.
- fragmede 7y ago
  Apollo's collapsing comment UI could be better - there's a shortcut to go to the next root comment, but I don't want to go to the next root comment, I want to go to collapse the current thread and see the next parent or grand-parent comment. I'm guessing it's because I'm on an older iPhone 7, but Apollo's makes it very hard to write comments. In particular it loses my place when switching from Apollo, to another app to check something, then switching back. A message pops up about having saved the text, but frustratingly, it doesn't re-open the editor, so I have to go find the comment I was replying to and opening the compose reply there. As to whether or not it's Apollo's "place" to make it easier/harder to scan, that makes no sense. Apollo's already an alternative UI, so it's already interjecting an opinion on the 'right' way to experience Reddit. That you might disagree with, eg making photo subs harder to scan, is a difference of opinion, but Apollo is already in that "place".
  - hug 7y ago
    This specific behaviour is why I love Apollo. I do this exact thing when skimming through threads -- there's a couple of ways to do what you want to do: Tap on the top of a comment to collapse that comment and any below it, assuming you haven't turned off "tap to collapse" in settings > general > comments. Set a gesture for one of the swipe directions to collapse the current thread (I believe this exists, by default, as right-short-swipe) in settings > gestures.
hombre_fatal 7y ago
When complaining about UI, it would be much more helpful to pitch a UI that actually addresses your complaints.
- extradego 7y ago
  I think https://old.reddit.com https://old.reddit.com is that UI, but it’s not friendly UI, so I’m not sure there is a way to satisfy the complaint.

bnt 7y ago

I think the age of a mindfull, usefull Reddit are gone. It’s been trolls and crap content for years now, and it’s only getting worse IMHO. I think at some point the usefull, good communities will migrate somewhere else in the coming years

jcims 7y ago
As long as your subreddit is small enough (500-25k) and never hits the front page it can be ok
- forgotmypw77 7y ago
  mods are still allowed to opt out of front page. i encourage mods to do this.
  - jcims 7y ago
    Nice! I hope it’s just a button that says Innoculate.
JustSomeNobody 7y ago
Reddit still has good subs. If you limit yourself to those, you never see the bad stuff.
walrus01 7y ago
The only thing you can really do is unsubscribe from literally everything, and choose much more boutique groups that are related to your specific interests. For example /r/multicopter/ is a half decent resource for quadcopters and various hobby drones, or /r/destinythegame is a useful resource for a specific video game. The page /r/alaskanmalamute is a friendly community of people who own Malamute dogs. Everything that has millions of random people joined to it has become a cesspool of lowest common denominator clickbait posts and photos.
jessriedel 7y ago
/r/SpaceX is still spectacular, and there doesn't seem much reason to migrate away.
cerberusss 7y ago
Trolls and crap content? Aren't you being overly broad here? I find the r/swift and r/iOSProgramming communities pretty informative. And the r/ProgrammerHumor is good for a smile. https://www.reddit.com/r/swift/ https://www.reddit.com/r/swift/ https://www.reddit.com/r/iOSProgramming/ https://www.reddit.com/r/iOSProgramming/ https://www.reddit.com/r/ProgrammerHumor/ https://www.reddit.com/r/ProgrammerHumor/
- saagarjha 7y ago
  ProgrammerHumor used to be so good but I think it reached the front page too many times so now it’s just jokes for people for a passing interest in computers and bad volume sliders. I can’t stand being there anymore…

iamthatis 7y ago

Yo, Apollo dev here. FWIW there's no team, just me. To answer some of these, Apollo was created well before the Reddit redesign, I started working on it back in 2014. I'm not sure I 100% understand the criticism though. Inviting you to scroll through an app is a pretty normal thing, isn't it? What's the alternative? I'm gathering you'd prefer more of a comments-focused experience rather than one focused around the posts themselves specifically? I've been on Reddit for over a decade, as far as I remember the posts have always been paramount and what attract people to the site, even though the discussions are great too. They're just a tap away. As you mentioned you can go into compact mode, then disable the thumbnails and you've basically got Hacker News, haha. Your criticism seems like more of a comment on Reddit as a platform/community rather than a specific app (though I'm not sure what you mean by "old Reddit", Alien Blue?), but if I'm wrong about that I'm happy to hear any criticism.

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
mentos 7y ago
Incredible work really oozes polish and intuitive design. Have you been chipping away at this since 2014 or did something change in your motivation recently where you decided to complete it? What would your reaction be to someone suggesting a rewrite in Electron so you could achieve crossplatform support?
- morpheuskafka 7y ago
  I think what makes Apollo great is how closely it integrates with the iOS interface and design language. Its value proposition is that it matches expectations of iOS users and is fast and intuitive on that platform. If you re-wrote it in Electron I think it would become "just another reddit client."
  - vpEfljFL 7y ago
    Just to pint out using Electron will be able to allow publish this beautiful application to other systems. Electron not an issue here, vs code is written on it and it's loved text editor for thousands of software engineers which use it every day for several hours.

1123581321 7y ago

I don’t agree. Apollo makes it so much easier to read comments than reddit.com does because of its design choices and the way it handles collapsed comments. I also write longer comments when I’m using it. The “skimability” of the posts you scroll through depend so much on what you subscribe to. I don’t have that issue due to what I read on there. I don’t think it’s Apollo’s place to make photo subs or askreddit harder to scan.

stevewillows 7y ago
The main struggle with reddit apps are the lack of mod tools. Only Alien Blue and Apollo have a simple method for working a queue. I still prefer Alien Blue's tools in this respect, but a lot of content fails to load with it. Apollo should be the official app.
fragmede 7y ago
Apollo's collapsing comment UI could be better - there's a shortcut to go to the next root comment, but I don't want to go to the next root comment, I want to go to collapse the current thread and see the next parent or grand-parent comment. I'm guessing it's because I'm on an older iPhone 7, but Apollo's makes it very hard to write comments. In particular it loses my place when switching from Apollo, to another app to check something, then switching back. A message pops up about having saved the text, but frustratingly, it doesn't re-open the editor, so I have to go find the comment I was replying to and opening the compose reply there. As to whether or not it's Apollo's "place" to make it easier/harder to scan, that makes no sense. Apollo's already an alternative UI, so it's already interjecting an opinion on the 'right' way to experience Reddit. That you might disagree with, eg making photo subs harder to scan, is a difference of opinion, but Apollo is already in that "place".
- hug 7y ago
  This specific behaviour is why I love Apollo. I do this exact thing when skimming through threads -- there's a couple of ways to do what you want to do: Tap on the top of a comment to collapse that comment and any below it, assuming you haven't turned off "tap to collapse" in settings > general > comments. Set a gesture for one of the swipe directions to collapse the current thread (I believe this exists, by default, as right-short-swipe) in settings > gestures.

hombre_fatal 7y ago

When complaining about UI, it would be much more helpful to pitch a UI that actually addresses your complaints.

extradego 7y ago
I think https://old.reddit.com https://old.reddit.com is that UI, but it’s not friendly UI, so I’m not sure there is a way to satisfy the complaint.