8 ms·

Its amazing how far backwards reddit went. In browser on desktop it's incredibly slow, even just clicking the comment box to write takes a few seconds and lags

Its amazing how far backwards reddit went. In browser on desktop it's incredibly slow, even just clicking the comment box to write takes a few seconds and lags out for no reason. No doubt they're employing an uber amount of user tracking and all manner of inefficient code.

kactus 6y ago
It really is. Doesn't matter which browser you use, how beefy your computer is, OS, etc., the new redesign is super slow. It speeds up a bit when you run an adblocker, but even then just going through about 15 posts and things start to stutter and chug. It's helping me stay off reddit though as a side-effect, which is one of my goals lately.
warent 6y ago
Using their mobile website on android chrome regularly crashes...
- mrweasel 6y ago
  A large number of sub-reddits aren’t even available on mobile browsers, they’re aggressively trying to push you to their app.
Lazare 6y ago
It's really inexplicable. Old Reddit was fine, not great, just fine. The new Reddit UI is hideously bad. It was terrible when it launched, it was terrible months later, and it's still terrible now. I'm honestly at a loss. Is this some galaxy brain "let's make the web experience terrible to force people to native apps" strategy?
- systematical 6y ago
  Was fine? It still is old.reddit.com. You can set your profile to use it by default. Just don't accidentally click the "Get New Reddit" link in the top left else you have to edit your settings again.
  - fludlight 6y ago
    It's fine until they discontinue old.reddit.com at some point in the near future.
    - kabacha 6y ago
      By then hopefully reddit alternatives like Lemmy[1] become viable 1 - https://github.com/LemmyNet/lemmy https://github.com/LemmyNet/lemmy
      - nicoburns 6y ago
        Yeah, I didn't think the Lemmy project would go very far when I first saw it. But the implementation is very impressive (performance seems comparable to HN), and the self-hosted model seems like it could be quite amenable to communities staying in control.
      - chacha2 6y ago
        That seems like the exact same design as new reddit.
        scambier 6y ago
        Similar UI, but really different UX.
      - jakearmitage 6y ago
        How do you make such a thing distributed? Seems to be using a database. If you host on one domain, how does it send the changes to other nodes?
    - systematical 6y ago
      Yep not looking forward to this day.
    - DoingIsLearning 6y ago
      They must have usage stats. I think they are well aware that a lot of older users (some likely heavy _content_contributors_) will simple walk away if they do this. You can't sell ads if you don't have original content that drives traffic to your pages.... old.reddit.com as well as '.compact' are the price to pay to prevent a digg type exodus.
- EvilEy3 6y ago
  Mobile app is even worse.
  - petepete 6y ago
    It really is. If it wasn't for Sync I'd have left Reddit altogether. Definitely have a feeling its days are numbered, they'll eventually start disabling bits of their API.
    - StavrosK 6y ago
      Then I'll eventually stop using reddit.
- ponker 6y ago
  Part of it is definitely that, and it's worked. I finally did install the Reddit app on my phone which makes me much more valuable to advertisers. It's user-hostile, but there's a business method to the madness.
  - entha_saava 6y ago
    There are alternative clients that lack some features but are very lightweight, open source and don't have ads. RedReader and Slide come to mind. Edit: that was on Android, I guess there are alternatives for iOS too, even if less likely to be open source.
  - jbister 6y ago
    If you are on iOS I can highly recommend using the Apollo app instead of the official app. It is better in basically every way.
- fossuser 6y ago
  I think Reddit could throw away all of the new stuff and be better off. Everything they’ve done after maybe 2010 could just be thrown away. An enormous waste of programmer effort and time for something that is a lot worse than what they started with.
  - atomi 6y ago
    > An enormous waste of programmer effort and time You've just described a whole lot of programming work.
  - Polylactic_acid 6y ago
    Better off for the user but no doubt worse off for corporate profits. The redesign seems to be clearly better at inserting adverts and tracking the user. They also seem to be making a big effort to remove 3rd party links. These days most reddit posts are links to reddit hosted content or are news articles where no one reads the article.
  - rndgermandude 6y ago
    The developers and designers had to justify getting paid, and they do that by producing features and a new "user experience". And if it's slow and rough, even better, job security for the foreseeable future until you fix the stuff. Throw in the second-system effect they fell for in my humble opinion, and you got your explanation of what's going on. Next up: Rinse and repeat.
    - lopis 6y ago
      I mean, we're talking about a website frontend that was what, 10 years old? At this point all frontend code was probably legacy and noone in the company knew how to maintain it properly, so they started over.
      - pjc50 6y ago
        That's what happened to del.icio.us after it was bought by Yahoo. Kind of ridiculous that web code ages out that badly, but I guess in startup world as long as it lasts till the IPO or acquishutdown that's all that matters.
- shultays 6y ago
  Is this some galaxy brain "let's make the web experience terrible to force people to native apps" strategy? Yes. If you browse it on your phone they even make more annoying by displaying footbar "launch on our native app"
  - iliekcomputers 6y ago
    For all the shit that the desktop web experience gets, the mobile web experience on reddit is a 1000 times worse. It sometimes blocks you from viewing certain (cough NSFW cough) subreddits unless you use the app, umm what??
    - shultays 6y ago
      Heh, they are probably assuming people would be more ashamed to complain if the block is NSFW only.
    - Okawari 6y ago
      Even worse that most communities, even safe for work ones like gaming communities are locked being using the app. I can't access any of my favored subreddits on mobile without visiting the old site. The good thing is that refusing to download the app has cleared me of my reddit addiction
    - vorpalhex 6y ago
      Use a third party app. They use api access and universally offer a better experience, without content blocking.
      - luckman212 6y ago
        Which app do you recommend? I tried Apollo, Narwhal and Comet and didn't think any were as good as the native Reddit app.
  - Abishek_Muthian 6y ago
    Not only that, they also have some A/B testing in place which makes email id mandatory if you signup via mobile browser; of-course email id is not needed for mobile app. I also found that the mobile dials home quite regularly when in background.
- squarefoot 6y ago
  > Is this some galaxy brain "let's make the web experience terrible to force people to native apps" strategy? It is exactly that. Apps are proprietary, so they can be closed, filled with ads or spyware (name one app that doesn't ask for access rights to everything), and branded. Even the groceries store down the street would likely force you to use their own crappy app - so you would have their logo on your home screen - rather than a generic browser that won't tell anyone you buy from them.
- qwerty456127 6y ago
  I just feel deeply grateful to the person who has made the decision to keep the old UI available and to Tom Watson - the author of the "Old Reddit Redirect" Firefox extension.
  - jdeibele 6y ago
    Reddit does offer the option to "use old Reddit" if you're signed in. I only learned about this recently, maybe it's common knowledge. I often browse Reddit with Safari and there haven't been very many extensions available for it. Certainly none to do something simple like this, since it would have to be made available through the app store. PS: Apple has announced that FireFox and Chrome extensions can be made available for Safari in Big Sur, although it seems like they have to go through a convoluted process and probably pay $99/year for the privilege.
- markosaric 6y ago
  So true. Loads very slow as well compared to the old version. I still use old.reddit.com when on desktop and Slide app for Reddit on my phone.
say_it_as_it_is 6y ago
The new reddit is blazingly fast for an SPA, too. It has a <10 second time to interactive, after all. Front end development followed Google and Facebook right into the abyss.
0-_-0 6y ago
I'm glad about the new reddit design, it helped me stop using the website.
kevincox 6y ago
You can still use https://old.reddit.com https://old.reddit.com. The UX is still bad, but at least it is fairly quick. Annoyingly it is common to get linked back to the new UI but still way better than using it full time.
- tenuousemphasis 6y ago
  And on mobile, just add .compact to the end of the URL. Like https://reddit.com/r/programming.compact https://reddit.com/r/programming.compact
  - kevincox 6y ago
    Neat. This appears to be the same as https://i.reddit.com/r/programming https://i.reddit.com/r/programming
coldcode 6y ago
Old reddit is all I will use, the new reddit may as well not exist. It funny how a good idea over time can turn into absolute trash if you try hard enough. I find it amazing how you can run a decent sized company and not see how horrific your UI/UX is.
non-entity 6y ago
The most obnoxious change for me is removing the "context link (basically what "parent" does on HN). As far as I can tell, the new reddit has no such function.

kactus 6y ago

It really is. Doesn't matter which browser you use, how beefy your computer is, OS, etc., the new redesign is super slow. It speeds up a bit when you run an adblocker, but even then just going through about 15 posts and things start to stutter and chug. It's helping me stay off reddit though as a side-effect, which is one of my goals lately.

warent 6y ago

Using their mobile website on android chrome regularly crashes...

mrweasel 6y ago
A large number of sub-reddits aren’t even available on mobile browsers, they’re aggressively trying to push you to their app.

Lazare 6y ago

It's really inexplicable. Old Reddit was fine, not great, just fine. The new Reddit UI is hideously bad. It was terrible when it launched, it was terrible months later, and it's still terrible now. I'm honestly at a loss. Is this some galaxy brain "let's make the web experience terrible to force people to native apps" strategy?

systematical 6y ago
Was fine? It still is old.reddit.com. You can set your profile to use it by default. Just don't accidentally click the "Get New Reddit" link in the top left else you have to edit your settings again.
- fludlight 6y ago
  It's fine until they discontinue old.reddit.com at some point in the near future.
  - kabacha 6y ago
    By then hopefully reddit alternatives like Lemmy[1] become viable 1 - https://github.com/LemmyNet/lemmy https://github.com/LemmyNet/lemmy
    - nicoburns 6y ago
      Yeah, I didn't think the Lemmy project would go very far when I first saw it. But the implementation is very impressive (performance seems comparable to HN), and the self-hosted model seems like it could be quite amenable to communities staying in control.
    - chacha2 6y ago
      That seems like the exact same design as new reddit.
      - scambier 6y ago
        Similar UI, but really different UX.
    - jakearmitage 6y ago
      How do you make such a thing distributed? Seems to be using a database. If you host on one domain, how does it send the changes to other nodes?
  - systematical 6y ago
    Yep not looking forward to this day.
  - DoingIsLearning 6y ago
    They must have usage stats. I think they are well aware that a lot of older users (some likely heavy _content_contributors_) will simple walk away if they do this. You can't sell ads if you don't have original content that drives traffic to your pages.... old.reddit.com as well as '.compact' are the price to pay to prevent a digg type exodus.
EvilEy3 6y ago
Mobile app is even worse.
- petepete 6y ago
  It really is. If it wasn't for Sync I'd have left Reddit altogether. Definitely have a feeling its days are numbered, they'll eventually start disabling bits of their API.
  - StavrosK 6y ago
    Then I'll eventually stop using reddit.
ponker 6y ago
Part of it is definitely that, and it's worked. I finally did install the Reddit app on my phone which makes me much more valuable to advertisers. It's user-hostile, but there's a business method to the madness.
- entha_saava 6y ago
  There are alternative clients that lack some features but are very lightweight, open source and don't have ads. RedReader and Slide come to mind. Edit: that was on Android, I guess there are alternatives for iOS too, even if less likely to be open source.
- jbister 6y ago
  If you are on iOS I can highly recommend using the Apollo app instead of the official app. It is better in basically every way.
fossuser 6y ago
I think Reddit could throw away all of the new stuff and be better off. Everything they’ve done after maybe 2010 could just be thrown away. An enormous waste of programmer effort and time for something that is a lot worse than what they started with.
- atomi 6y ago
  > An enormous waste of programmer effort and time You've just described a whole lot of programming work.
- Polylactic_acid 6y ago
  Better off for the user but no doubt worse off for corporate profits. The redesign seems to be clearly better at inserting adverts and tracking the user. They also seem to be making a big effort to remove 3rd party links. These days most reddit posts are links to reddit hosted content or are news articles where no one reads the article.
- rndgermandude 6y ago
  The developers and designers had to justify getting paid, and they do that by producing features and a new "user experience". And if it's slow and rough, even better, job security for the foreseeable future until you fix the stuff. Throw in the second-system effect they fell for in my humble opinion, and you got your explanation of what's going on. Next up: Rinse and repeat.
  - lopis 6y ago
    I mean, we're talking about a website frontend that was what, 10 years old? At this point all frontend code was probably legacy and noone in the company knew how to maintain it properly, so they started over.
    - pjc50 6y ago
      That's what happened to del.icio.us after it was bought by Yahoo. Kind of ridiculous that web code ages out that badly, but I guess in startup world as long as it lasts till the IPO or acquishutdown that's all that matters.
shultays 6y ago
Is this some galaxy brain "let's make the web experience terrible to force people to native apps" strategy? Yes. If you browse it on your phone they even make more annoying by displaying footbar "launch on our native app"
- iliekcomputers 6y ago
  For all the shit that the desktop web experience gets, the mobile web experience on reddit is a 1000 times worse. It sometimes blocks you from viewing certain (cough NSFW cough) subreddits unless you use the app, umm what??
  - shultays 6y ago
    Heh, they are probably assuming people would be more ashamed to complain if the block is NSFW only.
  - Okawari 6y ago
    Even worse that most communities, even safe for work ones like gaming communities are locked being using the app. I can't access any of my favored subreddits on mobile without visiting the old site. The good thing is that refusing to download the app has cleared me of my reddit addiction
  - vorpalhex 6y ago
    Use a third party app. They use api access and universally offer a better experience, without content blocking.
    - luckman212 6y ago
      Which app do you recommend? I tried Apollo, Narwhal and Comet and didn't think any were as good as the native Reddit app.
- Abishek_Muthian 6y ago
  Not only that, they also have some A/B testing in place which makes email id mandatory if you signup via mobile browser; of-course email id is not needed for mobile app. I also found that the mobile dials home quite regularly when in background.
squarefoot 6y ago
> Is this some galaxy brain "let's make the web experience terrible to force people to native apps" strategy? It is exactly that. Apps are proprietary, so they can be closed, filled with ads or spyware (name one app that doesn't ask for access rights to everything), and branded. Even the groceries store down the street would likely force you to use their own crappy app - so you would have their logo on your home screen - rather than a generic browser that won't tell anyone you buy from them.
qwerty456127 6y ago
I just feel deeply grateful to the person who has made the decision to keep the old UI available and to Tom Watson - the author of the "Old Reddit Redirect" Firefox extension.
- jdeibele 6y ago
  Reddit does offer the option to "use old Reddit" if you're signed in. I only learned about this recently, maybe it's common knowledge. I often browse Reddit with Safari and there haven't been very many extensions available for it. Certainly none to do something simple like this, since it would have to be made available through the app store. PS: Apple has announced that FireFox and Chrome extensions can be made available for Safari in Big Sur, although it seems like they have to go through a convoluted process and probably pay $99/year for the privilege.
markosaric 6y ago
So true. Loads very slow as well compared to the old version. I still use old.reddit.com when on desktop and Slide app for Reddit on my phone.

say_it_as_it_is 6y ago

The new reddit is blazingly fast for an SPA, too. It has a <10 second time to interactive, after all. Front end development followed Google and Facebook right into the abyss.

0-_-0 6y ago

I'm glad about the new reddit design, it helped me stop using the website.

kevincox 6y ago

You can still use https://old.reddit.com https://old.reddit.com. The UX is still bad, but at least it is fairly quick. Annoyingly it is common to get linked back to the new UI but still way better than using it full time.

tenuousemphasis 6y ago
And on mobile, just add .compact to the end of the URL. Like https://reddit.com/r/programming.compact https://reddit.com/r/programming.compact
- kevincox 6y ago
  Neat. This appears to be the same as https://i.reddit.com/r/programming https://i.reddit.com/r/programming

coldcode 6y ago

Old reddit is all I will use, the new reddit may as well not exist. It funny how a good idea over time can turn into absolute trash if you try hard enough. I find it amazing how you can run a decent sized company and not see how horrific your UI/UX is.

non-entity 6y ago

The most obnoxious change for me is removing the "context link (basically what "parent" does on HN). As far as I can tell, the new reddit has no such function.