11 ms·

Reddit is slowly killing the old interface? native image galleries are invisible

154 points by aydwi 6y ago

SheinhardtWigCo 6y ago
When old.reddit.com dies, it’s over.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- alasdair_ 6y ago
  I agree. The new UI is utterly obnoxious on mobile - they keep trying to force me to use the app, including making it impossible to read the rest of a forum without using the app instead. It's horrible.
  - alexmcc81 6y ago
    If you're on Android, I can't recommend RedReader enough [1] . It's open source and customisation (also installable via F-Droid). I browse with a compact display and thumbnails turned off. [1] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.quantumbadger.redreader https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.quantumbad...
    - yreg 6y ago
      And for iOS, Apollo[1] is delightful. The most thought-out app I know about in general. [1] https://apps.apple.com/sk/app/apollo-for-reddit/id979274575 https://apps.apple.com/sk/app/apollo-for-reddit/id979274575
    - imglorp 6y ago
      I wonder how long the API will remain supported. It's really not serving the master's will. Then all these open source readers will be dead as well.
      - baby 6y ago
        the day they stop supporting RSS feeds I'll be really sad : (
    - klyrs 6y ago
      No. I do not want to install an app to read a website. That is what my browser is for.
      - e_proxus 6y ago
        While I agree with your sentiment, Reddit is becoming less and less a website over time.
    - neurostimulant 6y ago
      Reddit Sync Dev is the best reddit client on android imo. It has a lot of features I didn't know I would need, and the developer regularly pushes updates every few days. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.laurencedawson.reddit_sync.dev&hl=en&gl=US https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.laurenceda...
  - morcheeba 6y ago
    It's obnoxious on a giant screen, too. I get 10 headlines on the old version, but the new version only shows me one story -- so much scrolling.
    - nvrspyx 6y ago
      I prefer the old version too, but have you tried using the classic or compact layout option on the new version? I personally use the classic layout and have been much less frustrated with it. https://imgur.com/a/SBifQIB https://imgur.com/a/SBifQIB
      - slowmovintarget 6y ago
        The problem is the conversation threads. You can't read them in the new format. They constantly elide them so you have to click on them and it jumps around on the screen. In the old view, I can read a page full of threaded comments on a thread I've clicked into. In the new layout, you get maybe five comments, and a scroll to the next thread. It is awful.
        benhurmarcel 6y ago
        I don't get what you're mentioning. If you open a thread (in a desktop browser tab), you get the discussions just like before.
        effingwewt 6y ago
        Not true at all. It'll only show some of the comments others will be hidden until you click on them, making the screen jump around the screen as gp said. old.reddit.com alleviates this but not for much longer I'm sure. Then the lovely firefox will periodically decide not to allow 'trusted site exceptions' disallowing you from visiting old.reddit.com. All in all I find it's too much work most of the time.
        benhurmarcel 6y ago
  - spicybright 6y ago
    RedditIsFun is a fantastic app with a great dual pane mode. It almost feels like the desktop and having multiple tabs open.
  - blck 6y ago
    I also find the new UI to be awful on desktop. Just disastrously slow. I hardly use Reddit anymore part of it the community and me just having different priorities but the other part is this new Mobile first mentality. I’ll use old.Reddit.com until they finally kill it.
    - fgonzag 6y ago
      The new version of reddit bogs down FF to where I have to restart if I want to keep scrolling. This is on a TR3960X with 64GB of memory. I haven't checked the resource manager when that happens but I probably should.
  - jeremymcanally 6y ago
    I agree, hence why I live on https://i.reddit.com https://i.reddit.com on mobile. It lacks some of the features of the new UI, but I don't use those anyhow since I just lurk/read.
- netsharc 6y ago
  As someone who spends too much time on reddit, I do hope they do that soon, so that the UX disaster of the new interface discourages me from spending more than 2 minutes per day there..
- jmclnx 6y ago
  Same for me, and for people using mobile, not for me. Screen to small, and I will not get into spywhere on smart phones. 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.
  - MeinBlutIstBlau 6y ago
    Old reddit is still superior to hacker news. It was the perfect forum. Now it's a social media laced whale driven place filled with a single viewpoint. To the point that negative comments don't even show up anymore.
- tootie 6y ago
  https://i.reddit.com https://i.reddit.com has been around for a very long time and hasn't changed at all. It can't play video but you can browse threads and it's lightning fast. Especially without thumbnails.
  - kayson 6y ago
    This is my goto. It's just so much faster!
- baby 6y ago
  I don't understand why they're doing this: 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?
  - Agustus 6y ago
    Metrics: It is easy for them to keep track of metrics, including the following: * 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.
  - zests 6y ago
    I understand it in the sense that I can conceptualize it. I just have a hard time believing it is really best for business. They determine how much money they make per user and find that signed in users make more money. Signed in users on their mobile app (users inside of their walled garden) make the most money. If they lose a couple users trying to convert everyone to using their mobile app, so be it. 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.
  - WillPostForFood 6y ago
    I prefer old reddit for the same reason as you, I like to read and comment. But I can tell you who they are catering to: People who scroll through subreddits scanning photos. If you go to meme focused subreddit, the new version is pretty good. If you go to a discussion focused subreddit, the old version is better. Try https://www.reddit.com/r/Watches/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Watches/ in an incognito window to see it in the new Reddit, then try it old reddit.
- nxmnxm99 6y ago
  If you have to force your users into a new UI, it's a shit UI
- sercand 6y ago
  I have started using old interface since yesterday because the new interface is extremely slow on Desktop. I just don’t understand how showing bunch of images can be this slow.
- mariusor 6y ago
  I keep hoping some of the cool communities would be willing to move to ActivityPub based aggregators.
__jem 6y ago
Mobile is just the name of the game. I don't get it -- I can't stand browsing the web on mobile versus a laptop -- but when you look at the metrics, it's hard to argue against optimizing for that channel.
- zests 6y ago
  I like using web on mobile, I just want to use the desktop website though. No apps, no mobile version. Just give me the website.
  - SOLAR_FIELDS 6y ago
    You would very much enjoy browsing Reddit via i.reddit.com if you haven’t already heard of it. Lightweight, fast, minimalist, web. It’s missing some newer features like chat messaging but it gets the job done quite well otherwise. And it’s ad free!
- leshenka 6y ago
  There is a grocery chain store in my country and since ordering food is kind of hot this year, they started accepting orders and deliver groceries. Via an app. They have an app for this. You can't order anything through their website, you have to use your tiny surveillance rectangle for that. That's an awful trend.
CincinnatiMan 6y ago
Are we sure this is intentional and not a recent bug? I feel like I've seen gallery sets before on the old UI.
- plorkyeran 6y ago
  It was working until a few hours ago. Probably just a bug.
- Average_ 6y ago
  I assume it's a bug. This 1 hour old image gallery is doing fine. https://old.reddit.com/r/dogelore/comments/jylu1t/le_asdf_movie_reference_has_arrived/ https://old.reddit.com/r/dogelore/comments/jylu1t/le_asdf_mo...
- bilegeek 6y ago
  It's worked on and off for me in the past. Most likely, it's a bug; however, they also have a history of A/B testing, so that can't be ruled out.
- postingawayonhn 6y ago
  Yeah, looks like a bug to me.
- ReactiveJelly 6y ago
  Bug meaning, they quit caring about the old UI and the bugs are just gonna accumulate
- shawnz 6y ago
  I am guessing it is just an issue with the custom CSS on this subreddit. EDIT: Nevermind, after investigating the issue does not seem to be the CSS.
js2 6y ago
Facebook also appears to be killing mbasic.facebook.com. It increasingly redirects me to m.facebook.com.
- forgotmypw17 6y ago
  Yeah, I noticed that as well. For now, you can still edit the target URL manually.
LeoPanthera 6y ago
Their mistake was keeping the old interface around at all. If they had just killed it off we would have complained about it for a while and then just moved on.
- nO0b 6y ago
  ask Digg how well that worked out...
  - klodolph 6y ago
    Digg was flooded with College Humor posts and XKCD comics before the redesign. For some reason, people think the redesign was the reason why people left.
    - novia 6y ago
      Genuine question: What's wrong with XKCD comics?
      - ReactiveJelly 6y ago
        A sign that there's nothing good on the site, just people reposting the same stuff, maybe with text macros. There's 3 new comics per week. It's not like you can sustain a whole website on that.
        hhjinks 6y ago
        > It's not like you can sustain a whole website on that. I don't know, xkcd.com seems to be doing just that.
      - klyrs 6y ago
        Nothing, but I go to xkcd.com for that. IMO, the only valid use of reposting xkcd is when the thing you're posting is pertinent to the conversation. Like if somebody's among the lucky 10,000 who hasn't heard of nerdsniping until today.
wishinghand 6y ago
The icon to expand the image flashes for a second, then disappears. This is on desktop too.
https443 6y ago
Don't like this? Try a Reddit alternative like https://ruqqus.com/ https://ruqqus.com/
- edgyquant 6y ago
  Kinda just looks like new Reddit but predominantly right wing in culture. No thanks.
  - spicybright 6y ago
    Like Voat. That's where many extremist right wing groups moved to.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
Lammy 6y ago
It would be called "classic" instead of "old" if it wasn't something they actively wanted to kill.
- arp242 6y ago
  It was mentioned somewhere it's not going to be killed anytime soon, similar to how i.reddit.com is still working. But it also won't get updates so you may get a "degraded" experience. A good example of this is GitHub-style ``` ... ``` codeblocks, which don't work on old.reddit.com, but do in the new UI.
  - Lammy 6y ago
    Yeah, that's how I imagine it will play out. Eventually there will be so many of those things that don't work on the old site that they will "have to" kill it for our sake :)
    - arp242 6y ago
      Loads of things don't work on i.reddit.com, and that's still alive. Past record gives us no hard guarantees for the future, but thus far Reddit's record is pretty good on this.
FreeTrade 6y ago
Member.cash works as a pretty good replacement for reddit. Public platform rather than a private platform too.
- 8note 6y ago
  What government runs it?
gingericha 6y ago
Their video player is probably one of the worst I've experienced. It [1] requires me to hit play twice to get a video to actually play almost 100% of the time. [2] the audio frequently defaults to max, then adjusts to the level I've previously selected. [3] It frequently auto plays if I've scrolled down the feed a ways, and [4] frequently only plays 50% of the video and restarts or locks up.
- Scaevolus 6y ago
  Plus it's DASH, so you can't just link to an mp4 file with combined video/audio streams to avoid the interface.
- userbinator 6y ago
  I thought playing videos in a browser was a solved problem ever since <video> was introduced, many years ago.
someperson 6y ago
Very good opportunity for a Reddit alternative to come in and dominate. Getting rid of old Reddit would be Digg v4 all over again.
- tmpz22 6y ago
  Not really. Reddit infrastructure and product development has been subsidized by hundreds of millions in VC funding for almost a decade. At this point they don't even need a good product to stay at the table. Meanwhile to compete you need moderation tools, highly performant and reliable caching infrastructure for media rich content, enough of an ad network the investors believe you can eventually build an ad network, and to sell you soul to investors to buy marketing to keep people around long enough to gain critical mass. 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.
  - mynameishere 6y ago
    I've been on reddit for 14 years (14 years club!) and I can honestly say in that time it hasn't changed in any fundamental way. (It has however changed for the worse in many small ways.) 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?
    - unclekev 6y ago
      14 year club here as well. I'd argue that the following are fundamental changes that have impacted the community in a big way: - Selling 10% of the business to Tencent/Chinese investors - Firing their community managers in 2015 and not replacing them - When I first joined Reddit it was more technology focused, now it's all pop culture and memes. Although Tech subs are still plentiful so it can still be that site. (With some effort) - Banning any Sub-Reddit's that go against whatever the admins mood is on a particular day, or content that no longer fits with their "We have shareholders and need to keep them happy" mantra. Reddit is absolutely not a place for free speech/uncensored discussions these days. Because of both toxic mods and horrible admins. - Huge increase of censorship across the site in Sub-Reddit's, Posts and Comments - Users care about the video stuff because Reddit's video hosting is fundamentally broken and hardly works, but they would rather keep it broken because it makes it harder to download videos (DASH) - The whole new design is anti-user, the site is just masses of white space, super slow, JS heavy and pretty much unusable outside a third party mobile client. The day old.reddit.com gets shut down will be a sad day. None of this stuff was a problem 14 years ago Although some of the above comes with the toxicity that tends to come with huge community growth. You can argue the above isn't significant, but as someone who's been on the site for 14 years, it sure ain't the same place I signed up for all those years ago.
worldmerge 6y ago
They have also made many of the subreddits not viewable via a mobile browser pushing you to the app, it seems though the blocks go in and out of effect. At some point metrics of a sites app downloads don't mean anything when they make their primary site unusable.
- ixwt 6y ago
  I've found you can google the subreddits, and they will show you these subreddits. As long as your referrer is still Google, it seems to be fine.
  - cma 6y ago
    Shouldn't Google punish this in the results? A fake website that wants search traffic but doesn't want to operate as an actual website...
    - 1over137 6y ago
      But it's good for google, isn't it? I mean, if ddg can't get me there, but google can, then it makes google better than their competitors (in the one regard).
  - hanniabu 6y ago
    Because you're viewing it as an amp site. As long as you try to do anything it forwards you to the real site and you're back to square one.
- ozmbie 6y ago
  I deleted an unofficial Reddit app from my phone, since I found I was wasting too much time on it. I figured for the occasions I wanted access to reddit (mostly from searching for topics on Google), I’d just use the web version. But the web UI, combined with Google AMP, made it unusable. I’ve gone back to the app but with iOS screen time restrictions.
  - ffpip 6y ago
zests 6y ago
I dislike all things "new web". The websites feel like layers upon layers of Javascript, fancy designs that feel like they are responsible for the decreased responsiveness. Styles delegated to the same CSS frameworks that everyone else uses. The rounded corners. Give me plain HTML, minimal CSS, and a template engine any day of the week.
- kodah 6y ago
  Plain HTMl, minimal CSS, and a template engine aren't quite substitutes for event driven systems that also drive really nice features. On the other hand, I recently was testing my website on Brave and a simple request from my frontend to the backend (which resides in the same container) was rejected as a tracking script even though I know it doesn't do any tracking that I've implemented. I was really hoping WASM might fill this gap, and it still might, but it'll be a while from what I can tell.
- ketamine__ 6y ago
  That is not going to keep designers employed.
- buzzerbetrayed 6y ago
  I want to agree, but don't. Javascript is nice. Leave a comment on HN, then push back to go out to the home page. Wait, you're back at your comment. This flow is obviously not ideal, and would be prevented with a little Javascript.
  - Pxtl 6y ago
    Also, it would be basically impossible to host comment threads on video content if the video reset every time you submitted a comment. By comparison, Twitter's video experience is still awful in that you can't multitask and join the conversation on a video tweet.
    - ysavir 6y ago
      Thankfully, it's not en either/or situation. The principle that site designers need to start abiding by is to not reinvent the browser--there's no need to use JS for routing or single page apps. The browser does that fantastically already. All that's needed of JS is to add asynchronicity to pages that need to update state without interrupting a running service.
pts_ 6y ago
Reddit has a 100 trackers now. Takes so long to open so I come on HN meanwhile.
throwawaysea 6y ago
Between Reddit’s heavy-handed censorship, rampant site wide political biases, their terrible new UI, the dark patterns forcing users to the app, unexplained bans of subreddits, overzealous mods, and deletion of discussions of Reddit alternatives (https://www.reddit.com/r/RedditAlternatives/comments/hib1oj/massbanning_superthread/ https://www.reddit.com/r/RedditAlternatives/comments/hib1oj/...), it is time for them to go the way of the dodo. Here’s a list of alternatives: https://www.reddit.com/r/RedditAlternatives/comments/hi97fz/list_of_active_reddit_alternatives_v5/ https://www.reddit.com/r/RedditAlternatives/comments/hi97fz/...
- meowster 6y ago
  I click on the top alternative, Parler, and the root page redirects to some advertising page about the site. 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.
  - throwawaysea 6y ago
    Parler is ranked highly because it was recently popularized on centrist and conservative media as an alternative to Twitter. That rank is misleading - it’s not necessarily the best because it is newer than some of the others, and it isn’t meant to be a direct Reddit alternative as much as a Twitter alternative. Some of the others like Ruqqus or Saidit are more of Reddit’s direct competitors.
- 8note 6y ago
  https://youtu.be/r3snVCRo_bI https://youtu.be/r3snVCRo_bI 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
xvilka 6y ago
New Reddit interface is slow as hell for something as simple as text/images discussion board. Compare it with the speed of Hacker News, for example. They are completely incompetent.
- contravariant 6y ago
  Not so much incompetent but I get the distinct impression that they have way too many developers trying to add features to something that, going by the way old.reddit.com has barely changed, was feature complete about 5 years ago.
- benhurmarcel 6y ago
  It's true and infuriating, but I find it's similar to many modern tools by very competent companies. Have you tried Google Chat for example?
nitrohorse 6y ago
Looks like the old mobile design (https://i.reddit.com/r/nvidia/comments/jyg1jq/finished_the_build_a_pc_of_ice_and_fire/ https://i.reddit.com/r/nvidia/comments/jyg1jq/finished_the_b...) redirects to the new Reddit interface for image galleries.
geuis 6y ago
Mmm I don’t think so. Gallery shows up fine. https://www.reddit.com/r/3Dprinting/comments/jy14p1/i_combined_my_old_benchies_into_benchus_maximus/ https://www.reddit.com/r/3Dprinting/comments/jy14p1/i_combin... Note that I have my mobile settings to use the desktop version and I only use the old interface.
- Zren 6y ago
  * 2020-11-21T00:35:26+00:00, your link * 2020-11-21T18:43:20+00:00, OP's link It's possible there's a bug that rolled out affecting galleries posted after 1AM UTC.
fattybob 6y ago
i've been using it less and less, in fact i only ever go there if some breaking news is about, and today, that is the last thing you can find on reddit! kinda sad considering...
electrotype 6y ago
I knew the Internet when it was fun, AMA.
rmolin88 6y ago
I just use RedReader. An unofficial reddit front end. Its pretty amazing.
tumblerz 6y ago
I hate to be seen this nakedly aggro, but reddit is broken ruins. 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.
- mkskm 6y ago
  > 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.
wdr1 6y ago
One of my biggest gripe is forcing Reddit to their mobile app, which is filled with bugs. I've had a bot posting a daily Calvin & Hobbes strip for seven years. The comic is posted as a gif, and so many people using the Reddit mobile app have complained, I basically had to write a FAQ for it. https://www.reddit.com/r/CalvinBot/comments/bdxb6h/why_are_posts_in_a_gif/ https://www.reddit.com/r/CalvinBot/comments/bdxb6h/why_are_p... It's been over a year & the bug is still there.
- herogreen 6y ago
  Even if the app was perfect, I would not use it (less suported platforms, waste space, gathers more data, etc).
loudandskittish 6y ago
Is there any viable way to bring back forums? I worry I'm going full "boomer," but damn do I miss the 90's internet.
anti-shill 6y ago
plenty of non-paywalled sites to link to...why link to a paywall? Also, jan morris was an excellent travel writer
Zren 6y ago
It could be a bug. It'd better be. (14 days ago) https://www.reddit.com/r/ModSupport/comments/jrmclg/gallery_of_pictures_in_submission_not_visible_in/ https://www.reddit.com/r/ModSupport/comments/jrmclg/gallery_...
techsin101 6y ago
remember Digg

154 points by aydwi 6y ago

SheinhardtWigCo 6y ago

When old.reddit.com dies, it’s over.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
alasdair_ 6y ago
I agree. The new UI is utterly obnoxious on mobile - they keep trying to force me to use the app, including making it impossible to read the rest of a forum without using the app instead. It's horrible.
- alexmcc81 6y ago
  If you're on Android, I can't recommend RedReader enough [1] . It's open source and customisation (also installable via F-Droid). I browse with a compact display and thumbnails turned off. [1] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.quantumbadger.redreader https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.quantumbad...
  - yreg 6y ago
    And for iOS, Apollo[1] is delightful. The most thought-out app I know about in general. [1] https://apps.apple.com/sk/app/apollo-for-reddit/id979274575 https://apps.apple.com/sk/app/apollo-for-reddit/id979274575
  - imglorp 6y ago
    I wonder how long the API will remain supported. It's really not serving the master's will. Then all these open source readers will be dead as well.
    - baby 6y ago
      the day they stop supporting RSS feeds I'll be really sad : (
  - klyrs 6y ago
    No. I do not want to install an app to read a website. That is what my browser is for.
    - e_proxus 6y ago
      While I agree with your sentiment, Reddit is becoming less and less a website over time.
  - neurostimulant 6y ago
    Reddit Sync Dev is the best reddit client on android imo. It has a lot of features I didn't know I would need, and the developer regularly pushes updates every few days. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.laurencedawson.reddit_sync.dev&hl=en&gl=US https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.laurenceda...
- morcheeba 6y ago
  It's obnoxious on a giant screen, too. I get 10 headlines on the old version, but the new version only shows me one story -- so much scrolling.
  - nvrspyx 6y ago
    I prefer the old version too, but have you tried using the classic or compact layout option on the new version? I personally use the classic layout and have been much less frustrated with it. https://imgur.com/a/SBifQIB https://imgur.com/a/SBifQIB
    - slowmovintarget 6y ago
      The problem is the conversation threads. You can't read them in the new format. They constantly elide them so you have to click on them and it jumps around on the screen. In the old view, I can read a page full of threaded comments on a thread I've clicked into. In the new layout, you get maybe five comments, and a scroll to the next thread. It is awful.
      - benhurmarcel 6y ago
        I don't get what you're mentioning. If you open a thread (in a desktop browser tab), you get the discussions just like before.
        effingwewt 6y ago
        Not true at all. It'll only show some of the comments others will be hidden until you click on them, making the screen jump around the screen as gp said. old.reddit.com alleviates this but not for much longer I'm sure. Then the lovely firefox will periodically decide not to allow 'trusted site exceptions' disallowing you from visiting old.reddit.com. All in all I find it's too much work most of the time.
        benhurmarcel 6y ago
- spicybright 6y ago
  RedditIsFun is a fantastic app with a great dual pane mode. It almost feels like the desktop and having multiple tabs open.
- blck 6y ago
  I also find the new UI to be awful on desktop. Just disastrously slow. I hardly use Reddit anymore part of it the community and me just having different priorities but the other part is this new Mobile first mentality. I’ll use old.Reddit.com until they finally kill it.
  - fgonzag 6y ago
    The new version of reddit bogs down FF to where I have to restart if I want to keep scrolling. This is on a TR3960X with 64GB of memory. I haven't checked the resource manager when that happens but I probably should.
- jeremymcanally 6y ago
  I agree, hence why I live on https://i.reddit.com https://i.reddit.com on mobile. It lacks some of the features of the new UI, but I don't use those anyhow since I just lurk/read.
netsharc 6y ago
As someone who spends too much time on reddit, I do hope they do that soon, so that the UX disaster of the new interface discourages me from spending more than 2 minutes per day there..
jmclnx 6y ago
Same for me, and for people using mobile, not for me. Screen to small, and I will not get into spywhere on smart phones. 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.
- MeinBlutIstBlau 6y ago
  Old reddit is still superior to hacker news. It was the perfect forum. Now it's a social media laced whale driven place filled with a single viewpoint. To the point that negative comments don't even show up anymore.
tootie 6y ago
https://i.reddit.com https://i.reddit.com has been around for a very long time and hasn't changed at all. It can't play video but you can browse threads and it's lightning fast. Especially without thumbnails.
- kayson 6y ago
  This is my goto. It's just so much faster!
baby 6y ago
I don't understand why they're doing this: 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?
- Agustus 6y ago
  Metrics: It is easy for them to keep track of metrics, including the following: * 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.
- zests 6y ago
  I understand it in the sense that I can conceptualize it. I just have a hard time believing it is really best for business. They determine how much money they make per user and find that signed in users make more money. Signed in users on their mobile app (users inside of their walled garden) make the most money. If they lose a couple users trying to convert everyone to using their mobile app, so be it. 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.
- WillPostForFood 6y ago
  I prefer old reddit for the same reason as you, I like to read and comment. But I can tell you who they are catering to: People who scroll through subreddits scanning photos. If you go to meme focused subreddit, the new version is pretty good. If you go to a discussion focused subreddit, the old version is better. Try https://www.reddit.com/r/Watches/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Watches/ in an incognito window to see it in the new Reddit, then try it old reddit.
nxmnxm99 6y ago
If you have to force your users into a new UI, it's a shit UI
sercand 6y ago
I have started using old interface since yesterday because the new interface is extremely slow on Desktop. I just don’t understand how showing bunch of images can be this slow.
mariusor 6y ago
I keep hoping some of the cool communities would be willing to move to ActivityPub based aggregators.

__jem 6y ago

Mobile is just the name of the game. I don't get it -- I can't stand browsing the web on mobile versus a laptop -- but when you look at the metrics, it's hard to argue against optimizing for that channel.

zests 6y ago
I like using web on mobile, I just want to use the desktop website though. No apps, no mobile version. Just give me the website.
- SOLAR_FIELDS 6y ago
  You would very much enjoy browsing Reddit via i.reddit.com if you haven’t already heard of it. Lightweight, fast, minimalist, web. It’s missing some newer features like chat messaging but it gets the job done quite well otherwise. And it’s ad free!
leshenka 6y ago
There is a grocery chain store in my country and since ordering food is kind of hot this year, they started accepting orders and deliver groceries. Via an app. They have an app for this. You can't order anything through their website, you have to use your tiny surveillance rectangle for that. That's an awful trend.

CincinnatiMan 6y ago

Are we sure this is intentional and not a recent bug? I feel like I've seen gallery sets before on the old UI.

plorkyeran 6y ago
It was working until a few hours ago. Probably just a bug.
Average_ 6y ago
I assume it's a bug. This 1 hour old image gallery is doing fine. https://old.reddit.com/r/dogelore/comments/jylu1t/le_asdf_movie_reference_has_arrived/ https://old.reddit.com/r/dogelore/comments/jylu1t/le_asdf_mo...
bilegeek 6y ago
It's worked on and off for me in the past. Most likely, it's a bug; however, they also have a history of A/B testing, so that can't be ruled out.
postingawayonhn 6y ago
Yeah, looks like a bug to me.
ReactiveJelly 6y ago
Bug meaning, they quit caring about the old UI and the bugs are just gonna accumulate
shawnz 6y ago
I am guessing it is just an issue with the custom CSS on this subreddit. EDIT: Nevermind, after investigating the issue does not seem to be the CSS.

js2 6y ago

Facebook also appears to be killing mbasic.facebook.com. It increasingly redirects me to m.facebook.com.

forgotmypw17 6y ago
Yeah, I noticed that as well. For now, you can still edit the target URL manually.

LeoPanthera 6y ago

Their mistake was keeping the old interface around at all. If they had just killed it off we would have complained about it for a while and then just moved on.

nO0b 6y ago
ask Digg how well that worked out...
- klodolph 6y ago
  Digg was flooded with College Humor posts and XKCD comics before the redesign. For some reason, people think the redesign was the reason why people left.
  - novia 6y ago
    Genuine question: What's wrong with XKCD comics?
    - ReactiveJelly 6y ago
      A sign that there's nothing good on the site, just people reposting the same stuff, maybe with text macros. There's 3 new comics per week. It's not like you can sustain a whole website on that.
      - hhjinks 6y ago
        > It's not like you can sustain a whole website on that. I don't know, xkcd.com seems to be doing just that.
    - klyrs 6y ago
      Nothing, but I go to xkcd.com for that. IMO, the only valid use of reposting xkcd is when the thing you're posting is pertinent to the conversation. Like if somebody's among the lucky 10,000 who hasn't heard of nerdsniping until today.

wishinghand 6y ago

The icon to expand the image flashes for a second, then disappears. This is on desktop too.

https443 6y ago

Don't like this? Try a Reddit alternative like https://ruqqus.com/ https://ruqqus.com/

edgyquant 6y ago
Kinda just looks like new Reddit but predominantly right wing in culture. No thanks.
- spicybright 6y ago
  Like Voat. That's where many extremist right wing groups moved to.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]

Lammy 6y ago

It would be called "classic" instead of "old" if it wasn't something they actively wanted to kill.

arp242 6y ago
It was mentioned somewhere it's not going to be killed anytime soon, similar to how i.reddit.com is still working. But it also won't get updates so you may get a "degraded" experience. A good example of this is GitHub-style ``` ... ``` codeblocks, which don't work on old.reddit.com, but do in the new UI.
- Lammy 6y ago
  Yeah, that's how I imagine it will play out. Eventually there will be so many of those things that don't work on the old site that they will "have to" kill it for our sake :)
  - arp242 6y ago
    Loads of things don't work on i.reddit.com, and that's still alive. Past record gives us no hard guarantees for the future, but thus far Reddit's record is pretty good on this.

FreeTrade 6y ago

Member.cash works as a pretty good replacement for reddit. Public platform rather than a private platform too.

8note 6y ago
What government runs it?

gingericha 6y ago

Their video player is probably one of the worst I've experienced. It [1] requires me to hit play twice to get a video to actually play almost 100% of the time. [2] the audio frequently defaults to max, then adjusts to the level I've previously selected. [3] It frequently auto plays if I've scrolled down the feed a ways, and [4] frequently only plays 50% of the video and restarts or locks up.

Scaevolus 6y ago
Plus it's DASH, so you can't just link to an mp4 file with combined video/audio streams to avoid the interface.
userbinator 6y ago
I thought playing videos in a browser was a solved problem ever since <video> was introduced, many years ago.

someperson 6y ago

Very good opportunity for a Reddit alternative to come in and dominate. Getting rid of old Reddit would be Digg v4 all over again.

tmpz22 6y ago
Not really. Reddit infrastructure and product development has been subsidized by hundreds of millions in VC funding for almost a decade. At this point they don't even need a good product to stay at the table. Meanwhile to compete you need moderation tools, highly performant and reliable caching infrastructure for media rich content, enough of an ad network the investors believe you can eventually build an ad network, and to sell you soul to investors to buy marketing to keep people around long enough to gain critical mass. 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.
- mynameishere 6y ago
  I've been on reddit for 14 years (14 years club!) and I can honestly say in that time it hasn't changed in any fundamental way. (It has however changed for the worse in many small ways.) 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?
  - unclekev 6y ago
    14 year club here as well. I'd argue that the following are fundamental changes that have impacted the community in a big way: - Selling 10% of the business to Tencent/Chinese investors - Firing their community managers in 2015 and not replacing them - When I first joined Reddit it was more technology focused, now it's all pop culture and memes. Although Tech subs are still plentiful so it can still be that site. (With some effort) - Banning any Sub-Reddit's that go against whatever the admins mood is on a particular day, or content that no longer fits with their "We have shareholders and need to keep them happy" mantra. Reddit is absolutely not a place for free speech/uncensored discussions these days. Because of both toxic mods and horrible admins. - Huge increase of censorship across the site in Sub-Reddit's, Posts and Comments - Users care about the video stuff because Reddit's video hosting is fundamentally broken and hardly works, but they would rather keep it broken because it makes it harder to download videos (DASH) - The whole new design is anti-user, the site is just masses of white space, super slow, JS heavy and pretty much unusable outside a third party mobile client. The day old.reddit.com gets shut down will be a sad day. None of this stuff was a problem 14 years ago Although some of the above comes with the toxicity that tends to come with huge community growth. You can argue the above isn't significant, but as someone who's been on the site for 14 years, it sure ain't the same place I signed up for all those years ago.

worldmerge 6y ago

They have also made many of the subreddits not viewable via a mobile browser pushing you to the app, it seems though the blocks go in and out of effect. At some point metrics of a sites app downloads don't mean anything when they make their primary site unusable.

ixwt 6y ago
I've found you can google the subreddits, and they will show you these subreddits. As long as your referrer is still Google, it seems to be fine.
- cma 6y ago
  Shouldn't Google punish this in the results? A fake website that wants search traffic but doesn't want to operate as an actual website...
  - 1over137 6y ago
    But it's good for google, isn't it? I mean, if ddg can't get me there, but google can, then it makes google better than their competitors (in the one regard).
- hanniabu 6y ago
  Because you're viewing it as an amp site. As long as you try to do anything it forwards you to the real site and you're back to square one.
ozmbie 6y ago
I deleted an unofficial Reddit app from my phone, since I found I was wasting too much time on it. I figured for the occasions I wanted access to reddit (mostly from searching for topics on Google), I’d just use the web version. But the web UI, combined with Google AMP, made it unusable. I’ve gone back to the app but with iOS screen time restrictions.
- ffpip 6y ago

zests 6y ago

I dislike all things "new web". The websites feel like layers upon layers of Javascript, fancy designs that feel like they are responsible for the decreased responsiveness. Styles delegated to the same CSS frameworks that everyone else uses. The rounded corners. Give me plain HTML, minimal CSS, and a template engine any day of the week.

kodah 6y ago
Plain HTMl, minimal CSS, and a template engine aren't quite substitutes for event driven systems that also drive really nice features. On the other hand, I recently was testing my website on Brave and a simple request from my frontend to the backend (which resides in the same container) was rejected as a tracking script even though I know it doesn't do any tracking that I've implemented. I was really hoping WASM might fill this gap, and it still might, but it'll be a while from what I can tell.
ketamine__ 6y ago
That is not going to keep designers employed.
buzzerbetrayed 6y ago
I want to agree, but don't. Javascript is nice. Leave a comment on HN, then push back to go out to the home page. Wait, you're back at your comment. This flow is obviously not ideal, and would be prevented with a little Javascript.
- Pxtl 6y ago
  Also, it would be basically impossible to host comment threads on video content if the video reset every time you submitted a comment. By comparison, Twitter's video experience is still awful in that you can't multitask and join the conversation on a video tweet.
  - ysavir 6y ago
    Thankfully, it's not en either/or situation. The principle that site designers need to start abiding by is to not reinvent the browser--there's no need to use JS for routing or single page apps. The browser does that fantastically already. All that's needed of JS is to add asynchronicity to pages that need to update state without interrupting a running service.

pts_ 6y ago

Reddit has a 100 trackers now. Takes so long to open so I come on HN meanwhile.

throwawaysea 6y ago

Between Reddit’s heavy-handed censorship, rampant site wide political biases, their terrible new UI, the dark patterns forcing users to the app, unexplained bans of subreddits, overzealous mods, and deletion of discussions of Reddit alternatives (https://www.reddit.com/r/RedditAlternatives/comments/hib1oj/massbanning_superthread/ https://www.reddit.com/r/RedditAlternatives/comments/hib1oj/...), it is time for them to go the way of the dodo. Here’s a list of alternatives: https://www.reddit.com/r/RedditAlternatives/comments/hi97fz/list_of_active_reddit_alternatives_v5/ https://www.reddit.com/r/RedditAlternatives/comments/hi97fz/...

meowster 6y ago
I click on the top alternative, Parler, and the root page redirects to some advertising page about the site. 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.
- throwawaysea 6y ago
  Parler is ranked highly because it was recently popularized on centrist and conservative media as an alternative to Twitter. That rank is misleading - it’s not necessarily the best because it is newer than some of the others, and it isn’t meant to be a direct Reddit alternative as much as a Twitter alternative. Some of the others like Ruqqus or Saidit are more of Reddit’s direct competitors.
8note 6y ago
https://youtu.be/r3snVCRo_bI https://youtu.be/r3snVCRo_bI 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

xvilka 6y ago

New Reddit interface is slow as hell for something as simple as text/images discussion board. Compare it with the speed of Hacker News, for example. They are completely incompetent.

contravariant 6y ago
Not so much incompetent but I get the distinct impression that they have way too many developers trying to add features to something that, going by the way old.reddit.com has barely changed, was feature complete about 5 years ago.
benhurmarcel 6y ago
It's true and infuriating, but I find it's similar to many modern tools by very competent companies. Have you tried Google Chat for example?

nitrohorse 6y ago

Looks like the old mobile design (https://i.reddit.com/r/nvidia/comments/jyg1jq/finished_the_build_a_pc_of_ice_and_fire/ https://i.reddit.com/r/nvidia/comments/jyg1jq/finished_the_b...) redirects to the new Reddit interface for image galleries.

geuis 6y ago

Mmm I don’t think so. Gallery shows up fine. https://www.reddit.com/r/3Dprinting/comments/jy14p1/i_combined_my_old_benchies_into_benchus_maximus/ https://www.reddit.com/r/3Dprinting/comments/jy14p1/i_combin... Note that I have my mobile settings to use the desktop version and I only use the old interface.

Zren 6y ago
* 2020-11-21T00:35:26+00:00, your link * 2020-11-21T18:43:20+00:00, OP's link It's possible there's a bug that rolled out affecting galleries posted after 1AM UTC.

fattybob 6y ago

i've been using it less and less, in fact i only ever go there if some breaking news is about, and today, that is the last thing you can find on reddit! kinda sad considering...

electrotype 6y ago

I knew the Internet when it was fun, AMA.

rmolin88 6y ago

I just use RedReader. An unofficial reddit front end. Its pretty amazing.

tumblerz 6y ago

I hate to be seen this nakedly aggro, but reddit is broken ruins. 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.

mkskm 6y ago
> 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.

wdr1 6y ago

One of my biggest gripe is forcing Reddit to their mobile app, which is filled with bugs. I've had a bot posting a daily Calvin & Hobbes strip for seven years. The comic is posted as a gif, and so many people using the Reddit mobile app have complained, I basically had to write a FAQ for it. https://www.reddit.com/r/CalvinBot/comments/bdxb6h/why_are_posts_in_a_gif/ https://www.reddit.com/r/CalvinBot/comments/bdxb6h/why_are_p... It's been over a year & the bug is still there.

herogreen 6y ago
Even if the app was perfect, I would not use it (less suported platforms, waste space, gathers more data, etc).

loudandskittish 6y ago

Is there any viable way to bring back forums? I worry I'm going full "boomer," but damn do I miss the 90's internet.

anti-shill 6y ago

plenty of non-paywalled sites to link to...why link to a paywall? Also, jan morris was an excellent travel writer

Zren 6y ago

It could be a bug. It'd better be. (14 days ago) https://www.reddit.com/r/ModSupport/comments/jrmclg/gallery_of_pictures_in_submission_not_visible_in/ https://www.reddit.com/r/ModSupport/comments/jrmclg/gallery_...

techsin101 6y ago

remember Digg