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I know that Reddit admins read HN so please please do not kill off old.reddit.com. The redesign is absolute garbage. Normally I don’t express such strong senti

by isatty 6y ago

I know that Reddit admins read HN so please please do not kill off old.reddit.com. The redesign is absolute garbage. Normally I don’t express such strong sentiment on HN but I’ve been a Reddit user for 10 years and I genuinely like the communities, but not enough to suffer through the new website.

dawnerd 6y ago
Not even just the redesign. It's the constant forcing you to download the app, the broken amp layout (which is really just being used to trick google into showing them first). The site is just extremely hostile now if you don't use the app or sign in.
- tmpz22 6y ago
  Yesterday I tried to visit https://reddit.com/r/gaming https://reddit.com/r/gaming and received an infinite loading indicator through multiple refreshes until I gave up. It felt like loadshedding where they were encountering an issue and decided to drop my traffic, which is not a good UX.
- marrone12 6y ago
  The amp stuff is beyond annoying. I click on "view more comments" from an amp page and it redirects me to a non amp page and then i have to click on view more comments again.
jedberg 6y ago
I'm not sure how many of the current admins read HN. I just know some of us old guys hang around here. And FWIW I agree with you. I've been a 15 year reddit user (and employee!) but if old.reddit goes away, I suspect my usage will go way down. The good news is that the current execs know this, because I have told them. But at the end of the day they have to do what's best for the business, and I'm afraid those of us who like the old interface aren't large in number. Edit to add: I don't think they'll kill off the old.reddit interface. I think they'll just stop updating and more and more things won't work there, like i.reddit.com.
- ardy42 6y ago
  > But at the end of the day they have to do what's best for the business, and I'm afraid those of us who like the old interface aren't large in number. Do people actually prefer the new interface [on its merits], or do they just use it because it's the default?
  - brianwawok 6y ago
    The is a big generation of lots of pictures = good. I am sure it is better to those users. Think pinterest uses and Etsy shoppers. Old reddit is more like BBS or old school message boards. People who grew up on this are a dying breed... probably also worth less to advertisers as we use adblock.
    - nextaccountic 6y ago
      I mean, you can just install RES... What reddit should have done is to ship the RES UI with the old reddit interface.
    - sethhochberg 6y ago
      With any online community the group who consumes is far larger than the group who contributes, and I suspect with Reddit the people who are looking for community (especially those participating in mostly text-based subs) are few and far between compared to the huge number of users who browse big subs / the front page casually for memes, entertainment news, and cat pics. The things which drive me nuts about the redesign are mostly things that drive me nuts because I comment far more than I post, and participate in a lot of discussion-heavy subs. Navigating comment trees is more difficult, lots more is hidden by default. Far fewer topics fit on a screen with the card-style layout that has huge previews. The old layout is information-dense, readable with minimal clicking to expand things, and fast. But those are exactly the kind of changes that someone just browsing would be indifferent to, or even appreciate. The images/videos they're scrolling through are now big, front, and center. Many probably don't ever venture into the comments to begin with, of if they do, they're just seeing if the top comment is a good joke or not. Wildly different use cases.
ericsoderstrom 6y ago
Huh, there's no difference for me. How do you tell if you're using the redesigned UI or not? [edit] If I open reddit in incognito then I can see the redesign, otherwise I can't. Maybe I opted out of the redesign at some point? Can't see anything about it in settings though
antihero 6y ago
I legit tried to use the new reddit the other day to see if I could "get with the times". It's horrific. It's noisy and gets in the way. I couldn't last more than a day or two.
mewpmewp2 6y ago
What is the worst trash in the world is their mobile web ui. Impossible to search in Google and quickly browse results especially if I want to do it in incognito.
- GordonS 6y ago
  Gods but it's shit on mobile! It only shows about 2 comments by default, and it's difficult to see them all (and often impossible to see them all at once), because you've got to keep clicking at the end of threads to see more, with each click triggering a full page reload. And recently you can't even do that without logging in - as soon as you hit "More replies" a login prompt appears.
  - abc-xyz 6y ago
    That’s my biggest gripe as well. When opening a reddit thread from google I have to replace ‘www’ with ‘old’ in order to see all the comments, it’s truly absurd. The only explanation I can think of for this behavior is sheer incompetence.
- opportune 6y ago
  I hate that they show so much contempt for their users they deliberately broke many basic features (as in they used to work, then they removed them) on mobile web, especially when logged out, to force you onto their app.
- canofbars 6y ago
  Its intentional. Even with the redesign it used to be somewhat usable on mobile but they make it worse every update to push you on to the app.
  - mewpmewp2 6y ago
    Yeah I would be fine using the app, but it still disables possibility to quickly search site:reddit.com some topic I want to research and go through mostly comments. Then back to search, go on and so on. This is how I browse Reddit a lot of the time anyway. Maybe I am using wrong app for that though. I am using Relay right now. And it doesn't allow me yo select comments properly coming from Google search. I think I tried Reddit's official app and it didn't work very well too + the context switch of going from chrome to an app. But yeah I get that they do it intentionally...
bjarneh 6y ago
> The redesign is absolute garbage. It really is unusually heavy; even for a "modern" web-page.
screye 6y ago
If I could give HN platinum to you I would give it. It is a strong "SECONDED". Removing Old reddit might be the single biggest negative change that can occur to my daily internet life.
phaus 6y ago
>I know that Reddit admins read HN so please please do not kill off old.reddit.com. The redesign is absolute garbage. People have ben telling them this for years. They know and do not give a shit or at the very least they are powerless to do anything. The redesign is so bad I'll stop using reddit completely if they ever kill the old domain. Its almost like they intentionally tried to make the least functional website possible.
trinovantes 6y ago
It would be pretty ironic to see Reddit follow in Digg's footsteps and kill itself with their new redesign

by isatty 6y ago

dawnerd 6y ago

Not even just the redesign. It's the constant forcing you to download the app, the broken amp layout (which is really just being used to trick google into showing them first). The site is just extremely hostile now if you don't use the app or sign in.

tmpz22 6y ago
Yesterday I tried to visit https://reddit.com/r/gaming https://reddit.com/r/gaming and received an infinite loading indicator through multiple refreshes until I gave up. It felt like loadshedding where they were encountering an issue and decided to drop my traffic, which is not a good UX.
marrone12 6y ago
The amp stuff is beyond annoying. I click on "view more comments" from an amp page and it redirects me to a non amp page and then i have to click on view more comments again.

jedberg 6y ago

I'm not sure how many of the current admins read HN. I just know some of us old guys hang around here. And FWIW I agree with you. I've been a 15 year reddit user (and employee!) but if old.reddit goes away, I suspect my usage will go way down. The good news is that the current execs know this, because I have told them. But at the end of the day they have to do what's best for the business, and I'm afraid those of us who like the old interface aren't large in number. Edit to add: I don't think they'll kill off the old.reddit interface. I think they'll just stop updating and more and more things won't work there, like i.reddit.com.

ardy42 6y ago
> But at the end of the day they have to do what's best for the business, and I'm afraid those of us who like the old interface aren't large in number. Do people actually prefer the new interface [on its merits], or do they just use it because it's the default?
- brianwawok 6y ago
  The is a big generation of lots of pictures = good. I am sure it is better to those users. Think pinterest uses and Etsy shoppers. Old reddit is more like BBS or old school message boards. People who grew up on this are a dying breed... probably also worth less to advertisers as we use adblock.
  - nextaccountic 6y ago
    I mean, you can just install RES... What reddit should have done is to ship the RES UI with the old reddit interface.
  - sethhochberg 6y ago
    With any online community the group who consumes is far larger than the group who contributes, and I suspect with Reddit the people who are looking for community (especially those participating in mostly text-based subs) are few and far between compared to the huge number of users who browse big subs / the front page casually for memes, entertainment news, and cat pics. The things which drive me nuts about the redesign are mostly things that drive me nuts because I comment far more than I post, and participate in a lot of discussion-heavy subs. Navigating comment trees is more difficult, lots more is hidden by default. Far fewer topics fit on a screen with the card-style layout that has huge previews. The old layout is information-dense, readable with minimal clicking to expand things, and fast. But those are exactly the kind of changes that someone just browsing would be indifferent to, or even appreciate. The images/videos they're scrolling through are now big, front, and center. Many probably don't ever venture into the comments to begin with, of if they do, they're just seeing if the top comment is a good joke or not. Wildly different use cases.

ericsoderstrom 6y ago

Huh, there's no difference for me. How do you tell if you're using the redesigned UI or not? [edit] If I open reddit in incognito then I can see the redesign, otherwise I can't. Maybe I opted out of the redesign at some point? Can't see anything about it in settings though

antihero 6y ago

I legit tried to use the new reddit the other day to see if I could "get with the times". It's horrific. It's noisy and gets in the way. I couldn't last more than a day or two.

mewpmewp2 6y ago

What is the worst trash in the world is their mobile web ui. Impossible to search in Google and quickly browse results especially if I want to do it in incognito.

GordonS 6y ago
Gods but it's shit on mobile! It only shows about 2 comments by default, and it's difficult to see them all (and often impossible to see them all at once), because you've got to keep clicking at the end of threads to see more, with each click triggering a full page reload. And recently you can't even do that without logging in - as soon as you hit "More replies" a login prompt appears.
- abc-xyz 6y ago
  That’s my biggest gripe as well. When opening a reddit thread from google I have to replace ‘www’ with ‘old’ in order to see all the comments, it’s truly absurd. The only explanation I can think of for this behavior is sheer incompetence.
opportune 6y ago
I hate that they show so much contempt for their users they deliberately broke many basic features (as in they used to work, then they removed them) on mobile web, especially when logged out, to force you onto their app.
canofbars 6y ago
Its intentional. Even with the redesign it used to be somewhat usable on mobile but they make it worse every update to push you on to the app.
- mewpmewp2 6y ago
  Yeah I would be fine using the app, but it still disables possibility to quickly search site:reddit.com some topic I want to research and go through mostly comments. Then back to search, go on and so on. This is how I browse Reddit a lot of the time anyway. Maybe I am using wrong app for that though. I am using Relay right now. And it doesn't allow me yo select comments properly coming from Google search. I think I tried Reddit's official app and it didn't work very well too + the context switch of going from chrome to an app. But yeah I get that they do it intentionally...

bjarneh 6y ago

> The redesign is absolute garbage. It really is unusually heavy; even for a "modern" web-page.

screye 6y ago

If I could give HN platinum to you I would give it. It is a strong "SECONDED". Removing Old reddit might be the single biggest negative change that can occur to my daily internet life.

phaus 6y ago

>I know that Reddit admins read HN so please please do not kill off old.reddit.com. The redesign is absolute garbage. People have ben telling them this for years. They know and do not give a shit or at the very least they are powerless to do anything. The redesign is so bad I'll stop using reddit completely if they ever kill the old domain. Its almost like they intentionally tried to make the least functional website possible.

trinovantes 6y ago

It would be pretty ironic to see Reddit follow in Digg's footsteps and kill itself with their new redesign