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Trying to use Reddit without the app is maddening. I am aware of old.reddit.com- but it is so annoying to have to change 'www' to 'old' every time I want to rea

Trying to use Reddit without the app is maddening. I am aware of old.reddit.com- but it is so annoying to have to change 'www' to 'old' every time I want to read something. On IOS/Safari, visiting any Reddit page results in a full page prompt to use the stupid app. No, I don't want to use the app right now, which is why I'm using Safari! If reddit wants to do anything for their future, they should address these basic usability issues.

StavrosK 6y ago
> If reddit wants to do anything for their future, they should address these basic usability issues. They did: they decided they are their future.
kevin_thibedeau 6y ago
Those usability issues are intentional dark patterns. The web site is supposed to suck to drive app usage where they can mine more detailed user data.
tmp538394722 6y ago
I’m right there with you, but it can’t be “usability” oversight, can it? It’s so bad. I have to assume it’s a very deliberate effort based on some business metric that the risk of losing people from the site is less than the profit gained from people on the app.
McDev 6y ago
They've straight up started banning certain subreddits from the mobile website, forcing you to download the app. As I write this, I just noticed it was an A/B test and I'm able to go on the subreddit in question again ... Argh!
8ytecoder 6y ago
If you’re ok with an app that’s not Reddit (so no ads), try Apollo.
karlshea 6y ago
Which would be fine if the app wasn’t garbage. Constant bugs with data loading and swipes, and no way to disable all the “suggested” bs (I get why you can’t disable promoted items, but the rest should be removable).
dmm 6y ago
> but it is so annoying to have to change 'www' to 'old' every time I want to read something There's an add-on to fix that! So whenever you click a reddit link you are automatically redirected to old.reddit.com. I use the Firefox one, it works great: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/old-reddit-redirect/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/old-reddit-re... https://github.com/tom-james-watson/old-reddit-redirect https://github.com/tom-james-watson/old-reddit-redirect Apparently there is also a chrome extension but I haven't tried it so user beware: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/old-reddit-redirect/dneaehbmnbhcippjikoajpoabadpodje https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/old-reddit-redirec...
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- nathcd 6y ago
  There's also a general purpose regex based redirector if there are other sites you'd like to redirect: https://github.com/einaregilsson/Redirector https://github.com/einaregilsson/Redirector
  - 0-_-0 6y ago
    I use this addon, it's great: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/privacy-redirect/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/privacy-redir... Supports: Twitter → Nitter YouTube → Invidious Instagram → Bibliogram Google Maps → OpenStreetMap Reddit → Libreddit Google → e.g. DuckDuckGo
adrianmonk 6y ago
> annoying to have to change 'www' to 'old' every time You can stop that from being necessary: (1) Go to https://new.reddit.com/settings https://new.reddit.com/settings . (2) Enable "Opt out of the redesign" ("Revert back to old Reddit for the time being"). (3) Visit https://reddit.com/ https://reddit.com/ and you should then have the same experience there as when explicitly visiting https://old.reddit.com/ https://old.reddit.com/ .
- iti641hs 6y ago
  That requires having an account and logging in, neither of which I particularly wish to do
- hysan 6y ago
  I might be remembering wrong, but you forgot a step. You need to change/delete the referer header. When Reddit detects that you came from Google, for example, it will not render all of the comments and instead try to do a similar rendering of suggested other posts. Of course, this is not something you can turn off in your preferences. You need to use a browser plug-in to do this.
  - themacguffinman 6y ago
    Anecdotally I don't have any such browser extension and it doesn't show me the "partial rendering with suggested posts" view when I'm opted out of the new reddit.
jakebasile 6y ago
If not for Apollo (third party Reddit app for iOS), I'd have dropped Reddit long ago. Every change the company makes only serves to worsen the service.
ximeng 6y ago
Plus Google amp pages for another pointless unnecessary click.
tinus_hn 6y ago
And of course the new site is so modern it takes 10 times as long to render 10 times less content. Truly an example of progress.
ardy42 6y ago
> Trying to use Reddit without the app is maddening. I am aware of old.reddit.com- but it is so annoying to have to change 'www' to 'old' every time I want to read something. On IOS/Safari, visiting any Reddit page results in a full page prompt to use the stupid app. No, I don't want to use the app right now, which is why I'm using Safari! If reddit wants to do anything for their future, they should address these basic usability issues. You could write a userscript to automatically change all intra-reddit links to old.reddit.com, and redirect you to old.reddit.com if you land there from somewhere else. I had done something similar long ago when I actually used reddit.

StavrosK 6y ago

> If reddit wants to do anything for their future, they should address these basic usability issues. They did: they decided they are their future.

kevin_thibedeau 6y ago

Those usability issues are intentional dark patterns. The web site is supposed to suck to drive app usage where they can mine more detailed user data.

tmp538394722 6y ago

I’m right there with you, but it can’t be “usability” oversight, can it? It’s so bad. I have to assume it’s a very deliberate effort based on some business metric that the risk of losing people from the site is less than the profit gained from people on the app.

McDev 6y ago

They've straight up started banning certain subreddits from the mobile website, forcing you to download the app. As I write this, I just noticed it was an A/B test and I'm able to go on the subreddit in question again ... Argh!

8ytecoder 6y ago

If you’re ok with an app that’s not Reddit (so no ads), try Apollo.

karlshea 6y ago

Which would be fine if the app wasn’t garbage. Constant bugs with data loading and swipes, and no way to disable all the “suggested” bs (I get why you can’t disable promoted items, but the rest should be removable).

dmm 6y ago

> but it is so annoying to have to change 'www' to 'old' every time I want to read something There's an add-on to fix that! So whenever you click a reddit link you are automatically redirected to old.reddit.com. I use the Firefox one, it works great: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/old-reddit-redirect/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/old-reddit-re... https://github.com/tom-james-watson/old-reddit-redirect https://github.com/tom-james-watson/old-reddit-redirect Apparently there is also a chrome extension but I haven't tried it so user beware: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/old-reddit-redirect/dneaehbmnbhcippjikoajpoabadpodje https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/old-reddit-redirec...

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
nathcd 6y ago
There's also a general purpose regex based redirector if there are other sites you'd like to redirect: https://github.com/einaregilsson/Redirector https://github.com/einaregilsson/Redirector
- 0-_-0 6y ago
  I use this addon, it's great: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/privacy-redirect/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/privacy-redir... Supports: Twitter → Nitter YouTube → Invidious Instagram → Bibliogram Google Maps → OpenStreetMap Reddit → Libreddit Google → e.g. DuckDuckGo

adrianmonk 6y ago

> annoying to have to change 'www' to 'old' every time You can stop that from being necessary: (1) Go to https://new.reddit.com/settings https://new.reddit.com/settings . (2) Enable "Opt out of the redesign" ("Revert back to old Reddit for the time being"). (3) Visit https://reddit.com/ https://reddit.com/ and you should then have the same experience there as when explicitly visiting https://old.reddit.com/ https://old.reddit.com/ .

iti641hs 6y ago
That requires having an account and logging in, neither of which I particularly wish to do
hysan 6y ago
I might be remembering wrong, but you forgot a step. You need to change/delete the referer header. When Reddit detects that you came from Google, for example, it will not render all of the comments and instead try to do a similar rendering of suggested other posts. Of course, this is not something you can turn off in your preferences. You need to use a browser plug-in to do this.
- themacguffinman 6y ago
  Anecdotally I don't have any such browser extension and it doesn't show me the "partial rendering with suggested posts" view when I'm opted out of the new reddit.

jakebasile 6y ago

If not for Apollo (third party Reddit app for iOS), I'd have dropped Reddit long ago. Every change the company makes only serves to worsen the service.

ximeng 6y ago

Plus Google amp pages for another pointless unnecessary click.

tinus_hn 6y ago

And of course the new site is so modern it takes 10 times as long to render 10 times less content. Truly an example of progress.

ardy42 6y ago

> Trying to use Reddit without the app is maddening. I am aware of old.reddit.com- but it is so annoying to have to change 'www' to 'old' every time I want to read something. On IOS/Safari, visiting any Reddit page results in a full page prompt to use the stupid app. No, I don't want to use the app right now, which is why I'm using Safari! If reddit wants to do anything for their future, they should address these basic usability issues. You could write a userscript to automatically change all intra-reddit links to old.reddit.com, and redirect you to old.reddit.com if you land there from somewhere else. I had done something similar long ago when I actually used reddit.