8 ms·

Reddit's greatest engineering decision of the past 5 years is leaving up old.reddit.com

0xdky 6y ago
I am very interested to know what is the engineering overheads and increase in code complexity incurred in maintaining 2 different views. At NetApp, backward compatibility and ability to rollback across multiple releases was a hard requirement. This made the codebase real hard to understand and maintain.
2pEXgD0fZ5cF 6y ago
The moment old.reddit.com stops working is the moment I will stop using Reddit generally, the new design is just too slow for me to create a pleasant experience (and the UX of the redesign is overall very unpleasant). Ever since they began limiting viewing on mobile browsers I already stopped using Reddit with my mobile phone completely. There are ways to circumvent that of course, but I just can't be bothered.
- kache_ 6y ago
  New reddit is an attempt to make it too painful to use reddit on a browser and instead edge you to use a mobile app.
  - depingus 6y ago
    The F-Droid repo has a few nice ones. I'm using Infinity.
    - brocket 6y ago
      RedReader isn't bad either. UI looks a little more dated compared to Infinity but it's been around awhile, stable, and still getting updates.
- ubermonkey 6y ago
  It's slower, and it has insane amounts of wasted space. I like a data-dense display. Oh mobile, consider Apollo.
  - apaprocki 6y ago
    The one comment I did not expect to see leveled against old.reddit.com was that it was slower. I generally hit it only because it is an order of magnitude faster than the main site in Safari. The dynamic/lazy loading of what must be megabytes of assets make the experience 100% jank. The wasted space is actually a preference. The 10,000 ft view is nice and lets you achieve your preferred level of zoom for quickly browsing things, as opposed to being forced to view everything at a certain size/speed.
    - ubermonkey 6y ago
      I was imprecise, I guess, because I mean NEW Reddit is slower.
      - apaprocki 6y ago
        Then we are in complete agreement, sorry!
- loceng 6y ago
  Is someone willing to share why old.reddit.com is so much better UX/UI wise? It's not obvious to me for some reason. Is it simply the load time is better - and that it doesn't have the shenanigans trying to lead you to a "better experience" via downloading their mobile app?
  - speedyapoc 6y ago
    For me, it's information density.
  - waihtis 6y ago
    Mobile issues when you don't want the reddit app: 1) no "this subreddit is only available via the app" walls 2) subreddit search functionality that doesn't require jumping through hoops to execute 3) no comment reading limitations (again a push for the app) I'm sure there's more, but these are the things that pop to mind instantly
  - ink404 6y ago
    the main thing that I dislike about it is that they try to highlight certain - relevant - comments instead of showing the comment thread as is this happens a lot when searching, and is especially annoying on mobile where it's not clear at all on how to view the entire thread. This could follow with information density in general, I think another important piece to consider is most of the people who are using old.reddit.com probably still use RES (reddit enhancement suite).
  - qq4 6y ago
    Imagine if HN looked like reddit.com. Compare scrolling through a thread to one here.
  - toyg 6y ago
    Information density, load times, speed of navigation, UX simplicity, effort required client-side... TBH I struggle to see how the new interface could be considered better in any respect worth considering. The only good feature is, I believe, showing images by default, which you can achieve trivially with Reddit Enhancement Suite and would have not required a complete re-engineering on a SPA model. There might well be server-side improvements that make it worth to Reddit, but from a user perspective the new UI was a straight UX downgrade; without old.reddit.com they would probably have become another Digg.
- TheSmiddy 6y ago
  i.reddit.com still works on mobile. It's how I use it.
LukeEF 6y ago
wow - didn't know that - it is much better - are there really people that like those little pop-up windows?
- randlet 6y ago
  If you're a FF user, the Old Reddit Redirect extension is nice too since it will ensure all reddit links get redirected to the old view.
s_dev 6y ago
As soon as it's deprecated I'm gone. I'd consider myself a power user. I have zero confidence new.reddit.com will ever improve to my satisfaction.
Taylor_OD 6y ago
For you. And for me. But Reddit has many more users now then it did in the days when old.reddit.com was just reddit.com. As much as many people hate UI/UX changes they happen for a reason. Due to the much more mainstream adoption of reddit I'd say that reason was wider adoption.

I am very interested to know what is the engineering overheads and increase in code complexity incurred in maintaining 2 different views. At NetApp, backward compatibility and ability to rollback across multiple releases was a hard requirement. This made the codebase real hard to understand and maintain.

2pEXgD0fZ5cF 6y ago

The moment old.reddit.com stops working is the moment I will stop using Reddit generally, the new design is just too slow for me to create a pleasant experience (and the UX of the redesign is overall very unpleasant). Ever since they began limiting viewing on mobile browsers I already stopped using Reddit with my mobile phone completely. There are ways to circumvent that of course, but I just can't be bothered.

kache_ 6y ago
New reddit is an attempt to make it too painful to use reddit on a browser and instead edge you to use a mobile app.
- depingus 6y ago
  The F-Droid repo has a few nice ones. I'm using Infinity.
  - brocket 6y ago
    RedReader isn't bad either. UI looks a little more dated compared to Infinity but it's been around awhile, stable, and still getting updates.
ubermonkey 6y ago
It's slower, and it has insane amounts of wasted space. I like a data-dense display. Oh mobile, consider Apollo.
- apaprocki 6y ago
  The one comment I did not expect to see leveled against old.reddit.com was that it was slower. I generally hit it only because it is an order of magnitude faster than the main site in Safari. The dynamic/lazy loading of what must be megabytes of assets make the experience 100% jank. The wasted space is actually a preference. The 10,000 ft view is nice and lets you achieve your preferred level of zoom for quickly browsing things, as opposed to being forced to view everything at a certain size/speed.
  - ubermonkey 6y ago
    I was imprecise, I guess, because I mean NEW Reddit is slower.
    - apaprocki 6y ago
      Then we are in complete agreement, sorry!
loceng 6y ago
Is someone willing to share why old.reddit.com is so much better UX/UI wise? It's not obvious to me for some reason. Is it simply the load time is better - and that it doesn't have the shenanigans trying to lead you to a "better experience" via downloading their mobile app?
- speedyapoc 6y ago
  For me, it's information density.
- waihtis 6y ago
  Mobile issues when you don't want the reddit app: 1) no "this subreddit is only available via the app" walls 2) subreddit search functionality that doesn't require jumping through hoops to execute 3) no comment reading limitations (again a push for the app) I'm sure there's more, but these are the things that pop to mind instantly
- ink404 6y ago
  the main thing that I dislike about it is that they try to highlight certain - relevant - comments instead of showing the comment thread as is this happens a lot when searching, and is especially annoying on mobile where it's not clear at all on how to view the entire thread. This could follow with information density in general, I think another important piece to consider is most of the people who are using old.reddit.com probably still use RES (reddit enhancement suite).
- qq4 6y ago
  Imagine if HN looked like reddit.com. Compare scrolling through a thread to one here.
- toyg 6y ago
  Information density, load times, speed of navigation, UX simplicity, effort required client-side... TBH I struggle to see how the new interface could be considered better in any respect worth considering. The only good feature is, I believe, showing images by default, which you can achieve trivially with Reddit Enhancement Suite and would have not required a complete re-engineering on a SPA model. There might well be server-side improvements that make it worth to Reddit, but from a user perspective the new UI was a straight UX downgrade; without old.reddit.com they would probably have become another Digg.
TheSmiddy 6y ago
i.reddit.com still works on mobile. It's how I use it.

LukeEF 6y ago

wow - didn't know that - it is much better - are there really people that like those little pop-up windows?

randlet 6y ago
If you're a FF user, the Old Reddit Redirect extension is nice too since it will ensure all reddit links get redirected to the old view.

s_dev 6y ago

As soon as it's deprecated I'm gone. I'd consider myself a power user. I have zero confidence new.reddit.com will ever improve to my satisfaction.

Taylor_OD 6y ago

For you. And for me. But Reddit has many more users now then it did in the days when old.reddit.com was just reddit.com. As much as many people hate UI/UX changes they happen for a reason. Due to the much more mainstream adoption of reddit I'd say that reason was wider adoption.