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Pinterest and Reddit are not better these days. The amount of things you can view on reddit on your phone without creating an account or installing the app is

• davidkunz 5y ago
  Just go to https://teddit.net/ https://teddit.net/
• EamonnMR 5y ago
  Pinterest is by the far the worst because it takes content from the rest of the world and strips away all context. It's the anti-wikipedia, an information black hole.
  • ineedasername 5y ago
    I couldn't put my vague dislike for Pinterest into words until this: you have it exactly.
  • wnkrshm 5y ago
    I hate Pinterest with a passion. If you want to find reference images for whatever topic, all you get is the medium res crap with a 'make an account' pop-up instead of the original source they stole it from. I think alphabet or whatever will acquire it in the near future (or have they already?) because there is just no other explanation for letting Pinterest poison image search that much.
    • EamonnMR 5y ago
      Image search is practically dead and Pintrest singlehandedly killed it. I just use Wikimedia Commons now.
      • NaturalPhallacy 5y ago
        works fine on DuckDuckGo
  • Bilters 5y ago
    Whenever I put a google search down, and see one page of Pinterest on there I immediately go back to the search box and go for; “-site:pinterest.*”. I absolutely hate that site with a passion.
    • Scoundreller 5y ago
      Is there a Google option to perma-ban a domain? Maybe a place I can upload a HOSTS file? Or an extension that adds this to every search?
      • 9dev 5y ago
        There is: uBlacklist[1]. I've been searching for the exact same thing to get rid of Indian tutorial scamsites, bad GitHub and StackOverflow clones and, of course, Pinterest results :) Can recommend. [1] https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ublacklist/pncfbmialoiaghdehhbnbhkkgmjanfhe https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ublacklist/pncfbmi...
      • Laforet 5y ago
        You can try this extension. It was forked from a project once maintained and abandoned by Google themselves. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/personal-blocklistnot-by/cbbbhelcpfjhdcncigdlkabmjbgokmpg?hl=en https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/personal-blocklist... https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/personal-blocklist/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/personal-bloc...
    • seanp2k2 5y ago
      Even though I have the app and an account, I still despise using it. They break things like zoom and saving images. Clicking on something interesting takes you to…a site that doesn’t actually have that. I truly don’t understand how Pinterest is so popular when it’s also so awful. Tumblr was so much better until Verizon destroyed it with management incompetence.
    • Solocomplex 5y ago
      Unpinterested is an extension do do this automatically
  • klyrs 5y ago
    I fully agree, but do they count as social media? I kinda categorize them as crowdsourced SEO spam
• gumby 5y ago
  > Ironically, a good workaround is setting your user agent to the Googlebot and suddenly all those modal/nag screens disappear. All those robots sharing data among themselves with no humans needed or, apparently, wanted.
• newacct583 5y ago
  > The amount of things you can view on reddit on your phone without creating an account or installing the app is dwindling daily. Like what? The phone browser works just great. IIRC there's a nag dialog that prompts you once to install the app, then it caches the answer and shuts up.
  • EastSmith 5y ago
    > The phone browser works just great. No, it is not. I can not access any subreddit without installing an app (which I am not going to do).
    • zdragnar 5y ago
      Really? I still occasionally visit a handful of subs, almost exclusively through android chrome. I'll certainly never download an app to do it though.
    • newacct583 5y ago
      Sorry... I literally do this every day of my life, across several devices. I'm just on Firefox on Android, it's not like it's a weird setup or anything. What are you running that reddit won't let you into a subreddit?
      • tgtweak 5y ago
        I have the same experience as OP which is that many subreddits or individual posts are inaccessible without creating an account. If you're looking at cat gifs you will probably get by with the occasional nag screen but some will outright force you out of the page.
• eitland 5y ago
  > Ironically, a good workaround is setting your user agent to the Googlebot and suddenly all those modal/nag screens disappear. Hmmmm. Now that I think of it I'm fairly sure that serving different content to Googlebot compared to what you served ordinary users used to be a good way to call down the wrath of the SEO master upon your (or your clients) website. Then again, that was before. Back when Google was a nice company and acted in the best interest of its users.
  • js4ever 5y ago
    In fact it's still forbidden by Google ... Except if you are very large like Pinterest
    • ipaddr 5y ago
      It might not be forbidden if it works. Google is famous for undocumented workarounds.
      • cjohansson 5y ago
        Only the most expensive SEO-experts know the occult methods of success on Google's search results
    • tgtweak 5y ago
      Filed under the "okay for me not for thee" google policy.
• fullstop 5y ago
  old.reddit.com is still around, for now, and does not have any of this garbage.
  • frereubu 5y ago
    I'm starting to find that title links to posts with multiple images just link back to the page you're on. It feels like it's just going to slowly disintegrate. Which I think on balance I'd be happy about because I spend too much time on there anyway.
  • kgwxd 5y ago
    old.reddit is ok, but it's rarely used for links. I know there's a plugin, but I can't stand the idea of adding plugins for things like that. The only reason I have a reddit account is because you can change preferences to be even better than old.reddit (e.g. turn off custom themes, disable outbound click tracking, no thumbnails, compact list, etc.). It basically looks like HN after what I do to it. I know it's all arranging deck chairs on a sinking ship but I hope a decent rescue ship gets here before it's all gone.
  • marto1 5y ago
    And you just KNOW it's going to disappear. Not immediately of course, some slight visual breakages here and there. Then some hotshot manager is going to point out how it doesn't bring any "value" to the company and how in fact it actually hurts reddit's image. Then it will be gone.
    • beaconstudios 5y ago
      And then somebody makes a substitute UI that calls the api, then reddit tries to take it down, then someone builds an open source version, then github gets a C&D letter and the creator makes blog post about it that reaches the front page of HN. I'm looking forward to the journey.
      • scott_w 5y ago
        The first part happened: https://teddit.net https://teddit.net ;-)
• klyrs 5y ago
  > Ironically, a good workaround is setting your user agent to the Googlebot and suddenly all those modal/nag screens disappear. This is hilarious and makes so much sense. God, the internet is broken
  • einpoklum 5y ago
    This should help: https://sumtips.com/software/browsers/set-user-agent-on-a-per-site-basis/ https://sumtips.com/software/browsers/set-user-agent-on-a-pe...
    • e12e 5y ago
      Hm, nothing for Android - for either ff or chrome?
      • mdaniel 5y ago
        It's been reported[0] that Firefox Nightly has a Debug menu through which one can bless a custom collection of allowed extensions to get around the new Mozilla Nanny State™ but I haven't personally expended the energy to try it 0 = https://www.ghacks.net/2020/10/01/you-can-now-install-any-add-on-in-firefox-nightly-for-android-but-it-is-complicated/ https://www.ghacks.net/2020/10/01/you-can-now-install-any-ad...
      • SanchoPanda 5y ago
        You may be looking for iamadamdev/bypass-paywalls-chrome, the chrome repo has the firefox extension as well, fyi.
        • yakireev 5y ago
          Darn, it actually works! Thank you a lot for the mention.
    • matt123456789 5y ago
      Those Windows 7 screenshots evoke a sense of nostalgia for the time before a Windows that broadcasts and monetizes my every action. I think an even bigger “fuck you” pattern is when an OS that I paid for tracks me and monetizes my private information. Maybe I’m just getting old.
• diogenesjunior 5y ago
  >a good workaround is setting your user agent to the Googlebot Can't believe I've never thought of this.
• nvr219 5y ago
  Reddit (the service) is tons better than Pinterest, facebook, instagram... I think it's totally out of line to group Reddit in with them. The new reddit website is total trash but you can use like 99% of reddit without ever visiting the website. I use Apollo for example, and there are many other apps you can use or develop your own. You can also use old.reddit.com. Access to reddit is much more open than any of these other networks that require you to use their app only.
  • CodesInChaos 5y ago
    Reddit on desktop is still okay. The mobile version of Reddit is deliberately broken in order to force you to use the app. Many subreddits can't be viewed, you can only view the first couple of comments in each thread, the front page is hidden behind a huge nag screen,...
    • davesmylie 5y ago
      > The mobile version of Reddit is deliberately broken in order to force you to use the app. fyi - if you use old reddit, the mobile site is fine - I've never seen a subreddit blocked or threads truncated. new reddit is a pile of steaming dogsh
      • CodesInChaos 5y ago
        old.reddit isn't deliberately broken, but not really suitable for small screens like phones. i.reddit is better for that, but it doesn't support many content types inline and has issues showing comments in some cases. teddit.net doesn't support loading more comments inline and the icon to unfold post content is tiny.
    • nvr219 5y ago
      Yes, but again, you can use their official app, or literally any other app developed. Those third party apps can view anything. Contrast that with Instagram where if you don't want to use their app, sucks for you.
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• deleted 5y ago
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• pessimizer 5y ago
  > Ironically, a good workaround is setting your user agent to the Googlebot and suddenly all those modal/nag screens disappear. Cloudflare slaps you for this, though.
  • tgtweak 5y ago
    I'll take a Capcha over a fuck-you paywall.
• lifeisstillgood 5y ago
  >>> when there is clear-cut policies around showing something different to the crawler than the user. yes ....
• 867-5309 5y ago
  for Reddit, you can "sign up" with a bogus email address and still interact (browse, join, comment, vote, message) freely. the only possible downside is it asks you to verify your email address every launch, but I don't see this as a downside since I am using Reddit anonymously, and it is easily dismissed. been doing this for over a year now
  • axguscbklp 5y ago
    You can actually just click "Next" on the sign-up screen without having entered any email address at all. It works fine, for now at least.
    • 867-5309 5y ago
      that's cool. I get the impression they're not really interested in monetising or data mining if all these loopholes exist, and that their platform is supported by those who wish to engage in microtransactions, which do not hinder functionality in any way e.g. pay for privileges. good on them
  • ReaLNero 5y ago
    What's valuable is your interests so that they know what ads to put in your face. Whether or not your email is linked to you is irrelevant -- you can click on ads all the same. This solution doesn't save you from the data mining they do on your usage.
    • 867-5309 5y ago
      I use an ad blocker so have never seen an ad on Reddit
  • tgtweak 5y ago
    Still allows them to identify you over the course of several sessions, which allows them to de-anonymize you.
    • 867-5309 5y ago
• getcrunk 5y ago
  I have not been able to to get this to work. what is the exact ua string that works for you guys
• taftster 5y ago
  > a good workaround is setting your user agent to the Googlebot Be sure to follow the site's robots.txt rules, though. Otherwise, you could end up getting googlebot banned! /s
• randerson 5y ago
  > Ironically, a good workaround is setting your user agent to the Googlebot and suddenly all those modal/nag screens disappear. I'm surprised sites this big are even relying on the user agent for determining Googlebot, given how easy (and common) it is to forge, when they could be checking the Googlebot IP ranges instead.
• christophilus 5y ago
  The day they drop old.reddit.com is the day I stop using Reddit.
• takeda 5y ago
  Regarding reddit, you can replace "www" with "old" i.e. https://old.reddit.com https://old.reddit.com and it is still functional. There is also a firefox (perhaps chrome too) extension that replaces it automatically. I don't know how long it will last, but if it's gone I think I'll be off reddit. I tried to use regular UI few times, and the experience is absolutely off putting. It reminds me of digg right before people flew to reddit.