14 ms·

How to access Reddit without ads and tracking

57 points by lysergia 4y ago

AtomicOrbital 4y ago
I'm only an occasional reddit user so have not looked for such clients yet my guess is most heavy users are already using such tricks as it's unbearable to put up with the magnitude of advertising on reddit Note to reddit: rethink your advertising strategy as it's unforgiving to be pummeled by ads incessantly
gruez 4y ago
>without [...] tracking of the ios apps they listed: apollo: has anonymous analytics narwhal: has "Usage Data Advertising Data" under "Data Used to Track You" and "Data Linked to You", has anonymous analytics/usage/crash logs, and uses your device id not exactly escaping much tracking here.
- lysergia 4y ago
  Personally I use old.reddit.com with an AD blocker. Surprisingly this article doesn’t mention it
- riolu 4y ago
  Apollo can have analytics disabled. Any 3rd party client defeats ad engagement tracking. You can curl their API yourself and you have defeated tracking. If the client isn't serving ads, like Apollo and Tweetbot, there isn't any engagement to track. It's limited to what you interact with while logged in. This is how every service works. The analytics for 3rd party clients are purely for the developer to improve their app, they don't care about what you do on it, that information isn't relevant to building a 3rd party client. Security/Privacy all depends on your threat model and what compromises you are willing to make.
  - avg_dev 4y ago
    Can you please explain how to turn off Apollo analytics? Thanks.
    - moepstar 4y ago
      Looking at the privacy policy, i only noticed "anonymous crash reporting and analytics". That's easily switched off via Settings > About > Crash Reporting & Analytics. Edit: looking at the explanation below the On/Off switch, it seems this does provide analytics - "most commonly used features". So, turn it off...
      - avg_dev 4y ago
        That was very helpful; thanks.
tazu 4y ago
- jbm 4y ago
  Not to mention an entire subreddit dedicated to refining Meth. https://old.reddit.com/r/BabyBees/ https://old.reddit.com/r/BabyBees/
  - fragmede 4y ago
    I had to scroll down to the 47th post before someone said methamphetamine. Also, I'm probably now on a list somewhere.
  - tsol 4y ago
    Lol. There are a few chemistry for the sake of drug subs. Judging by the level of discussion though, there aren't a lot of people who really know what they're doing. Most drug production involves some pretty advanced chemistry
- whalesalad 4y ago
  reddit is huge - cars, woodworking, psychedelics, music, diy, homesteading, food/recipes, the list goes on.
- joegahona 4y ago
  Gen-pop on Reddit is terrible, but as someone else pointed out, it’s massive and very specialized. I’m in a forum about CPAP machines, mechanical keyboards, my city, coffee, and UX dark patterns. That’s not stuff that works on HN. They are completely different needs / value.
  - unethical_ban 4y ago
    I've been brainstorming a site that uses HN usernames to validate identity and have a comment floor of 500 on HN to participate. It would be like HN but for political and non tech articles.
anthk 4y ago
gopher://gopherddit.com from Lynx.
gaoshan 4y ago
Reddit has declined so significantly in quality and (in particular) moderation that it's hard to get much out of it. I used it from the very beginning and now overall quality (both posts and comments) is as low as I can recall. Mods have ridiculous power over any users that actually participate in the comments and, in my opinion, the "weaponization" of moderator ability as well as of reddit's newer mod tools has gotten to the point where you participate at your account's peril. If you want to graze it on the toilet, fine. If you participate in a niche subreddit where the mods value a lack of censorship, fine. Outside of that it has become a place for reposted content, low quality commentary (literally the opposite of a place like this) and a rapidly increasing moderator tyranny.
- unethical_ban 4y ago
  Agreed. I'm progressive and try to engage in good faith, but have been banned from a number of subs such as whitepeopletwitter (racist name), politics, latestagecapitalism, and several others because they are safe spaces. They are agitation echo chambers. I get that sometimes, skilled trolls play devil's advocate to take conversations off the rails, but the banhammer falls far too quickly on the large subs. It really is propaganda trash. Reddit is alright for municipal subs, hobbies, and technical stuff. As well as mindless entertainment, my favorite is idiotsincars and catastrophicfailure. Anything where inside jokes are rampant or memes are allowed is trash (political compass memes, programmer humor). Political subs are good sometimes, only if you find a good highly up oted comment with good sourcing of data. But the bulk is just as simple minded as a fox news comments section.
  - gaoshan 4y ago
    I was banned from a pro-ccp sub and reported to reddit (and received a warning for this). My comment was literally, "Finding a subreddit like this is like discovering the Upside Down from Stranger Things". That's it. No back and forth, no other comments. Simply those words. For that reddit threatened me (someone active on the site for 14 years, with hundreds of thousands of their "karma", a subreddit moderator and who has "reddit gold") with a ban.
remote_phone 4y ago
When Reddit goes public and everyone EXCEPT the subreddit moderators make millions/billions, I wonder how long Reddit will stay around for? It’s the subreddits and the moderators that make what Reddit is today, and they are the ones that do all the hard work and yet somehow they are the only ones that won’t profit from an IPO.
- ano88888 4y ago
  Well, users upload content to FB /TickTock which are then monetized and the users don't get any money. So it is like that for almost all web 2.0 companies
  - remote_phone 4y ago
    Yes they can definitely monetize their followers.
hacknewslogin 4y ago
How about teddit.net?
- warty_affrays 4y ago
  Unless the post has been updated since your comment, teddit is the first option mentioned.

57 points by lysergia 4y ago

I'm only an occasional reddit user so have not looked for such clients yet my guess is most heavy users are already using such tricks as it's unbearable to put up with the magnitude of advertising on reddit Note to reddit: rethink your advertising strategy as it's unforgiving to be pummeled by ads incessantly

gruez 4y ago

>without [...] tracking of the ios apps they listed: apollo: has anonymous analytics narwhal: has "Usage Data Advertising Data" under "Data Used to Track You" and "Data Linked to You", has anonymous analytics/usage/crash logs, and uses your device id not exactly escaping much tracking here.

lysergia 4y ago
Personally I use old.reddit.com with an AD blocker. Surprisingly this article doesn’t mention it
riolu 4y ago
Apollo can have analytics disabled. Any 3rd party client defeats ad engagement tracking. You can curl their API yourself and you have defeated tracking. If the client isn't serving ads, like Apollo and Tweetbot, there isn't any engagement to track. It's limited to what you interact with while logged in. This is how every service works. The analytics for 3rd party clients are purely for the developer to improve their app, they don't care about what you do on it, that information isn't relevant to building a 3rd party client. Security/Privacy all depends on your threat model and what compromises you are willing to make.
- avg_dev 4y ago
  Can you please explain how to turn off Apollo analytics? Thanks.
  - moepstar 4y ago
    Looking at the privacy policy, i only noticed "anonymous crash reporting and analytics". That's easily switched off via Settings > About > Crash Reporting & Analytics. Edit: looking at the explanation below the On/Off switch, it seems this does provide analytics - "most commonly used features". So, turn it off...
    - avg_dev 4y ago
      That was very helpful; thanks.

tazu 4y ago

jbm 4y ago
Not to mention an entire subreddit dedicated to refining Meth. https://old.reddit.com/r/BabyBees/ https://old.reddit.com/r/BabyBees/
- fragmede 4y ago
  I had to scroll down to the 47th post before someone said methamphetamine. Also, I'm probably now on a list somewhere.
- tsol 4y ago
  Lol. There are a few chemistry for the sake of drug subs. Judging by the level of discussion though, there aren't a lot of people who really know what they're doing. Most drug production involves some pretty advanced chemistry
whalesalad 4y ago
reddit is huge - cars, woodworking, psychedelics, music, diy, homesteading, food/recipes, the list goes on.
joegahona 4y ago
Gen-pop on Reddit is terrible, but as someone else pointed out, it’s massive and very specialized. I’m in a forum about CPAP machines, mechanical keyboards, my city, coffee, and UX dark patterns. That’s not stuff that works on HN. They are completely different needs / value.
- unethical_ban 4y ago
  I've been brainstorming a site that uses HN usernames to validate identity and have a comment floor of 500 on HN to participate. It would be like HN but for political and non tech articles.

anthk 4y ago

gopher://gopherddit.com from Lynx.

gaoshan 4y ago

Reddit has declined so significantly in quality and (in particular) moderation that it's hard to get much out of it. I used it from the very beginning and now overall quality (both posts and comments) is as low as I can recall. Mods have ridiculous power over any users that actually participate in the comments and, in my opinion, the "weaponization" of moderator ability as well as of reddit's newer mod tools has gotten to the point where you participate at your account's peril. If you want to graze it on the toilet, fine. If you participate in a niche subreddit where the mods value a lack of censorship, fine. Outside of that it has become a place for reposted content, low quality commentary (literally the opposite of a place like this) and a rapidly increasing moderator tyranny.

unethical_ban 4y ago
Agreed. I'm progressive and try to engage in good faith, but have been banned from a number of subs such as whitepeopletwitter (racist name), politics, latestagecapitalism, and several others because they are safe spaces. They are agitation echo chambers. I get that sometimes, skilled trolls play devil's advocate to take conversations off the rails, but the banhammer falls far too quickly on the large subs. It really is propaganda trash. Reddit is alright for municipal subs, hobbies, and technical stuff. As well as mindless entertainment, my favorite is idiotsincars and catastrophicfailure. Anything where inside jokes are rampant or memes are allowed is trash (political compass memes, programmer humor). Political subs are good sometimes, only if you find a good highly up oted comment with good sourcing of data. But the bulk is just as simple minded as a fox news comments section.
- gaoshan 4y ago
  I was banned from a pro-ccp sub and reported to reddit (and received a warning for this). My comment was literally, "Finding a subreddit like this is like discovering the Upside Down from Stranger Things". That's it. No back and forth, no other comments. Simply those words. For that reddit threatened me (someone active on the site for 14 years, with hundreds of thousands of their "karma", a subreddit moderator and who has "reddit gold") with a ban.

remote_phone 4y ago

When Reddit goes public and everyone EXCEPT the subreddit moderators make millions/billions, I wonder how long Reddit will stay around for? It’s the subreddits and the moderators that make what Reddit is today, and they are the ones that do all the hard work and yet somehow they are the only ones that won’t profit from an IPO.

ano88888 4y ago
Well, users upload content to FB /TickTock which are then monetized and the users don't get any money. So it is like that for almost all web 2.0 companies
- remote_phone 4y ago
  Yes they can definitely monetize their followers.

hacknewslogin 4y ago

How about teddit.net?

warty_affrays 4y ago
Unless the post has been updated since your comment, teddit is the first option mentioned.