7 ms·

My outcome was the shutdown of Apollo, rather than the blackout. I no longer read Reddit on my phone. (Except for a link or two clicked from something else, but

by sorahn 3y ago

My outcome was the shutdown of Apollo, rather than the blackout. I no longer read Reddit on my phone. (Except for a link or two clicked from something else, but even then I go to `old.reddit` instead to read the comments). That was really where I wasted the most time on it. It’s kind of a relief. I think I was too “lazy” to stop on my own because Apollo was so comfortable to use.

nishantk 3y ago
Exactly this.
funkychicken 3y ago
+1. I’m grateful because I knew it was in my mental health’s best interest to stop endlessly scrolling /r/all, but I needed a push.
cxx 3y ago
Apollo's shutdown was a blessing in disguise, I was addicted to Reddit and wasted hours on it before going to sleep. Thanks to that event I no longer browse or even feel the need to see what's going on, it's like quitting smoking, I literally feel better and relieved that I quit. I don't think I would've been able to stop on my own either, Apollo made it too easy.
- Breza 3y ago
  I feel the same way. I left Reddit altogether in the protest and haven't come back. Suddenly I have hours of time back every week.
- xyst 3y ago
  Now I’m addicted to TT :dead:
  - denimnerd42 3y ago
    tiktok made tv shows and movies unwatchable for me haha. that kind of media is just too slow. only sports at this point. I would say I watch 45m/day of tiktok. 5m here and there.
    - tekknik 3y ago
      So tiktok causes ADD and we’re ok with kids using it? Sounds like it needs to be used less by adults too.
      - deleted 3y ago
        [deleted]
      - lewispollard 3y ago
        That's not what ADD is.
        tekknik 3y ago
        yes it is. and when you grow up with short form videos being your form of entertainment you’re just teaching kids to have short attention spans.
        lewispollard 3y ago
        No, it isn't. ADD (now classified as Inattentive type ADHD) isn't having a "short attention span", it's a huge swathe of neurological symptoms of which having a short attention span might be one, sometimes - but it isn't the defining characteristic. The name of the disorder is misleading. ADHD is a neurodevelopmental disorder, like schizophrenia and autism, and isn't something that can be induced through forms of entertainment (though those predisposed to the disorder genetically may find symptoms worsen through them).
    - richwater 3y ago
      this comment cant be real
- sadtoot 3y ago
  i feel this way about twitter since logged out users can't browse tweets anymore. now i can give myself just a tiny bit of friction to break the habit. i still waste time on my phone, but at least it's not quite so effortless now
realusername 3y ago
Same outcome for me but with Relay for Reddit, I could not bring myself to use the official app and now my usage dropped closed to zero which was a good thing, I have more time for productive stuff.
replwoacause 3y ago
Same thing here. I stopped browsing Reddit mindlessly and only end up there now if a Kagi search takes me there. Otherwise I am almost completely off the platform, which is saying a lot because I used to spend 1-2 hours a day there.
- midasz 3y ago
  > if a Kagi search takes me there Same and mainly because Kagi let's me rewrite the url to a private libreddit instance. Otherwise I'd have downranked it.
willis936 3y ago
Same here. I'm happily spending more free time on creative and learning ventures.
TaylorAlexander 3y ago
Yep I was using Baconreader and when that stopped working, I simply stopped using reddit. I was not a heavy user by that point, but now my use has gone to zero aside from the occasional google search result leading me there.
nkotov 3y ago
I've been using Winston as an alternative but it still doesn't compared to how good Apollo was. My reddit usage overall has decreased simply because of it.
theshrike79 3y ago
Yep, Apollo going away made me stop using mobile Reddit completely. Don't bother on the desktop either, because I liked the Apollo UI a lot more. Nowadays I'm mostly on Tildes and here, neither of which has the endless inflow of content that Reddit did, it's actually possible to read "everything" on both and then go do something else.
elmepo 3y ago
Same, albeit with Reddit is Fun. Personally I used to visit Reddit multiple times per day but now I typically visit it once or twice per week, if at all. I'm sure the official app is fine, but the approach they took to third party developers soured it for me. Ultimately I think if anything had any impact on Reddit's traffic it would have been the killing of the defacto mobile apps. The lesson any future founders should take is to kill off third party apps sooner rather than later if you ever want to do so, before user growth on those platforms becomes an issue.
- pcdandy 3y ago
  Reddit Is Fun (rif) was a well-designed app that just worked. It was fast, had a customisable user interface with defaults that didn't get in the way of enjoying the content, and could run on all of my devices easily, including an Android 7 phone from 2018. It's a shining examplar of what a mobile browsing app should be like. By comparison, the official Reddit app feels somewhat slower, even on my relatively new Android 12 phone from 2021, having a very noticeable lag when scrolling through articles and comments. For video and photo posts, there's no way of browsing the comments without clicking on the thumbnail and having it auto-play the videos every time, meaning I need to react fast to pause the video (there is practically no way of stopping this). And it doesn't support Android 7 anymore, meaning the only way to access it from my 2018 phone is via the browser. It baffles me why Reddit would want to cut support for 3rd party apps when they were a key component in the Reddit ecosystem.
  - johnnyanmac 3y ago
    Biggest mistake by far was letting adtech completely TANK the performance of sites just so they can satisfy paranoid adverts. It's an absolute travesty that a top 3 reason to install adblock comes from a performance POV, because these simple static webpages* are forced to inject MB's of ads into your feed first. Reddit as a site was never optimal to begin with and it only became worse when they decided to homeroll their own image/video hosting. But the biggest consequence of surrendering to ads turns base Reddit into feel like its 20 years older than it is. >It baffles me why Reddit would want to cut support for 3rd party apps when they were a key component in the Reddit ecosystem. money and control, the root of most evils in the world.
Agingcoder 3y ago
Agreed it means I no longer read Reddit at all because Apollo’s gone. I tried last week ( after a few months off Reddit) to install the Reddit app, and it’s appallingly bad. It’s so confusing that I’m not quite sure what sub I’m reading, what’s user generated, and what’s an ad ( I was never a prolific poster, commenter, mod or anything - just reading is difficult now ) So independently of the politics, I’ve tried to come back to the platform, but I can’t, because the new product is vastly inferior to the old one.
- Galaco 3y ago
  > I’m not quite sure what sub I’m reading, what’s user generated, and what’s an ad I'm unable to tell apart ads properly either quickly on reddit, and given the it's the same user action to collapse a comment and to click an ad that looks like a comment, I've misclicked on ads many, many times. It doesn't help that they place them at the top of the comments section and seem to be deliberately designed to look like gif comments. As an advertiser I would not be particularly chuffed. I can say with confidence that my accidental ad click rate on reddit is 100%.
- Obscurity4340 3y ago
  > Reddit app, and its Apollongly bad Fixed that for you ;)
- Oreb 3y ago
  Narwhal 2 is not bad, IMHO. It’s almost as nice as Apollo on the iPhone, and much better than Apollo on the iPad.
akaij 3y ago
Apollo still works perfectly if you sideload it: https://old.reddit.com/r/apolloapp/comments/14nzii3/how_to_continue_using_apollo_past_june_30th_2023/ https://old.reddit.com/r/apolloapp/comments/14nzii3/how_to_c... https://github.com/ichitaso/ApolloPatcher/releases/latest https://github.com/ichitaso/ApolloPatcher/releases/latest https://github.com/EthanArbuckle/Apollo-CustomApiCredentials https://github.com/EthanArbuckle/Apollo-CustomApiCredentials
- wkat4242 3y ago
  What's so great about Apollo I wonder? I've never tried it before :) what does it do differently? Edit: oh never mind, I've been digging into the links but it looks like it's iOS - only. So that explains why I've never come across it before.
  - wingerlang 3y ago
    It's a well made app from an underdog, versus a good app from big bad reddit. In my experience, based on reading complaints about the app, is that many use it for 5 minutes on the default settings and claim it is the worst app ever made.
jalapenos 3y ago
Same, Reddit saved me from it by cutting my 3rd-party app cord. It's just bizarre to me that they didn't try to buy one of these apps to replace their own. That would've been a net win. It seems instead, as throughout their history, that their leadership is constantly trying to destroy it. If they had external investors they'd be being hit with shareholder lawsuits constantly.
- Obscurity4340 3y ago
  They already did that it was AlienBlue and thry wrecked it if my understanding is correct
Terretta 3y ago
On iOS, especially iPad, try: - Narwhal 2: https://narwhal.app/ https://narwhal.app/ Of course, you pay the API costs. But this is pro work, countless UX details thoughtfully made. - Winston: https://winston.cafe/ https://winston.cafe/ - Winston on GitHub: https://github.com/lo-cafe/winston https://github.com/lo-cafe/winston In TestFlight Beta, OK on iPhone but awkward on iPad unless full screen; layout is jumbled mess in stage manager windows.
baby 3y ago
I basically stopped using reddit when they came up with the new web UI, and then pushed me to download the app on mobile. They obviously don't care about users.
Kichererbsen 3y ago
I didn't even use Apollo: I was hooked on the official iOS app. And used the blackout to kick the habit. Haven't looked back since. _Some_ of the free time I got back has now gone towards youtube shorts, but since those really requires headphones, I can keep it to a much smaller percentage of my free time. Instead, I bought a subscription to a local news paper, you know, for when you're on the loo and need something to read. I feel I'm better informed now than when I was reading reddit compusively.

by sorahn 3y ago

nishantk 3y ago

Exactly this.

funkychicken 3y ago

+1. I’m grateful because I knew it was in my mental health’s best interest to stop endlessly scrolling /r/all, but I needed a push.

cxx 3y ago

Apollo's shutdown was a blessing in disguise, I was addicted to Reddit and wasted hours on it before going to sleep. Thanks to that event I no longer browse or even feel the need to see what's going on, it's like quitting smoking, I literally feel better and relieved that I quit. I don't think I would've been able to stop on my own either, Apollo made it too easy.

Breza 3y ago
I feel the same way. I left Reddit altogether in the protest and haven't come back. Suddenly I have hours of time back every week.
xyst 3y ago
Now I’m addicted to TT :dead:
- denimnerd42 3y ago
  tiktok made tv shows and movies unwatchable for me haha. that kind of media is just too slow. only sports at this point. I would say I watch 45m/day of tiktok. 5m here and there.
  - tekknik 3y ago
    So tiktok causes ADD and we’re ok with kids using it? Sounds like it needs to be used less by adults too.
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
    - lewispollard 3y ago
      That's not what ADD is.
      - tekknik 3y ago
        yes it is. and when you grow up with short form videos being your form of entertainment you’re just teaching kids to have short attention spans.
        lewispollard 3y ago
        No, it isn't. ADD (now classified as Inattentive type ADHD) isn't having a "short attention span", it's a huge swathe of neurological symptoms of which having a short attention span might be one, sometimes - but it isn't the defining characteristic. The name of the disorder is misleading. ADHD is a neurodevelopmental disorder, like schizophrenia and autism, and isn't something that can be induced through forms of entertainment (though those predisposed to the disorder genetically may find symptoms worsen through them).
  - richwater 3y ago
    this comment cant be real
sadtoot 3y ago
i feel this way about twitter since logged out users can't browse tweets anymore. now i can give myself just a tiny bit of friction to break the habit. i still waste time on my phone, but at least it's not quite so effortless now

realusername 3y ago

Same outcome for me but with Relay for Reddit, I could not bring myself to use the official app and now my usage dropped closed to zero which was a good thing, I have more time for productive stuff.

replwoacause 3y ago

Same thing here. I stopped browsing Reddit mindlessly and only end up there now if a Kagi search takes me there. Otherwise I am almost completely off the platform, which is saying a lot because I used to spend 1-2 hours a day there.

midasz 3y ago
> if a Kagi search takes me there Same and mainly because Kagi let's me rewrite the url to a private libreddit instance. Otherwise I'd have downranked it.

willis936 3y ago

Same here. I'm happily spending more free time on creative and learning ventures.

TaylorAlexander 3y ago

Yep I was using Baconreader and when that stopped working, I simply stopped using reddit. I was not a heavy user by that point, but now my use has gone to zero aside from the occasional google search result leading me there.

nkotov 3y ago

I've been using Winston as an alternative but it still doesn't compared to how good Apollo was. My reddit usage overall has decreased simply because of it.

theshrike79 3y ago

Yep, Apollo going away made me stop using mobile Reddit completely. Don't bother on the desktop either, because I liked the Apollo UI a lot more. Nowadays I'm mostly on Tildes and here, neither of which has the endless inflow of content that Reddit did, it's actually possible to read "everything" on both and then go do something else.

elmepo 3y ago

Same, albeit with Reddit is Fun. Personally I used to visit Reddit multiple times per day but now I typically visit it once or twice per week, if at all. I'm sure the official app is fine, but the approach they took to third party developers soured it for me. Ultimately I think if anything had any impact on Reddit's traffic it would have been the killing of the defacto mobile apps. The lesson any future founders should take is to kill off third party apps sooner rather than later if you ever want to do so, before user growth on those platforms becomes an issue.

pcdandy 3y ago
Reddit Is Fun (rif) was a well-designed app that just worked. It was fast, had a customisable user interface with defaults that didn't get in the way of enjoying the content, and could run on all of my devices easily, including an Android 7 phone from 2018. It's a shining examplar of what a mobile browsing app should be like. By comparison, the official Reddit app feels somewhat slower, even on my relatively new Android 12 phone from 2021, having a very noticeable lag when scrolling through articles and comments. For video and photo posts, there's no way of browsing the comments without clicking on the thumbnail and having it auto-play the videos every time, meaning I need to react fast to pause the video (there is practically no way of stopping this). And it doesn't support Android 7 anymore, meaning the only way to access it from my 2018 phone is via the browser. It baffles me why Reddit would want to cut support for 3rd party apps when they were a key component in the Reddit ecosystem.
- johnnyanmac 3y ago
  Biggest mistake by far was letting adtech completely TANK the performance of sites just so they can satisfy paranoid adverts. It's an absolute travesty that a top 3 reason to install adblock comes from a performance POV, because these simple static webpages* are forced to inject MB's of ads into your feed first. Reddit as a site was never optimal to begin with and it only became worse when they decided to homeroll their own image/video hosting. But the biggest consequence of surrendering to ads turns base Reddit into feel like its 20 years older than it is. >It baffles me why Reddit would want to cut support for 3rd party apps when they were a key component in the Reddit ecosystem. money and control, the root of most evils in the world.

Agingcoder 3y ago

Agreed it means I no longer read Reddit at all because Apollo’s gone. I tried last week ( after a few months off Reddit) to install the Reddit app, and it’s appallingly bad. It’s so confusing that I’m not quite sure what sub I’m reading, what’s user generated, and what’s an ad ( I was never a prolific poster, commenter, mod or anything - just reading is difficult now ) So independently of the politics, I’ve tried to come back to the platform, but I can’t, because the new product is vastly inferior to the old one.

Galaco 3y ago
> I’m not quite sure what sub I’m reading, what’s user generated, and what’s an ad I'm unable to tell apart ads properly either quickly on reddit, and given the it's the same user action to collapse a comment and to click an ad that looks like a comment, I've misclicked on ads many, many times. It doesn't help that they place them at the top of the comments section and seem to be deliberately designed to look like gif comments. As an advertiser I would not be particularly chuffed. I can say with confidence that my accidental ad click rate on reddit is 100%.
Obscurity4340 3y ago
> Reddit app, and its Apollongly bad Fixed that for you ;)
Oreb 3y ago
Narwhal 2 is not bad, IMHO. It’s almost as nice as Apollo on the iPhone, and much better than Apollo on the iPad.

akaij 3y ago

Apollo still works perfectly if you sideload it: https://old.reddit.com/r/apolloapp/comments/14nzii3/how_to_continue_using_apollo_past_june_30th_2023/ https://old.reddit.com/r/apolloapp/comments/14nzii3/how_to_c... https://github.com/ichitaso/ApolloPatcher/releases/latest https://github.com/ichitaso/ApolloPatcher/releases/latest https://github.com/EthanArbuckle/Apollo-CustomApiCredentials https://github.com/EthanArbuckle/Apollo-CustomApiCredentials

wkat4242 3y ago
What's so great about Apollo I wonder? I've never tried it before :) what does it do differently? Edit: oh never mind, I've been digging into the links but it looks like it's iOS - only. So that explains why I've never come across it before.
- wingerlang 3y ago
  It's a well made app from an underdog, versus a good app from big bad reddit. In my experience, based on reading complaints about the app, is that many use it for 5 minutes on the default settings and claim it is the worst app ever made.

jalapenos 3y ago

Same, Reddit saved me from it by cutting my 3rd-party app cord. It's just bizarre to me that they didn't try to buy one of these apps to replace their own. That would've been a net win. It seems instead, as throughout their history, that their leadership is constantly trying to destroy it. If they had external investors they'd be being hit with shareholder lawsuits constantly.

Obscurity4340 3y ago
They already did that it was AlienBlue and thry wrecked it if my understanding is correct

Terretta 3y ago

On iOS, especially iPad, try: - Narwhal 2: https://narwhal.app/ https://narwhal.app/ Of course, you pay the API costs. But this is pro work, countless UX details thoughtfully made. - Winston: https://winston.cafe/ https://winston.cafe/ - Winston on GitHub: https://github.com/lo-cafe/winston https://github.com/lo-cafe/winston In TestFlight Beta, OK on iPhone but awkward on iPad unless full screen; layout is jumbled mess in stage manager windows.

baby 3y ago

I basically stopped using reddit when they came up with the new web UI, and then pushed me to download the app on mobile. They obviously don't care about users.

Kichererbsen 3y ago

I didn't even use Apollo: I was hooked on the official iOS app. And used the blackout to kick the habit. Haven't looked back since. _Some_ of the free time I got back has now gone towards youtube shorts, but since those really requires headphones, I can keep it to a much smaller percentage of my free time. Instead, I bought a subscription to a local news paper, you know, for when you're on the loo and need something to read. I feel I'm better informed now than when I was reading reddit compusively.