5 ms·

> it's almost unkillable. Kills my iPhone XS Max daily though. The navigation is completely broken as well. Some things don’t close, back button might or migh

> it's almost unkillable. Kills my iPhone XS Max daily though. The navigation is completely broken as well. Some things don’t close, back button might or might not work, never seems to remember where I was before, frequently rescrolling stuff. This is all after ad blocking. Without it, endless spam of embedded ads distracting me, wasting my time. Janky loading, page hangs on clicks. I’m not sure wtf their engineering team is doing but the site’s basically broken. Maybe it’s the normal state of things. Before I was using some third party app that was working great until Reddit killed api access. My usage of it has dropped as well. It’s just unpleasant to use now.

ToucanLoucan 3y ago
I was a frequent and enthusiastic contributor to dozens of niche subreddits about various techy topics, chiefly because it was a great way to kill time while using the restroom, shopping with the wife, all manner of things that are notable in that I don't have a computer. After using Apollo for so long, the reddit app is downright torture and I refuse to use it. I still occasionally reddit on a computer since the mobile experience is abysmal both in app and browser, but I'd be shocked if I manage 5% of my previous rate of activity. On the one hand, thanks reddit, I got a ton of free time back. On the other hand, that time was previously spent generating value for your website, so not sure that was a good move for you. Edit: Also, and this is strictly second-hand info from the Apollo dev who obviously is far from an unbiased source, but I have to admit alongside the thing just being objectively worse to use, my views of the reddit corporate structure also soured significantly. I think what they did with the API changes was a boneheaded move to be sure, but the way they went about it was so uniquely shitty to the people who had built small businesses around theirs that it truly boggled the mind. The dev for Apollo posted quite a bit around the "negotiations" if one wants to be generous and call them that in the lead up to the API changes, and the CEO just blatantly lied about him numerous times, in obvious ways, trying to paint him as this entitled kid in such a way that as a millennial, I have to admit I am THOROUGHLY sick of. Reddit as a company simply jacked the price, with barely any notice, refused to negotiate on a single point throughout and made numerous bad-faith claims about the developers who were (understandably) caught off guard. Like if you just want to close the API, fine, close it. But then that would paint reddit as the obvious bad guy, so instead they went round the back way with this "api price change" that was so ludicrously expensive that no app could possibly cover it, and then reddit gets to PR speak the thing as "well we tried to work with developers" in a blatantly bullshit way without technically lying. It's gross and tiresome and frankly, insults the intelligence of every reddit user. I can't say for certain if this wasn't the case that I'd still be using it more, as the app and mobile experiences are truly shit even without that. But this certainly has cooled my fervor to try to find ways to use it.
- microtonal 3y ago
  On the other hand, that time was previously spent generating value for your website, so not sure that was a good move for you. This is what I'd like to believe, but I fear it does not really make a difference. Reddit's audience has grown far beyond its initial tech roots and the quality outside a small subset of subreddits is... let's just call it devoid of content. It's barely a blip on the radar if the early adopter drop out, because they are by now a tiny subset of the population. And I guess that's fine. Platforms have their lifecycle. And when a social media network is for-profit, the early adopters are often only important for the initial bootstrapping. Luckily there are nice places like LWN, HN, Lobste.rs and other more niche communities.
  - Eisenstein 3y ago
    > It's barely a blip on the radar if the early adopter drop out, because they are by now a tiny subset of the population. The thing is, when people append 'reddit' to their search query, who writes the posts that get linked? When someone is looking for a home wifi router and types 'mesh wifi6 reddit' in google and a post comes up from /r/homenetworking, it is almost certainly a response to a question from someone about setting up a wireless network, or it is a guide or a review by someone who just posted to get their knowledge out there. Who writes those? Not the people who upvote videos of dudes getting into a fight in Burger King.
- epolanski 3y ago
  Moderation and how horrible is the Reddit app is the thing that turned me off most. The fact that Reddit keeps growing despite it's flaws and terrible management, let alone moderation, says a lot about the combination of a simple but effective product and critical mass.
heisgone 3y ago
My biggest fear is if they kill old.reddit.com . I can't use anything of the newer interface without pulling my hairs.
- arrowsmith 3y ago
  Yes, the day they kill old.reddit.com will be the day my Reddit usage drops to near-zero.
  - liotier 3y ago
    I'll miss AskHistorians. But thanks to Reddit having already weaned me from mobile usage, I'm psychologically ready to detach from yet another community.
    - arrowsmith 3y ago
      > Reddit having already weaned me from mobile usage That too. I'd like to thank whoever was responsible for Reddit's mobile redesign, because they cured my Reddit addiction. I can't count how many hours I've saved by not using their obnoxious, spammy new mobile UI.
      - liotier 3y ago
        For me, it is the API restriction that did it - Reddit is Fun was a stellar Android application, killing it ended my mobile usage. Everyone seemed aware it was going to be one of the effects of API restrictions - Reddit seems to have thought it was all right...
  - rd 3y ago
    Same, I know one of the current devs browses HN and commented a couple of months ago that there was still a contingent of devs on the team who want to keep old.reddit.com alive - not sure how long for though!
    - smegger001 3y ago
pants2 3y ago
It's remarkable that a San Francisco tech company with 2,000+ employees can't seem to produce an app that's half as good as Apollo, an app developed by one guy in Canada.
- mostlysimilar 3y ago
  Different incentives. Apollo was made by someone who loved making software and wanting to build something nice for people. Reddit is made by a corporation interested only in extracting as much wealth from the platform as possible, with as little regard for users as they can get away with.
  - ryanisnan 3y ago
    [flagged]
    - acureau 3y ago
      Passionless devs exist in droves, but I've never met a dev who didn't enjoy the salary. It's not far fetched at all to say that an individual working on something they care about has different incentives than an employee earning their pay.
      - SketchySeaBeast 3y ago
        > Passionless devs exist in droves, but I've never met a dev who didn't enjoy the salary. You haven't worked outside specific areas of the states, eh? Pay here in Canada is nothing extraordinary.
        dartos 3y ago
        If you can comfortably afford a place to live, some fun event a few times a month, and to eat out more than once a week, that’s pretty extraordinary.
        acureau 3y ago
pjc50 3y ago
The thing is, this now matches Twitter/X: unpleasant in usability, increasingly unpleasant in content, lots of the good posters have left; BUT such a significant chunk of "normal" companies and users are doing social media through it that it survives nonetheless. And those frogs are pretty boil-resistant. If there's a new game launched, where is the forum likely to be? Reddit. What search term do people add to try to bypass genAI content farms? Reddit.
- cgriswald 3y ago
  > What search term do people add to try to bypass genAI content farms? Reddit. I suspect that if reddit loses its more bespoke content, adding 'reddit' to searches will be far less useful. However, even if not, I think those days are numbered as AI becomes more useful and more integrated into search; and as it replaces traditional search.

ToucanLoucan 3y ago

I was a frequent and enthusiastic contributor to dozens of niche subreddits about various techy topics, chiefly because it was a great way to kill time while using the restroom, shopping with the wife, all manner of things that are notable in that I don't have a computer. After using Apollo for so long, the reddit app is downright torture and I refuse to use it. I still occasionally reddit on a computer since the mobile experience is abysmal both in app and browser, but I'd be shocked if I manage 5% of my previous rate of activity. On the one hand, thanks reddit, I got a ton of free time back. On the other hand, that time was previously spent generating value for your website, so not sure that was a good move for you. Edit: Also, and this is strictly second-hand info from the Apollo dev who obviously is far from an unbiased source, but I have to admit alongside the thing just being objectively worse to use, my views of the reddit corporate structure also soured significantly. I think what they did with the API changes was a boneheaded move to be sure, but the way they went about it was so uniquely shitty to the people who had built small businesses around theirs that it truly boggled the mind. The dev for Apollo posted quite a bit around the "negotiations" if one wants to be generous and call them that in the lead up to the API changes, and the CEO just blatantly lied about him numerous times, in obvious ways, trying to paint him as this entitled kid in such a way that as a millennial, I have to admit I am THOROUGHLY sick of. Reddit as a company simply jacked the price, with barely any notice, refused to negotiate on a single point throughout and made numerous bad-faith claims about the developers who were (understandably) caught off guard. Like if you just want to close the API, fine, close it. But then that would paint reddit as the obvious bad guy, so instead they went round the back way with this "api price change" that was so ludicrously expensive that no app could possibly cover it, and then reddit gets to PR speak the thing as "well we tried to work with developers" in a blatantly bullshit way without technically lying. It's gross and tiresome and frankly, insults the intelligence of every reddit user. I can't say for certain if this wasn't the case that I'd still be using it more, as the app and mobile experiences are truly shit even without that. But this certainly has cooled my fervor to try to find ways to use it.

microtonal 3y ago
On the other hand, that time was previously spent generating value for your website, so not sure that was a good move for you. This is what I'd like to believe, but I fear it does not really make a difference. Reddit's audience has grown far beyond its initial tech roots and the quality outside a small subset of subreddits is... let's just call it devoid of content. It's barely a blip on the radar if the early adopter drop out, because they are by now a tiny subset of the population. And I guess that's fine. Platforms have their lifecycle. And when a social media network is for-profit, the early adopters are often only important for the initial bootstrapping. Luckily there are nice places like LWN, HN, Lobste.rs and other more niche communities.
- Eisenstein 3y ago
  > It's barely a blip on the radar if the early adopter drop out, because they are by now a tiny subset of the population. The thing is, when people append 'reddit' to their search query, who writes the posts that get linked? When someone is looking for a home wifi router and types 'mesh wifi6 reddit' in google and a post comes up from /r/homenetworking, it is almost certainly a response to a question from someone about setting up a wireless network, or it is a guide or a review by someone who just posted to get their knowledge out there. Who writes those? Not the people who upvote videos of dudes getting into a fight in Burger King.
epolanski 3y ago
Moderation and how horrible is the Reddit app is the thing that turned me off most. The fact that Reddit keeps growing despite it's flaws and terrible management, let alone moderation, says a lot about the combination of a simple but effective product and critical mass.

heisgone 3y ago

My biggest fear is if they kill old.reddit.com . I can't use anything of the newer interface without pulling my hairs.

arrowsmith 3y ago
Yes, the day they kill old.reddit.com will be the day my Reddit usage drops to near-zero.
- liotier 3y ago
  I'll miss AskHistorians. But thanks to Reddit having already weaned me from mobile usage, I'm psychologically ready to detach from yet another community.
  - arrowsmith 3y ago
    > Reddit having already weaned me from mobile usage That too. I'd like to thank whoever was responsible for Reddit's mobile redesign, because they cured my Reddit addiction. I can't count how many hours I've saved by not using their obnoxious, spammy new mobile UI.
    - liotier 3y ago
      For me, it is the API restriction that did it - Reddit is Fun was a stellar Android application, killing it ended my mobile usage. Everyone seemed aware it was going to be one of the effects of API restrictions - Reddit seems to have thought it was all right...
- rd 3y ago
  Same, I know one of the current devs browses HN and commented a couple of months ago that there was still a contingent of devs on the team who want to keep old.reddit.com alive - not sure how long for though!
  - smegger001 3y ago

pants2 3y ago

It's remarkable that a San Francisco tech company with 2,000+ employees can't seem to produce an app that's half as good as Apollo, an app developed by one guy in Canada.

mostlysimilar 3y ago
Different incentives. Apollo was made by someone who loved making software and wanting to build something nice for people. Reddit is made by a corporation interested only in extracting as much wealth from the platform as possible, with as little regard for users as they can get away with.
- ryanisnan 3y ago
  [flagged]
  - acureau 3y ago
    Passionless devs exist in droves, but I've never met a dev who didn't enjoy the salary. It's not far fetched at all to say that an individual working on something they care about has different incentives than an employee earning their pay.
    - SketchySeaBeast 3y ago
      > Passionless devs exist in droves, but I've never met a dev who didn't enjoy the salary. You haven't worked outside specific areas of the states, eh? Pay here in Canada is nothing extraordinary.
      - dartos 3y ago
        If you can comfortably afford a place to live, some fun event a few times a month, and to eat out more than once a week, that’s pretty extraordinary.
      - acureau 3y ago

pjc50 3y ago

The thing is, this now matches Twitter/X: unpleasant in usability, increasingly unpleasant in content, lots of the good posters have left; BUT such a significant chunk of "normal" companies and users are doing social media through it that it survives nonetheless. And those frogs are pretty boil-resistant. If there's a new game launched, where is the forum likely to be? Reddit. What search term do people add to try to bypass genAI content farms? Reddit.

cgriswald 3y ago
> What search term do people add to try to bypass genAI content farms? Reddit. I suspect that if reddit loses its more bespoke content, adding 'reddit' to searches will be far less useful. However, even if not, I think those days are numbered as AI becomes more useful and more integrated into search; and as it replaces traditional search.