4 ms·

Tell HN: Reddit now demands to know why you won't use their app

21 points by josephcsible 6mo ago

When you try to dismiss Reddit's mobile web prompt asking you to switch to their app, instead of just going away, it now gets replaced with this poll: > What is the primary reason you don't want to download the Reddit app? > I want to save space on my device > I don't use Reddit often enough > I prefer the privacy of my web browser > I want to avoid push notifications > I already have the Reddit app > I get what I need from the web browser

Terr_ 6mo ago
[x] "Everything you've been making is so user-hostile and unhelpful to my needs that when you remove old.reddit.com I will block Reddit links from my search results entirely." _______________ P.S.: As a hardcore Reddit commenter for over a decade who remembers moving from Digg, I'm mostly-serious. When there's an actual human discussion, I do not want to squint at a tiny viewable area, evading ads-that-look-like-comments, and manually iterating through dozens of "load more that are hidden" link-buttons... some of which will cause a page transition and completely reset all progress. This is especially true when I'm trying to find some crucial keyword (perhaps one a search-engine told me exists) but I can't just ctrl-f the through comments anymore. No, at that point... Well, at that point I will turn to something that would otherwise be anathema, a malevolent "solution" so horrible that it shows just how bad the problem is... I will seek a summary from [ominous thunderclap] an LLM!
ares623 6mo ago
Lol. Lmao even. They know why, so why bother with a poll? Is someone trying to get justification for nerfing the browser experience more? I suspect the last item will be the most popular option. Who the hell thinks "I want to save space on my device".
- Terr_ 6mo ago
  At the risk of stating the obvious: Some of the most-true answers would cause problems for certain people of they came up. After purging those (e.g. "app is missing features", "app is unstable") they needed to disguise the gap, so they are padding it with "safer" answers. Answers that don't reflect badly on past choices made by management.
Bender 6mo ago
[x] I do not install apps for anyone for any reason. I browse from Firefox on Linux on mini-PC's and laptops without exception. Why won't they install my curl | bash cron job that runs as root on all their servers? I pinky-promise it's mostly harmless.
- JohnFen 6mo ago
  > I do not install apps for anyone for any reason. I'm genuinely surprised that isn't an option in their poll. It's what I would answer.
  - tstrimple 6mo ago
    Because it would literally only capture a tiny fraction of cranky grey beards from HN and would be no way reflective of the real world to any degree. These people are as representative of the general population as the "No JS on the internet" people.
    - JohnFen 6mo ago
      I'm not so sure about that. I know quite a few young people who aren't tech-oriented who absolutely avoid installing apps. I suspect that, while a minority, there are a lot more ordinary people who take that stance than you think.
      - Bender 6mo ago
        I doubt many will select anything but I added a poll [1] [1] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47771145 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47771145
k310 6mo ago
I get daily requests to answer polls. Like my time is worth zero. Is theirs? Delete.
kazinator 6mo ago
Basically they just need one more option: > You'll never get me to use the app so stop trying. I mean for the sake of the completeness of their how-to-get-people-to-use-app research, not just the benefit of the user who doesn't want the app. You will not convert 100% of people to the app, unless you shut down the website, or make it so unusable on mobile that it might as well be shut down.
- OccamsMirror 6mo ago
  If they shut down the website and the decent third party apps, I'd actually stop browsing Reddit. That sounds like a net positive, to be honest.
nkreats 6mo ago
Pain in the butt if you ask me. They are trying to make it really annoying to use the web based reddit lol.
pogue 6mo ago
Can you block it as an element in Brave browser or prevent scripts from running or anything?
LOVELYZOMBIEYHO 6mo ago
[dead]
BLKNSLVR 6mo ago
The last option is a trick. If enough people select it, Reddit will cease to be usable (or just further decrease its usability?) via web browser.
- chistev 6mo ago
  I thought so too.
al_borland 6mo ago
This sounds like an admission that the app can and will violate user privacy more so than the browser.
- youniverse 6mo ago
  I'd wager it's more just more addiction/engagement since people/kids probably develop a deeper habit scrolling on a phone instead of a bigger screen.
QuantumNomad_ 6mo ago
It’s time to delete your Reddit account and stop browsing Reddit. I did and I don’t miss it.
- Terr_ 6mo ago
  With some distance, it's become easier for me to distinguish between the informational utility of the site versus the parasocial sense of being part of something because random people thought my comment was helpful or witty. ... Not that the second isn't still a pretty big deal, I didn't stop being a techno-hermit.
abhikul0 6mo ago
When the app only shows posts that are more than 10 hours old even when sorting by "hot" and shoving down the algorithmic feed on the app's home page, how are people still using the app? Lately I've only been visiting a few subs that I'm interested in and keeping them open in safari with ublock; it's been a far better experience. This has drastically cut my reddit time now and if I do want to mindlessly scroll, I just use redlib(hosted in docker or one of their public instances)[0]. It has the same "sort" that's used on the desktop site. [0] https://github.com/redlib-org/redlib https://github.com/redlib-org/redlib
digg32 6mo ago
We're supposed to believe that one of the most anti-war and pro-privacy communities is all of a sudden pro-war and anti-privacy? You could see the shilling and a.i. bots working when any time you advocated against war or against something that gave you less privacy, the bots would go through your 10yr reddit account history and pull up an unrelated smear to attack you with to discourage you from having that opinion. I had a feeling something was being done with bots and then that German university study talking about how they used a.I. bots to consensus crack people into having favorable government opinions came out. Low quality posts on the front page with 5k upvotes and less than 80 comments. Just look at /r/politics and the ratio of upvotes to comments compared to pre mass censorship after 2016. Reddit is dead. It's just a bot graveyard and people who haven't realized that they're talking to a.i. bots.
faangguyindia 6mo ago
Reddit suffers from moderatore running platform on their whims. Any platform which has ai based democratic moderation with audit trail can easily replace reddit imho. I miss the communities, many of the blogs i used to read have disappeared. There is no community of builders left where you can discuss services and tools
speedgoose 6mo ago
I browse old.reddit.com on mobile.
raks619 6mo ago
[flagged]
robgough 6mo ago
The Reddit app is so very bad. So bad in fact that I nearly considered paying for Narwhal, but then realised I should probably be trying to use Reddit less so paying for a subscription to access it would be madness. I do miss Apollo, which was lost when they started charging crazy money for their API. I do wonder how much that has affected their usage overall. But I don't think I've ever seen any long term reviews of the impact of those changes?
sph 6mo ago
I created a new Reddit account (deleted mine years ago) so I can stop being psyop’d every time I open Reddit with the deranged stuff on the /r/popular front page. I installed the app to curate my subreddits, and I saw ads everywhere. Every three posts there is a sneaky ad, that didn’t show up on the browser version as I have an adblock. The web version is utter trash but at least I don’t get spammed that much. If only I could kick the habit of opening that accursed website. If only communities didn’t abandon forums for that place.
ex-aws-dude 6mo ago
> I get what I need from the web browser If you answer this one they will make sure you don’t in the future
0x54MUR41 6mo ago
Thank you for sharing. It's been a year I think I haven't used Reddit apps on mobile phone. It feels much better since the apps keep recommending me something that they think I am interested in. Now, I am using the alternative, like https://safereddit.com https://safereddit.com.

21 points by josephcsible 6mo ago

Terr_ 6mo ago

[x] "Everything you've been making is so user-hostile and unhelpful to my needs that when you remove old.reddit.com I will block Reddit links from my search results entirely." _______________ P.S.: As a hardcore Reddit commenter for over a decade who remembers moving from Digg, I'm mostly-serious. When there's an actual human discussion, I do not want to squint at a tiny viewable area, evading ads-that-look-like-comments, and manually iterating through dozens of "load more that are hidden" link-buttons... some of which will cause a page transition and completely reset all progress. This is especially true when I'm trying to find some crucial keyword (perhaps one a search-engine told me exists) but I can't just ctrl-f the through comments anymore. No, at that point... Well, at that point I will turn to something that would otherwise be anathema, a malevolent "solution" so horrible that it shows just how bad the problem is... I will seek a summary from [ominous thunderclap] an LLM!

ares623 6mo ago

Lol. Lmao even. They know why, so why bother with a poll? Is someone trying to get justification for nerfing the browser experience more? I suspect the last item will be the most popular option. Who the hell thinks "I want to save space on my device".

Terr_ 6mo ago
At the risk of stating the obvious: Some of the most-true answers would cause problems for certain people of they came up. After purging those (e.g. "app is missing features", "app is unstable") they needed to disguise the gap, so they are padding it with "safer" answers. Answers that don't reflect badly on past choices made by management.

Bender 6mo ago

[x] I do not install apps for anyone for any reason. I browse from Firefox on Linux on mini-PC's and laptops without exception. Why won't they install my curl | bash cron job that runs as root on all their servers? I pinky-promise it's mostly harmless.

JohnFen 6mo ago
> I do not install apps for anyone for any reason. I'm genuinely surprised that isn't an option in their poll. It's what I would answer.
- tstrimple 6mo ago
  Because it would literally only capture a tiny fraction of cranky grey beards from HN and would be no way reflective of the real world to any degree. These people are as representative of the general population as the "No JS on the internet" people.
  - JohnFen 6mo ago
    I'm not so sure about that. I know quite a few young people who aren't tech-oriented who absolutely avoid installing apps. I suspect that, while a minority, there are a lot more ordinary people who take that stance than you think.
    - Bender 6mo ago
      I doubt many will select anything but I added a poll [1] [1] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47771145 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47771145

k310 6mo ago

I get daily requests to answer polls. Like my time is worth zero. Is theirs? Delete.

kazinator 6mo ago

Basically they just need one more option: > You'll never get me to use the app so stop trying. I mean for the sake of the completeness of their how-to-get-people-to-use-app research, not just the benefit of the user who doesn't want the app. You will not convert 100% of people to the app, unless you shut down the website, or make it so unusable on mobile that it might as well be shut down.

OccamsMirror 6mo ago
If they shut down the website and the decent third party apps, I'd actually stop browsing Reddit. That sounds like a net positive, to be honest.

nkreats 6mo ago

Pain in the butt if you ask me. They are trying to make it really annoying to use the web based reddit lol.

pogue 6mo ago

Can you block it as an element in Brave browser or prevent scripts from running or anything?

LOVELYZOMBIEYHO 6mo ago

[dead]

BLKNSLVR 6mo ago

The last option is a trick. If enough people select it, Reddit will cease to be usable (or just further decrease its usability?) via web browser.

chistev 6mo ago
I thought so too.

al_borland 6mo ago

This sounds like an admission that the app can and will violate user privacy more so than the browser.

youniverse 6mo ago
I'd wager it's more just more addiction/engagement since people/kids probably develop a deeper habit scrolling on a phone instead of a bigger screen.

QuantumNomad_ 6mo ago

It’s time to delete your Reddit account and stop browsing Reddit. I did and I don’t miss it.

Terr_ 6mo ago
With some distance, it's become easier for me to distinguish between the informational utility of the site versus the parasocial sense of being part of something because random people thought my comment was helpful or witty. ... Not that the second isn't still a pretty big deal, I didn't stop being a techno-hermit.

abhikul0 6mo ago

When the app only shows posts that are more than 10 hours old even when sorting by "hot" and shoving down the algorithmic feed on the app's home page, how are people still using the app? Lately I've only been visiting a few subs that I'm interested in and keeping them open in safari with ublock; it's been a far better experience. This has drastically cut my reddit time now and if I do want to mindlessly scroll, I just use redlib(hosted in docker or one of their public instances)[0]. It has the same "sort" that's used on the desktop site. [0] https://github.com/redlib-org/redlib https://github.com/redlib-org/redlib

digg32 6mo ago

We're supposed to believe that one of the most anti-war and pro-privacy communities is all of a sudden pro-war and anti-privacy? You could see the shilling and a.i. bots working when any time you advocated against war or against something that gave you less privacy, the bots would go through your 10yr reddit account history and pull up an unrelated smear to attack you with to discourage you from having that opinion. I had a feeling something was being done with bots and then that German university study talking about how they used a.I. bots to consensus crack people into having favorable government opinions came out. Low quality posts on the front page with 5k upvotes and less than 80 comments. Just look at /r/politics and the ratio of upvotes to comments compared to pre mass censorship after 2016. Reddit is dead. It's just a bot graveyard and people who haven't realized that they're talking to a.i. bots.

faangguyindia 6mo ago

Reddit suffers from moderatore running platform on their whims. Any platform which has ai based democratic moderation with audit trail can easily replace reddit imho. I miss the communities, many of the blogs i used to read have disappeared. There is no community of builders left where you can discuss services and tools

speedgoose 6mo ago

I browse old.reddit.com on mobile.

raks619 6mo ago

[flagged]

robgough 6mo ago

The Reddit app is so very bad. So bad in fact that I nearly considered paying for Narwhal, but then realised I should probably be trying to use Reddit less so paying for a subscription to access it would be madness. I do miss Apollo, which was lost when they started charging crazy money for their API. I do wonder how much that has affected their usage overall. But I don't think I've ever seen any long term reviews of the impact of those changes?

sph 6mo ago

I created a new Reddit account (deleted mine years ago) so I can stop being psyop’d every time I open Reddit with the deranged stuff on the /r/popular front page. I installed the app to curate my subreddits, and I saw ads everywhere. Every three posts there is a sneaky ad, that didn’t show up on the browser version as I have an adblock. The web version is utter trash but at least I don’t get spammed that much. If only I could kick the habit of opening that accursed website. If only communities didn’t abandon forums for that place.

ex-aws-dude 6mo ago

> I get what I need from the web browser If you answer this one they will make sure you don’t in the future

0x54MUR41 6mo ago

Thank you for sharing. It's been a year I think I haven't used Reddit apps on mobile phone. It feels much better since the apps keep recommending me something that they think I am interested in. Now, I am using the alternative, like https://safereddit.com https://safereddit.com.