6 ms·

I mod a reasonably popular subreddit for work, and, looking at the stats as a die hard old reddit user, I was floored at how few of us there really are.

bix6 3mo ago
Numbers please
- Eisenstein 3mo ago
  Here are stats from from a 100k member subreddit with 15k unique visitors a day. * https://imgur.com/UTJyyl8 https://imgur.com/UTJyyl8
  - bix6 3mo ago
    So the takeaway is there’s a lot of members but only about 15% are active daily? And of that 15% it’s unknown how many are human vs bot?
    - Eisenstein 3mo ago
      Unless bots subscribe to the subreddit they wouldn't count as members.
al_borland 3mo ago
Most people accept what is given to them and won’t go through the effort to change it. Are there any stats on account age as well? I wonder if Reddit figured the old Reddit user problem would be solved through attrition as people naturally left and new users join the site only knowing the new interface.
jazzypants 3mo ago
I mean, I used the old design for a couple years, but now I genuinely prefer the new design. I mostly view Reddit on my phone, and new reddit is much more mobile friendly. I have to pinch and zoom and scroll all over the place on old reddit. I know that's an unpopular opinion around these parts, but I also hate viewing this website on my phone so I use an app. This website really needs a mobile redesign, but I can't imagine the shit fit that the users would throw.
- danisth 3mo ago
  I found an extension for Safari called SinkItforReddit and it does an ok job of making old Reddit usable on mobile. I still fatfinger some clicks, but I’m stubborn and refuse to use the new site. My main gripe with it is less about the UI and more that the content ordering feels more obscured, whereas old site shows me the fairly basic heuristic algorithm for content order.
- ksec 3mo ago
  Also want to add, the new design is now after at least 5 - 6 years of iterations on React, is finally useable and better. Much like all decent JS front end / React based Web site, it takes years to polish to make it work to certain standards. I am not entirely sure why we have to do that and what benefits does it actually brings?
  - jazzypants 3mo ago
    Just to clarify: I think an older version may have used React, but I just double-checked and current Reddit is definitely a Lit app built with web components. You can tell based on the comment placeholders used by the rendering engine as anchor nodes and by the prevalence of dashed-elements in the markup. Here's an example: <rpl-tooltip placement="top" appearance="neutral">  <span slot="content">Send a GIF</span> </rpl-tooltip> They seem to call the current architecture "shreddit" internally for some reason.
    - Melatonic 3mo ago
      Probably "shhh" don't tell anyone how bad this version this is
  - darepublic 3mo ago
    they put a bunch of their stuff in shadow dom. A lot of the decisions of course are not based on usability but monetization incentives. If the current decision makers could, they would have made reddit a walled garden like facebook but the transition is a little awkward seeing as it used to be a free and open site. looks like they are close to cutting the cord on that openness.
OGWhales 3mo ago
Is this comparing old.reddit to reddit.com? I am using the normal url but still use the old design. I just toggled a setting in preferences to use the old design without needing to go to old.reddit, only reason I ever use old.reddit is if I'm logged out. That might be even more niche though, it seems like most people actually use the other url which always confused me when there is a toggle.
- dredmorbius 3mo ago
  That's not clear, from the reported stats. But from my own experience, as of several years ago (I closed my subs some years back), "old" was a small fraction of total usage. This despite the fact that I actively promoted its use for my subs (site design which I intended, and hope, greatly increased utility and readability).
- cr1895 3mo ago
  >it seems like most people actually use the other url which always confused me when there is a toggle. well, I for one had no idea there was a toggle until just now.
  - OGWhales 3mo ago
    Yeah, in preferences there is an option by beta options that says: "Use new Reddit as my default experience". Once it a blue moon it doesn't seem to work and going to old.reddit then back to reddit seems to fix it.
- janaagaard 3mo ago
  I didn't know this existed. Pretty neat, especially since Reddit recently started redirecting old.reddit.com to reddit.com when clicking internal links on the site. Thanks.
- ryanbrunner 2mo ago
  In my experience as a pretty frequent Reddit user, Reddit is really bad at "forgetting" that you want the old design and flipping you back to the new one.

bix6 3mo ago

Numbers please

Eisenstein 3mo ago
Here are stats from from a 100k member subreddit with 15k unique visitors a day. * https://imgur.com/UTJyyl8 https://imgur.com/UTJyyl8
- bix6 3mo ago
  So the takeaway is there’s a lot of members but only about 15% are active daily? And of that 15% it’s unknown how many are human vs bot?
  - Eisenstein 3mo ago
    Unless bots subscribe to the subreddit they wouldn't count as members.

al_borland 3mo ago

Most people accept what is given to them and won’t go through the effort to change it. Are there any stats on account age as well? I wonder if Reddit figured the old Reddit user problem would be solved through attrition as people naturally left and new users join the site only knowing the new interface.

jazzypants 3mo ago

I mean, I used the old design for a couple years, but now I genuinely prefer the new design. I mostly view Reddit on my phone, and new reddit is much more mobile friendly. I have to pinch and zoom and scroll all over the place on old reddit. I know that's an unpopular opinion around these parts, but I also hate viewing this website on my phone so I use an app. This website really needs a mobile redesign, but I can't imagine the shit fit that the users would throw.

danisth 3mo ago
I found an extension for Safari called SinkItforReddit and it does an ok job of making old Reddit usable on mobile. I still fatfinger some clicks, but I’m stubborn and refuse to use the new site. My main gripe with it is less about the UI and more that the content ordering feels more obscured, whereas old site shows me the fairly basic heuristic algorithm for content order.
ksec 3mo ago
Also want to add, the new design is now after at least 5 - 6 years of iterations on React, is finally useable and better. Much like all decent JS front end / React based Web site, it takes years to polish to make it work to certain standards. I am not entirely sure why we have to do that and what benefits does it actually brings?
- jazzypants 3mo ago
  Just to clarify: I think an older version may have used React, but I just double-checked and current Reddit is definitely a Lit app built with web components. You can tell based on the comment placeholders used by the rendering engine as anchor nodes and by the prevalence of dashed-elements in the markup. Here's an example: <rpl-tooltip placement="top" appearance="neutral">  <span slot="content">Send a GIF</span> </rpl-tooltip> They seem to call the current architecture "shreddit" internally for some reason.
  - Melatonic 3mo ago
    Probably "shhh" don't tell anyone how bad this version this is
- darepublic 3mo ago
  they put a bunch of their stuff in shadow dom. A lot of the decisions of course are not based on usability but monetization incentives. If the current decision makers could, they would have made reddit a walled garden like facebook but the transition is a little awkward seeing as it used to be a free and open site. looks like they are close to cutting the cord on that openness.

OGWhales 3mo ago

Is this comparing old.reddit to reddit.com? I am using the normal url but still use the old design. I just toggled a setting in preferences to use the old design without needing to go to old.reddit, only reason I ever use old.reddit is if I'm logged out. That might be even more niche though, it seems like most people actually use the other url which always confused me when there is a toggle.

dredmorbius 3mo ago
That's not clear, from the reported stats. But from my own experience, as of several years ago (I closed my subs some years back), "old" was a small fraction of total usage. This despite the fact that I actively promoted its use for my subs (site design which I intended, and hope, greatly increased utility and readability).
cr1895 3mo ago
>it seems like most people actually use the other url which always confused me when there is a toggle. well, I for one had no idea there was a toggle until just now.
- OGWhales 3mo ago
  Yeah, in preferences there is an option by beta options that says: "Use new Reddit as my default experience". Once it a blue moon it doesn't seem to work and going to old.reddit then back to reddit seems to fix it.
janaagaard 3mo ago
I didn't know this existed. Pretty neat, especially since Reddit recently started redirecting old.reddit.com to reddit.com when clicking internal links on the site. Thanks.
ryanbrunner 2mo ago
In my experience as a pretty frequent Reddit user, Reddit is really bad at "forgetting" that you want the old design and flipping you back to the new one.