Ask HN: Why is Reddit on mobile so obsessed with making me use their app? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Why is Reddit on mobile so obsessed with making me use their app?

#441

Post by dimitar » Wed, Aug 19, 2020, 4:41 PM UTC

maerF0x0 wrote: post #424

KKKKkkkk1 wrote: post #405

Earlier quoted context omitted.

MIT economists Acemoglu and Robinson wrote a book "Why Nations Fail" that analyzes why countries at similar starting points can have extremely divergent paths in terms of economic development. One example is South and North Korea. Their conclusion is that some countries have established extractive institutions, while others inclusive . The extractive ones exclude the population from the decision making process and se…

What does it say about the United States?

The extractive rent-seeking (slavery being the most extractive economic and political institution possible) South was significantly lagging even before the rebellion, which was crushed by the United States whose other regions had more inclusive economic institutions.

In more recent times the authors compare two towns across the US-Mexico border: Nogales, AZ to to Nogales, Mexico. Even thought the language and ethnicity is mostly the same (95% Hispanic), with same climate and what not - Nogales in the United States has three times the GDP per capita of Nogales, Sonora. The difference is more inclusive economic and political institutions in the United States - while Mexico has suffered under one party rule for decades.

Re: Ask HN: Why is Reddit on mobile so obsessed with making me use their app?

#442

Post by vorticalbox » Wed, Aug 19, 2020, 4:42 PM UTC

adrianN wrote: post #402

AmericanOP wrote: post #389

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The most enraging thing is Reddit took over video hosting themselves, but simply declined to have a mobile/text share option. Links from any 3rd party service show up in the phone as the content i want to share. Reddit? You try to send someone a Reddit video link and they get affronted by a pop up banner to download the mobile app when they click through. WTF! I sent a reddit link to a video to my dad, once. He repli…

I have a greasemonkey script to filter out such posts. There is enough content without them. https://pastebin.com/5fFyiiM7

Nice I'm not the only one still using grease monkey :)

Re: Ask HN: Why is Reddit on mobile so obsessed with making me use their app?

#443

Post by plorkyeran » Wed, Aug 19, 2020, 4:43 PM UTC

nonbirithm wrote: post #384

Ozzie_osman wrote: post #283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is correct. It's about retention more than monetization. With the app, you can not only send notifications, but you also have the app icon which reminds people of the apps existence. Even little things like "badging" (when the app icon shows a dot or number to indicate new notifications) and even that can have a noticeable impact on retention (we're all programmed to click into anything with a notification). Als…

Also worth mentioning that there is no official API for Reddit's chat feature. You have no choice but to use the website or official app if you're on mobile and want or need to use their chat. Also the chat feature is extremely watered down and doesn't even have support for attaching images. But that doesn't matter if someone on Reddit chooses to contact you via chat and you want to respond. It compels you to use the…

If you always use third-party clients or old.reddit.com you'll never even know that someone tried to contact you via chat, which makes it somewhat ineffective at getting people to stop using those.

Re: Ask HN: Why is Reddit on mobile so obsessed with making me use their app?

#444

Post by nojvek » Wed, Aug 19, 2020, 4:44 PM UTC

The thing I am most astonished is that Wikipedia is even a thing that requires no login, no special app, no annoying popups (except the occasional jimmy wales donation banner). It’s open. It’s fast. It’s comprehensive. You can freely download a dump .

Reddit, quora, yelp, facebook on the other hand are Plagued with dark patterns that give a middle finger to the user.

It makes me wonder the kind of shit we build in the name of “user experience”. What is wrong with our industry?

Re: Ask HN: Why is Reddit on mobile so obsessed with making me use their app?

#445

Post by dfabulich » Wed, Aug 19, 2020, 4:45 PM UTC

rabuse wrote: post #413

Joeri wrote: post #407

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple added push notifications to safari, but only on desktop. That tells you that they deliberately do not support this because they know a lot of apps could be pwa’s otherwise.

Last I heard is that it is also coming to mobile.

Apple hasn’t announced anything like this. I’m pretty sure you’re confusing it with something else.

Re: Ask HN: Why is Reddit on mobile so obsessed with making me use their app?

#446

Post by monoideism » Wed, Aug 19, 2020, 4:46 PM UTC

dimitar wrote: post #441

maerF0x0 wrote: post #424

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does it say about the United States?

The extractive rent-seeking (slavery being the most extractive economic and political institution possible) South was significantly lagging even before the rebellion, which was crushed by the United States whose other regions had more inclusive economic institutions. In more recent times the authors compare two towns across the US-Mexico border: Nogales, AZ to to Nogales, Mexico. Even thought the language and ethnici…

> while Mexico has suffered under one party rule for decades

Yet now we suffer under two-party rule.

Re: Ask HN: Why is Reddit on mobile so obsessed with making me use their app?

#447

Post by mcintyre1994 » Wed, Aug 19, 2020, 4:47 PM UTC

streb-lo wrote: post #249

mcintyre1994 wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They also keep adding new stupid in-app notifications (I have OS notifications blocked for them) which ironically you have to use the website to disable. "Trending" stuff in subreddits you're not even in and suggested subreddits and garbage like that. I assume that rubbish does become an OS notification if you let them.

FYI you can disable all the fluff notifications in the iOS app at least. settings > username > notifications. I left just the comment replies on and turned everything else off.

Ah awesome, thanks!!

Re: Ask HN: Why is Reddit on mobile so obsessed with making me use their app?

#448

Post by renewiltord » Wed, Aug 19, 2020, 4:48 PM UTC

AmericanOP wrote: post #389

sixo wrote: post #331

It is pretty offensive that they say "reddit works better on the app" when the only reason for that is that they broke everything on mobile (on purpose?) in a series of badly-implemented redesigns. I'm never going to install it, and I have all but stopped reading it because these prompts are so obnoxious. That's probably +$ for Reddit though. I don't understand why companies constantly do stuff that serves only _them…

The most enraging thing is Reddit took over video hosting themselves, but simply declined to have a mobile/text share option. Links from any 3rd party service show up in the phone as the content i want to share. Reddit? You try to send someone a Reddit video link and they get affronted by a pop up banner to download the mobile app when they click through. WTF! I sent a reddit link to a video to my dad, once. He repli…

Most people use the reddit downloader bot to download and send the video. You'll see it summoned in every popular video thread.

Re: Ask HN: Why is Reddit on mobile so obsessed with making me use their app?

#449

Post by camillomiller » Wed, Aug 19, 2020, 4:49 PM UTC

teekert wrote: post #161

camillomiller wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do NOT have your phone with you on the dunny and don’t spend 15 minutes on it! Make it a one minute job. You’ll thank me when you won’t get piles ;)

Actually forcing the whole thing in 1 minute will get you piles, afaik?

if you can't make a 1-min poop, apart from other specific physiological reasons, it means you should check your diet, in my opinion. If you get the right amount of fiber and enough water, the whole thing shouldn't take more than that. This and a squatty potty have been life changing for me.

Re: Ask HN: Why is Reddit on mobile so obsessed with making me use their app?

#450

Post by mcintyre1994 » Wed, Aug 19, 2020, 4:49 PM UTC

bonestamp2 wrote: post #318

mcintyre1994 wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They also keep adding new stupid in-app notifications (I have OS notifications blocked for them) which ironically you have to use the website to disable. "Trending" stuff in subreddits you're not even in and suggested subreddits and garbage like that. I assume that rubbish does become an OS notification if you let them.

If you're on iOS, use Apollo... it's better than the web or reddit app experience.

I've heard it mentioned before, will definitely have to look into it - thanks! :)