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

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

#511

Post by sinfulprogeny »

crims0n wrote: post #242
braythwayt wrote: post #120

I’ve given up on reddit on mobile. From time to time I drop in on it using Safari on the desktop, but it’s not worth it to me to deal with their engagement-ification in their mobile app, or obvious crippleware of their mobile web experience. I’m not pissed off about this: It’s like dropping in on a bar I used to enjoy a decade ago, to find out it has been redesigned a few times and everyone’s a new face. Sometimes, t…

> It’s like dropping in on a bar I used to enjoy a decade ago, to find out it has been redesigned a few times and everyone’s a new face. That is honestly the best analogy I have heard to describe my feelings towards the site. It's still reddit... sort of, but its not my reddit. I joined during the digg exodus and I don't know if it's because I was younger or what, but for a while reddit seemed like that go-to bar: al…

And today, the once best feature for finding new stuff: the front page / popular, is just misery porn and American politics. If you don't already have a healthy list of subscribed subs with actually good content, I find that it's really difficult to find new stuff.

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

#512

Post by Chris2048 »

spians wrote: post #192
YPCrumble wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interestingly parent’s plug is a dark pattern to avoid dark patterns! It’s also surprising that even on HN, a place where many people write software for a living, people are avoidant of advertising paid features.

> Interestingly parent’s plug is a dark pattern to avoid dark patterns! Sorry I didn't find any dark patterns here. If you can elaborate more on this, that would be really helpful. > It’s also surprising that even on HN, a place where many people write software for a living, people are avoidant of advertising paid features. Exactly! A lot of users want privacy focused - no ads apps. But many of them are hesitant to p…

> that means relying on good will of the developer that he will have motivation to maintain the app regularly or relying on some bug foundations

As opposed to paying for it which guarantees you'll get the service you want - except it doesn't. At least FLOSS would give you and others the opportunity to fix bugs /maintain the app themselves.

> But many of them are hesitant to pay for it

Depends what it is. There's a difference paying for a non free app, and tipping for a free app.

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

#513

Post by Erlich_Bachman »

Another thing they did lately BTW is these "show the rest of the discussion" links, which seem to randomly pop up in a thread, hiding relevant replies. And they are not even JS-based always it seems, they often reload the whole page! And when they do, they hide the other parts of the same thread that were visible on the previous page. What in God's holy name is that??? That is a worse UX in every single way, than what you could have had by simply printing all the replies like you did before. WTF is the point of that? Are you actively trying to get me off your website and go somewhere else? That's a hostile UI for no reason...

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

#514

Post by read_if_gay_ »

vorticalbox wrote: post #442
adrianN wrote: post #402

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 :)

It's also useful to auto-redirect to old.reddit without having to log in.

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

#515

Post by read_if_gay_ »

Erlich_Bachman wrote: post #513

Another thing they did lately BTW is these "show the rest of the discussion" links, which seem to randomly pop up in a thread, hiding relevant replies. And they are not even JS-based always it seems, they often reload the whole page! And when they do, they hide the other parts of the same thread that were visible on the previous page. What in God's holy name is that??? That is a worse UX in every single way, than wha…

I guess the UX is better if you're mostly using reddit to scroll through memes. Like you look at a meme, chuckle, read the top reply, chuckle again, on to the next meme.

It's absolutely garbage for comment-heavy subs, but the vast majority of reddit users doesn't visit those.

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

#516

Post by askafriend »

eirini1 wrote: post #469
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…

Is this a real book someone wrote? Incredible to me how you can call yourself an economist and just write basic observations and conclude they are the root cause of everything without even taking a cursory look at the history of things.

Here's a 1hr talk by the author of the book. Knock yourself out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcUKP1sAto8

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

#518

Post by wombat-man »

mcintyre1994 wrote: post #174
jakevoytko wrote: post #10

Other people are saying "ads," but the story is probably more expansive. Mobile apps have better hooks for pulling people back into the app, like popup notifications. Reddit has natural lifecycle points where they can do this: when people respond to your comments or comment on your posts. They could also notify users of events like their yearly Secret Santa. I wouldn't be surprised if their engagement numbers were mu…

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.

reddit notifications are useless now. I do use the app but all notifications are off. I only look at that in app notification thing if I recently posted and am expecting replies.

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

#519

Post by viridian »

monoideism wrote: post #483
nickalaso wrote: post #455

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which has been the case since almost the inception of the country, as it is a direct consequence of the First-past-the-post voting system that the US government has implemented.

You're correct, and I've love to have something other than first-past-the-post. However, throughout our history, our two-party system has generally (with some notable exceptions) been able to work and work together. That's no longer the case. As such, it's hard to tell if the political polarization is a reflection of society, or if society is just adopting the polarization of our political elites. So I stand by my or…

This is a tremulously rose colored portrait of history. The most openly hostile, contentious election in American history didn't happen in 2016, or 2008, or 2000, it happened in 1828. Many American institutional families would say that Jackson being a jackbooted thug was the very least damning of his odious traits. Meanwhile Jackson's largely populist supporters would go on to accuse the current poltical body of being wholly corrupt, and hellbent on creating a new feudal aristocracy, where the people's wills and desires were controlled through the national bank. Honestly 2016 just reads like a rerun of 1828, except Clinton wasn't publishing articles about how Trump was likely to gun her down in cold blood if he lost.

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

#520

Post by waterhouse »

fauigerzigerk wrote: post #494
waterhouse wrote: post #478

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's currently one on the frontpage for GiveCampus, shown below a regular story: 14. The Haunted House – Privacy on Google Street View (harpers.org) 8 points by b0b10101 1 hour ago | flag | hide | 1 comment 15. GiveCampus (YC S15) hiring Sr Engineers who care about education (lever.co) 1 hour ago | hide Distinctive features: no upvote button, no point value, no flag link, no comments.

14. "The Haunted House" is not an ad as far as I can see. It does have an upvote button. 15. is a job posting by a YC company. Perhaps you could classify it as an ad, but I see it as a perk that YC grants its own companies.

Right, I included the Haunted House entry (a regular story) for contrast.

The job posting is certainly "sponsored content", a privileged post put there at the behest of a third party, which blends in fairly well with neighboring posts yet isn't subject to the normal rules. I don't know if money actually changes hands to put it there (maybe each YC company is granted a posting there, or maybe they have to pay for it), but in other respects it's straightforwardly an ad for a job.

All that said, I have no problem with it being there.

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