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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?

#581

Post by Groxx »

jfim wrote: post #576
Groxx wrote: post #565

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I... think you may have some reading to do. The subject is pretty well studied. The main reason FPTP ensures at most 2 parties is that, say you have parties 1, A, and B, where A and B are relatively similar to each other. And say A and B are together more populous than 1, like a 40/30/30 split. By splitting those 60% mostly-similar votes between A and B, both lose to the less-popular 1. It becomes in A and B's best i…

> FPTP ensures at most 2 parties Canada uses FPTP, and yet there are five parties represented in the house of commons [0]. While it's true that two parties have the lion's share of seats (155 for the liberals, 121 for the conservatives), as there are 338 seats, the liberals can't just steamroll legislation unopposed; they have to get at least some approval from other parties. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_o…

Worth noting that Wikipedia uses Canada as its first example of "disadvantages" of the system: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-past-the-post_voting#Dis...

But yes, Canada has soldiered on remarkably well in spite of it. USA used to be multi-party as well, the transition to 2-party takes time and there's nothing that truly guarantees it, just innately encourages. There are ways to slow it down / isolate sections... but the dominant parties can also whittle away at those over time.

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

#582

Post by x2f10 »

toxican wrote: post #372
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…

I don't know why anyone would bother with the first party app when there are a bunch of really nice 3rd party ones with all sorts of additional features. All the one's I've used have been free with premium versions that only cost a few bucks. Which of course leaves me wondering how long it is before reddit pulls the plug on their API and forces people to use the busted mobile site or their app.

>Which of course leaves me wondering how long it is before reddit pulls the plug on their API and forces people to use the busted mobile site or their app.

Of course. How will they do it? That's yet to be seen. Instead of pulling the API entirely, I'd bet they simply wont introduce API for new features. This will leave 3rd party apps as inferior while Reddit doesn't have to deal with the backlash of pulling the API entirely. I'd argue this is already occurring.

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

#583

Post by mbesto »

spenczar5 wrote: post #322
mbesto wrote: post #317

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> retention more than monetization FWIW, retention is monetization.

I don’t see how. Can you explain how a company makes revenue purely by retaining users? I think they still need a monetization scheme separately. [edited for clarity]

Retaining users means:

- You can sell ads to them

- You can continue to sell ads to them

A proxy, if you will. For a for profit business, what other reason is there if not to drive some monetary value.

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

#584

Post by x2f10 »

esperent wrote: post #463
digitalengineer wrote: post #459

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Link for the lazy: https://apolloapp.io/

Slide is a good Android alternative https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=me.ccrama.redd...

Slide is also on iOS.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/slide-for-reddit/id1260626828

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

#585

Post by thu2111 »

Groxx wrote: post #565
b112 wrote: post #552

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It has nothing to do with first-past-the-post. You can have 10 parties, 100 parties, in fact first past the post is designed for more than two parties. If you have people in 5 parties to vote for in your riding(district?), then first past the post is the only way it works easily! Seldom will one of those 5, get 50.1% of the vote! And why would they? The most popular wins, the people have spoken.

I... think you may have some reading to do. The subject is pretty well studied. The main reason FPTP ensures at most 2 parties is that, say you have parties 1, A, and B, where A and B are relatively similar to each other. And say A and B are together more populous than 1, like a 40/30/30 split. By splitting those 60% mostly-similar votes between A and B, both lose to the less-popular 1. It becomes in A and B's best i…

It doesn't ensure at most two parties. The UK has at least four major parties: Conservatives, Labour, Lib Dems, SNP, and then one or two other smaller parties.

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

#586

Post by stimpson_j_cat »

vorpalhex wrote: post #497
clickok wrote: post #474

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Furthermore, over the long term it can change the texture of the Reddit community. What sort of person quits using Reddit after becoming frustrated with yet another imposed hassle? What sort of person stays, or is retained by pop-up notifications and whatever other tedious blandishments their app/redesign provides? There are other sites with similar features and layout to Reddit (Voat, Ruqqus, Saidit, Raddle, communi…

Ruqqus is generally better as an alternative and has been doing a better job navigating the line between free speech and not letting neo nazis invade every sub. Like old school reddit, people do say inflammatory things to get reactions but usually get downvoted. There are also good tools for muting people.

Really? Communities featured on the Ruqqus front page:

* EnoughTransgenderSpam: Transgender ideology makes no sense.

* SimpsInAction: Simp - A man who foolishly overvalues and defers to a woman, putting ...

* JustBeWhite: A place to discuss racial dynamics in the dating market.

* JewishQuestion: This community is dedicated to discussing and exposing Jewish control...

* SoyBoys

...looks like all the worst supremacy and hate channels from reddit.

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

#587

Post by prepend »

ninth_ant wrote: post #293
prepend wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is user retention really higher on mobile? Or is it that web users can’t be tracked so look like they drop off and come back. I think people make too many definitive statements and bad assumptions based on what they can measure. Leaving off understanding gaps where data doesn’t exist or never will.

Measuring retention is going to be mainly useful for logged-in accounts. And that is is something that could be trivially measured and compared between platforms. My guess based on experience in this area in other companies is that app users will report a better experience, stay much longer, and return more often.

I use reddit a lot through my browser and about half the time I’m not logged in. I’m still retained, but not measured accurately.

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

#588

Post by thunderrabbit »

GekkePrutser wrote: post #144
allerhellsten wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly this. To give you a datapoint from our properties: Our web site attracts 90% of the users, but only 60% of the actual traffic. In all metrics like retention, frequency and time on site, mobile leads by factors of 2-5. Part of that is definitely self-selection, but as some people already said, other notable effects are push notifications, mindshare, loss aversion (you're on somebody's device already, so they c…

I understand, but they're also pushing many users away with this behaviour. It's what I like about HN.. It feels like they don't even care how much users 'engage'. I bet they don't even run a report on it. They just let us do our thing here and not worry about it. As a user this is a much nicer experience.

Your answer reminds me; we are focusing on Hacker News as if it's its own thing, but part of the answer is right in the URL. HN is a part of ycombinator, which presumably pays the bills.

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

#590

Post by greycol »

b112 wrote: post #552
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.

It has nothing to do with first-past-the-post. You can have 10 parties, 100 parties, in fact first past the post is designed for more than two parties. If you have people in 5 parties to vote for in your riding(district?), then first past the post is the only way it works easily! Seldom will one of those 5, get 50.1% of the vote! And why would they? The most popular wins, the people have spoken.

>first past the post is the only way it works easily

The key word there is easily. Now that we have computers and instant communication we can do things that would be/used to be considered hard but give better outcomes.

I'll also point out you don't need a winning party in an election you just need to be able to form a government and there's no reason 2 closely aligned parties can't work together or even traditionally opposing parties.

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