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Instagram no longer allows people without an account to view photos on computers

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Re: Instagram no longer allows people without an account to view photos on computers

#171

Post by Guest0918231 »

It's unfortunate that a lot of businesses are now inside of Facebook and Instagram walls.

I know a number of times in recent months I'd end up on Instagram pages for different businesses. I would be scrolling to view their products and suddenly I'd get hit with the sign-up modal that wouldn't allow me to scroll further (well, technically I could if I opened the developer tools and disabled it, but that road block usually stopped me). So, I'd close their Instagram page, move on with my life, and they'd potentially lose a sale.

The same thing happened on Facebook when the page would be covered in overlays and I could barely browse the content. I'd get annoyed and leave.

There's a lot of power you're giving up when you build your online presence inside of another company. The entire user experience of your customer can drastically change at any moment, and you have little recourse aside from rebuilding your online presence from scratch.

Re: Instagram no longer allows people without an account to view photos on computers

#172

Post by interestica »

chadlavi wrote: post #98
cosmotic wrote: post #89

“This is to help people view photos in Instagram and understand how to have the best experience on the platform, be part of the community, connecting and interacting with people and the things they love” How does blocking access help people view things? How does blocking access help people understand how to have the best experience? Access is a better experience than access denied. Creating an account and lurking doe…

If you're in a browser with adblockers and you're not signed in, there's not much they can do to monetize you effectively. I assume this is just a means of forcing people who use instagram in the browser to at least admit who they are so they can tie browsing to a known tracking id. I'm honestly surprised instagram even lets people use the app in any meaningful way on desktop at all.

They didn't for the longest while. I'm not sure what their impetus for changing was.

Re: Instagram no longer allows people without an account to view photos on computers

#174

Post by alufers »

I sometimes used to browse my friend's instagram feeds just to see what they have been up to, as I don't use instagram due to privacy concerns and personalized feeds being a time-eater. The desktop experience has been degrading for the past year or so, for example you were unable to scroll past maybe 20 photos on someones profile without logging in. That's ridiculous, and I hope that Instagram and Facebook die someday.

Re: Instagram no longer allows people without an account to view photos on computers

#175

Post by itronitron »

anonymousab wrote: post #117
cosmotic wrote: post #89

“This is to help people view photos in Instagram and understand how to have the best experience on the platform, be part of the community, connecting and interacting with people and the things they love” How does blocking access help people view things? How does blocking access help people understand how to have the best experience? Access is a better experience than access denied. Creating an account and lurking doe…

I sometimes start to wonder how many of the people spewing these "we're ensuring you have the best experience by forcing you to use [some arbitrary, hated experience] exclusively" lines actually believe them.

'the best experience' among what options?

They probably believe it is the best experience within the set of options they considered, and where that set excludes the current user experience.

Re: Instagram no longer allows people without an account to view photos on computers

#176

Post by sandov »

jaimehrubiks wrote: post #40
sandov wrote: post #28

I would like to use Instagram because all my friends are on it, but I have a low bullshit tolerance and stuff like this reminds me why I shouldn't sign up.

Instagram is also very liked for people who use it to only follow or be followed by friends, so in that sense it feels like a very private network and does not affect at all. Why would you care if they only allow public profiles to be viewed by people within the platform?

Because I want my profile to be viewed by anyone, including non instagram users, or at least keep the capability to do it.

Also, if they do this, it's highly probable that they do other user-hostile things. AFAIK, you can't upload photos from the desktop web version.

Re: Instagram no longer allows people without an account to view photos on computers

#177

Post by asdkjh345fd »

bmelton wrote: post #65
12xo wrote: post #16

I hate these walled apps. Having to log in is maddening. Especially Facebook, especially right now... As a photographer, I have to have some sort of IG presence but I absolutely hate the app, the UX and the whole enchilada. Its the worst viewing experience possible for good photos and yet is the medium of choice for so many... I miss the old web.

Honestly, I think I prefer not having access to something like Pinterest[1] which lets you have some access for a bit and then as soon as you try to interact with the site in any meaningful way (usually to leave it) they insist you sign in. At least with this I know the expectation up front, rather than having it sprung on me by surprise. [1] I've avoided Pinterest for awhile that this may not be the way they attempt…

Pinterest is the worst thing on the web. I do not understand why google puts pinterest links as the top search results constantly, even though it is a completely shallow and pointless page that merely obfuscates the content I would actually want to see from some other site. Why would i want to see what is effectively a notice of someone saying they like a webpage, rather than the webpage? And considering google claimed they would penalize sites for giving one set of content to googlebot and something else completely to users, pinterest shouldn't be in search results at all.

Re: Instagram no longer allows people without an account to view photos on computers

#178

Post by asfarley »

lotyrin wrote: post #120
lmilcin wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is typical marketing-speak. I am becoming temporarily deaf whenever I hear it. Read it the following way: We have a reason to do it but we don't want to tell you so instead we will tell you a little bit of righteously-sounding bullshit so that most of sheep base is satisfied. Yes, that's "sheep", because you are not our customers, our customers are those companies we sell your information and your focus to.

No, this is their reason, just from within their distortion field. This is helping the user view photos, because the user should be logged in and using the app, the app provides the best experience and this web interface is a distraction that gets in the way of that. Edit: I guess it wasn't sufficiently clear, the second sentence here is not my own personal opinion.

I've been in businesses trying to sell me this view as a developer. I can almost guarantee that the developers are saying, in their head, "this is in no way helpful to our users, but I will comply because my PM told me to."

Distortion-fields aren't so powerful that they cause people with integrity to discount critical thinking. If someone can be sold on this with hand-waving, they probably lacked integrity or critical thinking from the start.

Re: Instagram no longer allows people without an account to view photos on computers

#179

Post by jerf »

cosmotic wrote: post #89

“This is to help people view photos in Instagram and understand how to have the best experience on the platform, be part of the community, connecting and interacting with people and the things they love” How does blocking access help people view things? How does blocking access help people understand how to have the best experience? Access is a better experience than access denied. Creating an account and lurking doe…

"How does blocking access help people view things?"

Lieologists have discovered there's a hole in human cognition: If you say "We're doing X because of Y", human brains tend not to check Y very carefully at all.

You can almost say "To help people view photos in Instagram, we're shutting down photo sharing in Instagram." You can't get away with a lie quite that bald. But you only need a few scraggly hair plugs on that lie to get past most people most of the time, as you observe.

Re: Instagram no longer allows people without an account to view photos on computers

#180

Post by paxys »

cosmotic wrote: post #89

“This is to help people view photos in Instagram and understand how to have the best experience on the platform, be part of the community, connecting and interacting with people and the things they love” How does blocking access help people view things? How does blocking access help people understand how to have the best experience? Access is a better experience than access denied. Creating an account and lurking doe…

You just need to translate "help people" to "help Instagram".
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