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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

#291

Post by lowan12 »

alufers wrote: post #174

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 someda…

I mean, aside from the fact that you don't like it, why is that "ridiculous"? It's their platform, can they not do what they want?

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

#292

Post by lowan12 »

criddell wrote: post #125
elorant wrote: post #31

Instagram is riffled with semi-nude photos of women that I seriously doubt it has any real value whatsoever. And it's kind of surprising considering that FB has a very strict policy when it comes to showing nude pics. They should have brought down the hammer long ago.

You see whatever you follow. I know every single person I follow and have never seen provocative photos.

This guy's following a bunch of Instagram thots and now he's complaining all he sees are Instagram thots...

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

#295

Post by captn3m0 »

Another issue that Instagram has refused to acknowledge has been no-sound-in-stories on Mobile web. It has been this way for more than 6 months[0] and I'm fairly certain it is not a bug - they are intentionally breaking UX to force people to use the app.

[0]: https://old.reddit.com/r/Instagram/comments/dezf9g/no_sound_...

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

#297

Post by cousin_it »

gatleon wrote: post #278
gpm wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You've got it backwards I think, google should offer you a search filter to include paywalled sites while they are by default excluded. The vast majority of the time, someone searching something on the internet isn't willing to pay to see it.

I've wondered recently if this simple (but powerful) feature would be enough of a differentiator for a search engine challenger to gain serious market share. Imagine if Duck Duck Go offered that by default?

There are several such differentiators:

- exclude walled gardens

- exclude sites with ads and/or ecommerce

- exclude sites with tracking

- exclude sites with fixed headers

- allow users to have personal blocklists

As a bonus, if you make a new search engine offering such options, existing search engines will be afraid to copy them.

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

#298

Post by franga2000 »

svantana wrote: post #210
lotyrin wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That's not it, the web interface still works as long as you're logged in, no app needed. My guess is they are sick of scrapers and data miners. If login is needed, they can ban and the proxy hustlers will have a hard time. FWIW, here in Sweden I can still look at feeds without being logged in.

> My guess is they are sick of scrapers and data miners. If login is needed, they can ban and the proxy hustlers will have a hard time.

As someone who's been writing integration (not nefarious!) scrapers for years, this is crap. Email accounts are free, VPNs and captcha solvers are dirt-cheap and at the end of the day, if they screw up the web version too much, the mobile apps are even easier to turn into scrapers as they usually use some kind of JSON API.

They did this for the same reason as Reddit and Facebook: - it's harder to make ad profiles for anonymous users - new users is a metric that investors love - psychological trick (I can't remember what that specific phenomenon is called) to turn lurkers into posters

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

#299

Post by RoyalBingBong »

Guest0918231 wrote: post #171

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 usu…

Walking through the city, when a shop piques your curiosity. As you step closer to the windows, a security guard approaches you and asks for your club membership. Annoyed you bugger off.

I think nobody in their right mind would do this kind of shit IRL.

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