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Reddit’s disrespectful design

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Re: Reddit’s disrespectful design

#151

Post by mynameishere »

n4bz0r wrote: post #90

Not a power Reddit user here. I only stumble upon random posts that search engines throw my way when I'm looking things up so I might very well be missing something. The main questions: Considering all the bad practices, why people keep using Reddit and what makes it so great? Why people make custom clients instead of looking for a full-fledged alternative? The questions are genuine, not a sarcasm. The following is j…

It just has the most users of all link aggregators. If you want to discuss subject A, or news story B, or product C, it's the best place--because of the users, and despite the increasingly trash design. It got those users by being best-in-class a long time ago when things like Digg were futzing and fumbling around the same way Reddit is now.

As soon as some non-user-hostile site gets enough people Reddit will go away.

Re: Reddit’s disrespectful design

#153

Post by tralarpa »

TulliusCicero wrote: post #104
BusTrainBus wrote: post #74

Reddit is an absolutely grotesque website, both for these UI issues and the toxic hate it engenders on all the subreddits. It’s magnitudes worse than any other social network. I have a genuine question: do people openly say they work for this company or is it workplace where people have to hide that they are part of it?

> the toxic hate it engenders on all the subreddits. I always see people saying this and I have to wonder what subreddits they're subscribed to. My experience is basically fine, sure there's some shitty discussions or a few hostile idiots lurking about, but it's no worse than message boards generally, and most conversations seem rather good. Part of me wonders whether some posters are just extraordinarily sensitive,…

I guess the specialized subreddits are okayish, but I am always shocked when looking at the frontpage. The amount of hate and misery that appears in the most liked posts (posts and comments) is disconcerting. Just checked: Cringetopia, IdiotsInCars, MurderedByWords, JusticeServed, facepalm, PublicFreakout, iamverysmart, ChoosingBeggars...

I know that most reddit visitors are teenagers or young adults and that controversal topics get more clicks etc. etc. That's what people want to see? It's so...how should I say it?...sad.

Re: Reddit’s disrespectful design

#154

Post by techrat »

GordonS wrote: post #118

Fully agree with everything in TFA. I'm an occasional Reddit user, and almost exclusively a lurker. But over the past few years they have been making it more and more intolerable to use, especially on mobile. The most recent things have been blocking you completely from subreddits, and blocking you completely from threads below the second level (you hit "read more", and get a popup). And beside the many dark patterns…

change the url from www to old.reddit.com and you can bypass most of the bullshit.

Question is how long it'll last.

Re: Reddit’s disrespectful design

#155

Post by arcturus17 »

Yea, fuck all this noise.

I've been meaning to quit any and all digital activity that's a bottomless well (ie, you can get more content ad infinitum). This includes social networks, Youtube, Netflix, etc.

Of these, Reddit was probably my worst vice, as I could just pop up my phone and endlessly read mind-numbing crap, no matter the place and time. My monkey brain has been completely addicted to this motion for well over a decade now, and I always made excuses for myself because I thought it actually had some intellectual value (when I was really mostly browsing r/games and r/soccer, not r/programming or other communities from which to derive some enlightenment).

Now I can't do that even if I wanted to, b/c their new site is a UX abomination. They're very close to hiding everything behind login, and they place all kinds of crap to herd you to the mobile app (no thanks!)

So a big thank you to Reddit management, I guess?

To anyone who may have even a mild digital addiction or bad habit, call it what you will, which you're suspecting is making you unhappy or limiting your potential: JUST QUIT.

You won't miss it and you'll observe amazing results.

In my case, I've seen the following in the last weeks (and other times I've done this in the past):

a. Increased focus

b. Longer, deeper sleep

c. Better relationships

d. Increased productivity at work and hobbies

e. Improved mood

f. Greatly increased control over my time

g. Much more time spent reading

This was at virtually zero cost, since I wasn't getting any value from about 98% of my browsing - maybe an enlightening Reddit post or Youtube vid here and there, but I think I can easily make it up with reading.

Your results may vary of course, but there are good chances you will experience some or all of the above.

I know full well it's not as easy as it sounds but give it a shot - you won't regret it.

Re: Reddit’s disrespectful design

#156

Post by MaxBarraclough »

tfsh wrote: post #108

It constantly amazes me how bad Reddit's interface is, videos either don't play or randomly start playing despite them not being in the viewport. They run random A|B experiments which add unnecessary components such as avatars next to peoples comments. Random acts of monetization are shoved down my throat at every turn. I honestly think the Reddit team are on a purpose built mission to design the most user hostile fo…

Seconded. The old.reddit.com UI is still pretty bad on mobile, but it's the only remotely usable one.

The default mobile site goes out of its way to make it difficult to read the thread, while also confusingly merging other threads into the page.

Re: Reddit’s disrespectful design

#157

Post by toomuchtodo »

ethbr0 wrote: post #150
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Reddit mobile web experience is so obviously bad that I can only assume it's intentional. There must be some huge incentive for Reddit to push users toward the mobile app. Most likely, the app allows for higher or more accurate monthly active user counts and enables more targeted advertising, both of which are critical to increasing advertising revenues. Reddit is in a difficult spot because they're mostly an ad-…

I'd phrase it as "Reddit, the product" is fine. "Reddit, the investors who bought the product" are in a difficult spot. And certainly haven't shown an overabundance of creativity in monetization approaches. Suffice to say, you probably don't deserve a "front page of the Internet" tagline if your first display is a redirect request to your app.

Reddit is a potential B Corp or non profit masquerading as a VC backed tech startup with exit or ad revenue potential. Bag holders get tired eventually.

Re: Reddit’s disrespectful design

#158

Post by ethbr0 »

arcturus17 wrote: post #155

Yea, fuck all this noise. I've been meaning to quit any and all digital activity that's a bottomless well (ie, you can get more content ad infinitum). This includes social networks, Youtube, Netflix, etc. Of these, Reddit was probably my worst vice, as I could just pop up my phone and endlessly read mind-numbing crap, no matter the place and time. My monkey brain has been completely addicted to this motion for well o…

In all seriousness, this is what made me finally quit Facebook a decade ago.

They made it annoying enough to use the product I wanted that the barrier to quiting was drastically decreased.

Re: Reddit’s disrespectful design

#159

Post by ra7 »

SkyMarshal wrote: post #34
randallsquared wrote: post #13

The most disrespectful pattern I encounter regularly on reddit is that it forgets that I want the nicer, more compact interface. There will come a day when they remove it entirely, clearly, and that will be the end of my reddit usage, more or less.

How does it keep forgetting? I just change that in settings and it’s never forgotten or reverted for me.

This started happening to me only a few weeks ago. I’ve noticed it happens every Monday for me, so presumably some setting is being erased weekly to get users to move to the new design.

Re: Reddit’s disrespectful design

#160

Post by paol »

PenguinCoder wrote: post #106
yjftsjthsd-h wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's atrocious that their main interface is like this, but have you tried i.reddit.com?

old.reddit.com is usable too. But for some reason it keeps logging me out, recently.

I use old.reddit.com exclusively (automatically enforced by a browser extension[1]) and haven't experienced unexpected logouts.

[1] https://github.com/tom-james-watson/old-reddit-redirect

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