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Reddit’s disrespectful design

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Re: Reddit’s disrespectful design

#251

Post by letitbeirie »

c2h5oh wrote: post #243
grishka wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> These practices are done because it works. It works for metrics. It works for making more money than you know what to do with. It absolutely doesn't work for keeping your user base loyal. The moment you implement the dark patterns, the users immediately start looking for alternatives to your platform that respect them. That said, I still use reddit. Except I use the old design and RES. And a third-party app on my p…

> That said, I still use reddit. Except I use the old design and RES. And a third-party app on my phone. Same. And should that no longer be an option I'm fairly confident I'd stop using reddit.

I haven't been using old.reddit.com for years because I'm resistant to change. I've been using it because the new reddit design has sucked for as long as it's existed.

Re: Reddit’s disrespectful design

#252

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

zozbot234 wrote: post #223
wting wrote: post #207

I was the EM for Reddit's Growth team around this time. I am responsible for / contributed to a few features like the current signup flow, AMP pages, push notifications, email digests, app download interstitials, etc. There was a new product lead who joined with many good ideas, but some of them were dark patterns that I heavily protested. After a few months of this, it was obvious that I was going to be reigned in o…

> These practices are done because it works. Which practices, though? A number of the practices you note (e.g. streamlined signup flow) are not user hostile at all, and others are a mixed bag. (E.g. one could argue that AMP + a properly featured mobile site and 'official' app were necessary steps with a subpar implementation). But when looking specifically at the dark patterns that power users are most likely to comp…

There is an artificial delay on mobile page loads to steer you into using the app. You are bombarded with deceptive popups to install the app. They supposedly run a website. They should focus on that and stop acting like it's 2010.

Re: Reddit’s disrespectful design

#253

Post by rblatz »

wongarsu wrote: post #40
jonplackett wrote: post #23

Surely the most annoying thing is the endless requests to download the app. So irritating! I refuse to download it just because they insist so hard. Reddit is the most basic site ever, there is absolutely no need for me to have an app.

old.reddit.com is not mobile optimized at all, but still infinitely better than reddit.com. Alternatively, get one of the non-official apps (on Android I use rif).

I prefer old Reddit because it isn’t mobile optimized. Most mobile optimized experiences are ugly, waste space, neutered experiences. My phone does a great job of rendering a desktop page. We don’t have shitty toy browsers anymore on mobile. Stop giving me the shitty toy experience.

Re: Reddit’s disrespectful design

#254

Post by jackson1442 »

wting wrote: post #240
zozbot234 wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> These practices are done because it works. Which practices, though? A number of the practices you note (e.g. streamlined signup flow) are not user hostile at all, and others are a mixed bag. (E.g. one could argue that AMP + a properly featured mobile site and 'official' app were necessary steps with a subpar implementation). But when looking specifically at the dark patterns that power users are most likely to comp…

Features are only launched after running a successful experiment. We try to appeal to power users when possible. For example with the current signup flow has optional emails, though intentionally non-obvious. This means new users sign up with an email which means we can reduce churn through digests and also reset passwords / prevent account takeovers, a large burden for Reddit's anti spam teams.

Yep. People, even power users, are generally surprised when I say you don’t need an email after making a comment like “reddit went downhill when they started requiring an email address.”

Re: Reddit’s disrespectful design

#255

Post by fullshark »

RosanaAnaDana wrote: post #135

Reddit has completely jumped the shark in its UI design, the 'direction' its taken, and its basically complete capitulation to censorship at a corporate level. Its interesting to that they haven't IPO'd yet, because in my view, its a zombie carcass waiting for its replacement to find its way onto the net. There has always been a place, a need, and a demand for anonymous, free form discussions on the internet. Craigsl…

All those things suck at reddit, but to me the fundamental issue with reddit is upvoting/downvoting + a massive user base. Subreddits get too large and are dominated by lowest common denominator quips and memes to the point that the content is junk food for echo chambers. Every so often some bit of insight can rise, but by and large that's the problem and it's fundamental to reddit's DNA and no UX fixes would solve that.

Re: Reddit’s disrespectful design

#256

Post by denimnerd42 »

grishka wrote: post #236
wting wrote: post #207

I was the EM for Reddit's Growth team around this time. I am responsible for / contributed to a few features like the current signup flow, AMP pages, push notifications, email digests, app download interstitials, etc. There was a new product lead who joined with many good ideas, but some of them were dark patterns that I heavily protested. After a few months of this, it was obvious that I was going to be reigned in o…

> These practices are done because it works. It works for metrics. It works for making more money than you know what to do with. It absolutely doesn't work for keeping your user base loyal. The moment you implement the dark patterns, the users immediately start looking for alternatives to your platform that respect them. That said, I still use reddit. Except I use the old design and RES. And a third-party app on my p…

I just use tiktok now for "front page of the internet" some random sub reddits still otherwise. If I'm going to be subjected to tracking and ads I might as well go with the superior option. Half of the front page is tiktok videos anyway.

Re: Reddit’s disrespectful design

#257

Post by [deleted] »

Firebrand wrote: post #77
jcfrei wrote: post #32

Here's how reddit's business model probably works: you have power users which create or submit the content and write the witty comments and then you have the lurkers which just browse. what reddit is trying to monetize is the interaction with the latter user group: comments provide little space to promote ads, so most of them are hidden by default. instead they promote lots of posts with images interspersed with ads.…

Reddit bought Dubsmash last year, too. I imagine the app will eventually operate almost similar to TikTok: funny picture, advertisement, cat video, person live-streaming. Whether or not they can attract more of these power users to use the official app to upload short videos and livestream remains to be seen. I don’t think they’re able to on third-party apps. I’m not able to on Apollo, at least.

[deleted]

Re: Reddit’s disrespectful design

#259

Post by denimnerd42 »

PhillyG wrote: post #193
tralarpa wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 controv…

Specialised subs with good moderation, dedicated to topics that are positive things, are pretty much always fun experiences. Those subreddits you mention though - I think I've filtered every single one of them from my feed because they are just inherently negative

I filtered every one of those subs and even darker ones appear behind it. It's like a never ending mole hunt.

Re: Reddit’s disrespectful design

#260

Post by cecilpl2 »

My solution for good reddit browsing:

* Use the Reddit Enhancement Suite browser extension, and customize to your liking.

* Set it to permanent old.reddit.com mode, so all reddit links immediately go there.

* Only browse reddit on mobile using one of several third-party apps, like Relay (my preference), Boost, or Apollo.

* Extensively tailor your subreddit selection to weed out the garbage. Most if not all of the default subreddits are terrible, but anything devoted to a niche interest is likely to be a welcoming and respectful community.

I don't have avatars, autoplay videos, or inline "promoted" threads. I see 10 levels of nested comments with 1000 comments loaded by default. Additional levels of nesting are tap to open. I have keyboard navigation on desktop and swipe navigation (from link to comments back to home page) on mobile.

Pretty much all of the complaints that folks have in here are solved problems.

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