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Reddit’s disrespectful design

ognjen.io

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Re: Reddit’s disrespectful design

#381

Post by tmh88j »

asddubs wrote: post #316
demux wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You say power users complain but the casual user does not (as a result of these features) - this sort of position ruins reddit's community as it suggests that reddit doesn't really care about the members who have contributed all kinds of content over the years and instead favors trying to get new members who are just marginally interested, or worse, just like endlessly scrolling through a timeline. This thread has me…

I think reddit did a rather clever thing in keeping around old.reddit.com. So power users got mad but they had a fallback, meanwhile the default experience is SPA dark pattern hell

For desktop, sure. I've tried a few mobile apps but the UI was worse than the mobile site in my opinion. I can deal with the UI of their mobile site, but all of the UX issues that OP mentioned keeps me away from it, so I never browse reddit on mobile devices.

I just noticed a few users below mentioning that i.reddit.com exists, which seems to be a similar UI to old.reddit, but for mobile. From the couple minutes I've spent browsing it seems to be a massive upgrade from the current mobile site.

Re: Reddit’s disrespectful design

#382

Post by bostik »

saiojd wrote: post #286
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…

You've created value for shareholders, at the detriment of society. "Congrats".

Douglas Rushkoff calls this "extracting wealth by destroying value".

Apt.

Re: Reddit’s disrespectful design

#383

Post by ehsankia »

dorfsmay wrote: post #328
throwaway284534 wrote: post #82

Does anyone else want to rant about Reddit’s AMP pages that show up on Google? Oh I could go on about it… The managers at Reddit, in their infinite wisdom, decided that the preferred experience of a Google user searching for content on reddit should redirected to their wonky app. And if they don’t have the app, they should be punished with modals upon modals. “Reddit looks better in the app!” Oh, you disagree? Well p…

Have you tried https://old.reddit.com ?

old.reddit.com is great, but it has nothing to do with what's described above, which is google results. At least on mobile I think you're automatically sent to the stupid AMP page regardless.

Re: Reddit’s disrespectful design

#384

Post by ehsankia »

throwaway284534 wrote: post #82

Does anyone else want to rant about Reddit’s AMP pages that show up on Google? Oh I could go on about it… The managers at Reddit, in their infinite wisdom, decided that the preferred experience of a Google user searching for content on reddit should redirected to their wonky app. And if they don’t have the app, they should be punished with modals upon modals. “Reddit looks better in the app!” Oh, you disagree? Well p…

Reddit is literally the worst use of AMP I've ever seen, and honestly probably plays a great part in why a lot of people dislike AMP. It honestly has no place using AMP in the first place since it isn't really a static page.

Re: Reddit’s disrespectful design

#385

Post by ehsankia »

srik wrote: post #324
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…

> power users complain—and still continue using the site—but the casual user does not. This was the exact situation digg just before the mass migration to reddit happened.

They've been fairly clever having their cake and eating it too with old/new reddit UI. They're basically cultivating a whole new userbase that only knows the new UI, while still keeping the old userbase around. I can imagine that once the new one because large enough to be self-sustainable, they'll kill the old interface and the mass exodus won't fully kill reddit since they still have the other half who won't care.

Re: Reddit’s disrespectful design

#386

Post by raydev »

I feel like one of the few people on HN who prefers apps over websites. Websites always flicker/drop frames, too easy to accidentally mistap links on phone, etc.

This is certainly disrespectful design, but I experience none of it.

Re: Reddit’s disrespectful design

#387

Post by ehsankia »

tazjin wrote: post #263
kzrdude wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Both old. and i.reddit.com are slowly being left behind by new features and such things. It breaks conversation when new reddit can use one syntax for code blocks and old reddit can't see it like it's supposed to look.

old. now has a new EU cookie banner which, to accept or configure cookies, takes you to the new version. I blocked the banner in my adblocker. If they're turning off the old reddit anytime soon I'll probably just leave.

> I blocked the banner in my adblocker.

Hah I did the exact same thing. Their stupid redirect didn't even work.

Re: Reddit’s disrespectful design

#388

Post by ehsankia »

afterburner wrote: post #167
MaxBarraclough wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Try i.reddit.com

on mobile just use a custom app, all the web interfaces are utter shit, and the google links take you to AMP all the time. I just use rif, has worked flawlessly for a decade and has all the features, even mod stuff.

Re: Reddit’s disrespectful design

#389

Post by ehsankia »

tyre wrote: post #294
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…

“I made it worse for users but it is making me rich” is peak Silicon Valley.

"dark patterns work" surprised pikachu face

Did they think people use dark patterns for the fun of it...?

Re: Reddit’s disrespectful design

#390

Post by ehsankia »

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.

I did download the app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.andrewshu....

Worked flawlessly and never had to see those crappy dark patterns again :)

Been using it for a decade and it does everything, even mod stuff. Simple and clean interface.

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