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Did Reddit just destroy mobile browser access?

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Re: Did Reddit just destroy mobile browser access?

#251

Post by spit2wind »

MattGaiser wrote: post #94
p-e-w wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's only absurd if you misunderstand the true intention. They didn't acquire Dubsmash to profit from its technology and users. They acquired Dubsmash to shut it down. Today's social media corporations are so fat with (venture) capital that they can, and do, spend that kind of money just to keep any potential competitors locked out. TikTok, the last social network that became truly big, was launched in 2016, seven ye…

I get buying it for that purpose, but why then kill it? Especially when it is a personal video platform, when Reddit is mostly an anonymous text platform?

Robert Reich explains it well using Hacksaw Bob. There are facets he doesn't touch on in that example which he addresses in the full series. Very excellent presentation.

Hacksaw Bob: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kZtN3XTk5w0 Whole series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOLArO56vjuqhmPDfbLGa...

Re: Did Reddit just destroy mobile browser access?

#252

Post by lvncelot »

JimDabell wrote: post #105
faangsticle wrote: post #43

> It looks like you’re part of one of our experiments. The logged-in mobile web experience is currently unavailable for a portion of users. To access the site you can log on via desktop, the mobile apps, or wait for the experiment to conclude. Wow. Most companies at least have the grace to allow users to opt out of these kind of experiments via a "labs" kind of configuration.

They do – there is a beta option in preferences that is unticked by default that lets you opt into experiments. However it seems to me they just kinda forgot about it? https://www.reddit.com/r/beta/wiki/index https://www.reddit.com/live/x3ckzbsj6myw/

I've subscribed to the beta experiments years ago, before the dark patterns started emerging and I was actually looking forward to any changes, and you're absolutely right, it is totally abandoned. The subreddit has just become a place for people to vent their frustrations and to be completely ignored by the admins.

Re: Did Reddit just destroy mobile browser access?

#253

Post by slashtab »

p-e-w wrote: post #82
MattGaiser wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> they converted it to a subreddit with 1.5k subscribers. That definitely belongs in a textbook on absurd corporate decisions. I thought you must have been exaggerating somewhere, but nope, that is exactly how it went. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dubsmash https://old.reddit.com/r/dubsmash/

It's only absurd if you misunderstand the true intention. They didn't acquire Dubsmash to profit from its technology and users. They acquired Dubsmash to shut it down. Today's social media corporations are so fat with (venture) capital that they can, and do, spend that kind of money just to keep any potential competitors locked out. TikTok, the last social network that became truly big, was launched in 2016, seven ye…

The way Amazon buy and clear out its competition.

Re: Did Reddit just destroy mobile browser access?

#254

Post by peruvian »

x3874 wrote: post #102
jletienne wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

man I did this with facebook and it obliterated my social connections. it doesn’t make sense from a micro perspective, game theory sucks man i installed instagram in december and it’s so much easier to make friends. I feel in touch with what’s going on in the community

Are / were they really 'friends' though if doing so obliterated your connections? Most people tend to misclassify being friends with being open & friendly with another.

There’s nothing wrong with having acquaintances that aren’t close friends though. I always see this argument and don’t get it.

Yea, my “true” friends will contact me anywhere, but it’s nice to have a small network of people I know that I can invite to stuff or even better yet invite me to events and activities. They may also become close friends at some point.

Re: Did Reddit just destroy mobile browser access?

#255

Post by mlyle »

chuchana wrote: post #210
mlyle wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just bulk-edited them so I could leave a message about why the comment is gone.

Would you mind sharing how?

I used shreddit and wrote a message of my choice in the conf file. I commented out the line from the script that deleted the comment.

Re: Did Reddit just destroy mobile browser access?

#257

Post by GabeIsko »

tiew9Vii wrote: post #223
FormerBandmate wrote: post #36

They are desperately trying to be TikTok. It will not work and has no chance of working. Look at their hilariously terrible acquisition of Dubsmash for $50 million (they converted it to a subreddit with 1.5k subscribers when they had 200 million users at their peak and touted having 25% of black teens in their acquisition press release. Every post is people saying the Reddit app sucks and asking where Dubsmash went)

It's interesting everything trying to be TikTok. As a user, if I wanted TikTok i'd use TikTok. I don't want TikTok, so I don't use TikTok. I use Facebook mainly for hobby/owners groups these days as that's where a lot of them are. I sometimes use the market place. My feed is mainly my interests, motorbikes, local events, local cafes/restaurants etc etc. Then there's reels i never interact with which get forced on me…

This just seems to be the strategy they teach at business school, and it never works.

I remember in the 2000s, all these mmos were popping up saying they were the "WoW killer". Um, no, people who play WoW already play WoW, and you are really trying to convince everyone who doesn't want to play WoW to play a game that is designed to be very similar. It never made any sense.

But I guess if you are a business exec, and you are risk averse, and lazy, you don't mind any of that. You just say "WoW makes money please make me one if those." That is not how creativity and innovation work though.

Re: Did Reddit just destroy mobile browser access?

#258

Post by andruby »

If users want to make a statement and move away from Reddit, where should they move to? What’s an alternative to reddit that is closer to the original reddit?

Sidenote: could the 3rd reddit party clients embrace such an alternative and give it a meaningful boost in usage?

Re: Did Reddit just destroy mobile browser access?

#259

Post by pea »

Lots of sites a/b things, but it seems that when PMs start aggressively a/bing the core experience to the point of breaking the user journey and against just general common sense it points to a bigger product issue... i.e. "this is data driven and if we can uptick this KPI by x%", but isolated from any kind of coherent wider product vision.

It's surprisingly easy to kill a product through a series small isolated 'improvements'.

For instance, FB a/b a lot but I can't remember the last time it broke the ability to go to someone's profile entirely.

Re: Did Reddit just destroy mobile browser access?

#260

Post by TeMPOraL »

bboygravity wrote: post #123
klabb3 wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That only makes sense when there’s competition. Why maintain two apps when it’s cheaper to maintain one? Now, in this case it seems like an awful strategic choice, given what happened with TikTok. But I think the reason is nevertheless the same. Modern tech capitalism doesn’t want to compete in the “let the best product win”-space. It’s just not enough money and making stuff is hit or miss. They want to own access an…

That's not (modern) capitalism. That's simply -not- capitalism.

Of course it is. It's right there in the name. It's not "competitism" or "winwinnism" or "fairism". Capitalism is about accumulating and making money from capital - that is, making money from what you own, not from what you do. It's pretty close to rent seeking - I'd dare say "rent seeking" is what we call it when you do capitalism too hard, and it starts feeling viscerally unfair.
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