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Did Reddit just destroy mobile browser access?

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Re: Did Reddit just destroy mobile browser access?

#351

Post by dmix »

GabeIsko wrote: post #257
tiew9Vii wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Big tech businesses always suffer from lack of creativity but most importantly they often lack a central product vision where someone can say “no”.

What happens usually is some middle tier exec (or big name customer if B2B) will say, “hey did you see Snapchat new stories feature? We should do something like that” and then without careful customer research, or a product leader connecting it to an overarching vision, the devs just start work on it and it rolls out because it’s just there.

Everyone needs something to do and everyone loves new features right?

Blindly copying some other company’s new features or UI patterns, and pigeonholing it into an app without cohesive product-wide strategy (aka connecting it to what customers already like about your service but even better) is always the sign the company has entered mediocrity. Largely a talent issue and execs who don’t really care about long term product dev. People just looking at generic growth charts and hoping they go up and then buying other companies when their own teams can’t hack it, hoping they can seed some life, without fixing the root causes.

Re: Did Reddit just destroy mobile browser access?

#352

Post by kevincox »

weard_beard wrote: post #53
john-n wrote: post #8

I was part of this test - I've refused to install the app for years (I prefer websites and the option to open tabs for later browsing). It was extremely annoying for a site I've used for 12+ years to treat me like that. It did massively cut my usage of Reddit (which I would consider to be quite high), I primarily access it from my phone and I all but stopped using it for the week or so I was in the "experiment".

This is how I discovered old.reddit.com still works. And it has none of the broken javascript or A/B app pushing code in it.

As much as old reddit is a clear winner ok desktop it is pretty awful on mobile. Personally I actually prefer the new site on mobile (although it is awful too) but I understand why sone people still prefer the old site on mobile.

Re: Did Reddit just destroy mobile browser access?

#353

Post by greesil »

KennyBlanken wrote: post #277
marcosdumay wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since the redesign they shifted their focus on images, and well, I don't have any hobby best communicated by images. So, lately I have been only looking at the joke subs. I unsubscribed from the 3D printing sub a while ago, because the good stuff didn't get upvotes, because they were not images, so nothing good would make into my home page.

So many of the subs I used to follow or would use for reference have become a dumpster fire of consumeristic box shots. pcmasterrace is basically just "check out this pile of boxes of expensive stuff." The home server / selfhosted subreddits are endless pictures of a wifi router, 2-bay NAS, and a small form factor PC sitting on a shelf (and in the case of the selfhosted subreddit, also screenshots of people's web das…

That is r/bayarea, but the bay area subreddit has more crime "coverage" more reminiscent of my local nextdoor.

Re: Did Reddit just destroy mobile browser access?

#354

Post by cmsonger »

I'm coming to the conclusion that capitalism kills all interesting social media for me. The founders build something. It's pretty good. I engage. They decide they need to make more money. They make a change that I find annoying or unacceptable. I leave the platform.

Facebook, Twitter, .... now reddit? Might be.

And it's never advertisement. Advertise away. It's usually one of two things: encroaching on privacy or pushing "engagement." I'd have left reddit years ago except that I could opt out of the re-design.

IMO, we need some well funded and user focused non-profits to provide social media. Capitalism and the drive for growth is destroying these platforms from within.

Re: Did Reddit just destroy mobile browser access?

#355

Post by phatfish »

TheFragenTaken wrote: post #304
john-n wrote: post #8

I was part of this test - I've refused to install the app for years (I prefer websites and the option to open tabs for later browsing). It was extremely annoying for a site I've used for 12+ years to treat me like that. It did massively cut my usage of Reddit (which I would consider to be quite high), I primarily access it from my phone and I all but stopped using it for the week or so I was in the "experiment".

Fortunately their app is compatible with the ReVanced project (think YouTube Vanced). It's terrible you have to recompile apk's to get a useful experience (sans ads, sharing tracking, other restrictions), but for me it's currently the only viable way to use Reddit.

Revanced is the only way to stay sane while using Youtube and Twitch on mobile. The adverts and other spam are more obnoxious than cable TV.

I just hope it flies under the radar enough that Google don't start banning accounts for using it. I don't log in to the Youtube app for this reason, but I'm sure there is a line in a EULA somewhere that means they could if they wanted to.

Which reminds me, i need to backup all my email...

Re: Did Reddit just destroy mobile browser access?

#356

Post by jojobas »

motoxpro wrote: post #317
jojobas wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that as cool for investors? I would imagine, for better or worse, being black correlated with being poor, and therefore black userbase is less valuable then white for ad serving purposes.

You're missing why this would be important. It's cool for investors because the black user base draws in a bunch of other people along with them. It's also not about people saying "omg black people, I must be there!" Culturally, historically, in the USA, black culture has set a bunch of trends. See NBA, NFL, hip-hop/music, comedians, dance, etc. Same as when a "cool" person goes anywhere, you don't monetize them, you…

You're basically saying black people are over-represented in money-garnering trends, a bold statement to back up just by anecdata.

Re: Did Reddit just destroy mobile browser access?

#357

Post by c7b »

There's something that I don't get about forcing mobile browser users into mobile apps - how does it make sense for the company? They're forcing themselves into a walled garden, where the gardener takes a hefty "app store tax" on your revenues and has countless levers to force you to style the app how it suits their interests, not yours. For some apps, this might still be the best way to gain traction. But if have already attracted users who are obviously happy with the web experience, why on earth not keep them there? I would be expecting developers, if anything, to be nudging people in the other direction. But that's not what's happening, not just with reddit, so what am I missing here?

I get that there are some marketing benefits from having your logo on of the user's home screens (likely not the main one), and that very few users even know you can do the same thing with websites, and that in the early days there was a big feature gap between native and mobile apps. But for apps like Reddit, it seems to me like you should be able to achieve everything you could want with modern web standards, and users who use their browser a lot will probably see your logo on the "New Tabs" page anyway. So what am I missing?

Re: Did Reddit just destroy mobile browser access?

#358

Post by enkid »

criddell wrote: post #333
killerstorm wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand... Why does it have to be one app? Can't they make a TikTok-like app with a subreddit as a backend? So ppl get same content but with a different front-end?

I don’t understand why it has to be an app at all. Why do they want people in an app rather than in a browser?

Because you can get more data to sell through an app.

Re: Did Reddit just destroy mobile browser access?

#359

Post by timbre1234 »

c7b wrote: post #357

There's something that I don't get about forcing mobile browser users into mobile apps - how does it make sense for the company? They're forcing themselves into a walled garden, where the gardener takes a hefty "app store tax" on your revenues and has countless levers to force you to style the app how it suits their interests, not yours. For some apps, this might still be the best way to gain traction. But if have al…

It's 100% about being able to stop adblockers

Re: Did Reddit just destroy mobile browser access?

#360

Post by cshimmin »

thomasahle wrote: post #265
tiew9Vii wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> 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. > ... > It's sad when every tech company tries to replicate another companies features ditching the very thing which their users originally joined them for. I wonder if we might give this a name like "tradegy of the social networks". It's easy to see how a company, like Meta/Ins…

Tragedy of the socials
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