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Did Reddit just destroy mobile browser access?

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Re: Did Reddit just destroy mobile browser access?

#461

Post by crabmusket »

pea wrote: post #259

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 'imp…

I didn't think of it like that, but you're totally right. And they didn't even let the user know this is what was happening. That's how ashamed they are of the change- not like "hey, user who is used to being logged in, we're trying something new and we hope you like it!" Just... hope they don't notice, or just use the app like a good little piggy?

Re: Did Reddit just destroy mobile browser access?

#462

Post by davewritescode »

sdwr wrote: post #51
alwayslikethis wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The issue is for every person like you and me, there are 10 or 100 others who put up with this crap, and reddit attracts people, centralizing communities, giving you little option for alternatives. It drains activities from forums, etc, toward itself as it is presented as a more convenient solution. I for one will try to undo my past contributions to accelerate its decline. The blackout is unlikely to work, but I hop…

I never wanted to use the reddit app. Must have caved and installed it one day. I use it now, and it doesnt feel different from the site. Say what you want about HN, but at least the contrarians bring out opposing views. The bigger reddit subs have a mob mentality that use to annoy me, and now scares me. People are itching for a chance to hate, and pile on from every angle. It's childish, naive, and most of all vindi…

The Reddit app is a worse experience than users currently have on mobile with 3rd parties. Reddit let this go on for years and has now decided, without warning, to make the product worse for a lot of users including myself.

I use Apollo to aimlessly scroll through Reddit (probably too much) and now I'll use that time to learn something and find other communities that are less disruptive.

There's a million ways Reddit could've gone that would've been less user hostile.

Re: Did Reddit just destroy mobile browser access?

#463

Post by nbar1 »

baq wrote: post #410
veidr wrote: post #399

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The web puts the user in control; apps (on all significant platforms currently existing) put the company in control. Yes, Google and (especially) Apple may force Reddit to comply with this or that, but Google and (especially) Apple also prevent the user from doing all sorts of things they can do with an open platform like the web. Users can't block ads in an app. Users can't block telemetry. Users can't prevent track…

This, this and exactly this. Their finance team probably made a projection that if they can get X% of current mobile web users onto the app, they’ll be able to extract Y% more total revenue. They have no idea that they should split users into contributors and lurkers and even if they had, they have absolutely no idea how to model their value, so they don’t, the board sees the numbers and tells them ‘ASAP’ and that’s…

> They have no idea that they should split users into contributors and lurkers

Comments like this amaze me. People really think these giant corps are out here not doing things like this.

Re: Did Reddit just destroy mobile browser access?

#464

Post by wincy »

VHRanger wrote: post #404
timbre1234 wrote: post #359

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's 100% about being able to stop adblockers

On mobile? Apart from a few geeks using firefox on android, mobile browsers generally dont hinder ads

AdGuard on iOS blocks ads just fine. I pay $5 a year because then it blocks YouTube ads.

Re: Did Reddit just destroy mobile browser access?

#465

Post by malermeister »

indigochill wrote: post #449
veidr wrote: post #399

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The web puts the user in control; apps (on all significant platforms currently existing) put the company in control. Yes, Google and (especially) Apple may force Reddit to comply with this or that, but Google and (especially) Apple also prevent the user from doing all sorts of things they can do with an open platform like the web. Users can't block ads in an app. Users can't block telemetry. Users can't prevent track…

> apps are roughly the opposite of that Although I broadly agree with this assessment, I'd just like to add a slight nuance that, at least in my view, it's specifically _app store apps_ that are roughly the opposite. You can still, for example, install random APKs (on Android, I doubt Apple has anything similar) if you're so inclined, so they can be as user-centric as you want. It's just that the major manufacturers…

On Android, you even have f-droid, an entire alternative app store that only accepts open-source, user centric apps!

Re: Did Reddit just destroy mobile browser access?

#467

Post by Mindwipe »

VHRanger wrote: post #404
timbre1234 wrote: post #359

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's 100% about being able to stop adblockers

On mobile? Apart from a few geeks using firefox on android, mobile browsers generally dont hinder ads

Samsung Browser and Safari both very much enable ad blocking, and especially Samsung actively notifies users to enable it.

Re: Did Reddit just destroy mobile browser access?

#468

Post by dalf »

I'm used to website ( often old.reddit.com because it is more readable ).

Last year, when I tried the app, it asked if I was happy about it very often. It becomes annoying to skip this question. I tried to answer "No": I felt my answer got lost in a confusing procedure. I never tried to choose "Yes", but I guess it would have led me to the notation on Google Play?

Re: Did Reddit just destroy mobile browser access?

#469

Post by jojobas »

ForHackernews wrote: post #402
jojobas wrote: post #356

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Do we need a citation that oil is a valuable commodity? Or that the internet has been useful for commerce? I think it's self-evident that hip hop is at least a trillion dollar phenomenon and that it started with black folks in the United States.

The fact that hip-hop originated from the black community and got big (you might want to read on how exactly it got big) doesn't really translate to a marketing/talent scouting strategy going forward. You could shoehorn K-Pop like that too, quick somebody buy Kakaotalk for a ridiculous amount!

Re: Did Reddit just destroy mobile browser access?

#470

Post by mattmcknight »

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)

Using tiktok without the app is also an interesting experience. I was perfectly happy with the mobile website, but they recently started limiting how many results you can see and putting more "install the app" banners up.
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