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So Reddit has decided that plain HTML is unsafe

cole-k.com

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Re: So Reddit has decided that plain HTML is unsafe

#381

Post by Melatonic »

flashman wrote: post #370
LaurensBER wrote: post #17

For users, Reddit has been in a downwards spiral since the IPO. It's pretty clear that their focus is no longer on providing the best communities (see the many examples of power hungry mods, see below) or the best UX (see the deprecation of the API or the recent changes to old.reddit.com described in the post). The "product" is now selling data to LLM companies, everything else is clearly a secondary concern. It's a…

> The "product" is now selling data to LLM companies Incorrect; 94% of Reddit's 2025 revenue came from advertising, it's right here on page 81 https://d18rn0p25nwr6d.cloudfront.net/CIK-0001713445/42e4fe7... This is why Reddit is supposedly ending its licensing agreement with Google: when the latter shows AI snippets in its search results, Reddit misses out on advertising revenue, and Reddit has judged the Google juic…

Sounds like they should partner with Kagi

Re: So Reddit has decided that plain HTML is unsafe

#382

Post by hunterpayne »

mothballed wrote: post #141
teeray wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really wish there was a way for the electorate to preempt the votes of their representatives, so this kind of lobbying would be less effective. Sure, they might try carpet bombing the airwaves with PSA campaigns, but if the people really really don’t want what the lobbyist is selling, they would still be able to rip the ballot out of their congress critter’s hands and change the vote.

Ballot initiative. Californians tried that to stop "gay marriage" (Prop 8) so the courts just told the people to fuck themselves and overturned it. Again in South Dakota for legalizing marijuana, the voters voted in favor by special initiative so the state just overturned it.

Also the overturning of bail reform that the current CA state government refuses to honor or fund. Politicians seem to like the ballot initiatives until people actually use it. Then they feel free to ignore it, even continue to pass laws that go directly against it. All while somehow making enough unexplainable money that would get any of us put in prison for tax evasion.

Re: So Reddit has decided that plain HTML is unsafe

#383

Post by Melatonic »

programmertote wrote: post #185

I am like OP -- I use old.reddit.com strictly in Firefox. I'm comfortable and familiar with the old UI (been a Reddit user for as long as Reddit has been around). I was a little annoyed by being asked to log in. But I don't want to browse 'reddit.com' because I don't like the way the new UI looks. It's hard to read and scan the first few pages quickly in the new UI (also looking at you Vanguard; you destroyed your ol…

It still does this when you're not logged in. Try a VPN or accessing old Reddit from different locations.

Logged in though probably they do have way more data. Maybe you can opt out in some way ?

Re: So Reddit has decided that plain HTML is unsafe

#384

Post by broodbucket »

valiant55 wrote: post #217
aucisson_masque wrote: post #191

I think at this point I'm ready to give up on Reddit, most of my questions are already answered by LLM. And the discussions quality on Reddit are abysmal, its filled with bots.

A lot of the programming adjacent subreddits have been post after post of weekend vibe coded projects. It's become really exhausting how easy it is to turn out a new wheel that's going to get abandoned in a few weeks at best.

How is that any different to HN?

Re: So Reddit has decided that plain HTML is unsafe

#385

Post by Melatonic »

Gareth321 wrote: post #35
jdw64 wrote: post #22

It seems like the community business itself is dying. Not just Reddit, but other communities and forums are all in decline. I thought it was because of LLMs, but they were already dying before LLMs appeared. Though LLMs did accelerate the decline. The business model where a company owns a public community and monetizes through ads and search traffic seems to have just been a failed model. The value of a community com…

Cloudflare recently reported that the majority of internet traffic is bots now. It wouldn't surprise me if the vast majority of traffic and comments on Reddit is now bots. Those organic conversations you're having? Bots. Those arguments with annoying people? Bots. All those positive comments and stories about the latest product/movie/politician/party/company/country? Bots. The entire front page is most likely owned a…

What we need is a non profit "social media" with incentives aligned with the users. A nice way to share photos and videos and conversations.

Re: So Reddit has decided that plain HTML is unsafe

#386

Post by Melatonic »

Hitton wrote: post #115

Old reddit still works for me even without login though. I'm too lazy to figure out which from the multiple of userscripts and addons I use allows it, but apparently the block is done half-assedly and easy to circumvent.

It's rolled out slowly to different people and IP it seems. Not sure on the exact fingerprinting.

That being said definitely curios what user scripts and addons you are using for general use

Re: So Reddit has decided that plain HTML is unsafe

#388

Post by Terr_ »

corbet wrote: post #10

I am hard put to defend reddit and a lot of the things they do ... but I can attest, from personal experience, that scrapers are a huge problem for anybody trying to keep a complex site working. Withholding the display of the comments will significantly reduce the database traffic needed to satisfy a request; I can see why they would want to do that for anonymous readers.

Except comments are really the only reason to visit! Sharing cool links was already old with Digg etc.

Worst still, enshittified "new" Reddit will serve a page that claims to have your search terms in it, except the alleged result is buried behind an undetermined path of a tree of incremental "load more comments" button-links... and at some depth those silently switch to causing a whole page-transition to a subtree, and if you navigate back you'll find everything is collapsed/unloaded again and you can't tell which branch you were on before the interruption.

With classic Reddit, you just... `ctrl-f` for the term.

Re: So Reddit has decided that plain HTML is unsafe

#389

Post by samplatt »

nothercastle wrote: post #281
avadodin wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Old–school forums never left, still inhabited by the few boomers and genXers who could figure out the Internets back in the day and aren't dead yet. The gamification of Reddit and the ephemeral nature of the main page along with subreddits with varying amounts of overlap contributed to more active interactions, though. Some of the volume was lower quality but not all. The boomer posts about his petunia breeding progr…

Forms are sadly dead. They cost a lot to operate and maintain security updates for so without a critical mass of users they are dead

Just like with VR, you can keep on claiming forums are "dead" all you like. Me and all my friends will keep on using them daily.

therearedozensofus.gif

Re: So Reddit has decided that plain HTML is unsafe

#390

Post by Terr_ »

cole-k wrote: post #164
corbet wrote: post #10

I am hard put to defend reddit and a lot of the things they do ... but I can attest, from personal experience, that scrapers are a huge problem for anybody trying to keep a complex site working. Withholding the display of the comments will significantly reduce the database traffic needed to satisfy a request; I can see why they would want to do that for anonymous readers.

I know I'm not arguing with you personally here since it seems we both have a bone to pick with Reddit, but I don't understand why they can't use Anubis or whatever captcha thing I may or may not have seen on New Reddit. It irks me that they've decided they will keep hosting it (for now), but they're just going to close the gate. And dang it, I swear to god they put in a 2s rate-limit on the page, which it seems they…

> I don't understand why they can't use Anubis or whatever captcha thing I may or may not have seen on New Reddit.

This is just the first step in killing old-Reddit for logged-in users as well. It's too easy to use, they make more money with the enshittified new version.

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