21–30 of 392 posts
I really don't understand reddit adding features that are just enough to kill off competition la video hosting, but not enough to be usable... OK maybe I'm starting to understand now.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you work for reddit you should disclose that.
tl;dr use the damn youtube-dl. You still get your videos downloaded, you don't spam people who is discussing in the same thread, and Reddit "gods" can't do anything to block you. If you don't want to download a python script to your machine (why?), then use any of the million youtube-dl-wrapping websites online or one of the hundred browser extensions. I'm 99% sure "SaveVideo" is just wrapping youtube-dl anyway.
Man, classic HN short-sightedness. Not everyone is comfortable with these tools. Not everyone has a Python interpreter installed by default. Not everyone is in a device/platform that can even run Python.
These bots are just damn more convenient. Assuming you are accessing old.reddit.com in mobile (the One True Way), to download a video you need to:
1. Find the URL. With mobile browser's penchant to autohide UI chrome, there's an additional cognitive load in doing it.
2. Open a new browser tab.
3. Fumble on your mobile keyboard to type the address of your preferred save video service. (Alternatively, you Google search the name, scroll past the first "result" because it's an ad, then click.)
4. Paste the URL from Reddit.
5. Wait and download video.
In contrast with bots:
1. Fumble on your mobile keyboard to type "!SaveVideo" (or whatever command it is).
2. Wait for the notif and download video.
> you don't spam people who is discussing in the same thread
Is that honestly spammy? I rarely see more than one subthread for the bot call, it gets upvoted so people can see it easily, sometimes people do search for it first. The worst I can say is that it quickly devolves into a stream of "good bot" comments but at that point, it's just another conversation to collapse.
WRT presenting information, there are more problems with Reddit's design decisions than these bots.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
tl;dr use the damn youtube-dl. You still get your videos downloaded, you don't spam people who is discussing in the same thread, and Reddit "gods" can't do anything to block you. If you don't want to download a python script to your machine (why?), then use any of the million youtube-dl-wrapping websites online or one of the hundred browser extensions. I'm 99% sure "SaveVideo" is just wrapping youtube-dl anyway.
Because my machine is a phone
They* want to be the only record keepers, and it scares me. Now when they remove a video for "violating content guidelines" (or all the videos of a banned account), it will be as if it never existed. *Nearly every major video host deliberately makes saving videos difficult.
>Now when they remove a video for "violating content guidelines" This is why I'm keeping an offline digital music collection for the first time in over a decade, it's because I'm sick of this kind of behaviour from record labels. Their attitudes of deleting things on a whim as though they never existed pissed me off to the point I don't see streaming services as a viable means of keeping my music any more.
I really don’t miss Reddit, I’ve deleted the accounts I had there and am much better off for it. I’m not sure when the real tipping point was but that platform has really lost its way.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
tl;dr use the damn youtube-dl. You still get your videos downloaded, you don't spam people who is discussing in the same thread, and Reddit "gods" can't do anything to block you. If you don't want to download a python script to your machine (why?), then use any of the million youtube-dl-wrapping websites online or one of the hundred browser extensions. I'm 99% sure "SaveVideo" is just wrapping youtube-dl anyway.
> If you don't want to download a python script to your machine (why?) Man, classic HN short-sightedness. Not everyone is comfortable with these tools. Not everyone has a Python interpreter installed by default. Not everyone is in a device/platform that can even run Python. These bots are just damn more convenient. Assuming you are accessing old.reddit.com in mobile (the One True Way), to download a video you need to…
But your comparison is extremely flawed anyway. E.g. "Fumble on your mobile keyboard to type the address of your preferred save video service." Even if you claim not to know how to use bookmarks, you still have history. Basically, the "unconvenient" method you are describing is literally fewer taps away than the "convenient" method of messaging SaveVideo, which has no autocomplete at all, and _requires me to login to Reddit_. And with SaveVideo you still spam and even reveal to everyone you are downloading the video in the process.
I'm even more convinced the only reason SaveVideo is popular is because their viral spamming strategy actually works, and bazillions of people learn about it because every user of it actively spams everyone else while using it. If on every thread of Reddit I was posting a message about my magnificent browser extension/bookmarklet/website for downloading videos, how popular do you think it would get, convenient or not?
Users saving videos is a commercial problem for the owners of those videos. And we can't be having users enjoy videos without ads now, can we? The Reddit 'gods' may have decreed that this bot must die, but of course the real god of Reddit - and of all social media - is, of course, Mammon.
99.9% of videos uploaded on Reddit are not original content, they have been lifted from other platforms, very often by downloading them on said platforms then reuploading them on Reddit.
The hypocrisy displayed by some tech companies is revolting.
When a company grows large enough, the APIs and user-generated tools that propelled its growth get treated like a threat. They tend to vertically integrate and keep anyone from using their data.
I really don’t miss Reddit, I’ve deleted the accounts I had there and am much better off for it. I’m not sure when the real tipping point was but that platform has really lost its way.
I really don’t miss Reddit, I’ve deleted the accounts I had there and am much better off for it. I’m not sure when the real tipping point was but that platform has really lost its way.