51–60 of 392 posts
This reminds me to nuke my Reddit account of 14 years. This extension edits each comment/post to be blank, and then deletes them. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/nuke-reddit-histor...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have literally _a toolbar button_ in my Android web browser that downloads the video of any page that I'm viewing right now. How can there be anything more convenient than that? 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 "unco…
> And with SaveVideo you still spam and even reveal to everyone you are downloading the video in the process. Unless the SaveVideo link is already there, in which case it's one click. Just because your workflow works for you, that doesn't mean others are morally compromised for doing things differently.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I really don't think it's the communities on Reddit that are the problem. I mean, yes, some communities there are problematic, but way more are great. The problem is the site owners. They are growing increasingly user hostile.
IMO Reddit got a lot more hostile in the small communities I were part of when the PC stuff started and many negative subs got banned without warning. Could be selection bias. But agreed the websites updates are horrible in every single way. I can't think of one new feature that did not make things worse, the only way I can use Reddit is adding the old. Subdomain manually every time
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/old-reddit-re...
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/old-reddit-redirec...
This reminds me to nuke my Reddit account of 14 years. This extension edits each comment/post to be blank, and then deletes them. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/nuke-reddit-histor...
Then you’ll have to request multiple people who run services that backs up every reddit post. But that’s still way better than HN. At least on reddit you can easily delete posts and accounts.
Including Archive.org.
> But that’s still way better than HN. At least on reddit you can easily delete posts and accounts.
This is a topic where the interests of the community and the needs of an individual come in conflict, and I don't think there's an universally agreed-on standard practice. By community I explicitly do not mean the platform that's hosting it, though they have interests desires too - just the collection of people reading and posting.
A deleted comment in the middle of a thread is often extremely disruptive, as everything below it in hierarchy (and other locations linking to it) loses crucial context. Being able to distance yourself from your comments (through deleting the account, and thus making the comments show a "deleted user" as author), but not to delete the comments themselves, balances these competing interests properly.
For HN per se, see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23623799 for mod take on the topic.
These "bots" are spam, pure and simple. By forcing users to visibly name the "service" they want to use in public discussion threads, and the service visibly answering on the same thread, they are basically forcing the users themselves to advertise the service. But it's still spam. You get tens of mentions of the service on each reddit thread. It would be terribly simple and probably even more userfriendly to just pr…
If users continuously spam "SaveVideo" on every thread, what Reddit should've done is implement a "download video" button. Yes, I know you're a troll. Just saying.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Users saving videos is a commercial problem for the owners of those videos. 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.
Exactly. Meanwhile, TikTok includes an official "save video" button...
It's quite funny for a content aggregation site to get all high and mighty about tools that make it easier to share and aggregate content.
Since the redesign Reddit has been putting a huge amount of effort into keeping people on their platform. They've went out of their way to make it impossible to send a link directly to a video without external tools like the savevideo bot, any link to click will load the entire thread and they even go out of their way to seperate audio and video requests and merge them client-side so you can't just open dev tools to…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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…
I have literally _a toolbar button_ in my Android web browser that downloads the video of any page that I'm viewing right now. How can there be anything more convenient than that? 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 "unco…
Well, that's you. It might surprise you to know, not everyone is you.
> 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_
Of course I made the assumption that you are already logged in to Reddit, because that's the type of person the usage of this bot is for anyway. If you browse without an account, this is not the bot (or service) you are looking for.
But I'm gonna humor you and count taps, tell me where I'm wrong. I'll go for the shortest actions possible. Unconvenient method:
1. Find the URL (+1 swipe to reveal address bar), copy and paste URL (+1 long tap and +1 short tap).
2. Tap on bookmarks (+1). Search for your DL service ((+1) swipe, depending how much bookmarks you use), tap on actual bookmark entry (+1).
3. Paste URL from Reddit (+1 tap minimum. If it did not autofocus to textbox, that's another (+1)). Tap action button to DL video (+1).
4. Download video finally (+1).
Total: 8 definite taps + 2 possible swipes + 1 possible additional tap if DL website does not autofocus on textbox) + the cognitive load of opening a new browser tab.
Convenient method:
1. Type command. Let's make things equal and assume autocomplete (this is a string you type frequently), score it +2 taps. Hit comment button (+1).
2. Open notifications (+1), open comment (+1), click link to download (+1).
Total: 6 definite taps.
I'll humor you further, if you had to login (and let's assume OAuth, Google login to make it equal to having a bookmark on hand) you tap on the login link (+1) and tap on the Google option (+1).
Total: 8 definite taps without the inconvenience of going out of Reddit.
Where's the "extreme flaw" in my reasoning, please?
> the only reason SaveVideo is popular is because their viral spamming strategy actually works
I really find it disingenuous of you to keep harping about a "viral spamming strategy" without mentioning that video download sites are guilty of excessive ads and dark patterns more often than not. "Use adblock!" of course, but even that is not 100% foolproof or they would annoy you by making you wait before your DL link is available. You were supposed to be seeing an ad while the wait countdown is on by the way.
I did not even count the cognitive load of these dark patterns in my accounting above (is the download link the green "GET VIDEOS" button or the blue "Save" button?) because it's too varied to settle a proper score.
SaveVideo might be a viral ad strategy but yet another difference with the ad strategy of these DL sites it is that SaveVideo is a useful trick to know for Reddit users; i.e., that ad is far more relevant. The people who learn about it might actually find use for it one day.
That's not the only reason they are popular too. It's also because...
> 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?
Another aspect of these bots is that one person invokes it, the rest of the community can benefit from it. Plus, though my opinion is unchanged on the subsequent thread of "good bot" comments, the community finds that kind of behavior charming. This behavior you describe is just shameless self promotion, I'd wager you'd get more detractors than users before your account is moderated out of existence.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
If users continuously spam "SaveVideo" on every thread, what Reddit should've done is implement a "download video" button. Yes, I know you're a troll. Just saying.
Sorry but you are the namecaller here, and wrong to begin with. I couldnt agree more regarding the download button in reddit itself. Its the spamy services I have a problem with.