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Did Reddit just destroy mobile browser access?

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Re: Did Reddit just destroy mobile browser access?

#641

Post by rx_tx »

abenga wrote: post #274
rx_tx wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look into Shreddit [1] which does that for you. It needs API access though, so make sure to do it before June 30th... [1]: https://github.com/andrewbanchich/shreddit

Can you edit posts and comments that are more than six months old?

Yes, I had to run the script several times, but it eventually edited and got rid of stuff that was super old. Basically every single comment made by me is gone (which I wanted). I ran it before the blackout though, not sure how it would work with Reddit in its current state.

Re: Did Reddit just destroy mobile browser access?

#642

Post by midoridensha »

tomohelix wrote: post #15

It was my experience that Reddit stopped caring about its users a long time ago. I am convinced that Reddit unofficial motto is: "Moderators own the place they operate and are free to do whatever they want with it". So it isn't a surprise that the admins think they can do whatever they want with the entire site. For a less popular opinion, I don't sympathize at all with the reddit moderators who are up in arms about…

It's true, moderator abuse has long been a big problem on many subreddits.

Re: Did Reddit just destroy mobile browser access?

#643

Post by midoridensha »

bjoli wrote: post #448
midoridensha wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They need to shut that down. Even better, they should make a desktop app and force users to use that instead of the website. If they really believe in their forced-app strategy, they should bet the farm on it, not just on mobile, but everywhere.

Something like that should be pretty easy to whip together with electron...

That's exactly my thinking. They can make a special Reddit app with Electron that basically recreates the website, but forces users to see lots of annoying unblockable ads while hogging lots of memory. Users trying to use the normal website will just be directed to download and install this app, and only shown a preview of the site that they can't use. What could possibly go wrong?

Re: Did Reddit just destroy mobile browser access?

#644

Post by chaosjevil »

Sharparam wrote: post #270
chaosjevil wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can relate to your intentions, but keep in mind that, when you leave your data there, you're effectively encouraging people to keep using a user-hostile platform that will likely wall those people's content in. In the long run, you aren't making humanity better - you're worsening it. Instead a better approach is to migrate whatever you deem useful in your Reddit history to another platform. And then remove it from…

The thing is that there's a lot of valuable information that I don't think we should just delete like that. When you search about a Neovim issue for example, often the solution is in an old Reddit thread. When you delete that, it will be gone forever.

Even more valuable info will be generated, and I don't think that we should just cram it there like that. We would be exposing this new info to information loss.

And someone might say "I won't post it there", but once the person leaves some info in that site, they're encouraging others to interact with it, and generate more info there, in that walled garden, instead of somewhere else.

Note that the potential of information loss in Reddit does not come just from users deleting their stuff. It's also mods (including automod) and Reddit Inc. itself. One day Reddit will decide "we're going to flush out old content!", and here goes your info anyway, no matter if you deleted it or not. Or Reddit itself will go off, and the info in it will be lost, just like the info from the forums that Reddit itself killed. That's the main reasoning in the link that I've provided, and you know what, I think that the author is 100% right.

Also note that there are ways to reduce the information loss. People can - and IMHO they should - migrate that info, before removing it from Reddit.

I think that you're looking at the info present there _now_ in a short-sighted way, without realising the consequences elsewhere.

EDIT: and as another commenter highlighted everything has been archived already. The info loss will be way, way lower than you think.

Re: Did Reddit just destroy mobile browser access?

#645

Post by chaosjevil »

happycube wrote: post #500
tetris11 wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I sunk 15 years of myself into reddit. I am there in all my teenage angst, and you get to see me mature before your eyes. I can't just delete. I've helped people there, and been helped. If my data is part of a corpus that betters humanity, than so be it. Hopefully one day that corpus will be released under a FOSS license.

It already is, and everything through March 2023 was archived by pushshift and there are torrents floating about. It's about 2TB in zstd compression, so finding the needles will be interesting - but it'll probably be much easier years from now.

Wow. Just... wow.

Thank you for this info, it's fucking great. This means that the info loss for whatever came before March/2023 will be exactly ZERO.

Re: Did Reddit just destroy mobile browser access?

#646

Post by crabmusket »

hayst4ck wrote: post #639
crabmusket wrote: post #454

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean... It's not ethical. What discussion needs to be had? If "we" don't like doing those things, why don't "we" find a job doing something we believe in? Sorry to sound hostile- I think your implicit inclusion of me in your "we" got my back up. Do you personally work on building ad tech or implementing dark patterns? Do you feel you have no alternatives that are accessible to you?

Of course I mean you. I mean all programmers. "When political leaders set a negative example, professional commitments to just practice become more important. It is hard to subvert a rule-of-law state without lawyers, or to hold show trials without judges. Authoritarians need obedient civil servants, and concentration camp directors seek businessmen interested in cheap labor." -- Timothy Snyder ( https://www.youtube.…

Right, but actually I chose the job I'm doing now because I believe it's good for the world. I've put a lot of hard work into bootstrapping a renewable tech company, and made sacrifices to do so. That's why I felt annoyed at the implication.

"Vote with your feet" is probably a more realistic strategy for enacting this kind of change, so to deny that there are software jobs that are not part of the problem is a bit defeatist. I'd be all in favour of a general strike on building adtech, though I personally couldn't participate.

Re: Did Reddit just destroy mobile browser access?

#648

Post by lannisterstark »

phito wrote: post #208
lannisterstark wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. Putting people through hoops and then going "were we really friends if you didn't do it for me, huh, HUUUUH?" is a "I'm the main character" mindset. A friend recently deleted all his apps and he asks me I just email him if I want to talk. I'm just not gonna do that. I barely remember to email my work people.

Sorry but you're just a bad friend.

I have other friends whom I interact with just fine. I'm not going to go through hoops just for one person I don't care much about, sorry.

That's something this strategy helps to trim out. Who I want to talk to and jump through hoops for, and whom I don't.

Re: Did Reddit just destroy mobile browser access?

#649

Post by lannisterstark »

scarlet_lovah wrote: post #534
lannisterstark wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. Putting people through hoops and then going "were we really friends if you didn't do it for me, huh, HUUUUH?" is a "I'm the main character" mindset. A friend recently deleted all his apps and he asks me I just email him if I want to talk. I'm just not gonna do that. I barely remember to email my work people.

LOL. Wow. Speaking of “I’m the main character”…=)

Ah yeah man totally wanting to jump through hoops (email was just an example), installing shit like wechat, kik, tiktok etc is the same thing) totally makes me the 'main character.'

That's something this strategy helps to trim out. Who I want to talk to and jump through hoops for, and whom I don't.

---

Re: Did Reddit just destroy mobile browser access?

#650

Post by lannisterstark »

Eisenstein wrote: post #192
lannisterstark wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. Putting people through hoops and then going "were we really friends if you didn't do it for me, huh, HUUUUH?" is a "I'm the main character" mindset. A friend recently deleted all his apps and he asks me I just email him if I want to talk. I'm just not gonna do that. I barely remember to email my work people.

> Yes. Putting people through hoops and then going "were we really friends if you didn't do it for me, huh, HUUUUH?" is a "I'm the main character" mindset. Interesting point. > A friend recently deleted all his apps and he asks me I just email him if I want to talk. I'm just not gonna do that. I barely remember to email my work people. Oh. You have zero self-awareness. Got it. Since you can't figure it out yourself -…

>You have zero self-awareness.

Not wanting to jump through hoops for someone you don't necessarily care that much about ain't 'zero self awareness'

It helps me trim down 'friends' who might not be real friends.

I tend not to be the person who tends to bother other people constantly even after getting signals that they don't want to interact with you. Are you?

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