[HN Gopher] Tell HN: Reddit started asking logged-in users to us...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Tell HN: Reddit started asking logged-in users to use the app
        
       The "new" Reddit mobile web interface got worse (again). I'm logged
       in and now every time I open the webpage I'm asked if I want to
       "continue in browser" or "open in app (recommended)". I don't have
       the app installed and I don't want such dark patterns force me to
       install it. Previously that happened only to unregistered users.
        
       Author : agluszak
       Score  : 57 points
       Date   : 2022-10-14 11:18 UTC (11 hours ago)
        
       | luuuzeta wrote:
       | Aside from niche subs or subs that aren't easily politicized due
       | to their nature, Reddit is trash.
       | 
       | https://teddit.net/ is a must if you want to browse Reddit on
       | mobile. Also https://old.reddit.com/ although it doesn't work as
       | well on mobile.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | easrng wrote:
         | https://farside.link/libreddit is closer to the new reddit
         | layout if you like that (it's better for browsing image/video
         | heavy subreddits imo)
        
         | nluken wrote:
         | I always laugh when I see the huge "USE NEW REDDIT" header when
         | I'm not logged into old reddit. I will stop using reddit if
         | they ever force me onto the new interface.
        
         | gorgabal wrote:
         | I never figured out how to login on teddit. Do you need to host
         | your own instance or something?
        
       | quickthrower2 wrote:
       | Always has! Well for a few years anyway
        
         | agluszak wrote:
         | For logged in users? I started having this problem now. For not
         | logged in - yup, it's been there since the redesign
        
           | M2Ys4U wrote:
           | Yeah, I've had this (very annoying) prompt when logged in for
           | a long time now
        
             | agluszak wrote:
             | But there was an option to disable them
        
         | more_corn wrote:
         | Until yesterday there was a setting to disable the mobile app
         | nag.
        
           | quickthrower2 wrote:
           | Alas I didn't know that. Why they didn't go for the more
           | obvious "don't ask again" on the nag I don't know.
        
       | alpentmil wrote:
       | for android use RedReader - opensource - lightweight (in
       | PlayStore)
        
         | napolux wrote:
         | for iOS Apollo is the answer.
        
           | criticas wrote:
           | I love Apollo, but it's not a complete answer. If you attempt
           | to visit an 18+ reddit on mobile, it will redirect you to
           | either HOME or Reddit's official client. Not the "iOS App
           | you've selected for Reddit", the official Reddit App.
        
             | [deleted]
        
             | ThePowerOfFuet wrote:
             | You have it misconfigured; check the NSFW option in reddit
             | web's preferences.
        
         | julianlam wrote:
         | Better than rif is fun?
        
       | greazy wrote:
       | Very frustrating they removed the setting to turn off that
       | annoying notification.
       | 
       | But I'm not surprised. Reddit is trash
        
         | rchaud wrote:
         | No different from any other social media site that needs to
         | track logged-in users to show them ads.
         | 
         | Reddit is great, the business model around it is trash.
        
           | iwillbenice wrote:
           | > Reddit is great
           | 
           | By what standard? Every non-technology subreddit (and a few
           | tech ones) have turned into absolute echo-chamber dumpster
           | fires. There is absolutely no conversation occurring in those
           | echo-chambers. The level of control and removal of dissenting
           | opinions is ridiculous. Just look at any thread and note all
           | the [REMOVED] posts.
        
             | RockRobotRock wrote:
             | As if HN isn't a gigantic echo chamber filled with a very
             | similar demographic of people to Reddit? Just like any
             | social media site, there is a lot of good and a lot of bad.
        
               | StanislavPetrov wrote:
               | The big difference is that HN has a competent, paid
               | moderator that moderates almost entirely according to a
               | set straightforward, transparent rules. Reddit is
               | "moderated" by a collection of volunteers who moderate
               | according to vague, arbitrary "standards" that largely
               | hinge on the cultural and political beliefs of the
               | moderator and on astroturfers trying to control
               | narratives.
        
             | rjh29 wrote:
             | 'Every' is a bit of an overstatement. I subscribe to about
             | 100 subs and they are all non-political and not echo
             | chambers at all. I mostly stick to subs with <300k users
             | and many of them only allow text-based posts and promote
             | balanced discussions. It all depends on who is moderating.
             | 
             | If I feel like a sub is starting to turn bad I just leave.
             | There are hundreds of new interesting subs being created
             | every week. THERE is where the value is.
             | 
             | 99% of everything is crap - that truth holds everywhere -
             | you just have to find the 1% that's worth it. For that 1%,
             | there really isn't any other site with that level of
             | discussion and community. For sure some Discords offer it,
             | but I much prefer the forum format.
             | 
             | Here are some examples that I like personally. You should
             | of course find your own.
             | 
             | https://www.reddit.com/r/howdidtheycodeit/ - people ask how
             | stuff in games was coded
             | 
             | https://www.reddit.com/r/ArchitecturalRevival/ - photos of
             | horrible modern buildings being replaced with beautiful
             | older-style ones
             | 
             | https://www.reddit.com/r/etymologymaps/ - maps showing how
             | languages evolve
             | 
             | https://www.reddit.com/r/whatisthisthing/ - people asking
             | what random items are
             | 
             | https://www.reddit.com/r/ATBGE/ - things that are ugly but
             | show incredible technical or artistic skill
             | 
             | https://www.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/ - people asking
             | about memes/happenings that you might have missed, and
             | providing excellent summaries
             | 
             | + your niche subs for your local area / favourite TV show /
             | musical instrument / sport etc, although some can be a bit
             | too 'echo chambery' if too large.
        
             | [deleted]
        
             | rchaud wrote:
             | By the standard of entertainment value.
             | 
             | Reddit is a big site with a diverse age distribution and an
             | Eternal September cycle of user churn.
             | 
             | I have no interest in YouTuber drama, or discussing the
             | finer points of communism v fascism because I've already
             | gone through that phase of my life (freshman year). Maybe
             | that's why I don't see all the [removed] comments; I'm just
             | not on those boards.
        
               | iwillbenice wrote:
               | I'm not sure what you mean by "those boards", but the
               | mass redaction and removal of comments is a site-wide
               | thing at this point. It isn't unique to a certain type of
               | community, demographic, or interest.
        
               | rchaud wrote:
               | It absolutely is not. Maybe on a thread about The Little
               | Mermaid and whatever other culture war nonsense topic
               | grown adults bicker about, but I don't see anything like
               | that on r/webdev, r/android, r/buttcoin or other popular
               | subs.
        
               | iwillbenice wrote:
               | I'm not purposely trying to be adversarial with you, but
               | you listed 3 technology subreddits as examples, when my
               | original comment was referencing non-technology
               | subreddits.
               | 
               | To the point of bickering - that's human nature. I expect
               | humans to argue over the shade of blue, sneakers of the
               | month, or whatever. What I don't expect humans to do is
               | regress mentally to some child-like viewpoint of erasing
               | and censoring any opposing viewpoints.
               | 
               | Reddit is radically different than it was 10 years, and
               | not in a healthy, engaging way. Browse some non-
               | technology subreddits and you will quickly spot the echo-
               | chamber effect and group think in action.
        
             | RockRobotRock wrote:
        
             | corgihamlet wrote:
             | I would have said (amateur) porn, but fetish-specific
             | subreddits are now rampant with girls promoting their
             | OnlyFans with the same post repeating over and over again.
             | Nothing like the wild days of /r/gonewild.
        
             | jasec57322 wrote:
             | For many searches I use site:reddit.com, because Google's
             | results have declined massively since the easy-days of
             | 2015; Reddit has a large userbase and I can find what I'm
             | looking for most of the time much quicker by appending
             | site:reddit.com than wasting my time with the sponsored-
             | blogs on Google.
             | 
             | If anybody knows of any better forum/site for this, I'd
             | like to know. (Currently I use Google/DuckDuckGO,
             | Wikipedia, Reddit & hackernews, libgen/z-lib, some torrent
             | sites, and some niche wikis & forums to find what I'm
             | looking for).
        
           | BrotherBisquick wrote:
           | > Reddit is great
           | 
           | If you like men in dresses standing on your neck.
        
       | hacym wrote:
       | I've had this pop up for like a year.
        
       | hallway_monitor wrote:
       | I gave up and installed the app. Still holding out on Facebook
       | even though the web version on mobile is pretty bad.
        
         | luuuzeta wrote:
         | >I gave up and installed the app.
         | 
         | If you've to use an app, then go for a third-party app such as
         | RedReader, Dawn for Reddit, Relay, etc.
        
         | more_corn wrote:
         | Never give up
        
       | dewey wrote:
       | I have had that for a year at least. The only way to use Reddit
       | for me is Apollo on iOS.
        
       | dartharva wrote:
       | Use third party FOSS Reddit apps that don't have original
       | Reddit's garbage gimmicks - Boost, Infinity, Dawn, RedReader,
       | Slide, Diode, Stealth, etc.
        
       | egberts1 wrote:
       | bye Reddit.
        
       | FunnyBadger wrote:
        
       | more_corn wrote:
       | Just delete your account and add them to your pihole blacklist.
       | Your life will improve dramatically.
        
       | 1_1xdev wrote:
       | Even if you have the app installed, the link to open in app just
       | opens the app store. What a dumpster fire of a mobile web
       | experience.
        
       | thanatos519 wrote:
       | I don't have that problem on https://i.reddit.com/
        
         | pier25 wrote:
         | It's amazing that this old and ugly app feels better than the
         | React SPA monstrosity they have as the official mobile site.
        
       | sam0x17 wrote:
       | It's done this for like 5 years AFAIK, at least for me
        
         | ridgered4 wrote:
         | Me as well. It has steadily gotten more aggressive though,
         | recently becoming so bad I finally switched to using teddit.
        
         | smileysteve wrote:
         | It had a setting to turn this off until this week.
        
           | more_corn wrote:
           | Great reason for everyone to delete their accounts and bam
           | Reddit from your home network.
        
             | marcusverus wrote:
             | How would you go about banning a site on your home network?
             | Pi-hole?
        
       | sidcool wrote:
       | Reddit has been trying to make me login and install app since
       | years. Everytime it asks more than once, I close the webpage.
       | It's helping my Reddit addiction and I have been avoiding it for
       | years now.
        
       | themadturk wrote:
       | Most of my Redditing is on Narwhal on iOS. Never could learn to
       | enjoy Apollo.
        
       | _tom_ wrote:
       | How much more money is an app user worth, compared to a web user?
       | 
       | It must be substantial, as sites like yelp are actually unusable
       | on mobile web, as they constantly try to install the app.
       | 
       | It seems like it's better to lose a customer than to have them on
       | web.
        
         | spinlock wrote:
         | Being on the homescreen increases DAU/MAU by about 50%.
         | 
         | Push notifications increase DAU/MAU by multiples.
         | 
         | Those are the killer features for social media.
         | 
         | I'd also assume that the walled garden of the app store cuts
         | down on a lot of bots/other shenanigans going on.
        
         | jasec57322 wrote:
         | Installed apps have lots more stable monetisation options (e.g:
         | getting paid to load an sdk which runs a proxy), and not to
         | mention they can more easily scoop-up alot more data.
         | 
         | Most of the claims companies like Reddit make about
         | security/anti-spam benefits is simply not true. Once you
         | require user to create an account/login it makes no real
         | difference. Everything you need for the frontend can be done
         | with JS, HTML & CSS, and the apps themselves on ios/android are
         | nearly-always just that.
         | 
         | As for losing customers, I need to use Reddit to make Google
         | effective - and Reddit knows this. They have a massive amount
         | of power to force mobile users to use an app if they wish to.
         | Given it comes with massive revenue-potential, why wouldn't
         | they?
        
       | theknocker wrote:
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2022-10-14 23:02 UTC)