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by scarface74 2745 days ago
Google AMP on iOS is also much worse than Safari + adBlocker. AMP also leaves out relevant content.
2 comments

A huge pet peeve of mine was that I'd google for something I once saw on Reddit, or maybe I just wanted to see a certain discussion. Google would identify the correct post, but then I'd either get it in AMP or new-redesign format, both of which present a terrible loss in readability (for the most part).

With AMP in particular, there was no obvious link back towards Reddit itself. And with the redesign, the actual discussion was interrupted with sections showing what other posts you could read on the subreddit. Similarly, both lost the essential hierarchy and it was really hard to follow the threads of discussion.

The whole thing was dreadful compared to using the decade old Reddit design. The modern stuff is crap.

Heh I uninstalled reddit is fun a while ago to limit my procrastination. Worked well. But I reinstalled after about a week because I search for things on Reddit via Google regularly.

Reddit has some disturbing dark patterns going on.

You can't view a page on their site without being nudged to use their app. And you're asked every single page view. Like take a damn hint please.

I'd be ok with the asking but they use different popups with the "no, go away" answer in different places with different wording.

This is all exasperated by AMP, I have to click the amp banner twice to load the real url, this then prompts to open in reddit is fun. Prompts because I want this to happen only sometimes.

It was these dark patterns that prompted me to really step back and re-evaluate what I wanted to get out of Reddit.

I set a hard timer on the app and focused on surfing Hacker News instead (since I wanted to keep abreast of tech news). I still browse /r/politics for popcorn purposes, but otherwise no other subreddits. To my surprise today I realised I hadn't opened Reddit and didn't even miss it at all.

Thanks. You have just convinced me to never browse reddit again, and I've been on it since 2007.
I think the trick is to go to google.com with Desktop Mode (iOS: share page from Mobile Safari then scroll bottom icons left, I think).

That:

(A) gets Google to return desktop links (rather than cruddy mobile links)

(B) gets the site to show the desktop version rather than the cruddy mobile site.

It is more obvious how to do it on Android (google.com in Desktop Mode), but I do it on the iPad at work when needed.

(iOS, tap and hold on reload button to request Desktop Site)
My beef is that it used to jack the scrolling. I don't know if it still does.
This has been partially fixed. AMP no longer scrolls at a different rate than other websites, but it still doesn't collapse the URL bar when scrolling.
Considering the percentage of news sites that can't even scroll properly on iOS, I'm not sure this is a bad thing.