[demux]

You say power users complain but the casual user does not (as a result of these features) - this sort of position ruins reddit's community as it suggests that reddit doesn't really care about the members who have contributed all kinds of content over the years and instead favors trying to get new members who are just marginally interested, or worse, just like endlessly scrolling through a timeline. This thread has mentions of several users that don't use reddit anymore (me included) and as reddit continues shoving monetization down the user's throat you'll see that those members will continue leaving until the platform is indistinguishable from the likes of Facebook, Digg, etc.

[hhjinks]

> and instead favors trying to get new members who are just marginally interested, or worse, just like endlessly scrolling through a timeline

You can literally see communities go to shit because of this. Actual content is pushed away as low effort content, easy-to-view-in-a-timeline content, claims the frontpage, because of what you said. It infuriates me to no end when communities I've frequented for years literally get supplanted by faceless non-contributing vagrants who never contribute, comment, or post. They just see funny picture, blow air out their nose, and upvote, not knowing that they're incentivizing behaviour that's killing the community that built the space in the first place.

[RocketOne]

I thought I was overthinking it when I saw all this happening. I SO miss the reddit of 8 yrs ago.

[FeepingCreature]

I liked the proposal that I saw here a while back, that members only see votes of members who joined before they did. So when you join a community, the voting behavior gets "frozen in time".

[mioasndo]

The purpose of reddit at this point is to keep as many naive and docile users as possible, and keep them clicking. Anything that could cause cognitive dissonance is bannable, while advertising and astroturfing are essentially encouraged. Any interesting comment or opinion that's actually worth reading will be hidden near the bottom or middle of any popular thread. If you try to engage in any potentially controversial conversation, you are at risk of getting banned, or having several comments in the convo deleted. The only thing left worth anything in on reddit are relatively small, niche subreddits.

[asddubs]

I think reddit did a rather clever thing in keeping around old.reddit.com. So power users got mad but they had a fallback, meanwhile the default experience is SPA dark pattern hell

[tmh88j]

For desktop, sure. I've tried a few mobile apps but the UI was worse than the mobile site in my opinion. I can deal with the UI of their mobile site, but all of the UX issues that OP mentioned keeps me away from it, so I never browse reddit on mobile devices.

I just noticed a few users below mentioning that i.reddit.com exists, which seems to be a similar UI to old.reddit, but for mobile. From the couple minutes I've spent browsing it seems to be a massive upgrade from the current mobile site.

[lutoma]

If you're on iOS, try https://apolloapp.io/. Using it on an iPad has become my main way of accessing reddit. Super customizable, has keyboard shortcuts and supports pretty much all reddit features. The developer is also very active and quick to respond to bugs.

(I know this is starting to sound like an advertisement which was not my intention, I just really enjoy using that app).

[tmh88j]

I tried appollo a while back and I was not a fan. My biggest gripe with the UI of appolo and post-redesigned reddit is that it feels like instagram or a facebook. I don't like endlessly scrolling through pictures and auto-playing videos since most of them are of no interest to me. If I want to view a picture/video I'll click on it. It clutters up the page with content I don't care about. Mobile browsing (for me at least) is already a slower and more tedious process because less items can be displayed on the screen at once than a full desktop version, and typing/navigating is considerably faster with a physical keyboard and mouse.

[the_lucifer]

You can completely customize Apollo. I have it setup like so with a compact layout where images and gifs and videos play only when I tap on the thumbnails. Otherwise, they stay out of my way and I can focus on the title more. (Also autoplay is customizable even if you use the large layout).

That being said, I still use the desktop reddit with RES, old reddit redirect and VIM-like keyboard shortcuts. The day they gimp the third party app apis and push people to their redesign is the day I stop using reddit.

[thelazyoxymoron]

This was exactly my problem as well, and after trying a bunch of mobile apps, I've finally settled on https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.andrewshu..... The UI is compact and keeps me from going insane while browsing.

[efreak]

For Android, I actually prefer RedReader with ImgurViewer as an external image viewer. Both are open source apps

RedReader: https://f-droid.org/packages/org.quantumbadger.redreader and https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.quantumbad...

ImgurViewer: https://f-droid.org/packages/com.ensoft.imgurviewer and https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ensoft.img...

[saagarjha]

I mean, you're suggesting an app for a different platform.

[whymauri]

I just put my phone browser on Desktop Mode and use old.reddit.com anyways. Then I pinch and zoom like a mad man.

[phreack]

It's basically the biggest reason I stick with Opera on Android. It handles text wrapping on zoom so well, that I can use old desktop Reddit on a really tight phone without issue.

[mlindner]

The power users were always desktop users anyway. I've only used reddit a couple times from mobile.

[rd]

This happens with any social media. The great Digg exodus happened, and Reddit boomed. Reddit’s content and community grew healthily, then Reddit blew up exponentially, and now the content and community have grown sure, but very unhealthily.

Actually, unhealthily for what Reddit used to be (long form content and discussion), healthily for what it’s becoming (social media a la infinite scroll, chat, and notifications galore).

The point I’m trying to make is I don’t think this sort of effect is preventable - any community which encounters growth will see an influx of shitty content, unless you keep the community exclusive purposefully. Reddit just decided to roll with the punches so they could make some stacks on a nice IPO I imagine in the future.

[rightbyte]

> notifications galore

This is so annoying. The bell has a number on it and you think "Oh, somebody answered me or sent a DM" ... but no. Some post is trending on XY sub.

I think Reddit doesn't realize how much they lose in the longterm from hollow 'engagement'.

[gunapologist99]

ditto from Twitter. and then they ignore your "do not notify me about anything ever" setting. Now I never use Twitter anymore. The short-term boost is not worth the long-term loss of trust.

[edgyquant]

Yeah or “your comment got 5 upvotes”

[RocketOne]

I wonder if the next successor to reddit could possibly become successful by limiting its user base. Once it reaches a certain size, you can only join when someone else leaves. Or be put on a waiting list while you scroll and lurk.

[darepublic]

They recently rolled out chat and I have already received messages from some obvious bots with fake female avatars. No real chat though

[Ozzie_osman]

And apart from being a user, you (and others on this thread) could be a potential person Reddit could try to hire in the future... But with these patterns, I'm assuming they don't stand a chance.