When I built reddit's mobile website, I refused to add any mobile ads - I told the product owner that they could buy ads like anyone else. Literally the week after I quit, they added in mobile ads. lol
At some point recently they changed it to ask you every time you visit. There used to be an option to disable the mobile app ads. Funny that that's the only thing they've changed in six years (I left late 2016.)
There's an ever present orange button. There's the first visit pop up, there's the hey you're looking at something NSFW try the app (why??) pop up and so on.. It's a wonderful experience.
Which person, or people, is responsible for the direction Reddit has taken in terms of increasing user hostility to drive growth metrics? I am wondering if they have a track record for this sort of crap, in previous companies.
I believe they're saying that they were asked to add ads specifically for the mobile app. Their stance was that if the team for the mobile app wanted the app advertised, they could just buy any of the regular ad slots on the website.
The idea is that "try the Reddit app" is an advertisement and so belongs in the advertising system (as a house ad) instead of as a special-cased popup.
Yea I got tired of that and switched to their app and it is horrific. I quickly deleted it and went back to site surfing. Maybe they can IPO with such a garbage app but why not fix it first?
At some point recently they changed it to ask you every time you visit. There used to be an option to disable the mobile app ads. Funny that that's the only thing they've changed in six years (I left late 2016.)