[baby]

> I prefer websites and the option to open tabs for later browsing

The number of times I lost a post because when I switched app or didn’t use my phone for a while reddit would just reset to the home page… I think they really didn’t realize how much the shitty UX would enrage people against them.

[wanderingstan]

This is what keeps me on old.reddit. The new web version and the app are always losing my place.

[midoridensha]

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.

[SllX]

Would be faster to just shut down the corporation and give the money back to the shareholders, whatever they have anyway, but your approach is not without merit, mostly in that I think it would be funny at this point.

[midoridensha]

That's basically why I'm advocating what I posted, that and also because I think it'd be a great chapter in tech history, showing how doubling down on a stupid user-hostile decision can destroy a company (assuming it does). Then, 30 years from now, people will still talk about how Reddit self-destructed when they decided they needed to control the user experience and forced everyone to use their app.

Rationally, your approach is of course better, but the current narcissistic execs aren't going to do anything like that, whereas I can certainly see them doing something as stupid and out-of-touch as forcing everyone to use their app on both mobile and desktop.

[TeMPOraL]

> Then, 30 years from now, people will still talk about how Reddit self-destructed when they decided they needed to control the user experience and forced everyone to use their app.

No. What they'll be talking about is how Reddit had too many holes in its fence, and all its cows escaped. They'll then discuss all the advancement in cattle fencing and barn construction that happened in the 30 years since.

Why do people assume Reddit C-suite and investors are being stupid or narcissistic here? That would make sense if the relationship between them and the users was a friendly one. It isn't. It's adversarial. For Reddit (as well as Meta and other social media platforms), the users are cattle. Even worse than that - they're stochastic cattle. Nobody at the top cares if you or me are having a nice experience with the site/app. They care about the value extracted from us in aggregate. To them, it's an optimization problem, and it's been apparent for a long time now that the optimum point is usually "the most shitty and abusive possible version that still clears the 'fit for purpose' bar" (the end point is more obvious when you look at goods and services that have been around for a couple decades or more, and thus subject to decades of "value engineering").

It doesn't feel as bad when they're optimizing for future value extraction, but that time is past, and Reddit is currently squeezing value out of its cattle-base.

Is it sustainable? Since when did that question mattered to the captains of the industry? "Reddit" as a brand and company matters to the users; for its leaders and investors, it's just a money making instrument that takes time to mature, but exists to be squeezed, discarded and replaced by something else.

[bjoli]

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

[midoridensha]

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?

[jayelbe]

Sshhh, they'll hear you

[edgyquant]

Or I accidentally bump the top of screen while trying to upvote and it brings me to the top of the thread

[zo1]

For all this UX design, responsiveness, mobile-friendly talk and SAAS products for conversion funnels and what not, does no one in management ever use their own app or website on mobile? Seriously, open practically any random website on a stock chrome or Firefox on mobile and just see how horrible it is. Scrolling loses position, you randomly click stuff and shit happens, half the page is filled with a sign-up newsletter popup or a privacy banner. And wow if you have to input anything and all the nonsense you have to put up with dealing with the page or app responding to the keyboard. Or you have to scroll in an input field.

Like seriously. What is wrong with these people that designed this shit and how do we not have an alternative.

[chuchana]

"Never get high on your own supply"

[timeon]

Or clicking on some post. Nothing happening. Trying to click again, but new screen appears from original click, so your second attempt lands on some new link.

[TrackerFF]

The whole auto-refresh thing is bullshit in general. You see something interesting, and then two microseconds later it is gone because the app (or even tab) decided to refresh and bring you new content.

[myhf]

Enragement is engagement!

[Yizahi]

That's the point actually. And not only in Reddit, but in all current social networks. You must lose posts, you must always look at the fresh snapshot of posts. And it works, people are conditioned to work with ephemeral internet. Apps and sites all work like this nowadays - Facebook, Instagram, Shitter, Reddit main page, Netflix main page, even HN partially. You blink and everything is gone, here is new content for you, enjoy, but not too long and don't become attached. This drives up engagement in the population with attention disorders and promotes advertisement, since it is organically natural to see ads between ad-like endless posts.

[drewm1980]

I have had to learn to make do without cut and paste it's so flakey in Reddit. I gave up on editing posts before hitting send.