[was_a_dev]

This has reminded me how much my Reddit usage has dropped off a cliff after the third-party apps debacle.

At first, it was as a futile protest, but then the inevitable addiction hunger kicked in. But this time, I had no choice to use the offical Reddit app.

The sluggishness of that app added enough latency, that my Reddit consumption is now non-existent

[brailsafe]

After reading the article, I was on my way to make similarly themed jab at Reddit i.e "didn't reddit already add 9000ms of latency to every interaction?"

But now that I think of it, after just choosing to delete my account and go cold turkey, what keeps me from habitually returning is the same thing that would discourage me from spending time with friends I only drank with after having spent some time away, or what keeps me from moving back to my home town, or what keeps me from getting another car; not a lot changes, it's more apparent than ever nobody has anything interesting to say, and driving has always sucked. They're self-reinforcing cycles.

[ChainOfFools]

> it's more apparent than ever nobody has anything interesting to say,

Krugman's observation, so often maligned and mocked for the past 20 years, to the effect that he was ignorantly claiming to have seen through something he had not even seen, is starting to look more and more prescient:

'The growth of the Internet will slow drastically, as the flaw in “Metcalfe’s law”—which states that the number of potential connections in a network is proportional to the square of the number of participants—becomes apparent: most people have nothing to say to each other! '

[romwell]

>The sluggishness of that app added enough latency, that my Reddit consumption is now non-existent

As someone who's only been using the "old" interface (https://old.reddit.com) on all platforms, I'm remaining blissfully unaware of the debacle.

(And if you are reading this comment on HackerNews, that means you're absolutely OK with the "old"-style interfaces).

Unfortunately, that means that my reddit usage time stays high.

[stouset]

Unfortunately, the “old” web interface is nigh-unusable on mobile (no idea about “new”, I switch over every time). The targets are microscopic, and if you zoom in so they’re a reasonable size the text doesn’t reflow and you have to constantly horizontal-scroll.

I was daily Reddit user, commenter, and poster until the third-party app shutdown. I still occasionally browse /r/$city anonymously, but other than that I haven’t returned. I don’t miss it in general, but I am sad to no longer see inspiration on home improvement, software engineering, and hobby subreddits.

[adamzochowski]

Why not change font zoom for old.reddit.com domain?

In chrome and firefox: Settings accessibility text size.

[stouset]

I’m on Orion on iOS. I’ve glanced at if it’s possible, but frankly I’m fine with Reddit being a PITA to use. That just means I use it less.

[unethical_ban]

Old is worse than HN. Unremovable sidebars, hard to click buttons unless you zoom.

It's what I use on mobile but I mostly browse reddit on desktop. If I could only use mobil I would probably use it a lot less.

[erkt]

Hacker News is one of my absolutely favorite websites to use. I would argue MOST websites are worse than this blissfully simple text only interface.

I would be hopelessly addicted to Reddit again if they had an HN-esque interface.

[unethical_ban]

I wish HN had a touch friendly comment/thread collapse UX, but otherwise it's pretty good. Slashdot is also surprisingly usable.

[was_a_dev]

Prior to it all, the majority of my Reddit use was on mobile.

So browsing Reddit on mobile via a desktop website is clunky enough to have the same effect as above

[MisterTea]

A similar approach to curb mindless web surfing was to inject similar latency by disabling the URL bar from showing any suggestions. This way you have to type every website name in making it hard to e.g. type in a search terms starting with 'n' and having news.ycombinator.com pop up enticing me to check hn.

[david_allison]

Is there an up-to-date tutorial on how to do this in Chrome?

[MisterTea]

I use Firefox mostly though I do use Chrome for my Google stuff but not casual browsing. I suppose there might be an extension?

[rootusrootus]

I'm curious how it has all played out since the debacle. Has there been a noticeable decrease in traffic? Anecdotally, the bot traffic is quite high now, but that was going up already.

I refuse to install the app. Reddit aggressively tags random posts as NSFW and then offers "anonymous" browsing if only I install the app. What? That's silly. And creepy. Going to old.reddit.com still works if there is something I want to see, but I suppose eventually they will close that loophole. And thus will end my reddit experience. I already got rid of my own account ages ago, so I only read, and that cut my interaction time way down. Force me to use the app and we're done.

[tmpz22]

Reddit stock price has been going up since the IPO I believe not as a result of user or ads growth but because they've been selling data to AI companies for training.

IMO the quality of Reddit's product has never been a pillar of its valuation.

[BizarroLand]

That was the sole reason why I deleted my account. I know it was too late, and there's a backup out there of everything I posted, but having the stories I wrote and the jokes I told and the essence of the communities I posted in completely devalued and turned into a quick buck broke my heart.

To a certain degree, I get it, but for a website that is built entirely on user interaction and input, not even giving the users the opportunity to weigh in?

That was despicable.

Looking back, I would have paid $5/month to own my posts and keep reddit what it was, but we never even got the option.

[hamandcheese]

> Reddit aggressively tags random posts as NSFW and then offers "anonymous" browsing if only I install the app. What? That's silly.

"Request desktop site" setting in mobile Safari also works for me to bypass this.

[kevin_thibedeau]

Old Reddit Redirect and Reddit Enhancement Suite on Firefox cut out all of their BS.

[Onawa]

Only for as long as they allow old.reddit.com to exist. The rug can get pulled at anytime.

[red-iron-pine]

once that rug is gone, so am I. I suspect several other folks in this discussion chain are of similar disposition