
Please stop asking me to use the app - dredmorbius
https://old.reddit.com/r/beta/comments/8vkzvg/please_stop_asking_me_to_use_the_app/
======
minimaxir
Reddit's recent tactics have incidentally topped /r/assholedesign lately, such
as using a _fake_ loading screen for the app-pushing
([https://www.reddit.com/r/assholedesign/comments/8k10c7/not_g...](https://www.reddit.com/r/assholedesign/comments/8k10c7/not_gonna_download_the_reddit_app_artificial_load/)),
a Facebook-esque obfuscation of ad-posts in the app
([https://www.reddit.com/r/assholedesign/comments/85liof/how_r...](https://www.reddit.com/r/assholedesign/comments/85liof/how_reddit_tries_making_ads_look_like_any_other/)),
and mobile notifications for subreddits you don't follow
([https://www.reddit.com/r/assholedesign/comments/8m53bi/reddi...](https://www.reddit.com/r/assholedesign/comments/8m53bi/reddit_mobile_now_notifies_me_about_subreddits_im/)).

My main concern is Reddit pulling a Twitter and cracking down on third-party
clients/enhancers, such as RES and the Apollo app for iOS (which is excellent)

~~~
Rapzid
I've had to start disabling notifications on just about everything due similar
tactics across the app-o-system. Facebook spam was getting nuts; phone
vibrating at 2AM because somebody I haven't had contact with in years has
updated a picture? Google has even been getting really bad with TV show
episode availability updates for shows I have never watched or searched for?
Or is that some other app? I think the shark is well below us on
notifications.

~~~
iamdave
I've come to loathe this about social networking sites. Twitter (which I use
for sports buffoonery and hot takes from the community) is the absolute worst
about this.

"Hey your friend did a thing, go congratulate them"

"Hey, a friend knows this person. Go follow them too"

"Hey, your friend just posted a picture of spaghetti, go signal your approval"

Hey.

How about I check in and interact with my friends on my time in a manner _I_
want to?

~~~
justinclift
Yeah, I deleted my Twitter account a while ago when they started to put random
crap into my "Notifications", and it couldn't be turned off.

Keeping on using a service like that just encourages further bad behaviour.

~~~
moviuro
FWIW, that stuff doesn't appear in Notifications on
[https://tweetdeck.twitter.com](https://tweetdeck.twitter.com) (on PC - never
tried mobile for Twitter)

~~~
justinclift
Thanks. I didn't really use Twitter personally much any way.

I do somewhat need to use it as a way to communicate with users for an OSS
project (eg not a personal account), but that's still limited to maybe once a
day at most. Not worth installing a client program for that.

~~~
moviuro
It's just a webapp, like twitter.com . Only, it has support for columns,
lists, etc. built-in.

------
colanderman
I'm surprised that's their only problem with the mobile site. I purposely do
not follow Reddit links because they show me a spinner for 7 seconds before
showing the text of self posts. I can only assume that this delay to show a
kilobyte of text is purposeful and meant to further steer users to the app,
and not simply gross engineering incompetence, since the desktop site loads
instantly.

(Though, thank you to the OP for posting an explicit desktop link so I didn't
have to suffer this pause.)

At least AMP seems mostly dead. Though between cookie notices, "use our app"
and "subscribe to our mailing list" popups, fixed navbars, and the damn on-
screen keyboard popping up for no reason, I'm lucky to see even a single line
of article text on some sites on mobile, though _which_ line it is changes
every few seconds as ads on invisible parts of the page pop into and out of
existence. And then the article is shitty modern "long-form" journalism that
doesn't get to the point until after 10 paragraphs describing the latte the
reporter had while giving the interview. I've had better experiences reading
click-bait slideshow articles than those from some so-called "professional"
outlets. God I hate the modern web. Get off my lawn.

~~~
underwater
Ironically the mobile site is a full single page app, while the desktop site
(or at least the old one) was mostly server rendered. It's not impossible to
create a fast mobile client rendered site (Twitter have done well) but it's
certainly not as easy as it is with plain old HTML.

~~~
blt
The new desktop site sucks too. The old one was great, information dense, no
bullshit.

~~~
sunstone
You can still get the old one at
[http://old.reddit.com](http://old.reddit.com)

------
kirubakaran
I'm thankful for their new design, actually. After many years of trying, I
have now managed to successfully kick my Reddit habit completely and have
gained precious hours in my day.

~~~
goostavos
I've been trying to pin down _why_ I've had the same reaction as you, but I
really can't put my finger on it.

Something about the new site just somehow puts me off. While I could
mindlessly browse the old site endlessly, something about the new actively
makes me want to close the tab.

Either way, a good thing.

~~~
eksemplar
The new design made me leave as well, it had been s long time coming though.
Most discussions are dumb, I can’t remember the last time I had a conversation
on reddit where I wasn’t the most knowledgeable person in the thread, and
that’s just a waste of time.

It’s not that people are stupid, sometimes you’re simply talking to a teenager
with no life experience. Often it is because people are kind of stupid. My
national (r/Denmark) subreddit has devolved into a vile place for instance,
I’d compare it to t_d, it’s the best “quick” comparison there is, but it’s
obviously not as bad, at least not yet.

I think /r/space is the only major subreddit that I don’t dislike, and most of
the smaller ones have been abandoned.

The new design being horrible was just what tipped the iceberg.

~~~
Haydos585x2
I agree, the redesign isn't great but that's not what killed it for me. The
same discussions will keep happening there with no changes. I've had the same
thoughts as you about discussing with teenagers.

/r/Australia isn't particularly racist or astroturfed but there is still a lot
of times I'm amazed at what gets upvoted. /r/bjj is a good place for jiu jitsu
content but the same stuff is posted across every network and the communities
are so small we all know any news pretty quickly.

Maybe I just got older and care less about reading or discussing the same
topics all the time. I've had the same trouble with Facebook recently where so
many lies fill any comment section.

~~~
fphhotchips
You would have seen that stat about Australians spending more time on Reddit
than Facebook or Porn recently, right? That's why /r/Australia is bad now - it
went and got popular.

This cycle of social networks starting lesser known but higher quality and
ending popular but rubbish is inevitable because the bottom 25% of users have
far more capability to drag a social network into the dirt than the top 25%
could ever drag it back up.

------
tgtweak
The app doesn't have ad blockers and they can spam notifications, hence the
push.

Also I'm sure somewhere "mobile users" is a metric in a company valuation
equation. Pinterest is the worst offender of a mobile app that doesn't need to
exist since the web counterpart can do 100% of the job. This being a product
that leveraged JavaScript in browser bookmarks to get "pins" without an app or
extension.

When Reddit stopped allowing non-email-verified signups and conveniently
locked everyone out who did have a non-email legacy account, the writing was
on the wall. They didn't even have their own mobile app for years after the
"mobile first" rhetoric and guess what... It still grew to the #3 website in
the world.

~~~
froindt
>When Reddit stopped allowing non-email-verified signups and conveniently
locked everyone out who did have a non-email legacy account, the writing was
on the wall.

While I haven't verified it, I recently read a post that they didn't stop
allowing email-less account creation, they did add a dark pattern around it. I
believe it was someone like an email prompt and next button, but allowing the
email field to remain empty.

~~~
function_seven
You got it. Emails are still optional, but the sign up flow plays coy and
makes you think it’s required. You can leave the email field blank if you’d
like.

------
ajross
At this point I'm genuinely wondering if they're about to Digg themselves into
a amusingly-recursive grave. All it would take is one great, open forum site
to absorb the refugees from a terrible management mistep, and they're toast.
Just like Digg.

~~~
slg
The funny thing is that Reddit completely inadvertently killed one of the
possible heirs in Voat. That site had potential to steal the traditional
Reddit audience due to Reddit's mismanagement. However Reddit's crackdown on
hate on the site caused a big exodus of problem users to Voat. The end result
is that Voat is now a vile alt-right wasteland that presents no threat of
stealing Reddit's mainstream audience.

~~~
supertrope
That's like how some online games don't entirely ban cheat users but only
match them with other cheaters, giving them a taste of their own medicine.
There's a tipping point in the evolution of communities. When there are too
many acting in an anti-social manner such that fun or business is impaired,
people quit. If not addressed the community permanently declines.

There's a term of art in philosophy called universalizability (Kant).
Basically, what would happen if everyone followed a principle or strategy.
Locke spoke of the social contract - civilization is not compatible with
unlimited individual freedom.

Reddit already has an interesting user sorting and self-selection process:
sub-reddits. People can more easily congregate around common interests. They
don't even have to buy a domain, learn HTML, or pay hosting bills. Which would
seem to reduce flame wars. But this can result in groupthink and safe spaces
for extreme views.

~~~
swyx
> That's like how some online games don't entirely ban cheat users but only
> match them with other cheaters

this sounds interesting and im not sure its common knowledge. does anyone have
a source?

~~~
supertrope
Steam games using VAC do not fully ban cheaters. They can still play on non-
VAC servers. Of course, those tend to be scarce because no one wants to
uncheck that feature when creating a server.

Xbox Live: [https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/07/microsoft-explains-
xb...](https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/07/microsoft-explains-xbox-ones-
new-griefer-separating-reputation-system/) I've never owned an Xbox so I don't
know how effective it was.

------
twhb
I see threads like this all the time, and they don't make sense.

Reddit is an ad company. It's not an effort to build you a nice website, it's
a machine for taking your time and attention from you then selling it.

Asking Reddit to "please stop" grabbing at better attention hooks is like
asking McDonald's to "please stop" raising prices.

The right way to say this is timeless: refuse to make the trade. If Reddit
goes too far, close the tab. That, in bulk, is how you get a response.

~~~
jopsen
Things don't always change for the better because you complain.

But things rarely change for the better when you don't complain.

Reddit is trying to build a community too, because otherwise they wouldn't
have visitors. It's naive to think that speaking up never makes a difference.

~~~
twhb
History doesn’t support your comment. People have complained endlessly about
ISPs, various video game mechanics, Google and Facebook tracking; no change,
because the people complaining don’t leave. People generally don’t complain
about ugly interfaces, stores far away, confusing calls to action; they
constantly change and improve, because the people who hit these problems often
leave.

When speaking up has made a difference, virtually every time, it was coupled
with action, or it was speaking up to people who had no reason not to agree.

Reddit’s community is a means to an end, that’s my point. Asking for something
that strengthens the community without harming ad views may be reasonable, but
asking them to strengthen the community at the direct expense of the reason
they want a community is nonsense.

~~~
jopsen
Google and Facebook have done a Lot of things to mitigate privacy concerns.
Both have decent controls, you can see your data, delete data, see apps that
have access, etc.

Sure, privacy issues aren't solved, largely because people don't care, don't
understand the tools, and marketing companies are ever more aggressive.

But to say that Google and Facebook have done nothing in the face of public
outrage is wrong.

Rome wasn't built in day - things get better step by step - speaking up is
often a good start.

We spoke up, and the EU is largely without software parents. It's easy to
forget our victories in the face of all the upcoming battles.

------
ploggingdev
> now it's a floating bar at the bottom when reading comments that for some
> reason I can't get rid of despite the x button

The x button works for me, but when I load an other page it reappears. So
reddit wants me to dismiss the floating bar for _every_ page I visit on the
site.

I'm curious to learn about the thinking behind building out such dark
patterns. Have the reddit employees tried using the site on mobile while
logged out for extended periods of time? If the answer is yes, I would love to
know how they justify building out such a feature. Is there pressure to grow
the app installs metric? It sometimes feels like reddit is losing touch with
the community.

There's another variation of the popup where the button to install the app is
huge and the link to proceed to the mobile site is tiny. It's also pretty easy
to accidentally click on the button to download the app. Here's an image :
[https://i.imgur.com/rSS8HoI.png](https://i.imgur.com/rSS8HoI.png)

~~~
wincy
I mean they probably justify it with “the boss told me to do this, so I will
because I live in San Francisco and my rent is $2500 a month and I want to
keep my job”. It’s hard to make a stand when someone else will just do it.

~~~
bevax
In that case you have the wrong employer.

------
zmmmmm
It's kind of fascinating that seems like there is some kind of force that
drives popular web sites to eventually self-sabotage themselves out of
existence. Reddit seems to be having a good go at it now.

I sort of get how it happens but I can't quite understand how the level of
stupidity required by management is achieved in practice to actually do it.

~~~
taneq
Create -> Monetize -> Expand -> Exploit -> Destroy

It's a common commercial lifecycle for all sorts of things. You make a new
thing. You find a way to make money from the thing. You expand your market for
the thing by filling a need and treating your customers well. At some point
you want to cash out, and start burning your userbase to make extra money.
Eventually this destroys the whole thing.

~~~
im3w1l
That's part of it. Another cause is that companies grow and get more employees
and those employees need to justify their existence by changing things up. You
don't get promoted for not fixing what aint broken.

~~~
JBReefer
This this this. That's why there are a million fly-by-night Craigslist
competitors, and then there's Craigslist.

It works the same way it did in 1999, so my grandma can still sell stuff on
it. That's it. Done. It's probably made way more money by not changing
anything than by increasing CPMs 5% by playing a fullscreen ad every 6
seconds.

------
RobertRoberts
Finally, the needed re-branding/re-naming for the ambiguous "Dark Patterns" is
"Asshole Design".

[https://old.reddit.com/r/assholedesign/](https://old.reddit.com/r/assholedesign/)

~~~
slazaro
I'm okay with this, "Asshole Design" is an anti-euphemism calling things by
its proper name.

------
daveheq
Too many mobile sites do this now; there's a reason I keep declining to use
the app... BECAUSE I DON'T WANT TO.

The reason is irrelevant, and they don't ask for it anyways. They just keep
badgering and badgering and badgering to try to figure out WHO YOU ARE and tag
your phone info/MEID across the internet... Do you really think they can't
connect that info?

LinkedIn is the worst example because they represent professionals, and doing
this is about as unprofessional as you can get.

~~~
Haydos585x2
I hate it when it's something like Facebook, Twitter or Reddit asking me
repeatedly to download their app but even worst is when it's some random
website I'm visiting once! No, I don't want your app, random one-off recipe
site!

~~~
zerostar07
come on! sign up to our newsletter before you even see the content. what about
a feedback survey or two after 3 seconds of visiting our sites? Help us get
better

------
kristianp
People are complaining about reddit here, but it applies equally to every
other online company, especially bloody Medium!

It's the main reason I wish people would stop using Medium to host their
blogs, because there's an uncloseable "open in app" button in the middle of
the content.

~~~
zerostar07
Medium is ridiculous. only readable with reader mode.

~~~
sincerely
The sad part is that the only reason people use Medium in the first place is
because it started out as a place where you could guarantee the content would
be readable and relatively nicely presented...

------
staunch
What made reddit so great is that it was an underfunded company. What will
probably be its ruin is that it is now an overfunded company.

It should be run like a public service, for the benefit of society. It's now
being run like a business with VCs that want to see a return. Exactly the
problem that ruined Digg.

Trying to turn reddit into a big profitable business will corrupt it.
Hopefully the replacement will be a more decentralized phenomenon. But even if
not, it will be replaced by something better shortly after it becomes bad
enough. What reddit was is too important to not exist.

------
firefoxd
Note the little grayed out "go to mobile site" link. It actually makes you
believe it is a link. But it is not. It makes you think that if you click it
will take you somewhere else, so you don't want to click and lose the current
page. Dark pattern at it's best.

~~~
sundvor
Came to comment on exactly this.

I used to click _CONTINUE_ because I'd already gone to the mobile site and
just wanted to close the #$@%!$* pop-up. And would be taken to Play Store.

But as you point out, "take me to the mobile site" isn't actually a proper
link. It makes me think I'll lose my current page, when I'm in fact already
here. This is what should be named Continue, and the other should be "Get The
Reddit App". Bastards.

------
bredren
It is really bad. Coincidentally I received an email from reddit today titled
“Reddit ads are mobile ”

>Reddit’s official mobile apps have seen tremendous growth and are by far the
most popular way to browse Reddit on mobile devices.

These days dark patterns are tremendous. This thread must be fake news.

------
Ancalagon
And please go back to the old reddit, before the redesign. I can't stand it.

~~~
Rjevski
The redesign completely kills my 12-inch MacBook by freezing Safari’s UI for a
good second or two while it’s loading all that shit JavaScript.

I can load _actual apps_ faster than their _content-focused_ website.

~~~
megaremote
You can switch it off. And supposedly they will support the old design for a
long time.

~~~
Rjevski
> supposedly they will support the old design for a long time

Just like supposedly they weren’t gonna do the user-hostile stuff described in
this thread?

------
tjpnz
They're pushing the native app hard because they want to serve you ads.

~~~
dragonwriter
They do that on the mobile website, so they clearly can do that without
pushing the app.

~~~
dredmorbius
Adblocking is less effective on apps, and there's greater data slurping
potential.

------
dbg31415
I find that these addons make Reddit a little more tolerable:

SHINE for reddit -- [https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/shine-
reddit/...](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/shine-
reddit/reviews/)

Old Reddit Redirect -- [https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/old-
reddit-re...](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/old-reddit-
redirect/)

But... on the whole I really hate the direction Reddit has gone in.

Apollo is fine, but I hate having to use a mobile app. And the mobile web
experience is such shit. The fact that they push the app so hard makes me
think they have loaded it with a crypto miner. Ha, well probably just location
tracking or other data they can sell that they can't get from the web version.

And the redesign... man, it's just bad. It screams, "I'm going to load more
ads on the page..." That has to be the real reason behind it, a design that
allows them to have every 2nd item be an ad. Great... just want I wanted.
Bastards.

I worry they'll soon crack down on Apollo and old.reddit.com and accessing the
site through a non-crappy interface. Or they'll charge to have the "old"
reddit view. Just really hate most of their decisions, not like it's amazing
content anyway... but if I use it, I don't want to get bombarded with ads or
have to load an app.

------
baby
I’ve uninstalled almost all time-consuming apps I had (twitter, facebook,
reddit, instagram, etc) and have disabled notification for the rest of em’
(messenger, whatsapp, etc.)

The good thing is that I’m spending way less time with my phone now. The OK
thing is that websites like facebook and reddit are constantly reminding me to
use the app. The bad thing is that my apps now remind me all the time that
I’ve disabled notifications.

------
chc4
I exclusively use `i.reddit.com` on my phone so that I hit the old mobile
site. It is amazing how much better it is than the slow and confusing piece of
trash the new UI is.

------
InclinedPlane
I use reddit's "compact" theme on mobile:
[https://www.reddit.com/.compact](https://www.reddit.com/.compact)

So far it's been a universally superior experience to the proper mobile site
or the app.

~~~
hieloz
Agree that,indeed,it makes my browsing faster, and no ads.
[https://i.reddit.com](https://i.reddit.com) works as well!

------
ryanwhitney
Worse yet, they’ve bought into the amp scam—and don’t support collapsible
threaded commenting there—so you have to get through it twice.

------
franga2000
What pisses me off the most is how the big red "Continue" button takes you to
the app store and the tiny "go to mobile site" link dismisses the message. NO!
I already am on the mobile site, you I can not "go to it". And opening an app
store isn't "Continuing". It's taking me to a completely different place and
making me wish for BBSs to come back. What do they have to gain from this? I
get Facebook pushing their data-hoovering app, but what is Reddit's reasoning?
Especially when their web app is actually really good.

------
mark_l_watson
I am a big fan of Reddit, give them a few dollars every month. I just stopped
reading reddit on my iPhone: I don’t like the mobile app and the mobile web. I
use the desktop version on my iPad Pro and MacBook. I don;t need to read
Reddit on my phone.

I really wish they would write a great mobile web app. I use Facebook once a
week to catch up on family stuff, and go all mobile. I also use Twitter
sometimes, always mobile.

I try to avoid other sites that try to force me to install an app. I can do
without their content.

~~~
danielskogly
You can browse with reddit compact by simply adding .compact to the end of a
URL. It's not the most beautiful thing in the world, but it's functional and
really fast. Eg.
[https://www.reddit.com/.compact](https://www.reddit.com/.compact)

------
xtat
Goes for every web service: I don't want your fucking app.

------
dkersten
I hate this so much. Reddit also often fails to load (the something went wrong
page) after already having loaded! Ie it shows the page for a second or two
and then swaps to the error page. Refreshing fixes it. Reddit on mobile is a
horrible experience but I don’t want to use their app. I just go on Reddit a
lot less than I otherwise would because of it.

EDIT: I just learned that old.* goes to a non-js version that doesn’t have
these problems! Yay!

------
shanghaiaway
I wonder what the conversion rate is for users who see the pop up for the
100th time.

------
qrbLPHiKpiux
And I still request desktop site. This is Digg 3.0

------
Chazprime
Quora seems to be on a similar path. Lately the mobile site launches a card
directing users to the app store that can’t be dismissed.

------
cm2012
It's all to make ad revenue feasible. Can't say I blame them.

------
runeks
I find it interesting that many web apps are so keen on getting users to
download their very similar local app counterpart.

Let’s brainstorm a bit on why this is the case.

Does it just come down to ad blockers not being available for local apps? At
least on iOS, access to e.g. notifications, address books, pictures etc. is
optional. But maybe most users just answer “yes” when asked, and the reason
local apps are preferred is because access to this stuff isn’t possible via
web apps?

------
throwawayqdhd
For some reason, I can't log into my Reddit account on the new design. I have
to go back to old.reddit.com to log in.

Not that I'm complaining. The new design is just...weird?

------
matheusmoreira
This is actually one of the reasons why I prefer to comment on hackernews
instead of reddit. If they keep pestering users about its ad-filled, personal
information-collecting apps, people will probably stop using it and just
leave. If they really care about reddit, they might make a browser plugin that
edits the page and gets rid of all the annoyances.

~~~
King-Aaron
I've actually completely stopped using Reddit since migrating to HN. The
content is better, the comments are far better, and the overall user
experience is massively superior.

~~~
kungtotte
If all you want to read is tech stuff, HN is a great replacement. If you
participate in any of the smaller or narrow focus subreddits then there's no
place on HN for that.

In my case that's mainly game-specific subs, and places like /r/paintball.

------
Aissen
This could be solved with an addon. This dark pattern is here to stay it
seems. Of course, this would require using a mobile browser that supports
addons, which means Firefox for Android.

In the old days, it would have been a two lines userscripts, but since
Greasemonkey was abandoned, there's no good alternative to do a portable
(maybe webext-based) addon.

------
dikiaap
There is a filter list to remove "Download the something-something app"
banners that show up on various websites.[0]

[0]
[https://github.com/DandelionSprout/adfilt/tree/master/stayin...](https://github.com/DandelionSprout/adfilt/tree/master/stayingonbrowser)

------
vonseel
Kind of ironic how this immediately opens the Reddit app on iOS.

Edit: just saw post is about reddit. I had assumed it was about the practice
in general, since it is not uncommon to open a website and immediately be
redirected to the App Store for some random site, article, etc. medium is one
that comes to mind. Imgur. It’s a common thing.

~~~
wingerlang
Not that ironic, since opening in apps is a user setting. You, at one point,
said "yes" to opening reddit links in their associated app.

~~~
vonseel
Oh... ::facepalm::

------
kenslin
Does anyone notice that the conversion rate of reddit links drop much with the
new UI? Before, the rate is about 70%, now it is 10%. For example, a reddit
comment page shows 2000 views, but there are only 200 visits detected by
yourself website backend stat software.

~~~
wincy
It seems designed to keep you from leaving the site. I’ve noticed on the
desktop I have to go through extra steps to leave Reddit and actually follow
the link. It’s frustrsting.

------
edem
I switched off _all_ notifications from _all_ apps years ago. I'd rather be in
a "pull" mode than a "push" mode especially when they push shit downstream.
Now I only read what I'm interested in when I want and how I want.

------
dmitriid
"You'd think only one of those is a joke. I don't know anymore."

[https://grumpy.website/post/0PhBPyfR-](https://grumpy.website/post/0PhBPyfR-)

------
yeukhon
Sigh. Also these “accept cookirs” info box needs to stop. Every single visit!

------
jakelarkin
mobile app installs growth must be a KPI for pitch decks / funding.

------
JohnnyConatus
They should have bought Shine and called it a day. Amazing how poorly their
new UI works compared to a Chrome extension.

------
lowlevel
I just close anything that asks me to log in or use an app. No big deal.

------
6nf
reddit.com -> hamburger menu -> request desktop site. I've done this so many
times now it's basically all muscle memory at this point.

~~~
inferiorhuman
If only Reddit would honor the browser initiatied 'request desktop site'.

------
hijklmno
Its the same annoying thing with Quora too.

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paidleaf
They are trying to IPO for once last chance at a cashout for their most recent
investor/owner ( advanced publications ).

[http://www.businessinsider.com/reddit-is-reportedly-
consider...](http://www.businessinsider.com/reddit-is-reportedly-considering-
an-ipo-2017-11)

They aren't interested in user experience. They are interested in drumming up
mobile #s in the short term to get the best valuation possible. Reddit, like
most things on the internet, have turned away from their idealistic beginnings
for the cold hard cash. Not that I blame them really.

I've been through situations like reddit is going through. I can guarantee you
that they don't care 1 bit about user complaints at this stage. It's all about
getting the metrics they need to the valuation they want. They don't care
whether reddit survives or not over the long term. They don't care about user
experience. It's all about the short term right now and cashing out as quickly
as possible.

Think of it like trying to sell your car. You don't car about its long term
prospects. You just want to spend as little money as possible to make it look
as good as possible to make as much money off of it in the short term.

~~~
rnet85
I interviewed there. It is not as dark as you put it. They admit they have
certain problems with how they display ads, and how they draw in more people.
They're acutely aware that they've yet to figure out a mature way to monetize
the site without irritating the users. These are trials. Different teams come
up different ideas and they want to try them out and see if it works out.
Their CEO is very aware of criticisms like these.

~~~
craftyguy
> I interviewed there.

It's not really unheard of for an employer to paint a rosy picture for
prospective employees...

~~~
randycupertino
So true. imo you generally don't become fully aware of the dark side of how
the sausage is made at most jobs until at least 6-months in.

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ezoe
Don't use the cellphone.

Because anything involve the cellphone is technically stupid.

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myf01d
Please stop forcing the old.reddit.com subdomain on us

~~~
aloner
if you have an account, you can disable the redesign.

~~~
ceejayoz
For now, sure. I can't imagine it'll be available permanently.

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hondadriver
Obligatory xkcd [https://xkcd.com/1174/](https://xkcd.com/1174/)

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daenz
75 points in 20 minutes? How are there that many people browsing /newest?

~~~
dang
Three votes came from /newest and the rest from the front page. The post
obviously struck a nerve.

~~~
dredmorbius
The response certainly surprised me.

