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Reddit experimenting with blocking mobile browsers
(old.reddit.com)
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this post was submitted on 11 Jun 2023
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Their approach here seems inherently broken. People aren't going to use the app they don't want to use.
15-year reddit veteran here. Spez thinks us old-timers are freeloaders for continuing to prefer old.reddit and the third-party apps. The truth is, that site is dead and what Lemmy offers now is closer to that original vision than current reddit ever will be. Reddit is Dead. Long live Lemmy.
I'll be honest: I always prefered the "new Reddit" over the old one. With that said, the App sucks balls and it going public (as it always does) killed reddit within a few days. Now we just hope lemmy catches on and fixes some of the inherent issues with decentralization.
I just hate apps for what can be a website in general.
On Desktop, 100% yes. On Mobile, Browsers in general suck pretty hard, and i often much prefer the app. If only for Notifications and recent apps being easier to manage than tabs.
Makes sense, I'm to lazy for pi-hole or what so ever to be ad free on mobile. But I also hate apps for what could be a website, so I used old reddit on mobile.
I use Blokada 5 to block ads on my phone and it works pretty well. That version is free, but Blokada 6 is their subscription based blocker which is why I specify the number. I have no experience with 6.
I usually hate apps for websites, but old Reddit is too hard to read on my phone so I used third party apps.
On mobile, browsers provide critical accessibility. Notifications are actually a reason for me not to use apps. I don't want to be notified all the time about everything.
The harder they push their official app, the more sketched out by it I am.
It's seriously disturbing from a mental health perspective. They're doing exactly the same things Facebook did that made it most damaging
The app always gives you something, it will add filler (in the form of front-page content) to your feed, changing the reward schedule and (very literally) training you to doom scroll longer with fewer posts you actually care about. It also gives the opportunity to shove something controversial in your face, which drives outrage based engagement
It also always gives you messages - if you didn't get actual replies, it gives you sub suggestions or puts random posts in your notifications to try to get you back in the app
They also been doing A/B testing to try to maximize in-app time
It's a literal recipe for addiction
They want you to experience reddit the way THEY want you to, not how YOU decide to. Put it like it is: predatory.
Enabling paging in Apollo to stop myself from doomscrolling was a huge thing for me. Reaching the end of a page was a reminder and I could actively decide if I want to go further down the procrastination route or not. Guess what option is not available neither on web or the official app...