It's so dissapointing to see the direction reddit had taken some years ago, transfering its focus from a space for nerds to share cool things on top of a minimalist interface to the monstrosity...
It's so dissapointing to see the direction reddit had taken some years ago, transfering its focus from a space for nerds to share cool things on top of a minimalist interface to the monstrosity that the new reddit layout is and its constant nag screens to push for its mobile apps. RIP, you will be missed.
I hope tildes and, more importantly IMHO, the link aggregators in the fediverse will be able to carve a niche for themselves in the same space. :)
Well, there are a couple of projects outside mastodon that implement the ActivityPub protocol. I am building one of them which is a link aggregator similar to tildes: https://littr.me There are...
Well, there are a couple of projects outside mastodon that implement the ActivityPub protocol.
The term often used for this kind of thing is "growth hacking". It's a method of forcing one of your important metrics (in this case, new user registrations) to increase more than it would...
The term often used for this kind of thing is "growth hacking". It's a method of forcing one of your important metrics (in this case, new user registrations) to increase more than it would "naturally".
In almost all cases there's a negative side effect to those techniques though, because you're forcing people to do something that they didn't want to do on their own. For example, in a case like this you might end up hurting a different metric by increasing your number of "abandoned user accounts" or something similar, because people sign up just to read something and never use the account again.
If the 'this is to force people into the mobile app' is true, I'm surprised they're not hindering alternative programs. I believe most of the reddit viewers available on ios and android are simply...
If the 'this is to force people into the mobile app' is true, I'm surprised they're not hindering alternative programs. I believe most of the reddit viewers available on ios and android are simply using API calls, and I haven't noticed any obvious adds via them. I suppose they could pull a twitter and do that all of a sudden, but I would expect them to pursue a similar slow degredation strategy there as well.
fwiw, they've been neglecting the API almost entirely – there are loads of website features which aren't available via the documented API, so I think it's entirely plausible that they'll drop it...
fwiw, they've been neglecting the API almost entirely – there are loads of website features which aren't available via the documented API, so I think it's entirely plausible that they'll drop it at some point.
If they did, I’d stop using Reddit altogether. There are still some valuable communities on the site - niche programming, sports, and fitness communities come to mind - but Reddit as a whole isn’t...
If they did, I’d stop using Reddit altogether. There are still some valuable communities on the site - niche programming, sports, and fitness communities come to mind - but Reddit as a whole isn’t “cool” anymore, and it never will be ever again.
This doesn't apply to the desktop site. I'm signed out and can read comments just fine. Edit: I'm not seeing it on the mobile site, either. I do see "Log in or sign up to leave a comment" but...
This doesn't apply to the desktop site. I'm signed out and can read comments just fine.
Edit: I'm not seeing it on the mobile site, either. I do see "Log in or sign up to leave a comment" but nothing about logging in to see comments.
It absolutely is a/b. I've been getting all sorts of different versions/barriers lately. Sign in to view, sign in to comment, endless loops, sign in to view NSFW content (don't judge). And it's...
It absolutely is a/b. I've been getting all sorts of different versions/barriers lately. Sign in to view, sign in to comment, endless loops, sign in to view NSFW content (don't judge). And it's been going back in forth, one day it want's me to sign in, the next it doesn't. This is on my mobile browser. Using incognito mode sometimes it requests sign ins, and other times not. I'm signed in on my non-incognito tabs.
my bandaid solution is an old.reddit.com re-director on my pc and phone. But I barely browse Reddit anyway so it doesn't really matter. As for the actual issue. It's a crap decision. This is the...
my bandaid solution is an old.reddit.com re-director on my pc and phone. But I barely browse Reddit anyway so it doesn't really matter.
As for the actual issue. It's a crap decision. This is the sort of thing that makes me immediately find another website when I see it, and while not everyone is me, I still do wonder if this will really make more people sign up. It seems like it would just annoy people who use the site.
And as for pushing things down people's throats, why not the Reddit app rather than just an account? You can do far more spying / advertising (which gives $) if you force someone to download the app rather than just make an account. Hell, the app likely uniquely ID's the logged out users anyway (no proof though, the app is proprietary).
Overall, it just saddens me, another step down the very long staircase that reddit has been stepping down for the past few years, all the way down to the basement of becoming Facebook.
Welp, I'm not surprised. At least this might force them to make the mobile website a little better since many lurkers and non-registered users will be forced to use because their phones don't have...
Welp, I'm not surprised. At least this might force them to make the mobile website a little better since many lurkers and non-registered users will be forced to use because their phones don't have space for the reddit app.
2/10, forced registration is not what I'd ever reccomend.
So this is probably a dumb question, but I don't see it answered in the comments neither here not on Reddit: What happens if you click the x? Does it close the pop-up and let you continue reading,...
So this is probably a dumb question, but I don't see it answered in the comments neither here not on Reddit:
What happens if you click the x? Does it close the pop-up and let you continue reading, or does it redirect you to the log-in page?
When Reddit took over the old Alien Blue app for iOS, they awarded current users of it 4 years of Reddit Premium (then "Reddit Gold") as an incentive to switch to the official app. The whole...
When Reddit took over the old Alien Blue app for iOS, they awarded current users of it 4 years of Reddit Premium (then "Reddit Gold") as an incentive to switch to the official app. The whole premium tier thing is rubbish anyway, but all things considered that was an astonishingly generous amount for them to hand out to people after making so many moves to monetize the platform. I've been using it ever since.
My 4 years will be expiring in April, and I have no intention of paying to extend it. Truth be told I'll probably drop Reddit entirely when that day comes. Not interested in starting to see ads where there are currently none for me, and I really don't like the bigger business decisions the company has been making for years now.
I never knew about that offer and I was an avid Alien Blue user. Not that I would have used it anyway. Why don't you just switch to Apollo or something similar?
I never knew about that offer and I was an avid Alien Blue user. Not that I would have used it anyway. Why don't you just switch to Apollo or something similar?
Are you sure? The common sentiment that I see is that signing up to engage in a community like this tends to be a barrier rather than something that actually results in more signups. I tend to...
Are you sure? The common sentiment that I see is that signing up to engage in a community like this tends to be a barrier rather than something that actually results in more signups. I tend to eschew signing up for one-off interactions myself.
Historically it's been how smaller sites get the catalyst they need to grow. The Digg exodus to Reddit, for example, did a lot to cement Reddit as a popular site.
Historically it's been how smaller sites get the catalyst they need to grow. The Digg exodus to Reddit, for example, did a lot to cement Reddit as a popular site.
Oh wow, I just realized I totally misread Eric_the_Cerise's comment and thought it meant new signups on reddit to get round the "sign up / in to participate" barrier. Whoops. All those points are...
Oh wow, I just realized I totally misread Eric_the_Cerise's comment and thought it meant new signups on reddit to get round the "sign up / in to participate" barrier. Whoops. All those points are indeed valid, yes. I'm a little wary of open registration, though, and without proper moderation I fear it may be an Eternal September event. Maybe I'm just being pessimistic, but it does seem to be what happens regularly.
That could come off as somewhat elitist or combative. I'd prefer a limit on users per time period. (Say 250 in a day, 1000 in a week and 3000 in a month and then lockdown),an idea which has...
Just close the damn gate. Open registration does not have to be permanent. We can go back to requiring invites for registration. Shoot, Deimos could even once again require users to be signed in just to view the damn thing.
That could come off as somewhat elitist or combative. I'd prefer a limit on users per time period. (Say 250 in a day, 1000 in a week and 3000 in a month and then lockdown),an idea which has already been thrown around as a potential replacement, albeit with smaller values than what I have given to account for how people are the most active when just joining along with a welcome post for the newcomers.
It's so dissapointing to see the direction reddit had taken some years ago, transfering its focus from a space for nerds to share cool things on top of a minimalist interface to the monstrosity that the new reddit layout is and its constant nag screens to push for its mobile apps. RIP, you will be missed.
I hope tildes and, more importantly IMHO, the link aggregators in the fediverse will be able to carve a niche for themselves in the same space. :)
Any examples of these? I'm entirely new to the topic and not sure where to begin looking. Are you talking about things like mastodon?
Well, there are a couple of projects outside mastodon that implement the ActivityPub protocol.
I am building one of them which is a link aggregator similar to tildes: https://littr.me
There are also two other projects that are a bit more developed: https://prismo.xyz/ and https://dev.lemmy.ml/.
[edit] Seems like I was having a stroke when I wrote this message. Corrected some stuff.
Only link aggregator I know of in the Fediverse is Prismo.
There is, another.
The term often used for this kind of thing is "growth hacking". It's a method of forcing one of your important metrics (in this case, new user registrations) to increase more than it would "naturally".
In almost all cases there's a negative side effect to those techniques though, because you're forcing people to do something that they didn't want to do on their own. For example, in a case like this you might end up hurting a different metric by increasing your number of "abandoned user accounts" or something similar, because people sign up just to read something and never use the account again.
If the 'this is to force people into the mobile app' is true, I'm surprised they're not hindering alternative programs. I believe most of the reddit viewers available on ios and android are simply using API calls, and I haven't noticed any obvious adds via them. I suppose they could pull a twitter and do that all of a sudden, but I would expect them to pursue a similar slow degredation strategy there as well.
fwiw, they've been neglecting the API almost entirely – there are loads of website features which aren't available via the documented API, so I think it's entirely plausible that they'll drop it at some point.
If they did, I’d stop using Reddit altogether. There are still some valuable communities on the site - niche programming, sports, and fitness communities come to mind - but Reddit as a whole isn’t “cool” anymore, and it never will be ever again.
This doesn't apply to the desktop site. I'm signed out and can read comments just fine.
Edit: I'm not seeing it on the mobile site, either. I do see "Log in or sign up to leave a comment" but nothing about logging in to see comments.
a/b test, probably; I guess they're trying to see how many people it pushes away compared to how many more signups/logins they get.
It absolutely is a/b. I've been getting all sorts of different versions/barriers lately. Sign in to view, sign in to comment, endless loops, sign in to view NSFW content (don't judge). And it's been going back in forth, one day it want's me to sign in, the next it doesn't. This is on my mobile browser. Using incognito mode sometimes it requests sign ins, and other times not. I'm signed in on my non-incognito tabs.
my bandaid solution is an old.reddit.com re-director on my pc and phone. But I barely browse Reddit anyway so it doesn't really matter.
As for the actual issue. It's a crap decision. This is the sort of thing that makes me immediately find another website when I see it, and while not everyone is me, I still do wonder if this will really make more people sign up. It seems like it would just annoy people who use the site.
And as for pushing things down people's throats, why not the Reddit app rather than just an account? You can do far more spying / advertising (which gives $) if you force someone to download the app rather than just make an account. Hell, the app likely uniquely ID's the logged out users anyway (no proof though, the app is proprietary).
Overall, it just saddens me, another step down the very long staircase that reddit has been stepping down for the past few years, all the way down to the basement of becoming Facebook.
Welp, I'm not surprised. At least this might force them to make the mobile website a little better since many lurkers and non-registered users will be forced to use because their phones don't have space for the reddit app.
2/10, forced registration is not what I'd ever reccomend.
It became a hallow "social media" site instead of a link sharing site. The whole redesign was a mistake.
So this is probably a dumb question, but I don't see it answered in the comments neither here not on Reddit:
What happens if you click the x? Does it close the pop-up and let you continue reading, or does it redirect you to the log-in page?
When Reddit took over the old Alien Blue app for iOS, they awarded current users of it 4 years of Reddit Premium (then "Reddit Gold") as an incentive to switch to the official app. The whole premium tier thing is rubbish anyway, but all things considered that was an astonishingly generous amount for them to hand out to people after making so many moves to monetize the platform. I've been using it ever since.
My 4 years will be expiring in April, and I have no intention of paying to extend it. Truth be told I'll probably drop Reddit entirely when that day comes. Not interested in starting to see ads where there are currently none for me, and I really don't like the bigger business decisions the company has been making for years now.
I never knew about that offer and I was an avid Alien Blue user. Not that I would have used it anyway. Why don't you just switch to Apollo or something similar?
Eh. Maybe I will. Maybe I'm just looking for an excuse to quit Reddit for good.
... aka, we can probably expect a new wave of sign-ups here. Yeay, Reddit.
Are you sure? The common sentiment that I see is that signing up to engage in a community like this tends to be a barrier rather than something that actually results in more signups. I tend to eschew signing up for one-off interactions myself.
Historically it's been how smaller sites get the catalyst they need to grow. The Digg exodus to Reddit, for example, did a lot to cement Reddit as a popular site.
Oh wow, I just realized I totally misread Eric_the_Cerise's comment and thought it meant new signups on reddit to get round the "sign up / in to participate" barrier. Whoops. All those points are indeed valid, yes. I'm a little wary of open registration, though, and without proper moderation I fear it may be an Eternal September event. Maybe I'm just being pessimistic, but it does seem to be what happens regularly.
That could come off as somewhat elitist or combative. I'd prefer a limit on users per time period. (Say 250 in a day, 1000 in a week and 3000 in a month and then lockdown),an idea which has already been thrown around as a potential replacement, albeit with smaller values than what I have given to account for how people are the most active when just joining along with a welcome post for the newcomers.
Honestly so what? if it helps to stop a sudden influx from a bad decision elsewhere I don't really care if some people think this.
at first I thought "hmm, maybe reddit should ban me for not reading enough books and spent too much time lurking online"