As quoted from the linked post.
It looks like you’re part of one of our experiments. The logged-in mobile web experience is currently unavailable for a portion of users. To access the site you can log on via desktop, the mobile apps, or wait for the experiment to conclude.
This is separate from the API issue. This will actually BLOCK you from even viewing reddit on your phone without using the official app.
Archive.org link in case the post is removed.
It’s unbelievable how’s user hostile all of these major site have become. I deleted my 11 year old Reddit account today and while it hurt a little it’s important that we send a message and not use Reddit at least until they repeal this bullshit.
It’s getting worse by the minute. I really really hope Lemmy usage picks up.
It’s one thing to test a new idea or a UX tweak or similar on a small portion of users - but just turning off a key way to access your service is so just so weird to me. How many of Reddit’s decisions at this point are some version of, “hey, how angry do they get? What can we get away with?”
People need to understand that this is about tracking your eyeballs. Reddit viewed on a webpage does not provide the metadata they want. What metadata does the app provide? Things you wouldn’t think about wanting as a human, but the aggregate is very valuable.
Stuff like how long did you watch that video Ad? Where did you click on screen and at what time? What content were you viewing and what course of action did you take to get there? Web viewing only shows the landing page you arrived on reddit from and the exit page that took you away from reddit. Performing these actions in the app provides metadata cookie crumbs like a trail of roach shit to every single thing you’ve done on reddit in micro activities.
I’m not sure. I’ve worked at companies using amplitude and hotjar that can record all click event and sessions on web
Users can block those with extensions so the data isn’t as reliable
That’s probably a big part. Web browsers can do ad blocking. Within the official Reddit app that’s way more difficult.
Funneling the herd into the slaughterhouse.
It sure seems like half the herd has wandered off.
It is not super difficult to do the same type of blocking with a router on software like OpenWRT. This can easily block all of the 3rd party ads type junk. The thing I can’t quite figure out is what they are able to do on their server connection. It seems like they are able to setup their own proxy and impact other traffic on the same network when they should be far more sandboxed, but I can’t prove that.
Someone REALLY needs to make fully open source and transparent mobile hardware and put Qualcomm under the bus… on a high speed looping track. We have no idea what is really possible under the hood on any existing mobile device. Both the processor and the modem are mostly black boxes. Even with the best custom ROMs like Graphene OS, the whole premise is based on developing a verifiable chain of trust on top of untrusted hardware we don’t control.
The thing people fail to put together is that this is an issue of ownership; theft of ownership. Now we are seeing the first layers of neo digital feudalism emerging as a result of the theft.
It is not super difficult to do the same type of blocking with a router on software like OpenWRT.
that is not something average people even know about, or would have the skills to attempt. not even close.
The thing I can’t quite figure out is what they are able to do on their server connection. It seems like they are able to setup their own proxy and impact other traffic on the same network when they should be far more sandboxed, but I can’t prove that.
I noticed a while ago that my Asus WRT with a custom hosts file wasn’t blocking ads anymore, too. I’m betting your assessment is correct. Shit sucks. Fuck ads.
I run a whitelist fw for my workstation, and have developed that list for years. Yes, it has been a major PITA. They can never get around a whitelist unless they self host all the ads. I imagine their servers will burn down in a day if they allow that kind of access. Plus who would pay these clowns to unverifiably show the ad in the first place. Then all the ad mongers won’t be able to mine data on their servers too.
The loss of net neutrality is still only beginning to show its impact. I think we are on the verge of an internet parallel to the Star Wars death of the Old Republic and beginning of the Rebellion. The Chrome browser is the dissolution of the Senate via Web 3.
If I am correct, welcome to Hoth. Mind your battle stations. Imperial Walkers will likely show up at any time.
Users can block those on desktop without issue. On mobile it’s a bit harder so most people I know don’t even if they use ublock or something on their PCs/laptops (though that is of course only anecdotal).
So if anything if that was the issue they should’ve shut off support for the desktop version LOL /s
It’s not as common to push users to apps on desktop, but its a tried-and-true practice on mobile. I’m sure companies would do it if they could, but app stores and app lockin aren’t as strong on desktop as on mobile
Sorry that that wasn’t obvious, but the desktop bit was mostly a joke!
But yeah; on desktop extra applications you have to download are definitely a hard sell.
I would assume a good amount of the reason has less to do with tracking [though I’m not denying it’s a factor], and more with other stuff such as it being an icon on your phone etc, apps just have a different “feel” than websites ultimately imho
It’s a bizzare move though, given that basically every other social media in the world doesn’t block mobile browsers.
Facebook infamously does for Messenger. But yes, I think it’s a sign of their desperation.
Not blocking but LinkedIn pushes mobile browsers towards their app.
Bruh, I agree. I’m super interested to see the fallout of the community from this. I know it’s super easy to say “fuck /u/spez”, but how many people will truly pull through to delete their accounts and/or stop using reddit?
Already deleted any accounts I had. Overwrote all comments with this tool too.
I did this as well. Sad to see the content I created disappear, but at least now I can start reposting to a whole new fediverse 😅
That’s a positive at least. I’m still ripping data from my accounts, but afterwards bye bye!
Make sure it actually overwrote all your comments. PowerDeleteSuite doesn’t respect the edit rate limit. I used a fork which runs much slower but respects the limit.
Also, it’s a good idea to wait several days between the editing and deleting your account. Many users on reddit were suggesting that reddit holds on to pre-edit text for a while. Obviously archives hold onto it forever, but if your goal is to deny your content to reddit, that’s orthogonal.
Gotta weigh in here and say overwriting comments like that can hurt the end user more than it hurts Reddit. A lot of traffic to Reddit is intentional, with posts and comments showing up in search results from ddg/google. I know I’ve found my own posts from troubleshooting the same issue years later. Sure, delete/overwrite comparatively useless comments and posts, but leave up other useful content and use an ad blocker instead. That will hurt them more than deleting content, but still allow others to find the info they need.
It’s true that it will hurt people long term but it will drive traffic away more than deleting the inane stuff. No website like that should be such a central repo when it’s unstable like this. The internet has survived link rot and info loss before.
You’re not wrong, but also I’d like to move away from the world of “site:reddit.com” being the go-to troubleshooting/advice-seeking search, and my posts turning up in such searches would be driving traffic to reddit, which I don’t want to do. I also don’t want my account history used for advertising purposes, and across the life of an account I tend to share more personal specifics than I’m comfortable with sharing in aggregate.
But you’re not wrong, either. I can see both sides of this one.
The whole blackout thing is super interesting, and to my knowledge it’s the biggest protest of it’s kind since Reddit hit the mainstream. I can’t imagine it kills Reddit soon though. It’s just the start of a brain-drain that will make Reddit lose relevancy over the next 5 to 10 years, and they’ll wonder where they went wrong. Even I’ll probably keep my alt account there, but the days of actually contributing will end for many.
But also fuck spez ;)
I deleted my 10 year and 5 year old accounts. I didn’t purge my posts and comments, as I doubt they’re truly deleted from the database and I wanted to leave that content for people who aren’t reddit. I’ve moved to the fediverse, andi think I’m here to stay.
I’ve heard editing comments is likely more effective, but it’s hard to say. I’m guessing they take regular backups anyway, so maybe that’s not really a thing anymore.
Regardless, I’m planning on replacing all of my comments with something like “screw you Reddit, use Lemmy instead” or something to that effect. I have a ton, so I’ll need a script to do that, which will probably get blocked anyway.
You can user Power Delete Suite for this purpose; that’s what I did. It missed some comments/posts, but it got enough that I could go through and manually edit the stragglers.
For those who just want to edit comments to random letters and then delete, redact also works (but requires login) and might be more thorough.
Idk really if my copypasta about deleting my comments/posts in protest of the reddit api changes, and about lemmy, will do any good (I suspect the account may just get quickly banned), buuuuut it sure did feel good to do. I’m glad to no longer be supporting that website in any way, shape, or form. Although I understand the people who think it’s better to leave their comments/posts up for the other users, too - that’s valid also.
There’s some communities on Reddit that don’t yet exist in other places; so I’m going to continue browsing those rarely; but once they move somewhere else I’m moving with them.
I thought I’d be making a long-tail exit as well, but I’ve been looking at my feed of mostly niche subs with an especially critical eye this week and concluded that even there, the signal-to-noise ratio had hit the point the web did as a whole that initially drove me to Reddit.
I’ll still use it to declutter Google results, but I expect that utility to decline as helpful, detailed posts become fewer and fewer. There’s still some distance to Facebook-level network lockdown.
It’s so completely wild and backwards. Imagine your not a reddit user, but a search leads you to a reddit link, and you’re on your phone. You see all this stuff about downloading the app instead, and you’re just going to bail, never reading the post. If there was no friction, they may have converted a new user.
They act like everyone already uses reddit and the users are so addicted they’ll put up with anything.
They act like everyone already uses reddit and the users are so addicted they’ll put up with anything.
To be honest, this may actually be true for a significant portion of the userbase.
I would have thought so of myself, but yet, here we are
These federated let me things really really remind me of the way Reddit used to be about a decade ago. And frankly, now that I found the Jerboa app, I really don’t miss Reddit at all.
I just wanted to find a place where I could scroll around and chat with other nerds. And that’s basically what Lemmy is.
It’s funny because this is a huge issue with Pinterest and googling images, so many people automatically add -pinterest to their search terms so it’s completely blocked from the search results. Wonder if someday that’ll be reddit too.
Quora, basically.
I don’t think I’ve ever successfully read one of those, because Google brings me to the site and then it demands I log in. They even go so far as to blur all the content. It’s really really stupid.
They act like everyone already uses reddit and the users are so addicted they’ll put up with anything.
It seems like a lot of users are. I deleted my Reddit account (for whatever good that does) but have gone back to peek a few times - very few people seem to care. The black out, the app shenanigans, the power-mad mods; it’s just a minor inconvenience. API, IPO, VC, what’s that? Just gimme my crude humor and canned outrage!!
Yeah. There are a ridiculous amount of users that just use the official app and don’t really care about 3PAs or the whole API situation.
It’s a shame. I remember the old Reddit before all the redesign and other crap they added.
Most active users though are lurking voters only, or not logged in at all, and don’t comment/post. When they leave, it won’t be as obvious. And the more contributing users leave, the more the only ones left and talking will be the ones who don’t care.
I think a lot of people are riding the sinking ship all the way down and planning to bail on the 30th, when the apps are actually banned, too. Probably enjoying the drama of it and not realizing they could be enjoying the drama of it from, like, over here on dry land instead.
But yeah. There’ll be people who put up with it for now, or who join after and missed the whole controversy, or who straight up don’t care at all.
I think there’ll be these initial waves of people who can see the writing on the wall leaving, then after that there’ll be a steady trickle of people abandoning ship over time, with spikes whenever the next outrageous thing happens, and the whole thing will collapse gradually, perhaps over years.
Although, people have been saying that since Ellen Pao and Voat… 😅
I think you’re right to a point, but also, the whole fragmented fediverse thing is going to have to… at least be simplified if the “lurking voter” mainstream are going to end up here.
Me (enthusiastically):
“It’s federated, so you have to choose an instance! They’re all different, but they can all talk to each other! Some of them have different rules. Oh, and they can all have their own ‘videos’ community, so you have to decide which ones you want to follow. Also some of the instances are kbin and some are Lemmy, but most likely the website you log into won’t be called either of those things. And if you don’t curate your own frontpage (which doesn’t even show your subs by default) you’ll just see everything at once!”Average Internet user (starting a new Facebook account because they forgot their password):
“reddit dot com has funny gifs on it”
Mean there were times when I was logged out of Reddit and was trying looking up something on mobile and the constant badgering to install the app just had me tell it to flip off and I looked elsewhere instead. Lot of people tend to do things based on how convenient it is for them and if they go ahead with this, sure maybe some will download the app but a lot of other people will just get fed up and stop, particularly if they were using the browser version so they didn’t have to deal with the app in the first place.
They’re going to do the Instagram thing where you can view a teaser but then it forces you to the app.
This is why I never got into instagram. So often I just couldn’t view the image. I’m like, imgur is better than this.
The more I look at this mess, the more I see elements of speedrunning. Reddit is really trying very hard to loose as many users as possible as fast as possible. It’s as if there’s a competition beware Reddit and Twitter.
It seems to me that they are telling the investors that they might shrink but what is left will be on a much more profitable basis moving forward.
Spez must have seen that “reverse funnel” episode of IASIP and thought it was an idea worth stealing. “We’ll just funnel everyone into our broken app and then endless profit!”
Jeez. The speed at which I’ve gone from “man it sucks that Apollo is shutting down but I still really enjoy Reddit and will suffer the first-party client” to “wow, Reddit is really trying to destroy their service and it’s probably best I don’t invest any more time there” is insane… going to draft up some thoughts and a probable farewell message for my frequented subs and followers there. End of an era.
Stages of grief Speedrun any%
Having already rather violently shot himself in both feet, spez has started aiming for his other body parts.
Why do I get the feeling the next stop on this journey is for Reddit to be brought up by someone like Elon musk.
So, for a long time I’ve believed Elon is actually pretty dumb. He’s impulsive, was bad at programming, and frequently gets facts/figures absurdly wrong
But then there’s that chat log between him and other billionaires… It circled around the idea of private companies bring free to shape social media being an existential threat
He’s tanked Twitter and publicly boasts about how he turned it around and made it profitable through actions that drove people away from the platform. There’s no way the numbers work from what we knew before it went private, and they’ve stopped paying their bills - his claims are almost certainly false
And yet, social media companies are listening - frankly, they probably don’t care if it’s true. If rich shareholders believe it, then by copying his methods their stock price will jump. Reddit and discord have started new initiatives that piss off their users since then… None of the methods will immediately collapse a network, but they’re generally targeted towards driving away both power users and rockstar employees. It will starve the networks of content over time, leading to a tower of babble moment where the platform disperses-leaving smaller and fewer locuses of control on pubic discourse
So I keep coming back to this idea - is he a doing a zero-requiem and becoming the villain to inoculate us as a species against control by billionaires?
But then I think back to his ego, and think he’s probably just blundering a role he’s unqualified for.
But then, he does something else so dumb it seems like an intentional fumble, and it gets me thinking again
It’s pretty easy. He’s been lucky with the work he did (stole/claimed) once or twice in the past and ever since everyone is eating the BS he says. Twitter is only one thing. Hyperloop, SpaceX etc. are all Ideas a 9 year old would come up with and are so out of reality it isn’t even funny anymore. Or remeber when he was reinventing the Metro, but worse?
He has be so rich so early in his life, that he never had to grow up. He then surrounded himself by yes-sayers and was lucky with how Tesla turned out (in that it got evaluated like a tech company, rather than a car company). Ever since he can’t fathom the idea that someone might know something he doesn’t. He also can’t grasp the idea that money can’t solve certain problems. His twitter posts show how little self control he has and most of it reads like things my 5 year old nephew would say. It’s insanity.
So there’s plenty you’re leaving out there, like the fact he didn’t start spaceX or Tesla (although he sued the founders to not mention that publicly), and the Hyperloop is a great sci-fi idea that the math just doesn’t work out on (at least not in Earth’s atmosphere)
It totally supports what you’re saying, the only credit he deserves is as a hype man and for securing government assistance. Nothing he says or does convinces me he’s a smart or even slightly self-aware person, but…
Not a day after I posted, musk announced he wanted to remove blocking people on Twitter. That’s an idea a 7 year old could tell you is dumb.
Sure, the presence of the mute makes the platform worse rather than unusual, but still, holy hell Batman…
I agree with what you said, and the evidence supports you. But here’s where a very small part of me drifts to…
Let’s say he’s been trying a zero requiem since the beginning. He’s measurably advanced key technologies. He’s positioned himself to have the ear of very powerful people. He’s gained the respect of many of them for growing his wealth to become one of the richest people in existence. They listen to his methods if nothing else.
Now he tanks Twitter in a very public, blundering way. He expressed privately (in now public text exchanges) an interest in getting together a bunch of rich people to buy out social media, because it’s an possibly existential risk.
For those watching critically, it certainly looks like he plans to use Twitter to turn money into influence over the population. He keeps insisting moves that are killing Twitter have actually made them profitable. Other social media, like Reddit and discord, took notice and started flirting with these user-hostile ideas.
The most likely result is social media platforms splintering their user bases as they flee elsewhere, while the billionaire held up as an example of why billionaires are actually a good thing becomes hated by large portions of the population (particularly on the left, the side more critical of billionaires and capitalism)
Again, I think you’re probably right. I believe he’s just a spoiled asshole who read sci-fi and dreamed of being Tony Stark. I’m also deeply concerned about how he started getting political after meeting Trump.
But if he’s actually doing it all on purpose to become the symbol of a billionaire that needs to be reigned in, it would probably look a lot like what we’re seeing
as a sex worker rights supporter (plus, my best friend is a sex worker) it’s honestly kind of scary to see both Twitter and Reddit destroy themselves (at the same time). Mostly because Twitter and Reddit (especially Twitter) are the only places left on the Internet for sex workers to simply exist in the post-FOSTA world that we live in (thanks Kamala Harris!)
So many questions.
How is twitter and Reddit enabling sex workers?
What’s is FOSTA?
What did Kamala Harris do?
I’m feeling lazy (and also I’m about to go to bed so these answers are gonna be quite short.
How is twitter and Reddit enabling sex workers?
Basically, because of discrimination (that increased because of FOSTA) Twitter and Reddit are really the only “mainstream” “non-adult” platforms left that allow sex workers to exist.
What’s is FOSTA?
- https://whyy.org/segments/fosta-sesta-was-supposed-to-thwart-sex-trafficking-instead-its-sparked-a-movement/
- https://newrepublic.com/article/162823/sex-trafficking-sex-work-sesta-fosta
- https://antitraffickingreview.org/index.php/atrjournal/article/view/448/364
- https://www.fightforthefuture.org/actions/tell-congress-investigate-the-harm-caused-by-sesta-fosta/
What did Kamala Harris do?
From ChatGPT: *Kamala Harris, the current Vice President of the United States, was serving as a Senator from California at the time SESTA-FOSTA was passed. She played a role in supporting and co-sponsoring the legislation.
As a co-sponsor, Harris worked alongside other lawmakers to introduce and advance the bill. She expressed concerns about the impact of online platforms in facilitating sex trafficking and advocated for holding them accountable. Harris emphasized the need to protect victims and combat the exploitation that occurs through online platforms.
During her tenure as a Senator, Harris focused on issues related to criminal justice reform and combating human trafficking. SESTA-FOSTA was seen as part of her broader efforts to address these issues. However, it’s worth noting that SESTA-FOSTA has been a controversial law, and opinions on its effectiveness and potential unintended consequences differ among policymakers, advocates, and stakeholders.*
From me: It should also be noted that Kamala used to be the Attorney General of California. Law enforcement despises sex workers. Needless to say, as someone that supports sex workers (my best friend is one) I’m not thrilled that Kamala occupies the 2nd most powerful position in the country. (God help us if she becomes President)
Saudi Prince/hacksaw foreman.
That would actually be kind of funny. Have him burn more money.
I read this in David Attenborough’s voice
Haha! “Here we can observe the Greedy Pig Boy in its natural habitat….”
Between this and Twitter, I feel like “enshittification” is really the word of the past year. It’s incredible to watch these massive social networks completely turn on their users in the name of profit.
Dollar-store Elon Musk is going full “fuck you” to redditors.
The dollarama elon musk???
Pretty disappointing to see something I’ve spent so much time with go down the tubes like this. I know that for a lot of people, Reddit has been dying for years, but I’ve stuck to old.reddit and my Android apps, and haven’t looked at /r/all in a long, long time. I unsubscribed from all of the big/default subreddits, and just hang out in my happy subs where people (mostly) are people and aren’t lunatics, and it’s still been a nice place.
Killing the mobile apps is pretty much the last straw for me. I’m sure I’ll still click on search results from Reddit sometimes, but I won’t be logged in anymore and it will only be on a browser with ad-blocking and privacy features. There is no way I’m downloading their app.
If they were to go this route for all users, I would simply never use Reddit again on my phone. And yes, I’m in the minority, and yes, I know they don’t care about losing me, but man, what a bummer.
Unbelievable. Are they actively trying to get as many people as possible to leave their platform all together?
Elon and Donald taught everyone that when you start being a dick, double down on it.
Love how totally out of touch with human psychology these decision makers are.
I want to leave Reddit completely so bad. They’re ruining such a good thing, I was a member for 13 years. I hope Lemmy kinda just naturally replaces it for me but I’m sure there’s some stuff that’s just the best to go to Reddit for, I hope that changes slowly and people start using Lemmy or something else. But hey im here and it feels pretty good. Feels kinda like when I found Reddit for the first time all those years ago. Hello everyone :)
Yikes this is so insane. I’m so sick of the ads and spyware laden apps. Once you look into that abyss it’s hard to unsee it. It’s uncomfortable to have every aspect of you monetized and viewed. It’s unnatural man. I just started hardening my internet and device use this year.
Honestly, mobile browing (even using old.reddit) has been garbage for years because they detect your mobile OS and constantly try to push their app on you. Click on link, do you want to open in mobile app? let me open the playstore for you. And then you also get limited comments. To see more comments open in mobile app… You could do a case study in how to alienate your customers into leaving your platform on just mobile browsing reddit.
Honestly this is so absurd it’s funny. Peak business brain to think that people in 2023 are willing to download an app and register an account to simply access content.
Reddit finding ways to actively make things worse, while lemmy rapidly improves.
