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Comment by robbedpeter | Hacker News Reader

Reddit is a pretty low bar. I don't think they care much about the site except to make it objectively worse than the app at every convenient opportunity.

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> Reddit is a pretty low bar

Reddit is a multi billion dollar product and one of the most trafficked sites on the internet.

If you've ever used their mobile site, it's clear they go out of their way to sabotage the experience so that people will use the native app instead

Shit they even admit as much with the popup for the app saying "it's better in the app".

The oddest thing is it's still better on the web than the Android app that's practically unusable. You click open in app and then it loses your thread you're trying to read. I don't even have any strong objections to the app but happy to dance though the dark ux pattern to read the posts!

I have a curated list of subreddits I like to read. The moment old.reddit and i.reddit stop working I'll drop them like a bad habit. I'm not going to use their absolutely terrible "new" UI nor their insipid app.

As of late, if you’re not logged in, many features get disabled, like the ability to expand/read more comments.

Use old.reddit.com/i.reddit.com and many of those restrictions go away.

They sabotage the desktop site as well. I don't understand how anybody can see the current atrocity as an improvement. It's borderline unusable.

Why do they continue to degrade the mobile/desktop default web experience? Promoting the app is one thing, but then actively harming the user experience? Do most people not care? Insane either way. The day old.reddit dies Ill blacklist the site permanently.

Most consumer companies don't necessarily care about delivering the best UX, just gamifying it to get people to spend more money or time. Just look at AirBNB. You used to be able to sort by price but that option is gone completely and now you have to rely on their algorithm. There is no reason they would neuter the search unless it lead to more bookings.

As far as Reddit, I'm surprised the 3rd party apps using the API haven't gotten ads yet. They're heaps better than the official Reddit app.

They are degrading the web experience because it's easier to block trackers and advertisements in the web. When users are driven to the application, Reddit owns the whole experience and only people who are capable of configuring home firewalls have any hope of privacy.

Gordon Geckos are running the show.

A bit of a fallacy don't you think?

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