Somehow knowing even for a brief moment no one is there and I’m not missing out on anything makes me feel… more alive and excited to interact with the world. sounds bizarre I know… but I wish more social media shut down now.
For me, today is not only the day when the most of reddit is down but also web search experience is significantly degraded.
I wouldn't mind some fresh blood even for this purpose.
Once something gets big enough, it becomes impossible to moderate and eventually it will fall out of fashion and lose its original intent. Look at Etsy and Amazon.
I'm finding people are rearely loyal customers to a brand long-term. Rather, they want whatever platform gets them what they want. People jump from sites like Aliexpress to Wish to Shein to whichever webiste has the most latest and marketing team.
Especially when I search for vehicle/mechanic advice the old school forums just can't be beat for their value, even though many are ghost ships with no active users anymore.
On desktop though, it's an entirely different experience. I'm always redirected to the old layout, so I don't have the stupid anti-user shenanigans.
as for the modals, just visit the reddit thread by prepending `old.` to the url. like `old.reddit.com` and then you can see everything without all that annoying stuff. also sign up for a reddit account but based on your comment doesn't sound like you'd be open to that.
(Sure, this idea is taken from Ready Player One, but that doesn't mean it's a bad idea!)
Here, it's a much better idea.