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.
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.
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?”
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.
This is both informative and unfortunate.
old.reddit.com isn’t going anywhere
– a spez lie
This… is dumb. Reddit gets traffic from people using it as a secondary search engine to get relevant answers.
Most people on the Internet view it from mobile. Reddit already makes their mobile experience genuinely awful despite this. Blocking it entirely?
The herding to their mobile app is so transparent (and DEFINITELY through stick, not carrot) I’m morbidly curious to see what horrible things they planning to put in their app that they know users will loathe, that requires their alternatives to be zero.
This will cause search engines to deprioritize reddit threads in search results due to the ‘bounce factor’.
logged-in mobile web experience
If it’s blocked for logged in users, why would that effect search engines?
The implication here is that if they are testing it on logged in users, then they will eventually roll it out to ALL users, whether logged in or not.
Lots of users use search engines to find topics or solutions on reddit. Since the inbuilt search function of reddit is so bad, it’s easier that way.
Reddit is one of the best places to find tech support for more niche topics like open RGB, but you have to fund them somehow.
They want to force more people to download the app so that they can show potential investors how many people are using the app, and so they can mine data off of phones with the app. I fucking guarantee that’s what this is.
They are gambling that the people who incidentally land on reddit using their phones to search for things will be more likely to download the app than stop using reddit when it comes up in a search.
It doesn’t even work! When you google something and then are forced onto the app it just sends you onto the home page! not the one you were originally on!
They can’t even figure out deep links?
To give them their due (little as that may be), this only seems to prevent users from logging in to the mobile web interface, not from viewing content as a random user from Google.
I didn’t get the notice, but scrolling through a sub yesterday, I got a notification that this action (viewing a subreddit) is only available for logged in users on the app. Seriously?? Just to view a sub? I reloaded the page as desktop site, and it allowed me to view the sub, although formatted terribly. Reddit is getting much worse than I thought possible.
Which means users will log out if they want to use reddit that way, and they’ll get even less traffic and data from them then before. The user-generated content they want to sell to AI training models or advertisers will just be less and less and less…
This just further incentivises my intend to delete my accounts and leave Reddit entirely if literally no account is more useable than having one.
Never thought that reddit would make so many gaffes to push me to use… bing chatgpt search.
Dollar-store Elon Musk is going full “fuck you” to reddit users.
It’s getting worse by the minute. I really really hope Lemmy usage picks up.
My mobile browser is experimenting with not visiting reddit.
Having already rather violently shot himself in both feet, spez has started aiming for his other body parts.
I read this in David Attenborough’s voice
Haha! “Here we can observe the Greedy Pig Boy in its natural habitat….”
Sorry i deleted this comment as I don’t want to bring the results into reality
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.
This happening in the middle of the API gate seems like a pretty dumb move, even for Reddit.
I hate when people use passive voice in these things. It’s such a slimy way to try and avoid responsibility.
“We have blocked you from using a mobile browser.” is the active voice. It includes a subject (“we”) and a verb (“blocked”). It says that someone made a decision, executed that decision, and is responsible.
"It looks like … “, " … is currently unavailable” is so fucking weaselly and irresponsible. You are 100% a complete piece of shit if you ever say something like that. You are not responsible enough to handle a Wendy’s drive-through order, let alone a large organization.
I didn’t know there was a word for it. I always just called it “corperate talk”
You learn to talk like this inside a large corporation too. I try not to do it, but it’s difficult and I catch myself doing it every now and then, because you see other people writing like this all the time.
I learned to do it when in a call centre to avoid laying blame on any particular party (the company or the customer). Agreed though it can come across pretty shittily.
Even in corporations that are committed to a good culture of kindness, you can still find opponents who won’t hesitate throw you under the bus in order to further an agenda.
Using active tone in corporate is risky, because office politics can accuse it of being aggressive/hostile in order to block a policy. They don’t necessarily care that the messenger winds up getting written up by HR and sent to sensitivity training.
I find myself being very careful about then tone of my emails after getting caught in the crossfire between two warring factions. Passive tone is less likely to come back to haunt you.
I really hate having to navigate office politics, but it is what it is.
I think many people only know what it is because MS Word would (does?) suggest rewriting passive voice into active.
Its a commonly taught thing in English classes where I’m from (Ontario) – we would get harped on it fairly regularly
It was common in the States when I was in school. How well someone learned to extract those lessons and apply them is a different matter. Is it more important for someone to learn how to use active voice over passive, or remember the lecture where they were told what that means? Even if you were an A student how long would you remember if you weren’t constantly applying that knowledge?
Touché
As a sysadmin - I sort of welcome every dumb thing reddit does. I’ll get more sign ups on my Lemmy instance :D
That’s the boat I’m in, so to speak! If you know of any good sysadmin or IT related communities out here, I’d very much so appreciate some recommendations!
I’d be appreciative of the community link, as well
I’ve replied 1 level up
Thank you!!
I’ve gone through some list before and federated to what I felt like might have a chance of being useful. It’s mostly not IT related, though :D Full list that gets sorted by users/month metric.
In regards to some specific IT places - I quickly scanned the list and found a couple:
I’ve tried a few variant of link creation, not sure how to force the UI to adapt the links to your local account instance.
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.
Damn now this is just next level bullshit. I thought that even if I can’t use Infinity anymore I can still access reddit through a firefox mobile with adblock and privacy addons to make the ux somewhat bearable.
So…
Destroy reddit speedrun any% [WORLD RECORD]
Yeah the desktop site especially is why i wanted to leave reddit for the past few months, im happy they shot themselves in the foot the past week so we could move over to a different platform. I kept having to switch back to old.reddit just to see a NSFW post without an account, they made it so you cant even sort comments anymore without being logged in recently. Just malicious design. The website on mobile has been shit for years now asking you to USE THE MOBILE APP.
I’m really hoping for Infinity for Lemmy… My first experience with reddit was from Infinity. That app is great.
The dev posted on r/Infinty_For_Reddit that he’s gonna try a subscription model first, and that he personally doesn’t use Lemmy, so there’s no Infinity for Lemmy client in the works, although he says that making Infinity For Lemmy should be easy with the API Proxy that the Lemmy Developers are making
You can spoof the user-agent, it’s a PITA but not that hard. I did it to use chat gpt with bing, but didn’t bother for Reddit
I recommend libreddit, no commenting and it’s slower, but at least it works on mobile
Unfamiliar with the way libreddit retrieves its data. If it’s supposed to work after API BS, I’m guessing good ol’ scraping?
It uses the API. They’re discussing what to do next, probably “wait and see” for now https://github.com/libreddit/libreddit/issues/785
