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.
Experimenting on their own users…
That’s definitely not the crime here, loads of platforms AB test user reactions to changes
AB testing whether the site works at all is not the same as AB testing a new feature. It’s a ridiculous thing to do.
No this is something big companies do all the time to test how well it does with a subset of customers before rolling it out fully.
They test new features on subsets of customers. “Blocking the entire web app” is not a feature.
You clearly are not /u/spez
Next up will be “buy our loot boxes to get awards, up votes, and down votes for the day! 🤑”
Micropayments to access individual subreddits?
Yeah, paywalls for all the popular stuff. “You’ve reached your limit of r/aww for the month. Please subscribe to see more soft, fuzzy animals. In the meantime, check out our free promoted subreddit of the month, r/NestleistheBest”
Rolling out a new feature to a subset of users is fine. This is removing basic functionality from those users
Shout-out to the 10+ ad test that yt did a few months ago
Testing changes on a few users is a common thing and a good practice to see the general acceptance of changes. Its what you should be doing.
What changes exactly were they testing?
How easy it is for users to circumvent their blocking most likely.
I wonder if the AB values are stored in a cookie…
Rolling out a new feature to a subset of users is fine. This is removing basic functionality from those users