> but there's a quieter, larger group that is fine with the official app and just wants a place to post.
That'd be me, although slightly different. I've been on that site a long time. I have an account is amongst the first thousand to join it. 17 years.
The official app is fine for me when I decide to use it, which is rare. I just don't use my phone for "apps" that often unless I really need to. Otherwise I'm still on the site daily, on a computer.
I don't get the hatred. It shows ads, unlike what you can get on the computer. Other than that? I guess I'm not the target market. It works.
Just like the new site, I can't comprehend how people like the official app. Although I've been using Reddit since 2008, having access on a mobile phone has always been vastly more convenient for me personally. Redditisfun, Diode, BaconReader, Apollo; all of these third party apps kept me going to reddit.
For me reddit without the superior functionality of a group of competing third party apps just isn't worth participating in anymore.
But I recognize a lot of people don't care, or won't be bothered by the changes. For me it just gets added to the list of sites I watched crumble to a shell of their former selves. I was addicted to Reddit in 08/09 and had many sleepless nights digging around niche subs for interesting stories. But like my daily slashdot habit from the early 2000's I move on when its time to give up on a site.
The lifecycle of website enshitification rolls on.
I'm glad it works for you, but its never worked right for me. It always seemed to be messing up links and the UI is so bad. I prefer my client to be minimal and functional and that's why I went with Reddit is Fun. Simple UI that worked and could manage the comment section successfully.
Honestly, it feels like the Reddit team saw one of the "Everything Apps" from China and thought its UI and UX where something to be modeled after.
I simply wish they would have attempted to buy Apollo and RiF. Then offer them up as official clients. RiF is the only way that I will interact with Reddit because of the way it is laid out and how functional it is. That's where my hate come from. They are effectively killing Reddit for many of us.
> I'm glad it works for you, but its never worked right for me. It always seemed to be messing up links and the UI is so bad.
It's not that it works for me really, it's I'm not the target market.
I obviously getting on in the years. I have a 17 year old Reddit account and I signed up for that at work!
I just don't use my phone for apps like Reddit. I use it for what I need to, calling, texting, delivery apps, banking, navigation, music and that's about it.
If I'm sitting in the doctor's office lounge too long I may fire up Reddit's official app otherwise I don't use it.
I can see the benefits Apollo and others bring, they look far better from all angles. I just don't need them.
But I'm not alone, that's why this whole fiasco will likely blow over. Most people don't know and/or don't care about these apps, but they use Reddit. The HN crowd is not your typical home user, or a "get off my lawn" type like myself. Even though I have multiple decades of working as a software engineer.
Now should they be doing this now? Should they be trying to rush this IPO and these profitability targets and whatever to get that big payout?
No, they shouldn't. But that's the choice they made.
>But I'm not alone, that's why this whole fiasco will likely blow over. Most people don't know and/or don't care about these apps, but they use Reddit. The HN crowd is not your typical home user, or a "get off my lawn" type like myself. Even though I have multiple decades of working as a software engineer.
I mean sure, its not the vast majority of users utilize 3rd party apps. I also wouldn't say its a small number. RiF has been downloaded on the Android App store 5 Million times. That's just one of the apps. I know apollo has even more users. I'm not on IOS so I cant really search it right (not willing to lol).
I am sure it will blow over also, but the site is going to be worse for it.
Its also a matter of time before he comes to remove old.reddit in hopes of squeezing blood from the stone.
Its not a profitable venture. It wasn't and never will be.
Do you use the new reddit.com? It’s almost unbearably slow and bloated, and rather than optimizing it they’re just stuffing it full of idiotic "social" features. And if you use old.reddit.com, well, I doubt it’s going to live much longer.
Honestly as someone who's tried a bunch of android 3rd party apps, I think the official one is good for browsing the site. Customization/feature set is very limited, and the TikTok-vertical-video mode is annoying, but you can swipe between posts horizontally which I use a lot to browse through posts and read comments. That flow isn't present on a lot of third party apps. Also, some other apps don't vary post layout by post type which means if I'm scrolling down through reddit and want to see full size images, it inevitably means link posts have enlarged thumbnails which takes up feed space.
If someone made the official reddit app have customizable colored comment depth lines and added a toggle for the video mode I would be very happy with it.
Obviously I'm just being picky here, I'm very used to the official app. Also, people can patch out ads on Android with revanced anyways.
That'd be me, although slightly different. I've been on that site a long time. I have an account is amongst the first thousand to join it. 17 years.
The official app is fine for me when I decide to use it, which is rare. I just don't use my phone for "apps" that often unless I really need to. Otherwise I'm still on the site daily, on a computer.
I don't get the hatred. It shows ads, unlike what you can get on the computer. Other than that? I guess I'm not the target market. It works.