2y ago

If Reddit phased out 3rd party apps gradually and tactfully, do you think this would have gone the way it has? The Reddit app is terrible, but is it any worse than navigating and learning the fedivers

I've been thinking a lot about why I decided to come here and I know it started off as a "they can't make me use their shitty app!" while simultaneously using test apps that crash and navigating less content than Reddit. What is the primary motivation for all of this anymore? Is anger enough of a motivation to keep people away from a platform long term?

I have a feeling that most folks are more loyal to their communities than they are the company themselves - meaning that no matter how bad the corporation is, sacrificing what they truly care about is not really worth it no matter how poorly they are treated.

If the community goes away, THEN reddit goes away.

But if the only way to access their community is through some shitty app, I don't see it stopping many people.

17 comments

Honestly? Yeah, I probably would have stuck around. I think if they had given more notice then the protest would have been a lot more muted and you wouldn't have seen as many people jump ship for the fediverse. Although, it's not really anger or spite that's been keeping me on the fediverse and away from Reddit. When I learned RIF was shutting down I was more annoyed than anything else. But every action Reddit has taken since then has convinced me that it's just going to become a worse platform as time goes on. Yes, the fediverse is hard to navigate at first and a lot of sites are struggling under a user base that was never expected to grow so rapidly. Still, I appreciate the smaller communities here and I've been more active here in a week than I was during how many years I've been on Reddit. There's a novelty to figuring things out that I never really had with Reddit.
- Exactly, this is hardly about API pricing anymore.
  
  it feels like watching a friend unexpectedly emotionally abuse their spouse in front of you. like what do you do. in this case all you can really do is walk away.

I’m here because Reddit told me they view me as a wallet, not a participant, contributor, or anything else.
The fediverse isn’t and may never be strictly “better”, but neither will Reddit. Reddit has a singular vision of worse quality and worse management going forward. They may claw BACK some of what they’ve chucked out the window, but they’ve shown they’re not going to make the product better. Ever. Just different versions of bad.
Had they taken a boiled frog approach, I’d be there a lot longer. I wasn’t excited to pay, but it would become a decision of “pay for a better experience or get something worse for freeTM”. That’s a different choice than “use my worsening app or screw off.” They made the choice relatively easy where they could have made it a lot more nuanced.

Honestly? If Reddit had phased out third part apps gradually and tactfully I would have phased out my redditing gradually and tactfully.
I only browsed reddit on old or rif because otherwise it's just too slow, not info-dense, and has a facebook feel.
Being part of a mass migration instead of having to gradually move accross has been a steeper learning curve, sure, but it was always going to happen to me once reddit ditched old.reddit, and this way at least I have fellow noobs.

I was a bit sad about the API changes, but I kept official app around for uploading video/image posts since those hosted on reddit started to get more views than imgur/other host website ones. So I wouldn't have minded switching apps full time. What got me angry was Spez's mistreatment of the Apollo dev. I am absolutely not a fan of the Apollo app, but no one should be treated that way. Plus the realization that many websites that use reddit API that I use frequently will go away as well (such as saving videos, pushshift reddit search, and spotlistr). That's what got me initially away from reddit.
- Same here. I didn't really care that much about the API changes. I can understand the rationale behind them. Spez being a huge dick to basically everyone was what sealed the deal for me. I ditched Facebook 8 years ago when I realized that I was having to hide more posts than not because it had completely devolved into a digital landfill. Reddit has been slowly moving that way but Steve Huffman has clearly stated, in so many words (and actions), that his and Reddit's goal is to emulate the larger social media conglomerates and to move that direction as quickly as possible and at all costs. Including the cost of eliminating what made Reddit unique.
  I'm not interested in that. There are are a handful of communities that I enjoy being part of (here's looking at you r/daddit) but I'm not willing to support a corporation that is hell bent on doing bad business just to be part of that community.
  Reddit/Steve is just now publicizing things that have most likely been talked about in the boardroom for a while. They're gambling that this will blow over. I'm inclined to agree with them. But I didn't go back when I quit Facebook and I'm not going back now. Regardless of how this whole deal with the protests pans out, the future of Reddit is pretty bleak, at least in my opinion.

Well..
Are you going to ask me if I want to go from a platform with no ads (3rd party reddit) to a platform where every 3rd post is an unavoidable ad (reddit official) or a slightly more complex but similar community with no ads anywhere (fediverse)? I don't want heinz ketchup telling me that their color is manufactured to be perfect a dozen times a day in my community. I paid a 3rd party app to remove that and I'm not going back.
Asking if it's harder to learn the reddit official app than beta testing various fediverse apps is missing the point. Reddit's app exists to extract money from you and has no reason to improve your experience by its nature. Beta fediverse apps exist to eventually polish the fediverse experience.

The hostile response to the users and mods are what did it for me, since while I'm against reducing users choice I don't use mobile apps to browse Reddit I'd probably stayed a bit longer. The need for companies to make money is also understandable, but when they fail to deliver good experience to users that's when their monetary gain should be stripped away.

I wouldn't have left. I use Apollo as my way to access reddit, I've tried the official app but it's dreadful and when I heard Apollo was closing I was already set to protest. When I read the post from Apollo about everything that went down, well, I don't think I want to go back.

I'm not sure I would have ultimately left even due to the current API drama. But the subsequent comments by their CEO caused me to not only leave but delete all my content from their site. What an arrogant self important stupid jackass.

Honestly, being one of the dozen or so people who still prefers to do his internetting with a computer rather than a smartphone, the whole app drama doesn't really bother me one way or another. What DOES bother me is Reddit deciding that they need to force a miserable ad-ridden experience on the people viewing and contributing to their site, plus knowing that if and when this goes through, old.reddit is almost certain to be next on the chopping block. Everything that's happened after that announcement has only reassured me that getting off of Reddit now is the right choice

Kbin has been so much better than what I've seen of the official app. I see what I want to see, not recommendations, and, more importantly, I can see a lot more posts at once compared to new reddit and the reddit app. That's why I don't use Squabbles, and it's why I used Baconreader and old reddit.
- Yep kbin feels like a forum/discussion/community from the outset. Official reddit app feels like a poor man's Instagram.

For me anyway, the first nail in the coffin was removing the downvote/upvote counter, second nail was old.reddit... They were on their way to being shit long ago.

@Haan. I imagine if they'd said we're phasing out xyz from the api or 3rd party support over say the next year or so, it would likely had a bit less of an uproar. Especially if they addressed the tools for the mods in that timeframe and accessibility. There still would have been a notable backlash though. Their own app has not been historically that great and their mobile web is irritating in its "use the app" pushiness.

17 comments