1y ago

Reddit is now randomly refusing to show posts without login. In iOS, it’ll redirect me to App Store

I use RSS to fetch reddit posts for subs that are not active in Lemmy.

Sometimes I need to read the comments so I’d view the post from safari. Today, I tried like 3 post and when click on view post, it would redirect me to the App Store.

When I decided to screenshot the page to make this post, it did show the post but would refuse like 1 out of 5 times.

74 comments

That's some really "spez"ial thinking process right here.
Realize that Reddit needs more traffic and users ASAP
Randomly block access to content
???
Profit!
... seriously ... any site that greets me with pop-ups like "we noticed you're using an adblocker" and stupid captchas and the like gets closed immediatly, and if I need to subscribe / join just to read what some rando on the internet wrote 6 years ago then I'm just going to look for that info elsewhere. Does spez really think that reddit is so incredible and awesome that people would WANT to log in / create an account when confronted with this bullsh*t?
- Reddit has had a pop-up for years afaik on mobile, always pushing their app.
  
  It was an option. Now mandatory.
- I take it a step further and put it on my block list.
- I would nope out too.
  I believe he wanted reddit to get traffic through the app to collect data and avoid ad blockers.
- Unfortunately, you're atypical. Most people do put up with all the bs that coming from all corners of the web these days. Even Reddit, with all its blackouts and protests, still has most of its users watching ads on their app. They don't care if it's quality content.
  
  @JackGreenEarth
  @deleted @justlookingfordragon most people will never make a Reddit account. That’s the typical Reddit user. Those folks will never install the Reddit app.
  When Reddit makes a google search like “bicycle review reddit” stop working a huge part of Reddit’s utility will stop existing.
  I don’t think spez will rate limit google bots until after Reddit’s IPO.

So wannabe Elon Musk is copying Elon Musk and twitter?
Just keep making the platform even more unaccessible and user-unfriendly. I'm sure the users don't mind or change platforms.

This shit basically killed reddit as a proffesional information aourcr ror me. No im not gonna log into reddit on my work pc, i just need to be looking for technical data i can find elsewhere.
Once you lose your convenience status you are doomed to die a slow death into becoming a niche old website.

Next up, Reddit renames to Y

Non reddit users who will open the reddit links for information will now stop looking at it. They won't go through the pain of signing up. Ad revenue loses for the idiots.
- It also means people trying to share posts with friends will have trouble. If someone sends me a link that insists I open in app I’ll either ask the sender to just screenshot it or pretend I looked.

I'm shocked.

This will obliterate their google ranking. Bye bye Reddit
- That only happens on mobile.
  
  Idk about others but I rarely ever browse with desktop anymore. That's still gonna hit google rankings hard.

The 3d modeling software i use (SolidWorks) did he exact same thing with their user formums. They used to be an incredibly rich resource for troubleshooting problems and finding creative ways to solve design problems using their software. It was truly something special for professional users of this software. The forum was public and Google searchable.
Then, Dauuault Systems (the parent company of SolidWorks) walled it off for everyone except registered users, which I believe requires a valid license of their software. Guess what? Very few people use it anymore, especially me.
- What are your recommended alternatives to SolidWorks?
  
  To be perfectly honest nothing even comes close to the level of productivity I get in Solidworks. And I've tried them all.
  Fusion360 is a great alternative if you don't mind depending on cloud-services for your software to work properly. It handles some things in a more modern way than Solidworks does, and I really like some of the features, it's just the way the software is built cloud-first that really pisses me off.
  Then there's Inventor, which is actually has some interesting features if you're a mechanical engineer. The current version is perfectly capable of most things you can do with Solidworks, although I would argue drafting parts is much more of a pain.
  If you're into open source software there's always FreeCAD, which is what masochists use for their fix. (Honestly it's not that bad, but there's absolutely no polish to the user experience)
  If you like to use tablets or phones for anything, you could give Onshape a go. It's a pretty great lightweight replacement, all things considered.
  Last, but not least: Altair Inspire. If you like working with generative design this might be the alternative for you. Really fun to work with, but not a full-blown replacement for everything Solidworks offers.
  
  Solidworks is used in the industry by many professionals. I'm an enthusiast that also does 3d modeling and I use Blender. It's FOSS and is very user friendly with the ability to do many complicated designs. There's also FreeCad and OpenScad which are also Foss and used by more advanced users.

If you are using the browser on your phone just go to old.reddit.com and request the desktop site.... although how long that will work for is up in the air.

They've been testing disabling the mobile site for a few months now. They were A/B testing on accounts and not letting them log in from mobile browsers for a awhile now. I don't expect it'll be long before they try to block all mobile devices from accessing their website except through their stupid app.
- Seems like it

spez being spez
- *speX
  
  What an insult to be a knock off a shitty person lol
  I’d love to post this to r/rareinsults.
  
  I love this.

Reminds me of one of the biggest fuckups another company that just rebranded had recently!
- Digg?

u/spez’s management “style” for sure.

On Android, if you go on any reddit post in your browser, you can't scroll down in the comments, at least in my experience. This is probably to incentivize download and using the app, which introduces more problems. If I really need to check a reddit post out, I view it in the browser in desktop view.

They’re trying to get extra download numbers for their app. All the actions they’re doing aren’t to make a better site, but to make it look good by the numbers.
- Hoping that somebody with 5 billion dollars isn't going to be paying attention to what's really behind the numbers, even after all the loud noise that has been amplified and echoing for the past two months?

Orion lets you send a custom user agent in requests. I’ve found this to generally avoid the “go use our app” dogshit on iOS. It’s also, so far, been nearly perfect at ad blocking in combo with filtering via NextDNS. Kagi has something going, I sure hope they have a revenue plan.
- What user agent are you using?
  
  I don't use Reddit anymore but if absolutely everything goes bad you can pretend to be the Google bot, that works even for Twitter but idk if it will influence your experience to some degree.
  
  “Deez nuts”

I had the same yesterday.
Replace www by old in the url if you really need to see the content.
- Glad old.reddit is still working. I won’t be surprised if spez block it as well.
  
  Just a matter of days at this point

At this point I'm pulling out the popcorn to follow which other corner of their product they will set on fire next. Not a single good decision since the protest that I can recall.

I've had good luck by viewing the page in desktop mode if I need to see something on reddit and tries to force me to use the app.
- Nice tip.
  I don’t feel like browsing reddit anymore. I will look for forums or just stick with lemmy.

So if you build an app on RSS to circumvent the API BS, your users would get redirected to the app store where they conveniently can download spez's dumpster fire of code they call an app? That's so hilariously evil and stupid at the same time. Spez could be some Saturday morning cartoon villain.

That's faster than expected.
- Backfilling missing content creators with bots and replacing missing mods with scabs isn't working as well as they'd like everyone to believe. They're far more desperate than they're letting on.

This happened with me on android via browser ! ( fennec )
- You can switch fennec into desktop mode. The site is harder to read, but it works.
  
  Woah never tried those options !

Who could've known that Reddit all along was a faceless corporation that makes horrible decisions!

I browse Reddit with AdGuard and Sink It since I no longer have an account there. I don’t usually have a problem viewing the rare post or two that isn’t on Lemmy

Sink it safari extension helps with this.
- Wow. I didn’t know such solution existed.
  Thanks.

I thought that happens always when you visit with a mobile device. I had to put my fennec in desktop mode.

Use stealth or geddit.

Well, it's safari after all

74 comments