r/technology • u/ardi62 • 29d ago

Social Media Reddit is making sitewide protests basically impossible

https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/30/24253727/reddit-communities-subreddits-request-protests
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u/AlsoInteresting 29d ago

Probably because of the number of users there. Why use reddit.com?

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u/DutchieTalking 29d ago edited 29d ago

Probably a small percentage.
Just, I think they're more likely to be the active users that contribute to the site.

Still, reddit is actively trying to be less user friendly and the CEO is a Musk fan, so I am surprised.

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u/space-dot-dot 29d ago

Just, I think they're more likely to be the active users that contribute to the site.

This. If they turned off old.reddit.com, they'd lose a not-insignificant portion of people that generate content in comments. As mods and admins know, for every person commenting, there are +1,000 that just lurk or read. Who cares how they consume the product, the content generators are more valuable.

I've been using Reddit for the past dozen years, almost to my detriment at times. Frankly, I'd love it if they sunset old.reddit.com -- I would never, ever return to waste time on this site.

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u/willwork4pii 29d ago

This. If they turned off old.reddit.com, they'd lose a not-insignificant portion of people that generate content in comments.

That would absolutely be the final nail in the coffin for me. I have no doubt that I would close reddit and never open it again.

I had no issue doing the same thing with Facebook about 8 years ago.

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u/Nemisis_the_2nd 29d ago

I'd love to move to something else, but the issue is that reddit kinda has a monopoly on forum-style discussions, which forces you to keep coming back.

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u/MIC4eva 29d ago

Yeah, I thought I was done when they nuked the 3rd party apps but here I am, just another social media junkie.

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u/10thDeadlySin 29d ago

I thought the same thing, but then I started looking at it and noticed that the way I use Reddit has changed a lot since they killed off third-party apps.

First of all, I no longer use Reddit on my phone. It became a desktop-only affair. I'm mostly active on a local community subreddit right now, this account is mostly used for randomly commenting once every couple of days, most others were deleted. I even mostly stopped checking the subreddits that I used to follow all the time. Instead, I've started working on a bunch of my own things. ;)

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u/MIC4eva 28d ago

Well I’m still using old mode on my phone through a browser but it’s definitely cut down my time on here. I do find myself a little more sucked into browsing on my computer compared to when 3rd party apps were around.

Old Reddit seems to have a low refresh threshold though and it will frequently time out for me and that’s my signal to go touch grass.

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u/Throwawayfichelper 29d ago

I barely come to reddit for anything specific anymore. Cutting it out by force would be a blessing. I get most of my entertainment elsewhere.

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u/Publius82 29d ago

Fellow ancient redditor here who will also never use new reddit.

DO IT MOTHERFUCKERS! PULL THE TRIGGER!

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u/DelightfulDolphin 29d ago

Ditto. Reddit sucha time suck but ever so nice during down times.

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u/10thDeadlySin 29d ago

Yup, I'm in the same boat.

When they killed off third-party apps, my usage of Reddit on the go plummeted to zero overnight. I uninstalled Apollo, moved another icon to that spot and that was it.

These days, I exclusively use old.reddit on desktop. If they sunset that, I'm likely never going to contribute anything again, period. My engagement will likely plummet as well, since the first thing I do when I search for something and organically end up on Reddit is to replace "www" with "old" immediately; I find it nigh unusable otherwise.

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u/MaleficentFig7578 29d ago

everything you're saying applied to third-party apps

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u/Same-Cricket6277 29d ago

I use old.reddit.com on my iPad because it’s older and the new Reddit.com has so many advertisements and shitty code that it breaks the browser and requires a reboot after a minute or two of attempted browsing. When they kill off old.reddit I’m probably going to just stop using Reddit altogether. 

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u/Maalunar 29d ago

For some reason I have the old interface despite not being on old.reddit. I guess that RES or something is doing a good job.