this post was submitted on 11 Jun 2023
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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.

https://web.archive.org/save/https%3A%2F%2Fold.reddit.com%2Fr%2Fhelp%2Fcomments%2F135tly1%2Fhelpdid_reddit_just_destroy_mobile_browser_access%2Fjim40zg%2F

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[–] [email protected] 154 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Jeez. The speed at which I've gone from "man it sucks that Apollo is shutting down but I still really enjoy Reddit and will suffer the first-party client" to "wow, Reddit is really trying to destroy their service and it's probably best I don't invest any more time there" is insane... going to draft up some thoughts and a probable farewell message for my frequented subs and followers there. End of an era.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 year ago

Stages of grief Speedrun any%

[–] [email protected] 134 points 1 year ago (25 children)

It's one thing to test a new idea or a UX tweak or similar on a small portion of users - but just turning off a key way to access your service is so just so weird to me. How many of Reddit's decisions at this point are some version of, "hey, how angry do they get? What can we get away with?"

[–] [email protected] 78 points 1 year ago (3 children)

People need to understand that this is about tracking your eyeballs. Reddit viewed on a webpage does not provide the metadata they want. What metadata does the app provide? Things you wouldn't think about wanting as a human, but the aggregate is very valuable.

Stuff like how long did you watch that video Ad? Where did you click on screen and at what time? What content were you viewing and what course of action did you take to get there? Web viewing only shows the landing page you arrived on reddit from and the exit page that took you away from reddit. Performing these actions in the app provides metadata cookie crumbs like a trail of roach shit to every single thing you've done on reddit in micro activities.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm not sure. I've worked at companies using amplitude and hotjar that can record all click event and sessions on web

[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Users can block those with extensions so the data isn't as reliable

[–] [email protected] 33 points 1 year ago (7 children)

That's probably a big part. Web browsers can do ad blocking. Within the official Reddit app that's way more difficult.

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[–] [email protected] 35 points 1 year ago (11 children)

It's so completely wild and backwards. Imagine your not a reddit user, but a search leads you to a reddit link, and you're on your phone. You see all this stuff about downloading the app instead, and you're just going to bail, never reading the post. If there was no friction, they may have converted a new user.

They act like everyone already uses reddit and the users are so addicted they'll put up with anything.

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[–] [email protected] 90 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (10 children)

old.reddit.com isn't going anywhere

-- a spez lie

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[–] BreakNeckJim 87 points 1 year ago (3 children)

It's unbelievable how's user hostile all of these major site have become. I deleted my 11 year old Reddit account today and while it hurt a little it's important that we send a message and not use Reddit at least until they repeal this bullshit.

[–] [email protected] 55 points 1 year ago (9 children)

Same! I deleted my 10 year account. Kinda not even sad. It was going downhill for a while now. But hey I just created my own instance for gardeners called thegarden.land so now I have a new home to grow roots and thrive!

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[–] [email protected] 83 points 1 year ago (13 children)

This is both informative and unfortunate.

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[–] [email protected] 66 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Dollar-store Elon Musk is going full "fuck you" to redditors.

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[–] [email protected] 64 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (5 children)

My mobile browser is experimenting with not visiting reddit.

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[–] [email protected] 63 points 1 year ago (11 children)

This... is dumb. Reddit gets traffic from people using it as a secondary search engine to get relevant answers.

Most people on the Internet view it from mobile. Reddit already makes their mobile experience genuinely awful despite this. Blocking it entirely?

The herding to their mobile app is so transparent (and DEFINITELY through stick, not carrot) I'm morbidly curious to see what horrible things they planning to put in their app that they know users will loathe, that requires their alternatives to be zero.

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[–] [email protected] 61 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's getting worse by the minute. I really really hope Lemmy usage picks up.

[–] [email protected] 40 points 1 year ago (24 children)

It seriously is. I've been on the site for all of 30 mins now and I am loving it so much more than reddit

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[–] [email protected] 59 points 1 year ago (10 children)

Having already rather violently shot himself in both feet, spez has started aiming for his other body parts.

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[–] [email protected] 57 points 1 year ago (7 children)

I hate when people use passive voice in these things. It's such a slimy way to try and avoid responsibility.

"We have blocked you from using a mobile browser." is the active voice. It includes a subject ("we") and a verb ("blocked"). It says that someone made a decision, executed that decision, and is responsible.

"It looks like ... ", " ... is currently unavailable" is so fucking weaselly and irresponsible. You are 100% a complete piece of shit if you ever say something like that. You are not responsible enough to handle a Wendy's drive-through order, let alone a large organization.

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[–] [email protected] 47 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This happening in the middle of the API gate seems like a pretty dumb move, even for Reddit.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Blocking all mobile access except for the official client is the whole point of “API gate”. Don’t want people to just fall back on something with equally poor monetization, gotta show them all the ads.

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[–] LlamaSutra 47 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Elon and Donald taught everyone that when you start being a dick, double down on it.

Love how totally out of touch with human psychology these decision makers are.

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[–] M_g 40 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Honestly this is so absurd it's funny. Peak business brain to think that people in 2023 are willing to download an app and register an account to simply access content.

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[–] [email protected] 39 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Pretty disappointing to see something I've spent so much time with go down the tubes like this. I know that for a lot of people, Reddit has been dying for years, but I've stuck to old.reddit and my Android apps, and haven't looked at /r/all in a long, long time. I unsubscribed from all of the big/default subreddits, and just hang out in my happy subs where people (mostly) are people and aren't lunatics, and it's still been a nice place.

Killing the mobile apps is pretty much the last straw for me. I'm sure I'll still click on search results from Reddit sometimes, but I won't be logged in anymore and it will only be on a browser with ad-blocking and privacy features. There is no way I'm downloading their app.

If they were to go this route for all users, I would simply never use Reddit again on my phone. And yes, I'm in the minority, and yes, I know they don't care about losing me, but man, what a bummer.

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[–] [email protected] 39 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Damn now this is just next level bullshit. I thought that even if I can't use Infinity anymore I can still access reddit through a firefox mobile with adblock and privacy addons to make the ux somewhat bearable.

So..

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[–] [email protected] 39 points 1 year ago (4 children)

They already made the mobile site practically unusable by constantly reminding you to use the app. The mobile browsing experience was just terrible. They can just show the same adds in the mobile browser...

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[–] [email protected] 37 points 1 year ago (7 children)

Between this and Twitter, I feel like "enshittification" is really the word of the past year. It's incredible to watch these massive social networks completely turn on their users in the name of profit.

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[–] [email protected] 37 points 1 year ago (9 children)

What were they thinking doing this experiment in the heat of the third-party app protest?? Are they trying to aim for their foot?

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[–] [email protected] 36 points 1 year ago (5 children)

As a sysadmin - I sort of welcome every dumb thing reddit does. I'll get more sign ups on my Lemmy instance :D

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[–] [email protected] 35 points 1 year ago (7 children)

Unbelievable. Are they actively trying to get as many people as possible to leave their platform all together?

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[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I want to leave Reddit completely so bad. They're ruining such a good thing, I was a member for 13 years. I hope Lemmy kinda just naturally replaces it for me but I'm sure there's some stuff that's just the best to go to Reddit for, I hope that changes slowly and people start using Lemmy or something else. But hey im here and it feels pretty good. Feels kinda like when I found Reddit for the first time all those years ago. Hello everyone :)

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[–] [email protected] 33 points 1 year ago (2 children)

this is a beginning of the end for reddit as we know it

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[–] [email protected] 33 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Their approach here seems inherently broken. People aren't going to use the app they don't want to use.

[–] [email protected] 47 points 1 year ago (5 children)

15-year reddit veteran here. Spez thinks us old-timers are freeloaders for continuing to prefer old.reddit and the third-party apps. The truth is, that site is dead and what Lemmy offers now is closer to that original vision than current reddit ever will be. Reddit is Dead. Long live Lemmy.

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[–] [email protected] 32 points 1 year ago (2 children)

They already crippled the mobile site years ago and put login walls from a long while ago, way before the pandemic. old.reddit.com was the only thing that let me skip it. They deserve to die out.

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[–] [email protected] 32 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Reddit's unwavering stubbornness to continue spiraling is just plain sad. What a way to go.

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[–] [email protected] 32 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Sure I had fun, but was it good for people? Communities of people did good things, not Reddit. Reddit was a great source for hate speech, propaganda, and ads. People did their best to be good in spite of the noise.

Reddit needs to die. People will find each other again, we always do.

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[–] [email protected] 31 points 1 year ago

Steve saw Elon's work at twitter and thought, "Watch me. I can ruin a company faster."

[–] [email protected] 31 points 1 year ago (8 children)

The more they push their shitty mobile app, the more people won't use it.

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[–] [email protected] 30 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Reddit finding ways to actively make things worse, while lemmy rapidly improves.

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[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 year ago

Well, that's actually fucking horrible. I would expect nothing less from Reddit tho...

[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Fuel on the flames huh? Got to love their tactical timing with this. Let's piss everyone off in every possible way?

It's almost like Elon bought Reddit as well as Twitter the way this is going.

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[–] pumpkin 28 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (6 children)

Wow, I am surprised they would go this far if I'm honest. Are they actively trying to piss off literally everyone?

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It's like they're trying to kill the platform

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Some asshole at Deloitte is going to make a ton of money writing case studies about this.

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