I think reddit has run its course for me, and I don't think they're losing anything of value when I stop browsing. I've been using old. for years, and always been pretty strict about blocking ads. In the past few years, it's been getting less and less enjoyable for me, and since I stopped visiting on Monday, I've been feeling better, and I don't think I'll be going back.
Reddit is saving a little on bandwidth since I stopped, and I've gained some time and energy. Seems like a win-win.
Reddit has built a reputation for being "not social media", but in my opinion it has come to embody most of what people say they hate about social media. If I visit Reddit without logging in, the content on the home page is disastrously bad: Videos of fights with comments from people cheering on the violence. Screenshots of exaggerated Tweets taken out of context. 10 different stories about the latest tragedy somewhere in the world and editorialization about how it's a sign the world is coming to an end. Ragebait videos taken from TikTok and other social medias for the express purpose of getting Redditors riled up and angry.
I know the story goes that you can avoid it by carefully selecting the right subreddits, but in my experience the trash content bleeds into everything. Even the technical subreddits I followed have become inundated with low-effort posts and people who just want to pick fights.
> I don't think they're losing anything of value when I stop browsing. I've been using old. for years, and always been pretty strict about blocking ads.
Thanks for being honest about it. I suspect Reddit is well aware that the average user (who views ads) is not likely to be among the angrier power users who are pulling the strings. If anything, I'm starting to get a sense that the non-commenters and casual users are getting sick of the mods using their power to shut the conversation down. The average user doesn't use Apollo and doesn't care about this drama. I think it's easy to forget this when the vocal minority of power users are upvoting angry topics and mods are shutting down subreddits.
100% agreed, yet the average user is incredibly fickle. Without the power users reddit will fizzle; a little bit at a time, then all at once (as we may see soon).
Last year after I posted a innocuous, benign comment on a certain subreddit I was permanently banned from that subreddit because I was allegedly "ban evading" (I wasn't, I have a single account). I contacted the mod from that subreddit saying I wasn't ban evading, and they replied "Sure" and blocked me from messaging mods for a year.
An hour later (without doing anything else) I got banned site wide for 3 days for "ban evading".
That really pissed me off and I haven't used reddit ever since (except for google search results). I'm definitely happier without reddit.
They also often use the invented word "brigading" to justify any and all bans. Like you can write literally anything in the subreddit and it can can be considered "brigading" because the threshold doesn't exist for that. Especially tokenbro snowflakes like to do that.
And another popular imaginary reason for bans is the crosspost feature. If you ever crosspost anything from the snowflake sub they will automatically ban you with a script, for using this stock Reddit feature.
Since Monday I've stopped visiting Reddit to try to get less addicted to mindless reading. I've caught myself opening the app like 5 times already, but so far experiment was mostly a success. Need to keep up for a month more I think.
> In the past few years, it's been getting less and less enjoyable for me, and since I stopped visiting on Monday, I've been feeling better, and I don't think I'll be going back.
The reddit experience I've had in the last few days is actually the best I've had since I signed up 12-13 years ago. All the smaller niche subreddits I forgot about are back to front and center, all the community interaction is on AskReddit, answers, etc again and the overall communal aspect is back. It reminds me of how much the site has really changed and, like you, I'll probably be gone once it goes back to normal.
Wow that brings me back. I remember being on AskReddit when it was relatively small (maybe a few hundred thousand subscribers).
My favorite contribution to that subreddit was one of the first logos. They held a contest and my submission was a drawing of Snoo with his bum facing the viewer with a dollar in between his cheeks. Ass Credit.
I can't believe people voted for it lol, but that was when the subreddit was a lot less serious.
You can still see the remnants of that work by going to old.reddit.com/r/askreddit: Hover over the Snoo's talking and wait for the tooltip.
Why will Reddit going back to normal stop you from enjoying the smaller subreddits? I use Reddit all the time and literally never see anything from those monstrous multi million user subreddits.
It's like some people don't understand Reddit. You get to choose what you want to follow, you can create a multireddit with a subset of them, you can create a new account and hide all the big subs to let the little ones filter through. The world was always your oyster and yet people act like it took subs going dark to do that, it didn't.
If someone says they only see crap on Reddit it's their own fault. It doesn't take a ton of effort to cultivate what you want.
While I’m familiar with many of those tricks, I haven’t even thought about them in probably, literally years.
The current Reddit UX does not encourage and maybe doesn’t even support that view. If that’s something you’re doing, I can say with some level of confidence that you’re a Reddit Poweruser. The only time I ever really thought about tricks like that is when I used the Reddit Enhancement Suite, which, as far as I know, is not a part of New Reddit, at all.
And despite what anyone’s insular, private group of friends may say, I strongly suspect that New Reddit is the one that the vast, vast majority of users user.
> I strongly suspect that New Reddit is the one that the vast, vast majority of users user.
No doubt, those people are masochists, either knowingly or not, same with the people that use the official app. Old.reddit and/or third party apps made a huge difference in usability of Reddit, there is a reason so many people are up in arms over this change.
If it took subs going dark for you to see what was available to you all along that's yet another massive failing on reddit's part to provide value. To people who have been living that dream via third party apps, that was a normal Tuesday. I don't know a better way to put it, I constantly hear people say "I've been using the app, it's fine" and then also saying things like you did, the truth is the app is not fine, discoverability is shit, the features are limited, etc. Apollo is a power tool for reddit similar to how RES was, I won't wade through the reddit BS to use it without an app like Apollo.
> Visit a community that you’d like to include in a custom feed. On the right-hand side of the page, you’ll see a Community Details box. Click the overflow menu (⋯) in the top right of the box.
> Select Add To Custom Feed then choose Create A Custom Feed.
These show up when you use the drop down for subscribed and favorited subreddits or on the sidebar (if that is expanded).
(VERY late edit)
The other thing about multis - you can make them public and allow other people subscribe to them.
The default front page is like reading gossip magazines. A lot of those subs appeal to base instincts (rage bait, etc) and are worth making a strong effort to avoid and ignore.
Similar for me. I exclusively used reddit via old. or apollo, and mostly just lurked. I have some good memories of some communities there but by and large it's not something I enjoy anymore. For community I'm on discord, for being in the loop I'm on twitter and HN.
I am giving it the same treatment that facebook and twitter get. No more contributions, Redirector entry to a libreddit instance in case I land on a link.
Reddit is saving a little on bandwidth since I stopped, and I've gained some time and energy. Seems like a win-win.