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Reddit Starts Blocking Mobile Website, Pushing Users to App Instead

HouseLannister said:
Here Lies The Open Web
1989-2026
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I know, the web is looking shakier by the day.

I’m unfortunately getting older and I remember when the web was young very clearly.

I suspect that it must’ve been similar for idealistic people in the mid to late 60s thinking that a utopian revolution was going to happen … and then by the 80s it really wasn’t.

Anyway. No open web for Reddit users - the ads must flow.
 
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HouseLannister said:
Here Lies The Open Web
1989-2026
Click to expand...
It really started to die in 2022-2023, but the final nails are definitely being put in this year.

So many "open systems" now completely hidden if you don't have an account now. How long until Reddit doesn't even let you read without an account?

Of note - I killed my Reddit account during the whole Apollo API thing a few years ago. I even did the "gibberish your existing content" then "delete your old content", finally deleting my account. I did this in the week before the TOS changed.

I went back the next week - all my old content had been restored, just without my user name. Of course, without an active account, I couldn't open a support ticket demanding they delete my content. 😡
 
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HouseLannister said:
Here Lies The Open Web
1989-2026
Click to expand...
It really started to die in 2022-2023, but the final nails are definitely being put in this year.

So many "open systems" now completely hidden if you don't have an account now. How long until Reddit doesn't even let you read without an account?

Of note - I killed my Reddit account during the whole
xmarcuswildx said:
rhyme.com

Rhyme — A more intentional social media.

A more intentional social media. Organized around the things you love, not the people shouting loudest. Closed beta, invitation only.
rhyme.com rhyme.com

This project sounds promising. Mixing old with new. Has a fairly decent way to deal with AI and bots posting and commenting all over. Can restrict repeat posts extremely well.
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That's just another single-control-point "social media". I'm done with those. Sure, they claim to have altruistic intents, but so did Reddit. So did Twitter.

No more centrally-controlled social media. "Fediverse" options now. There is already a Reddit-like protocol called "Lemmy" that has hundreds of servers. Just pick one whose focus feels like your primary need, then join channels (subreddits) on other servers from there. If one server changes in a way you don't like or shuts down completely, migrate your account to a different server. Or if you're technically-minded, host your own.

I'm now only on federated "social media" and single-purpose independent web forums. (Like this, or ones for the car makes I own, etc.)
 
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Just delete your reddit accounts. But remove all your posts first so reddit cannot use them as anonymous after you delete your account.
 
skiguy45 said:
I quit reddit years ago when they blocked third party access.
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Same. Some days I miss it, but when they started pushing people to the app I started weaning myself off. I deleted my account about three years ago and aside from a few visits due to search results (always in a private browsing window) I haven’t been back.
 
Anonymous Freak said:
It really started to die in 2022-2023, but the final nails are definitely being put in this year.

So many "open systems" now completely hidden if you don't have an account now. How long until Reddit doesn't even let you read without an account?

Of note - I killed my Reddit account during the whole

That's just another single-control-point "social media". I'm done with those. Sure, they claim to have altruistic intents, but so did Reddit. So did Twitter.

No more centrally-controlled social media. "Fediverse" options now. There is already a Reddit-like protocol called "Lemmy" that has hundreds of servers. Just pick one whose focus feels like your primary need, then join channels (subreddits) on other servers from there. If one server changes in a way you don't like or shuts down completely, migrate your account to a different server. Or if you're technically-minded, host your own.

I'm now only on federated "social media" and single-purpose independent web forums. (Like this, or ones for the car makes I own, etc.)
Click to expand...
I tried lemmy during the great migration which wasn’t even great. Everything is just cross posted from Reddit.
 
This wouldn't be so bad if the Reddit app wasn't hot garbage. But, alas, it is hot garbage. As is "new" Reddit, which has existed for 8 years now and is still so horrible that I'll only use "old" Reddit (and if they ever remove that I'll be deleting my account altogether).
 
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xmarcuswildx said:
I tried lemmy during the great migration which wasn’t even great. Everything is just cross posted from Reddit.
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Unfortunately, it doesn't exactly help that there is no single authoritative "Lemmy" instance; just a bunch of mini-Lemmys, all with their own agendas. Attempting to recreate the one thousand pound gorilla by using a bunch of ninety pound chimps just isn't going to work. But at the same time, nobody really wants another one thousand pound gorilla. It's a conundrum.
 
zarmanto said:
Unfortunately, it doesn't exactly help that there is no single authoritative "Lemmy" instance; just a bunch of mini-Lemmys, all with their own agendas. Attempting to recreate the one thousand pound gorilla by using a bunch of ninety pound chimps just isn't going to work.
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I consider that a feature, not a bug.

When you have a "thousand pound gorilla" you get centralized control and eventually you get bad incentives driving everything and you arrive at "reddit".

Why does email persist and remain flexible and adaptable?
Nobody can control it.
 
LordArchie said:
Lots of great groups there with valuable info, but I may just move on. The lack of anyone that can actually help with account info is ridiculous and unprofessional and I am just over it.
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I work in silicon valley and I don't know anyone at reddit, but I have work colleagues who know reddit employees. They reached out the reddit employees on my behalf and even those employees said they couldn't help. I'm sure someone can I just haven't hit up the right person yet 🙁 but yeah I've just over the months come to realize I can't use reddit anymore, but I do miss some of the people I would communicate with there on various nerdy forums related to amateur radio and retro computing. I also never posted anything inflammatory and just stuck to nerdy groups about old computers, ham radio and fellow minivan enthusiasts.
 
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This might be a regional thing, as here in France reddit.com still opens up in Safari for me without any obstructions.
 
Apple sold people onto “apps” as a platform with the iPhone which, in theory, could have been a great thing. But the corporations abuse the system and user data/privacy for further profits and the user sees nothing from that profit except further price increases.

I have gone from app user back to web browsing (when at all possible) and this further solidifies my past decision to leave Reddit altogether.
 
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We can never stop a business or website try to act stupid and inflict wounds on themselves. 🤣
But we sure as hell can stop helping them.
 
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A mobile app required to use Reddit? Hmm...well, that ain't happening. I don't need to be there that badly. The only social media type app I use is WhatsApp, and that is only because I do product testing for a company that uses WhatsApp.
 
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It's the shareholders, always the shareholders. The next step is for a venture capital firm or media aggregate to buy Reddit. I have never been emotionally needy, nor lonely, so leaving Reddit is simple for me. Others, well, they will struggle.

It is about money.
 
There is outright user hostility and in line with other moves, like YouTube deliberately degrading the user experience for those who use ad blockers.

More than that, though, it's also about a grab for power: the platform is the most powerful thing in the equation, and the user is subservient to that.

This in turn subverts a lot of assumptions. Using a platform or service becomes a privilege, and not a basic right of anybody with an internet connection.

And that in turn reflects a radically different aspect within Silicon Valley, with a belief that users are low value commodities whose only value is in the almost-valueless data they generate by simply existing. We see this in the AI rollout, for example.
 
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