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/web/20230611224026/https://old.reddit.com/r/help/comments/135tly1/helpdid_reddit_just_destroy_mobile_browser_access/jim40zg/

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[–] shellsharks@fedia.io 147 points 2 years 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.

[–] socsa@lemmy.ml 26 points 2 years ago

Stages of grief Speedrun any%

[–] Sintamo@beehaw.org 141 points 2 years ago (20 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?"

[–] overlordror@beehaw.org 77 points 2 years ago (4 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.

[–] darkkite@lemmy.ml 36 points 2 years 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

[–] 0x1C3B00DA@lemmy.ml 29 points 2 years ago (5 children)

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

[–] BitOneZero@beehaw.org 36 points 2 years ago (6 children)

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

[–] manifex@sh.itjust.works 26 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Funneling the herd into the slaughterhouse.

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[–] MrGoodBright@beehaw.org 31 points 2 years 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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[–] Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz 27 points 2 years ago (3 children)

The more I look at this mess, the more I see elements of speedrunning. Reddit is really trying very hard to loose as many users as possible as fast as possible. It’s as if there’s a competition beware Reddit and Twitter.

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[–] BreakNeckJim@sh.itjust.works 98 points 2 years 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.

[–] NataliePortland@beehaw.org 58 points 2 years 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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[–] BrooklynMan@lemmy.ml 86 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (10 children)

"old.reddit.com isn't going anywhere"

-- a spez lie

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[–] d4r1us_drk@beehaw.org 84 points 2 years ago (2 children)

This is both informative and unfortunate.

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 29 points 2 years ago (11 children)

I, for one, welcome my Louis Rossman overlord.

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[–] jayrod@lemmy.film 71 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

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

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[–] Sat@lemmy.world 64 points 2 years ago (1 children)

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

[–] sgt_fridge@beehaw.org 36 points 2 years 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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[–] Manticore@beehaw.org 64 points 2 years 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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[–] sparky@lemmy.pt 60 points 2 years ago (11 children)

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

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[–] Hirom@beehaw.org 56 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (5 children)

My mobile browser is experimenting with not visiting reddit.

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[–] duncesplayed@lemmy.one 55 points 2 years 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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[–] feetongrass@beehaw.org 53 points 2 years ago (1 children)

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

[–] deegeese@sopuli.xyz 37 points 2 years 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@sh.itjust.works 44 points 2 years 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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[–] hyperfocus@lemmy.world 41 points 2 years ago (4 children)

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

[–] overlordror@beehaw.org 49 points 2 years ago (8 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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[–] theDuesentrieb@feddit.de 40 points 2 years 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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[–] Monthly_Vent@beehaw.org 39 points 2 years 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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[–] Illecors@lemmy.cafe 38 points 2 years 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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[–] M_g@sh.itjust.works 37 points 2 years ago (4 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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[–] steakfries@lemmy.one 36 points 2 years 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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[–] AndreTelevise@lemmy.world 36 points 2 years ago (1 children)

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

[–] senquo@lemmy.world 26 points 2 years ago (1 children)
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[–] r3nder@beehaw.org 36 points 2 years ago (3 children)

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

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[–] flickertail@lemmy.world 35 points 2 years 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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[–] nlm@beehaw.org 34 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 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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[–] socsa@lemmy.ml 33 points 2 years ago (2 children)

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

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[–] hddsx@lemmy.world 33 points 2 years ago

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

[–] WaffleFriends@lemmy.world 32 points 2 years 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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[–] TempleSquare@lemmy.world 29 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

It's funny you post this. Not more than 5 minutes ago I was trying to figure out what was wrong with Firefox on my phone. I kept trying to login over and over again on mobile and it didn't work.

A week or so ago, I really felt like reddit was nearly an S tier social media platform. It's heartbreaking to see it completely destroy itself. It's nearing Twitter in how bad it works.

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[–] hydra@lemmy.world 28 points 2 years 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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[–] Master@beehaw.org 28 points 2 years ago (3 children)

Honestly, mobile browing (even using old.reddit) has been garbage for years because they detect your mobile OS and constantly try to push their app on you. Click on link, do you want to open in mobile app? let me open the playstore for you. And then you also get limited comments. To see more comments open in mobile app... You could do a case study in how to alienate your customers into leaving your platform on just mobile browsing reddit.

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[–] pumpkin@sh.itjust.works 28 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years 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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[–] AnatorRenator@programming.dev 28 points 2 years ago (7 children)

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

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[–] alottachairs@beehaw.org 26 points 2 years 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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