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And reddit is doing the new thing. Their new design caused me to leave, even their "old." subdomain is pretty bad.

Didn't really need it in my life anyway.

But old.reddit.com is the same as reddit before they implemented the bloated redesign.

it constantly tries to make you to the new page. I actually have an extension to keep me on old.reddit.com. TBH I really miss Usenet. That functionality is what essentially I'm trying to get from them.

And it constantly annoys you, begging you to use the mobile app.

Reddit: Stop it. I'm aware there's a mobile app. If I wanted to use it then I would. I don't need to see an advertisement for it on every damn page.

On iOS, you can use AdGuard or other blocker and create custom blockers to block all those popups.

It's an account setting -- you can completely opt out of the new version. I use Reddit every day, and have never been sent to the new version by mistake.

Unfortunately, if you use the old version, you will also not have access to the newest mod tools, including a lot of sub settings. But the old version works fine for reading and commenting.

I've set my preference to old numerous times. That setting seems to either revert or disappear entirely / appear as a new setting.

I'm constantly directed to www.

That's obvious as I've disabled JS for the domain, and so get an empty page with a spinner.

It's a clusterfsck.

It’s a cookie, and it’s linked to your login session. If you log out or clear cookies, or use incognito mode, it will revert to new by default. I used to have the same issue until I figured that out. Now I just have a dedicated container for it in Firefox and all is well.

I would have left reddit a long time ago if I were forced to use the terrible new UI. The fact that they still keep it around, years later, is a telling sign. When you are so scared of your own decisions, you know you messed up.

This occurs consistently whilst logged in.

I'm on Reddit daily, and never had it forget my setting. You need to go to your preferences and disable "Use new Reddit as my default experience". When you do this, www.reddit.com shows the old design; you don't need to use old.reddit.com.

Because reasons, I want old.reddit.com as the site.

Going to www, with the setting as specified, does not behave as you describe.

Did you also disable cookies? You might be causing the site to forget your settings by accident.

The old version works fine, if you're aware of these workarounds, and these workarounds will not be shut down

I for one don't have an account, so I would get nagged by their popups constantly.

It was a perfectly fine website, they ruined it completely for me.

2 posts per page isn't usable when most of the content needs to be skimmed through.

https://i.imgur.com/9vweCAg.jpg

New design looks like a mess on my 21:9 screen, so much wasted space.

Does anyone know why exactly they would do something like this? Is it because it forces users to scroll more and thus take longer for people to consume content (so more opportunity to show ads)? It looks like a disaster.

There is a button (visible in that screenshot) to switch to a far more compact layout.

https://host.zlsadesign.com/r1pxSUnkU.png

I never noticed that before, just went to the old version after seeing the default layout.

Old is a lot faster as well (at least when I checked, couldn’t be bothered after it was still horribly slow on a decent desktop PC when they had the full release). I liked the compact look, but performance is (or was) absolutely atrocious.

yes, exactly. The new format enables them to sell a lot of ad impressions and video ads too

I don't ever see it trying to get me to go to the new page.

I personally use and like i.reddit.com, their lightweight mobile version from the era when people used text-shadow to create an embossed effect on navigation bars. The only problem is v.redd.it video links, which catapult you back into redesign-land complete with a modal prompting you to download the app.

Reddit exited in 2006. It has not been a startup for a long time.

I think reddit's so far approaching it well in the sense that they're keeping both around.

Also, reddit was doing pretty well before the introduction of subreddits, but that change really was a very successful one.

A key difference is that Digg's traffic cratered after their redesign, while Reddit's traffic has grown like crazy since theirs.

Do they release this data?

Also how's the user acquisition and retention rate as compared to traffic?

They don't specifically break out numbers pre and post-redesign, but first full year with the new design was 2019, during which there was a:

* 30% increase in monthly active users

* 37% increase in comments

* 53% increase in views

https://redditblog.com/2019/12/04/reddits-2019-year-in-revie...

Quick googling got me no other info besides dropping from US #5 to US #6 between ’18 and ’19

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