After all this time I still had one Reddit tab left open to r/Ukraine, to see updates on the war.
Today I noticed that they have removed the option to use new.reddit.com to see the site as it was before the latest update. The current site design is so bad and slow that I immediately closed that tab.
old.reddit.com still exists for those diehards.
Fair, but I’d be willing to bet that most of the content producing users use the old layout as they’ve likely been using the site for a while. These users leaving would be a big deal.
I’d take that bet.
I would love to believe the situation is as you believe it is, but I just don’t see it.
As others have said, the usage on old reddit appears to be exceedingly low, around 1-2% if developers are seeing it accurately.
We know that the vast majority of all usage nowadays is mobile, or at least hybrid. And at least half of those mobile users are on iphones, where they have no choice. The only thing that keeps old.reddit working on my phone is Firefox extensions.
The unfortunate truth is the reason reddit and so many other platforms get away with rampant enshitification is that the overwhelming majority of users are either incapable or unwilling to find ways around it if it requires a modicum of effort or results in a slightly less polished experience. They just accept it and become increasingly angry and frustrated with the platform, but refusing to do anything else except continue to use it.
Developers see these numbers and they plan for it. They getting extremely condescending about it, too. Why listen to the “vocal minority” of technically inclined power users when you can pay attention to the majority of silent people who accept literally anything because they have to.
Gone are the days where the majority of your users are going to be tech savvy. When your user base was made up of informed, technical users on desktops, what you did with your software or your site would directly affect your numbers. Those users knew how and were willing to try other things if you fucked around.
Nowadays, with phones in everyone’s pocket, your user base is everyone, and unfortunately for all of us, that everyone includes the majority of people who will drink a shit sundae over and over again before they will even consider going to different restaurant.
It’s not actually a captive customer base, but it effectively is. They’re just held captive by their own tech illiteracy and lack of patience. What those people do determines the future of the industry now.
Agree with you but confused about
I use old.reddit on iPhone on Safari and it works just fine? I even have an extension to make it appear mobile friendly, so I’m really curious as what you mean by this.
May I ask for the name of the extension?
Sink it for Reddit, which someone posted here on Lemmy (ironically). I can’t seem to link it from the app store, but the icon is an anchor with a red-orange background! It’s also completely free.