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Comment by jorams | Hacker News Reader

It still works on a different URL: https://old.reddit.com/.compact

You can add .compact to any URL on old.reddit.com to get the same version that used to be on i.reddit.com.

For now. Reddit is clearly, and has been for several years, on a mission to make the web version as terrible as possible so that people will install their app instead. It’s the only reasonable explanation. But I will continue to use Reddit in the web browser until the day they make the web version completely unbearable. And then I will just leave.

I’m somewhere between your last two states. I used to turn to Reddit frequently for results on topics I was unfamiliar with, since typically they have communities that are very passionate about nearly any imaginable topic. However, I hardly ever visit the site anymore.

The begging to install the app is intolerable. I don’t want their application. I don’t trust it. I have no interest in it. But that’s only half their problem. The other half is content - the comments are so low-quality, censored, unsubstantiated, and echo-chamber-y to the extent that it is not bearable or useful for discussion or knowledge acquisition.

Reddit will go down as having EEE’d forums and online communication as a whole. There are sufferingly few bastions online holding out from it.

Funny you say this as their app is also pretty bad. Their image slider is one of the most poorly made features I’ve ever seen in an app - with it never being clear what a left swipe, a double tap, or a right swipe will do.

They don't want you to use the app because it's better for you, but because it allows them to collect much better and more fine grained information about your usage (to sell to advertisers and use the target you) and you can't block ads.

I suspect the only reason they keep old.reddit.com alive is the is enough added content from users of that subdomain, while these users are also, at this point, the most likely to just stop using reddit altogether if it was remove.

I assume eventually that math with work out so that it makes more sense to just get rid of 'old' entirely.

I think they saw your comment because that URL has stopped working in the past hour.

It is simply incredible how much better the user experience is using the "old" mobile web site that hasn't seen many updates for what, over 10 years?

This isn't working for me. I'm yet to find a way back to compact mode. Which basically means Reddit on phone is unusable. The information density is terrible on a small screen without compact mode. All pictures shouting for attention.

Edit: turns out the closed the backdoor into compact mode. Enshittification is now in full swing.

This is redirecting for me now. At best I can get old.reddit.com.

I think I'm done. Maybe Teddit.

Awesome! What are other reddit tricks like these?

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