If they remove old reddit, I'm done. The "new" reddit UI is literally one of my least favorite things in the world. Filled with clutter and ads, requires too many clicks to see what you want to see, low information density... I could go on.
Someone has to be using the redesign, most I'd guess, but I don't understand how. It's one thing that I don't like the look and feel, that's pretty subjective to a point, but the problem is that it doesn't actually work.
Something as basic as reading comments is still broken, after all these years. You can not navigate the comment section. Seems like a pretty big oversight, unless you betting the farm on doom-scrolling, and I think that exactly what's happening.
Reddit management left the community to it's own devices for years, now the ad revenue is drying up, they have an IPO around the corner (because no VC is going to throw more money into an anonymous message board). I don't really see any easy out for Reddit, they do need money, but I'm not sure they are going about it in the right way.
You're basically forced to hold control down, because expanding a comment might cause a page load, and the back button won't bring you where you originally were.
Most people dont even know about old.reddit. new users never hear of it, most of old users got served the redesign and just went with it. I bet only minority knows and actively uses old.reddit. its insane
New reddit is the worst. Who even designed it? Every time I accidentally find myself on new reddit UI, I feel like I'm looking through foggy glasses. Over the course of about 20 seconds, I blindly click around, feeling lost and confused, then frustrated, and then I just add "old" to the URL.
I interviewed at Reddit around that time. They showed me what (I didn’t know at the time) was to be the new design & asked me to critique it (UI role).
I.. did not hold back. I was polite, and encouraging, but the myriad of flaws was obvious. They seemed rather put out & defensive.
It was around about them I realized that it was not going to be a good fit.
Some time earlier this year (I think; certainly before the API drama; wish I'd bookmarked it), I saw a comment here from a Reddit manager complaining that they couldn't find good developers. I think the reason is pretty clear.
Probably it was created by someone who prefer mobile environments and who also believe that bulky big interfaces are good. New design seems to be aiming at keeping users engaged with the site all the time by obstructing visibility of comments, for example
No point designing it for mobile browsers if they're going to block mobile browsers from using it, or at best irritate the hell out of mobile web users with relentless 'app nags'
The worst part for me is all the flashes and redraws as it gradually loads more and more separate resources.
"Hey look, here's a paragraph to read... nope, I just realised there's an image near the top that I think is going to be huge so I pushed that paragraph below the fold... no, wait, that image is actually tiny so here's that paragraph again... ooooh, but now there's a sidebar, so I've just resized and reflowed the paragraph that you had kind of started to read - good luck finding your place again!"
As for how broken the "back" button is, fuuuuu.....
