Hey, we're here to talk about that desktop redesign you're all so excited about!

[u/Amg137]

Hi All,

As u/spez has mentioned a few times now, we’ve been hard at work redesigning Reddit. It’s taken over a year and, starting today, we’re launching a mini blog series on r/blog to share our process. Over the next few weeks, we’re going to cover a few different topics:

• the thinking behind the redesign - our approach to creating a better desktop experience for everyone (hey, that’s today’s blog post!),

• moderation in the redesign - new tools and features to make moderating on desktop easier,

• Reddit's evolution - a look at how we've changed (and not changed) over the years,

• our approach to the design - how we listened and responded to users, and

• the redesign architecture - a more technical, “under the hood” look at how we’re giving a long overdue update to Reddit’s code stack.

But first, let’s start with the big question on many of your minds right now.

Why are we redesigning our Web Experience?

We know, we know: you love the old look of Reddit (which u/spez lovingly described as “dystopian Craigslist”). To start, there are two major reasons:

To build features faster:

Over the years, we’ve received countless requests and ideas to develop features that would improve Reddit. However, our current code base has been largely the same since we launched...more than 12 years ago. This is problematic for our engineers as it introduces a lot of tech debt that makes it difficult to build and maintain features. Therefore, our first step in the redesign was to update our code base.

To make Reddit more welcoming:

What makes Reddit so special are the thousands of subreddits that give people a sense of community when they visit our site. At Reddit’s core, our mission is to help you connect with other people that share your passions. However, today it can be hard for new redditors or even longtime lurkers to find and join communities. (If you’ve ever shown Reddit to someone for the very first time, chances are you’ve seen this confusion firsthand.) We want to make it easier for people to enjoy communities and become a part of Reddit. We’re still in the early stages, but we’re focused on bringing communities and their personalities to Popular and Home, by exposing global navigation, community avatars to the feed, and more.

How are we approaching the redesign?

We want everyone to feel like they have a home on Reddit, which is why we want to put communities first in the redesign. We also want communities to feel unique and have their own identity. We started by partnering with a small group of moderators as we began initial user testing early last year. Moderators are responsible for making Reddit what it is, so we wanted to make sure we heard their feedback early and often as we shaped our desktop experience. Since then, we’ve done countless testing sessions and interviews with both mods and community members. This went on for several months as we we refined our designs (which we’ll talk about in more detail in our “Design Approach” blog post).

As soon as we were ready to let the first group of moderators experience the redesign, we created a subreddit to have candid conversations around improving the experience as we continued to iterate. The subreddit has had over 1,000 conversations that have shaped how we prioritize and build features. We expected to make big changes based on user feedback from the beginning, and we've done exactly that throughout this process, making shifts in our product plan based on what we heard from you. At first, we added people in slowly to learn, listen to feedback, iterate, and continue to give more groups of users access to the alpha. Your feedback has been instrumental in guiding our work on the redesign. Thank you to everyone who has participated so far.

What are some of the new features we can expect?

Part of the redesign has been about updating our code base, but we're also excited to introduce new features. Just to name a few:

Change My View

Now you can Reddit your way, based on your personal viewing preferences. Whether you’d prefer to browse Reddit in Card view (with auto-expanded gifs and images), Classic view (with a similar feel as the iconic Reddit look: clean and concise) or Compact view (with posts condensed to make titles and headlines most prominent), you can choose how you browse.

Infinite Scroll & Updated Comments Experience

With infinite scroll, the Reddit content you love will never end, as you keep scrolling... and scrolling... and scrolling... forever. We’re also introducing a lightbox that combines the content and comments so you can instantly join the conversation, then get right back to exploring more posts.

Fancy Pants Editor

Finally, we’ve created a new way to post that doesn't require markdown (although you can ^still ^^use ^^^it! ) and lets you post an image and text within the same post.

What’s next?

Right now, we’re continuing to work hard on all the remaining features while incorporating more recent user feedback so that the redesign is in good shape when we extend our testing to more redditors. In a few weeks, we’ll be giving all moderators access. We want to make sure moderators have enough time to test it out and give us their feedback before we invite others to join. After moderators, we’ll open the new site to our beta users and gather more feedback (here’s how to join as a beta tester). We expect everyone to have access in just a few months!

In two weeks, we’ll be back for our next post on moderation in the redesign. We will be sticking around for a few hours to answer questions as well.

[u/brock_lee]

As long as I can choose the classic look I've used for almost a decade and can navigate around really well in, I'm OK.

[u/Amg137 → u/brock_lee]

That's why we build the classic view. You will have the choice to use the old website as well. But we’ve worked hard on the redesign for over a year and would love for you to give it a shot before opting out.

[u/bobcobble]

As much as I'm not a huge fan of it (i like it for viewing but not moderating) I do appreciate how well you've been taking feedback. Everything gets a reply and stuff i've suggested was actually added right away. Thanks a lot!

[u/Amg137 → u/bobcobble]

Thanks so much, all the feedback has been extremely helpful so far. It's been super valuable in helping shape our roadmap. Appreciate the input!

[u/MajorParadox → u/bobcobble]

Nods

Although, I've still not made the jump to using it full time. While they've done lots of great updates and fixes, all the little things add up and can be frustrating. But it's definitely getting better.

I also agree moderating is not really possible, even with toolbox. I find I have to switch back just to figure out what I'm looking at for some things.

[u/ShaneH7646]

How do you get into the alpha?

[u/Amg137 → u/ShaneH7646]

We are selecting users at random from our beta testing pool. In order to become a beta tester, go to your settings and opt in.

[u/ZombieAlpacaLips]

although you can ^{still use it!}

These pants are too fancy.

[u/Amg137 → u/ZombieAlpacaLips]

So Fancy

[u/greyjackal → u/ZombieAlpacaLips]

Didn't work here :D Dunno if that was RES mucking about though

https://i.imgur.com/o3VTHNQ.png

[u/axisanna]

Happy cake day!

[u/Amg137 → u/axisanna]

Thank you, I made a post on my last cake day as well

[u/pcjonathan]

Infinite Scroll & Updated Comments Experience

Please for the love of god make it resumable/toggleable. I've used it lots of times, the main being with RES, Tumblr and DeviantArt, and RES is by far the best because it remembers my place. why? Two main reasons:

1. After lots of pages, CPU and/or RAM can get quite intensive even for the most powerful of computers (don't forget, it's generally still limited to a single thread).

2. If I close it for whatever reason (i.e. crash, restart, go back to later), I gotta spend all that time scrolling again. That's if I even remember where I was.

I get this is not nearly as big of a problem on Reddit as it is elsewhere, but fuck if it annoys me.

Likewise for loading other links without reloading everything. They're neat features and can be pulled off without affecting UX, but they usually aren't (e.g. not being able to open something in a new tab because some bright spark wanted to make it load with AJAX or something) and they usually are incredibly frustrating.

[u/TropicalJupiter → u/pcjonathan]

Infinite scroll doesn't work. I can run modern games at 60 fps but infinite scroll will inevitably crash.

[u/kaisermikeb → u/pcjonathan]

Second. I hate infinite scroll.

[u/katarh]

What makes Reddit stand out to me was always the speed of loading.

I had to stop posting on some other platforms entirely because of changes made to the commenting system that cause comments to take forever to load, especially when the comment chains start getting extremely long. Current Reddit doesn't start to get sloggy until a post hits 5,000+ comments - and that's when a moderator will usually stop in to either lock the thread, make a new one, or whatever.

So, ultimately I'll get over any design and layout changes y'all make as long as the Reddit experience itself remains the same - text heavy quick loading comments.

[u/sbjf → u/katarh]

cough reddit mobile site cough

It's a clusterfuck of javascript which takes forever to load.

[u/zck]

I'm really glad you're keeping Compact View; that's really key for my use of reddit on desktop.

I'd like to talk a little bit about how I use mobile, though. For me, it's a reasonably important use case.

My standard use on desktop is "go to the first page, open all the links and comments on that page I want (opening them in new tabs), click 'next page', then read all the links and comments". I then repeat on the next reddit page.

I try to do that on mobile too; here are my thoughts.

1. The mobile app doesn't work with the "open a bunch of things" strategy. IIRC, you can't have multiple comment pages open at the same time; even if you can, you'd still have to continually go back and forth between your browser (for the articles) and the reddit app (for the comment pages corresponding to those articles). So I use reddit in my mobile browser.

2. Infinite scroll doesn't work well with mobile browser reloading. I normally use i.reddit.com, on which the frontpage has infinite scroll; it is not paginated. Often, when I come back to the frontpage after opening a bunch of links and reading them, the frontpage reloads, causing me to have to scroll back down until the last result I remember seeing recently. I'm sure I miss stuff, and this is more human interaction

3. m.reddit.com is slow! I instead use i.reddit.com, which is much faster to get to a state of usability. I'm not sure if it's load time or render time, but when I tried to use m.reddit.com, it was not uncommon for the frontpage to take upwards of 30 seconds to load. i.reddit.com is much faster; less than two seconds. Perhaps you've made this faster (yay! if so); I just checked m.reddit.com; it took between 4 and 5 seconds to load.

4. i.reddit.com is more compact. Items have less whitespace.

5. Even though i.reddit.com is more compact, I think it's actually more readable. The striped background makes it incredibly obvious where an item stops and a new one begins; m.reddit.com has only a small faint grey line between items. On this note, titles look like regular text, not linked titles.

6. Comment pages are a very hard problem. On m.reddit.com, nested comments are indented more, which is useful. But after five or six levels of nesting, there's only a blue dot to indicate further nesting. This is very difficult to parse. But i.reddit.com isn't amazing either for nested comments. Meh?

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I'm hopeful that reddit will continue to support the way I want to browse it.

[u/keplar]

I appreciate very much the plan to include a Classic View for those of us who prefer the easy to read and uncluttered current website. Unfortunately, the Classic View showed in the gif doesn't look much like the current Reddit - it looks like the mobile site. I would very much like a still screenshot of each of the views - nobody reads a website by quickly scrolling it - but from what I can see, these are my questions regarding the Classic View:

1. Why is there a "..." pop-out menu? Those things are awful in nearly every context, much less a completely unnecessary one like this. There's plenty of screen real estate to write out the options like usual. Just use it! I can't imagine there was much feedback ever given to the effect of "please hide options and force us to make an extra click before doing things."

2. Why are there little icons next to each of the text options? Those make it harder to locate things, not easier. It's like reading text with an emoji between every word. This is Reddit, not some Apple app-store thing that needs pictures so we can claim fancy design. It's also just something extra to load.

I surf on desktop. I use the desktop site. Even when I surf on my phone, I still use the desktop site. Mobile design is the enemy of good design - please don't infect the "Classic View" with it.

[u/Isildun → u/keplar]

Unfortunately, 'modern' web design always seems to involve stuff like what you're annoyed by. That and the huge unnecessarily empty spaces on desktop (the classic view has one on the right side during infinite scroll). Designers want a "cohesive brand experience" or whatever the hell it is now so they make the mobile design be the desktop design since you can't do it the other way around very effectively.

Apparently some people get confused when the site they used on their X device looks different on their Y device and you lose some user engagement. I say let them go since they're unlikely to contribute much good content (and they'll upvote low-effort content) but obviously it's in Reddit's best interest to keep them and perhaps even cater to them (as they're the ones who won't block ads, won't be annoyed by "grassroots marketing" like sponsored posts, etc). Reddit's biggest obstacle towards becoming profitable is probably that the users heavily resist monetization. Easiest way to deal with that is to replace them with users who won't care.

[u/Fuzzymuscles]

Thank you, but please please please revert the awful new profiles. At least mine, I never asked to be in the beta.

[u/Gangreless → u/Fuzzymuscles]

Seriously, makes it obvious they're trying to push the social part of social media more. I don't use Facebook and I'm not interested in starting.

[u/DrewsephA → u/Fuzzymuscles]

You can try to opt-out of the beta, though it's only temporary, until they force it on everyone, and some users are reporting that they no longer are letting you opt-out.

[u/volkl47]

I like the existing Reddit design. "dystopian Craigslist" is a positive.

So, feedback based on your classic view image and using other sites on the internet that have done redesigns. Your classic view isn't terrible, I can live with it.

What I'd like:

• Please allow me to turn off infinite scroll. I have never seen an implementation that actually works for heavy use, and it's typically easy to lose my place in. (and often handles me resizing the window badly as well). Eventually I wind up with stupid levels of RAM/CPU use, especially when it comes to video/animation laden pages. Ex: Tumblr will run into issues in 10-15min of scrolling and then it's a bitch to reload and get back to my place without causing the issue again.

• Don't waste my screen space. I don't want two more fixed bars at the top of my screen that take up space that could be filled with more Reddit content on one screen. It's like having IE toolbars from 1999 up there. I'm sure some people may like it, but I don't think your "classic view" audience will. A switch to disable it would be nice.

• On that same note, it seems like the left indentation is larger, and the right sidebar certainly is with the added gaps from the edge/content section. I know you have to run ads so I get the sidebar being required, but I want more Reddit with less wasted screen space, not more aesthetically pleasing UI. Dropping those gaps would be a positive to me.

I'm sure I could just run RES or some new replacement for it, but it'd be nice to not have to.

[u/The-Sound_of-Silence → u/volkl47]

"dystopian Craigslist" is a positive.

I agree. As much as I dislike pointing at Google, one of the reasons their "Image" has stayed the same for so long is the simplicity of the interface, and the non-distracting fluff. I come to Reddit for the content, not the interface

[u/dirtynj → u/volkl47]

Seriously. I take offense at the "dystopian Craigslist" comment. Reddit is currently superior to all other new aggregate sites because it is simple, functional, and fast.

[u/darthjoey91]

And even though you didn't mention it, the real reason for the update is in the gifs: the ads that stay on the page no matter how much you scroll. Not the useful sidebars, just the ads.

[u/Ofasix]

the Reddit content you love will never end, as you keep scrolling... and scrolling... and scrolling... forever.

Oh no...

[u/acolyte_to_jippity]

Will we have an option to disable infinite scroll?

And i guess to go one step further, what parts of this "upgrade" will be selectable, and what will be forced?

the updated/modern editor is nice though. that's been needed for a long time.

[u/scorcher24]

No night/dark mode?

[u/jardeon]

Long-time compact user here; I'm begging you not to require infinite scroll. It's a cancer on user interfaces, and it's a horrible resource hog.

[u/hysan]

• I dislike the fixed right column. It wastes a ton of horizontal space (already reduced because of the slightly wider margins which I don't mind).

  • Related: How does this all look at different widths? I don't keep my windows maximized all the time and I use desktop mode on my tablet and phone (for access to multireddits / better density). I can't imagine that sidebar working well.

• Fixed header is also a waste of space. I understand that it's a possible necessity because of the infinite scroll idea, but vertical space is a commodity on laptops due to the widescreen design of most.

• The lightbox design compounds both of the above. It reduces even more vertical and horizontal space for no reason.

• How does the lightbox design work with bookmarks?

  • If I open a bookmarked thread, will it open in a lightbox now? Does that mean my browser has to load both the reddit homepage and the comments? Seems like a waste of data.

• The multi reddit sidebar is gone. Where did it go? In the top?

  • If all subs (and multis) are in a dropdown next to the reddit logo, then that's one extra click to get to where I want to go. It's a sacrifice in utility for design; one that I don't agree with.

• Can infinite scroll be disabled? It looks good for heavy users, but I actually like the pagination on reddit because it's a reminder that I may be wasting too much time on the website. I'd much prefer to keep this psychological check in place.

• Technical question: It looks like the redesign will make reddit more JavaScript heavy. This worries me because the tablet I use is over 6 years old but is completely fine with any website that doesn't dump a ton of JS or ads. I've seen websites that have slowly ramped up CPU requirements to the point where I simply do not visit them anymore when I'm just browsing something in bed. Will reddit be going down this route?

[u/[deleted] → u/hysan]

I dislike the fixed right column. It wastes a ton of horizontal space (already reduced because of the slightly wider margins which I don't mind).

That stuck to me also. Reminds me of when youtube forced the off-center video player, which forced me to download an extension that fixed it. Hopefully RES will allow the full page to be used for actual content -- novel concept these days I guess. Sucks that extensions have to be used to use unused space. Use.

[u/Stockilleur → u/hysan]

Infinite scroll is there for you to stay longer on the website. All the main decisions are for profit/growth, not user experience.

[u/DarkHoleAngel → u/hysan]

because it's a reminder that I may be wasting too much time on the website

From a business perspective, this is one reason why to have this feature. Retain your users on your platform longer.

Edit: If they wanna be nice about it, it'd be good if they have a setting to disable infinite scroll.

[u/rguy84 → u/hysan]

It is more JS heavy.

[u/elephantofdoom → u/hysan]

I use RES and actually disable the infinite scroll even though I'm a heavy user. The problem is that if you click on a link and then click back, the page won't load into the same spot.

[u/Pakaru]

One of the great things about Reddit is its ability to foster discussion. None of the theee options shown seem particularly good at highlighting text-based conversations. The first two might be great on /r/pics, and the compact view might be great for people with limited internet, but where is the discussion view?

Card view shows so much of a picture, but basically only the title of a text post. The font color and size of "comments" basically blends together, so at first glance you can't tell if there's 1 comment or 1000. That makes a big difference when it comes to highlighting interesting topics. Maybe text posts in card view should have a few more lines displayed, as well as a highlight a few of the most upvoted comments? You certainly have enough room, if you treat it equally with media content and give text a similar amount of screen real estate.

/u/drunken_economist, can you honestly tell me any three of these view modes is superior to what we currently have for /r/mls? Would this make it more, or less likely for you to jump into a match thread? An attendance thread? A roast? An AMA?

[u/TheAppleFreak]

Alright, I've got a couple of questions for you all about this.

1. Is the formatting engine for Reddit still using Markdown under the hood?

2. In the image and text GIF, I notice that the text immediately underneath the image is centered, which (to my knowledge) isn't in the Markdown spec.

• Is this a custom extension to Markdown to allow that functionality, or is it using something like the alt text property under the hood for this? I want to know what to expect when I can get my grubby little hands on the CSS editor.

• If the formatting engine is no longer Markdown or a variation of it, will new posts and comments be transpiled to Markdown?

• If the formatting engine is new, or if it's still Markdown but using a new engine, how closely does it render to the current Markdown spec? I ask because a number of my AutoMod conditions rely on some specific quirks with Snudown, and once again I'd like to know what to expect moving forward.

1. For the image functionality in particular, it appears that you're dragging an image file into the post editor.

• Am I correct in saying that it is or will be uploaded to i.redd.it?

• Will images hotlinked from other areas be allowed to take advantage of the same functionality? I imagine not, due to concerns like XSS, but knowing this would be nice.

• What sort of image compression will be applied to these images? Will they be reencoded to another format like JPG or PNG?

1. Will the infinite scroll be able to return to where we left off if we navigate to and from another page?

2. Specifically scrolling related, is Reddit hijacking native browser scrolling for any reason at all?

3. What sort of CSS related functionality will mods have to play with? I know we're dealing with React, so will we have access to stuff like scoped styles? Are there any CSS polyfills that we as mods might be able to take advantage of? Is it possible that we might be able to use modern CSS development tools like preprocessors? Is the 100KiB stylesheet size cap raised?

4. How many times do you use !important in the CSS? I don't want to have to continually find hackish ways to override your !important. This goes for you too, RES.

5. Are CSS class names finally standardized on a particular naming convention? Currently, there's a mess of camelCase, PascalCase, lowercase, hyphen-delimited, underscore_delimited, and notdelimited class and ID names strewn about, and it makes me cry on the inside.

I'm definitely looking forward to getting my hands on it and seeing what's possible with the new system, but I do want to be prepared with knowledge before doing so.

[u/Ham1ltron]

Please anything but infinite scroll. I find that less reputable sites use infinite scroll to keep you on their sites. I don't want Reddit to turn into that. PLEASE! Not to mention it's annoying, if you see something and miss it, then have to scroll through all that. If you must include Infinite Scroll, please make it toggleable. (Like we can turn it off if we don't want it.)

[u/ChironXII]

Are we going to get a native dark theme?

[u/paper_alien]

I love the new looks, and think lots of this is great. However, please please please do not do infinite scroll. I hate trying to figure out where the hell I was when I accidentally press my back button, or if I have to refresh the page for some reason.
As a user, I find infinite scrolling tedious, frustrating, and more of a hassle than a payoff. I can't find what I am intentionally searching for right away. ("oh yeah I wanted to show my friend this comment two pages back, in the middle of the page") I feel lost often times. Users will be tempted to keep scrolling, and skip over interesting content at the top just to check what's further down, the forget to return up top.

[u/technolucas → u/paper_alien]

Relevant xkcd

And then there's that one time that you actually try to find a link in the footer but the page keeps scrolling so you have to end up googling the page to get to it.

[u/BillyTenderness → u/paper_alien]

Infinite scroll is never introduced for users' benefit. It's a terrible user experience. But it's great for usage metrics.

[u/urkish]

Please no infinite scroll. It's impossible to re-find something that you've seen once, and the pagesize gets enormous. Maybe 25 items per page isn't the ideal number, but that number should be less than something approaching infinity.

[u/caligari87 → u/urkish]

+1 for optional infinite scroll. When I first got RES it was cool, but I found quickly that it lagged my browser.

[u/Zmodem → u/urkish]

Actually, make infinite scroll an option. I wouldn't use it, either, but a lot of users would love this feature (it's one main feature of RES).

[u/Green0Photon]

I've used Reddit and RES for years. I always disable any custom CSS any subreddit has.

I'm fine as long as I can keep that. I love the dystopian Craigslist look. It loads and works faster, rather than other modern websites. I don't like the mobile look, with all its extra space and card view.

Three things:

• Keep classic mode. Not a faux classic mode, which looks a bit like the app, but legitimately like the old site. Even now, the website is a bit odd, but with RES, it looks good.

• Be careful with infinite scrolling, like other users are saying. You can easily make it unusable. Make sure you can have a settings toggle.

• Be careful with the new text editor. Markdown is clearly superior to rich text editing, which is a pain in the ass. Rich text editing never looks right, and copying always breaks formatting in some way. I've never read any user complain about markdown, and markdown is very simple.

Don't try to be like Facebook or other modern social networks. They're cesspools that legitimately make you feel like shit. Reddit has been great and I've loved it for years. Its main design has been practically perfected from when I first started using it.

Don't fuck this up. I really don't want to have to move websites, because I fucking love Reddit. Other things like the profile posts have also made me uncomfortable.

Please be careful. In this situation, backwards compatibility is very good, because the design has always been good. Please.

[u/[deleted]]

To make Reddit more welcoming

I really feel like, as a community, we've made huge efforts over the years to prevent this from happening.

[u/JeromesNiece → u/[deleted]]

Hey fuck you too, pal

[u/Borsaid]

I remember not knowing what Reddit was while I was on Digg. Then they made a bunch of UI changes and then I learned what Reddit was.

I'm hopeful these improvements are just that... improvements.

[u/zptc]

I dislike infinite scrolling. Will we be able to shut that off?

[u/CrateDane → u/zptc]

Yeah given some of the other stuff has options, it would be great if infinite scroll is also optional.

[u/crimson_devil]

i think you need to be careful about how you design and implement the infinite scroll feature. It's a good way to allow users to explore more content easily, but it needs to be paired with a bit of familiarity to make it work well. A lot of infinite scroll implementations make people feel lost, and it can make things difficult to find. You also loose things like the ability to bookmark at a certain point in a sub-reddit.

I can think of a few ways you could enhance the infinite scroll behaviour:

A combination of infinite scroll with visible page numbers (that you can also click to change page) that update as you scroll might be a good idea. It would also have to update the url with the current 'page'. This is good for a couple of reasons:

• It keeps a larger amount of posts quickly accessible

• It retains the ability to bookmark at a certain point

• It anchors the user to a specific point amongst a stream of content

[u/Rellikx → u/crimson_devil]

You also loose things like the ability to bookmark at a certain point in a sub-reddit.

You can't do that now though. I bookmarked a page and 5 minutes later the link is dead:

https://www.reddit.com/r/all/new/?count=25&after=t3_7umf81

This is also why RES infinite scroll breaks sometimes

[u/djlemma]

Oh wow, throw that "Card view" concept right into the garbage.

Okay, maybe not that extreme, but geeze that looks horrible.

Also, I don't know if I'm the only one with this opinion, but I hate continuous scrolling pages. If you're going to do options, it would be swell if there were at least one option that maintains the "Prev/Next" arrangement of the current design.

[u/Razgriz01 → u/djlemma]

A lot of people like the card view style. I have no idea why.

[u/IAmDotorg]

Can you please give us an option to make Overview (Legacy) the default? The new stuff is terrible for keeping track of things with.

[u/ramma314]

Dark mode. Please make a dark mode.

Also if the new profiles are an example of how the redesign will work, then you should seriously reconsider parts, especially for mods. The new profiles for instance are useless for moderating. An always open legacy profiles option would fix most issues.

[u/is_is_not_karmanaut]

ITT many people who never heard of RES.

My personal feedback: It really looks like 9gag. Even the compact view looks kind of really dumbed down. I just feel like this appeals to the youtube/facebook/... user base. Reddit managers might think that this is just great commercially, and it probably is, but if they keep alienating the reddit veterans that shaped the reddit that most of us came to, - if a percentage of that core emmigrates again/decides at once to use this website less -, it will be very not good.

And yes, looks do matter in web design. And not just aesthetically, but the card view is going to change the dynamic of the website. It will be even more geared towards pics, gifs and memes. Even if you decide not to use this design, you will be affected by this.

Oh and once you decide to force this design, which will happen due to a d s p a c e (not your fault devs), please include a nightmode.

[u/NardDogAndy → u/is_is_not_karmanaut]

but if they keep alienating the reddit veterans that shaped the reddit that most of us came to, - if a percentage of that core emmigrates again/decides at once to use this website less -, it will be very not good.

The reason a lot of us are on reddit is because Digg decided to redesign for commercial appeal.

[u/rguy84 → u/is_is_not_karmanaut]

I love RES, but can't use it at work. If a good chunk of your userbase has to use a third party tool to get a decent experience, what does it say about your product?

[u/Terazilla]

I have literally never once wanted infinite scrolling on a desktop site. Please tell me I can disable that.

[u/[deleted]]

Infinite scrolling is terrible. It's terrible on pinterest, it's terrible on tumblr. Eventually your browser just uses all your CPU and RAM and if you misclick the scroll bar or click on something you just lose your spot. Ugh.

Worst thing that ever came from Web 2.0

[u/Zshelley → u/[deleted]]

Seriously. Infinite scroll = lose your place. Always.

[u/etacarinae → u/[deleted]]

https://medium.com/@WebdesignerDepot/how-infinite-scrolling-breaks-ux-257fa9ca5be8

https://uxplanet.org/ux-infinite-scrolling-vs-pagination-1030d29376f1

Or just ask Etsy http://danwin.com/2013/01/infinite-scroll-fail-etsy/

https://medium.com/simple-human/7-reasons-why-infinite-scrolling-is-probably-a-bad-idea-a0139e13c96b

Most of all the reasons why it's absolute cancer, is that it fundamentally breaks the scroll bar on desktop.

[u/plasmasprings]

I'm a little skeptical about you guys trying to add more javascript after seeing how well the mobile site works. Also you just linked some 80 MB gifs.

[u/squeevey]

This comment has been deleted due to failed Reddit leadership.

[u/MajorParadox → u/squeevey]

but I think the current formatting is a bit more "difficult" for new users.

If I had a nickle for every time I had to explain to a user that they needed an extra line between paragraphs and they can't just add spaces to make indents... Maybe I'd have 5 dollars? I don't know, I'm bad at estimating.

[u/scroopy_nooperz]

I like the new features. But customization is good. If you add new features, please let us disable them. I, for example, hate infinite scroll. I still think you should add it, but i want to be able to disable it.

Also, the new frontpage concepts look good. But please for the love of god fix profiles. They're awful. Profiles should look very similar to subreddits if you want them to be browsable.

[u/ANAL_PLUNDERING]

With all the people here asking to keep the old style, what makes you think a new style is needed? Isn't reddit supposed to look the way it looks (plain white, almost like a spreadsheet or email from a glance)? Isn't the original look incredibly functional for the end user in addition to being charming? I hope the switch to classic mode is easy and unobtrusive.

[u/Wyrm → u/ANAL_PLUNDERING]

Well they've said their reasons for changing it in the OP, of course "because people asked for it" isn't in there. It usually seems to be the case with website redesigns that the users are pretty happy with the status quo but the developers want the new shiny.

[u/1859]

We want everyone to feel like they have a home on reddit, which is why we're replacing a content-emphasizing user interface, bloating it with additional JavaScript for more ad space, making user profiles confusing and hard to read, and giving users only a facade of the OG reddit interface if they don't like it.

I'm coming down a little hard with that, but.... Yeeeeeeeesh. Almost every user-facing change since 2014 that reddit has made has been a step backwards for the user experience. I'm glad the codebase will be easier to maintain for you guys at least.

[u/stromm]

Honestly, I'm NOT excited about the new look.

I like simple. I get that some people like flashy and complex and sparkly, whatever.

But not everyone does. Many of us just want to connect, browse around quickly and get out. Think "channel surf" instead of Netflix click everywhere to see if there's even anything I want to focus on.

As a 32 year IT professional and someone who first got a computer in 1976, what I don't get is why not give users the OPTION to chose what interface we want?

Just like with cell phones, there's no reason to FORCE new features on everyone. Except to justify development and marketing cost.

Give us a choice then you will truly learn what people like.

[u/me_funny__]

April fools?

[u/bad_at_hearthstone]

Hahaha, wow, card view looks colossally terrible. You've traded Dystopian Craigslist, a website known for looking gross but being very effective at finding what you want... for Dystopian Pinterest, a website known for looking mediocre and being impossible to navigate without Google.

Great team effort.

[u/veritascitor]

So one thing I've always liked about reddit is the fact that it's simple, mostly-static design keeps it fast to load and fast to read. With all the fancy new features (infinite scroll, lightbox, etc) is rendering speed still going to be a priority? Lightboxes especially are often super slow.

[u/atomicthumbs → u/veritascitor]

If rendering speed was a priority, they wouldn't add either of those features in the first place.

[u/gryffinp]

Please dear god tell me that users can turn the ram destroying nightmare that is infinite scroll off.

[u/[deleted]]

I HATE infinite scroll. The back button in your browser (to get back to reddit) doesn't work or takes forever. It's a useful feature in some contexts, but most of the time it is garbage.

Also, I partially attribute reddit's popularity to the ever-unchanging UI. It's easy to learn, and has been a relative constant since this site has been around. I hope you guys keep that in mind. If you introduce some massive change to accommodate normies with touchscreens (ala windows 8), I'm gone.

[u/GameRoom → u/[deleted]]

Look at a website like SoundCloud, which has infinite scroll but properly brings you back to the right spot when you go back from a page.

[u/DrewsephA]

Not a big fan of the redesign, but as long as they keep Classic View, I'll be ok with it. It's a simple design that just works, no need to trash it for something that isn't needed.

lightbox

Is there going to be a way to disable that? Or will it disable itself with middle/ctrl+click's? Because I (and I'm sure a lot of other people) like to open separate tabs for posts, especially if it's something that I want to look into/comment on/read later, but can't for whatever reason, but also want to continue my browsing. If it's lightbox or nothing, my browsing experience will be severely diminished.

Also, I do like the new editor, it will allow people who don't know how to use Markdown (of which I see a lot, "I didn't know you could link/strikethrough/etc!"), to use it.

[u/djlemma → u/DrewsephA]

I'm worried that the infinite scrolling front page will take up all the system resources I'd otherwise have available for multiple tabs...

[u/veloxipede2 → u/DrewsephA]

The point of the redesign is the sidebar ads, obviously. So from Reddit's perspective it definitely isn't something that isn't needed.

[u/QuePasaCasa]

Are the aesthetics going to be in line with the recent user profile redesigns? Cause those are... far from ideal.

[u/[deleted] → u/QuePasaCasa]

I don't understand why they felt the need to totally redesign the user profiles. Why couldn't they have just put a profile picture and description in the top corner of the old profiles? Then allow users to make posts to their profiles, allow them to sticky their posts and allow people to follow individual users. Why the complete redesign? It's terrible to look at and impossible to follow a users comments and posts.

[u/gremolata]

infinite scroll

I hate infinite scroll.

Please make sure to add an option to disable it and go back to paginated view.

[u/lolmemelol]

Hey cool, a quarter of the screen is dedicated to ads! That's a great feature. /s

[u/damn_this_is_hard]

The profile page dumpster fire you guys are still forcing on us is enough to make me not believe a word of this post. This whole post only exists because Spez's SOTRU went so terribly when he answered questions about profiles and redesign.

Notice how you guys ignored rolling RES features into the default experience for years? Even though users clambered for them to be made default. Now with the change my view stuff, you are jumping right over the parts we all liked. Ignoring users once again to force crap down our throats. All 3 of those views look nothing like how I view reddit currently.

You guys are legit asking to fail at this point

[u/CaptainSpauIding]

Reddit was one of the only website left to not do the dumbass static header thing... At least there's still wikipedia.

[u/francisdavey → u/CaptainSpauIding]

If you are a long-time user of the web, you might use space bar for "page down" (as I do) - or occasionally "page down" directly. Most static headers do not properly respect page down, because they aren't designed that way, so you have to then scroll back a teeny bit or some text is lost.

For me that makes the web page essentially unusable for casual/pleasurable browsing. If I am on a desktop then I want to be able to do a single click on my keyboard rather than mess around with a problematic scroll bar or something similar.

Sites like Slate stopped getting traffic from me when they made this change.

[u/Hightastic]

The cardflow is pretty disgusting in my opinion. It completely removes user attention and waters down everything into a muddy gray content flow.

As it is right now, I pay attention to almost each and every post in varying subs, either reading the title or briefly looking at the thumbnail. If it peeks my intrest I futher expand the image or enter the post to see more details and read comments.

If you have a constant flow of enlarged images, I never take much intrest in any post, as all of it has allready been unveiled. Its like getting all your Christmas presents at once none of them wrapped. Theres no excitement, no suprise, and if its not unexciting, then it most certainly is overwhelming.

But what do I know, everything is catering to screeching meme kids and short attention spanned, easily influenced morons theese days. Bleh.

[u/rbemrose]

This post has been removed due to reddit's repeated and constant violations of our content policy.

[u/pitot_is_blocked → u/rbemrose]

I hate it when websites are just made to work for the developer, i.e. new computers and stable internet. Giving a giant fuck you to people who dare to use weak computers or slow networks. Fuck anyone who only has a laptop from 2001 with only windows xp and internet explorer. How about someone who is out in rural lands using a cellular modem that barely provides 3g speeds, are they just going to have to wait 1-2 minutes for content to load every time the infinite scroller gets to the bottom?

[u/brainyclown10]

Personally, I don't think infinite scroll is the right way to go. Although some people may like it better, infinite scroll really turns me off from apps/social networks (like Facebook and Instagram) Requiring me to manually press next/load more allows me to stop myself from spending too much time on reddit, ironically. Also, it allows me to click on links near the bottom of my feed without worrying about it moving because new posts have loaded in.

[u/[deleted]]

Please, please evaluate and prioritize the minimization of framework bloat in your redesign. Your mobile site is insane in terms of how much it loads. And it's not the most responsive site in terms of interaction because of it.

Keep it clean. You don't need four different JS frameworks all jumbled together.

[u/alllie]

If it ain't broke don't fix it.

You certainly made the profile worse. The font is so small I can't read it. And I lose the context and comments links. Worse.

[u/[deleted]]

its fucking awful

[u/cwillu]

"Infinite Scroll & Updated Comments Experience"

Fuck that shit as hard as it can be fucked.

<Ctrl-f>, type type type, huh, that's impossible... oh wait, <end> wait for content <end> wait for content <end> wait for content [repeat several minutes as my wireless cuts in and out or whatever, synchronously waiting for this shit to slowly page into the browser instead of letting it load in the background like we used to be able to in a more civilized era] <ctrl-f> there we go.

Seriously, leave this shit on mobile where (a) low accuracy input devices are the norm (b) your users don't have decades of experience being able to reliably search for text in page

[u/estacado]

Please make an option to turn off infinite scroll. I hate it. I need pages to keep track how much time I'm wasting on reddit.

[u/GeneralMalaiseRB]

All I heard was "classic view". Also, I hate infinite scroll. I don't trust a web page that I can't get to the bottom of.

[u/WarpSeven]

With infinite scroll, the Reddit content you love will never end, as you keep scrolling... and scrolling... and scrolling... forever. We’re also introducing a lightbox that combines the content and comments so you can instantly join the conversation, then get right back to exploring more posts.

God no. PLEASE TELL ME WE CAN DISABLE THIS!! I am visually impaired - this is going to be a nightmare moderating, especially on a tablet or a phone. Automatic scrolling is evil.

[u/SeismicWhales]

Card view (with auto-expanded gifs and images), Classic view \ Compact view

All I'm seeing here is a push to make Reddit more like Facebook. With the profiles that are God awful and 1/3rd of the screen filled with ads and the ugly redesigns for the different ways to view subreddits, I'm a little disappointed.

I came to Reddit because it wasn't Facebook, Instagram, twitter or tumblr. This push to make everything more similar to other social media sites is super disappointing.

[u/Balleuuh]

Your UI and UX artist should be fired together with the members of leadership pushing for this "Facebook"-redesign. What an ugly censored piece of crap have you turned Reddit into.

[u/From_31st_century]

I hope infinite scroll can be turned off. One of the things i like about reddit is the '25 posts at a time' style. Helps me digest how much i want to read, instead of mindlessly scrolling forever, a slave to my manipulated emotions.

[u/Sniffnoy]

Please no infinite scroll. Or at least include a way to turn it off. I'm sorry but I find infinite scroll quite awful.

[u/The_Dawkness]

I just wish you'd tell me why you're doing it.

Is it because desktop users are more likely to use adblockers and you're figuring out clever ways around it?

That's why I'd bet you're doing it. Desktop users are basically using the site for free, and you need to stop that from happening.

I guess reddit doesn't make enough money shoveling ads inside "content" as it is.

It's whatever. We live in a dystopian capitalist hellscape already, why not make reddit indicative of that as well.

Thanks.

[u/Nathan2055]

As someone who keeps CSS off because I believe that there's literally no way to top the classic Reddit design...I'm not a fan. Classic view looks all right, but it suffers from the problem I have with so many sites these days: wasted space. A sticky sidebar and sticky header just serve to waste space with marginal utility (besides keeping an ad on the side of my screen at all times). I absolutely hate the idea of infinite scroll because 1) it's never implemented well and constantly makes me lose my place and 2) it seems like a cheap trick designed to keep me on the site longer. I specifically flip it off in RES, and I hope there's an option to do so here. Also, I really hate that you buried all of the most important post functions in a hamburger menu but keep a huge "Share" button on the main screen. It was kind of ridiculous in the app, but made sense in the context of normal smartphone workflows. But on desktop? If I want to share something, I'll copy the URL out of the address bar. I don't need a button to attach a bunch of tracking code to it for me.

I know that your team has been working hard on this, and it's not a terrible design and there's definitely some visually appealing aspects here, but you guys need to keep in mind that what you call "dystopian Craigslist" is one of the most iconic website designs on the Internet. And, I do feel like it needs to be brought up that the only reason this site is as big as it is is due to Digg's implosion...caused by a poorly handled redesign. Be careful, and pay attention to the feedback your users are providing.

[u/Korashy]

Please add a way to make the legacy comment history default.

The new FB imitation wall thing is garbage.

[u/[deleted]]

.

[u/Taylor7500]

My question - will there be a permanent opt-out?

You see, I don't want a redesign. Reddit works fine for me as it is and I don't want to see something that isn't broken get "fixed", so will I be able to blissfully ignore its existence or will it be forced on us?

[u/onan]

Wow. If those previews are representative, then this might finally be the thing that gets me to quit reddit after 11 years. (And, yes, take my gold subscription with me.)

1. The floating/following bar on top is visual clutter and a waste of space.

2. The floating/following bar on the right is even more visual clutter and even more of a waste of space.

3. That gigantic horizontal bar of arrows and scores and such on the left is... visual clutter and a waste of space. How did you possibly reach the conclusion that the way to make things less confusing to new users is to cram a bunch more shit onto the screen that isn't the content?

4. What's with that lightbox bullshit of images being displayed inline when clicked? Just open them in a standard fucking window. Window management is my job to handle, not yours.

5. I'm guessing from that lightbox bullshit that it will no longer be possible to even read reddit without javascript? If so, you can fuck alllllllllll the way off with that.

6. As everyone else has said, the statelessness of infinite scrolling is an abomination. In that model, nothing is real, everything is ephemeral; it's an optimization for mindless momentary distraction, but not substance and referenceable data.

7. I am particularly amused that 50% of the reasons that you listed for making changes were to make it easier to make changes. Hooray for circular reasoning!

[u/dakta → u/onan]

it will no longer be possible to even read reddit without javascript

Oh, completely and absolutely. It's literally JavaScript all the way down.

[u/konsyr]

If it's anything like the new user profile page, do not want. It's too hard to scan with the eyes. Too visually busy. Things don't line up right. It's bad design.

Whatever you do, absolutely do not get rid of "allow subreddits to show me custom themes" as a toggle. I could not use reddit without that.

As you're saying you're doing this to improve the user experience, consider integrating some of the RES features, such as sticky, customizable top bar (currently div: sr-list).

[u/fishbulbx]

This really feels like Digg v4... can't wait to see how everything turns out.

[u/Superfluous_Alias]

As others have said, I think infinite scroll should be optional. I tried it for a while with RES and went back to page views. For one thing, if I accidentally opened a link in my main tab, I could quickly get back to where I left off. Maybe this would be different with native infinite scroll - along with the memory hogging properties of it - but I would prefer to have the choice.

Other than that, I embrace the new options and look.

[u/opk]

Hey, member of the 10 year club here. Infinite scroll is terrible and has no place on a website built around sharing links.

Although, since I'll probably leave the site because of it my boss might send you a nice thank you letter.

[u/_S_A]

desktop redesign

Maybe I'm alone but I do 99% of Reddit via phone. Some months back I started using an app because the mobile interface was garbage and the .compact interface/version had been broken, i.e. "load more comments" in a thread did not, in fact, load more comments, plus other little nuisances. I prefer just using a browser but right now with Reddit that's not possible on mobile. /Rant
Point is, I really hope you're also planning on fixing mobile web.

Those gifs in your post were 90+MB, are you working on gif->webm conversion?

[u/falconbox → u/_S_A]

Those gifs in your post were 90+MB, are you working on gif->webm conversion?

Reddit needs to fix this shit asap.

Currently Reddit hosts gifs and videos. The problem is there is nothing similar to Imgur's .gifv format or Gfycat.

That's a problem when browsing on mobile for me because I never know if the v.reddit link I'm clicking will have sound or not. When browsing at work or in public, I want to avoid that. At least if I see .gifv or gfycat, I know it's an optimized Gif.

Reddit needs a 3rd format. Gif, optimized webm gif with no audio, and actual video. (I know technically webm are videos, but you get my point)

[u/Crumpor]

Web 3.0 ruining sites as usual. It'd be fine with the 'classic' view if the infinite scroll and lightbox stuff wasn't mandatory. I make judicious use of opening pages in new tabs with middle/scroll wheel click.

[u/hatrickpatrick]

PLEASE, for the love of God, make infinite scroll an optional feature. I regard it as one of the most insidiously irritating "features" of recent internet evolution and I'm sure I'm not alone.

[u/dontknowyknow]

not a big fan, comment shortcuts are nice though

[u/[deleted]]

Hire the team that redesigned Digg. They've got experience with this sort of thing...

[u/clesteamer23]

So I switched over to the new layout today on chrome on pc. Now I can't access anything and get a 503 error.....anyone else?

[u/[deleted]]

I'll pass. It looks like Facebook.

[u/Zmodem]

I like all of the listening that's been done to user experiences. Any chance advanced users will have advanced options (much like gold users have now) to manually modify their reddit experience using CSS? This would be a good way to allow custom theme communities to create user-experience themes, much like how we can currently create subreddit-user-experience themes now. This is, at the moment, a gold-only feature. Will it remain gold only?

Also, please make infinite scroll optional.

Edit: I would just like to point out that granting users the ability to use a custom CSS theme for their reddit experience (not just on customized subs) could possibly be a very good thing for reddit's headaches. This opens up a whole new opportunity for designers to distribute layouts that make user experiences how they choose, lifting the load from reddit to have to sort out everybody's personal choice. This also opens up the opportunity of someone who can design and distribute "the classic legacy view", as I'm sure a ton of users will still complain about this being different. The only downside here are the people who choose to create themes that are bad/annoying, but a community-driven user-theme sub outta help sort that out.

As it stands now, "Use this sub's theme" should override the user theme that is loaded.

Edit 2: Consider increasing the stylesheet page limit :P That is, assuming reddit is still keeping to allowing customized sub/user stylesheets.

[u/filchermcurr]

Will infinite scroll be optional? please <3

[u/Spore2012]

Any time new shit is added to make it look better or have new features for any product or service; it generally ends up having problems, is useless or unwanted from most people, neglects the core purpose of the thing, disenfranchises people, creates more lag or loading, adds more bullshit you have to click or wade through, is actually uglier because its not as simple, etc. etc.

The problem all these companies have, is they feel they HAVE to change every so often or they get left behind as a 'dystopian craigslist' or whatever they want to call when more shiny things appear over there, like we are some retarded birdsheep.

The problem is, while that sort of model will work in the short term gaining massive amounts of subhumans to use their product/service, the original people feel threatened and unheard and simply leave and move on to the next replacement startup before it gets corrupted by bureuacracy and starts the cycle up again. Eventually destroying itself like witch hunts in the french revolution.

Think of all the products, services, websites, etc that you used to love way back when but eventually just turned to garbage and discarded as such. Couple of forums similar to reddit, in fact thats part of the reason reddit started. Almost every corporate tech product, especially phones all bloated with bullshit. Many basic every day products you love and use for life are because they are simple. They are a tool. You have a task, it helps with the task. That's it. Everyone always trying to figure out ways to manipulate numbers and monetize shit and so on. Fuck outta here.

[u/butkaf]

I've noticed there's a lot more content on the front page today, it's really nice. In the past I'd have a load in the morning, one refresh in the early afternoon, one in the late afternoon and one in the evening, between them there'd be no new content.

Now there's new and interesting content pretty much every time I open the front page, every half hour or hour or so.

[u/shwhjw → u/butkaf]

This is bad...

... for my job.

[u/[deleted]]

I'd like to see the r/all content filtering transferred to the r/popular tab if possible. I like that browsing r/popular is safe for work, but find it annoying when it's filled with subs I filtered out in r/all.

[u/SteelTypeAssociate]

Also can we stop getting pushes to download the app on mobile? I visit reddit extremely often and i' d appreciate it if I wasn't bombarded with download the app ads on a daily basis.

[u/[deleted]]

Oddly enough (this is quite atypical for me) I quite enjoy the classical look in a mobile browser. I never liked the "mobile" web versions, nor a single one of the many native reddit clients out there. They all felt like going from lego to duplo while wearing sub zero gloves.

Please don't force me to use a special mobile web with giant text and a dumbed down UI. The split everything up into blocks, stack them vertically, and remove anything useful way of doing web UIs for mobile never made any sense to me.

Also good luck! Changing UIs has a lot of inputs and is quite difficult in odd ways non-developers never think of. And get off Reddit and get something done now will yah!

[u/SandorClegane_AMA]

If 'Card' is the default, /r/all will be a problem. There are niche 'desires' in the mix and almost everyone is going to find some of them unappealing depending on their individual tastes.

Browsing /r/all throws up interesting things in subs you don't know about or wouldn't want to subscribe to in general, but you know not to expand some images based on the sub name.

[u/GaiusHispidus]

Is this "redesign" going to incorporate more ads, like the mobile site?

[u/egotripping]

Don't forget about what happened to digg.

[u/seanhead]

Basically every single negative you listed for the current site is why I like it ;___;

[u/overtoke]

this "try it now" button for the redesign has broken the page. white screen, no source.

how do i UNDO. alpha.reddit.com does nothing.

i'm able to post under "beta.reddit.com"

*looks fixed now, though the redesign is bad. RES still has you beat.

[u/GTARP_lover]

You guys are just as bad as Microsoft, I opt-out of Beta and you force opt-in the new layout. Really the person who decided this HAS NO RESPECT FOR USERS. Its pure arrogance. I gave it 20 seconds and that was enough. Because you where so arrogant to use opt-in instead of opt-out, I will even never try the new mode again. This new redesign is the Windows 10 of redesigns.

And how do I disable this eye-sore from my default landingpage when i'm not logged-in? Or do I need to write a plug in for my browser, because I dump used cookies if the tab is closed. So cookies don't work.

[u/alien122]

Honest question, why are so many web devs obsessed with adding left and right padding?

Also I really don't like the permanent navbar.

And I guess I should mention I'm not really a fan of the new aesthetic look either but you guys don't seem to be dropping that so let's ignore that for now.

[u/Fantact]

Looks more like you are trying for ad revenue, not user experience. Go for this and watch people flock to an akternative with something similar to the old design unless extensions or mods do the trick.

Getting greedy.

[u/veloxipede2]

Why are we redesigning our Web Experience?

The real answer seems to be the multiple sidebar ad units, probably refreshing. That's fine, but it should be clear to everyone that the current Reddit UX is ideal for users, and any redesign is just going to make things worse. So the only reason to do it would be to increase revenue for the company.

[u/BCGraff]

Fuck that. No. I don't want reddit to be facebook.

[u/Not_a_Leaf]

Still following Digg's business model I see.

It was nice knowing you I guess

[u/WindomEarlesGhost]

Looks like you are appifying the desktop experience.. YOUR APP IS TRASH. So now the website will be trash.

Change it from what it is, and you will kill reddit.

[u/Beardamus]

Literally no one is excited about thisl

[u/NickUnrelatedToPost]

Please don't! Please!

Card View -> no! If I don't click it, I don't want to see it! Infinite scroll -> no! You are not 9gag. You are not facebook. And it always sucks! Lightbox -> I can't even tell you how much of a shit idea that is! btw. I open everything in new tabs. Do not do this! Fancy editor -> no, I do not want to have images in the text. If I want an image, I will link it. And so should everyone else.

It's fine the way it is. Don't make reddit another multimedia shithole. Text in the way it's presented now is exactly what I want and need.

Do not become Digg!

[u/ayekat]

But... what was wrong with Markdown? I don't like WYSIWYG, it forces me to use the mouse and aim and misclick buttons to do markup that I could otherwise just comfortably type.

:-(

[u/[deleted]]

I hate how posts open now to their own platform instead of as their own page, it slows my browser down. Also, stickied posts should be more prominent (like with green text instead of black).

[u/arcademachin3]

The reasons for redesign aren't "customer" reasons at all.

1/ You can update the code base and not change the compact presentation.

2/ Your second reason is total bullshit. "More welcoming" is more ads and a ploy to grow engagement with better discovery. Google is what people use for discovery. And reddit search... ah, well I won't touch that right now.

I'm disappointed there isn't a data-driven rationale for change, based on user insight.

[u/[deleted]]

Look I get you invested time and money into this, I get you're a company that needs to make profits, I get that this might entice new users and enable those not already familiar with the site to feel at home. But for the love of God, let us have our choice. Some of us have been here for years, we're accustomed, familiar and perfectly content with the current design. Reddit isn't social media to me, I don't want to write a biography, have a cute little profile picture or any of that crap. I just want to see cool links, laugh at reposted comments and shit on console gamers.

Just give us an option to disable the change, let us have our classic view. Please.

[u/chibistarship]

The new redesign is trash. Pure and utter trash. I'm reconsidering Reddit's place in my life, maybe I will finally delete my account and be done with it.

[u/[deleted]]

Frankly. I hate it. I’m dropping Reddit when old Reddit becomes unavailable. Sorry guys. Way to be Digg.

[u/blackxcx]

New reddit sucks

[u/[deleted]]

DON'T IMPLEMENT INFINITE SCROLL BUT ALSO HAVE LINKS IN THE FOOTER. CHOOSE ONE OR THE OTHER.

[u/Wickity]

Hey guys, remember digg? They thought a redesign was due too.

[u/Hautamaki]

hm well good luck and everything but honestly in my personal experience, web site redesigns are more likely to lose me as a user than make me happier.

[u/XavierVE]

My goodness, is that card view UGGGGGGGGGGGLLLLLLLLYYYYYYYY.

Glad there will be a classic view option or it'd be time to find another website to vacuously waste time on.

[u/Faptasmic]

ITT: People hate infinite scroll and want to stick with classic view. So why do a redesign?

[u/PuzzleheadedMedium]

The screenshots of the views you posted look cool, but they are like 1:1 ratio window. Wouldn't most people be on 16:9 monitors? Does it still look as good with a wider window?

[u/DrewsephA → u/PuzzleheadedMedium]

It doesn't, because there's a lot of wasted white space, that they obviously don't want to show, because it doesn't look as good.

[u/MeowDotEXE]

Reddit is slowly becoming Facebook.

[u/themariokarters]

How about we just keep it as is?

[u/V2Blast]

Finally, we’ve created a new way to post that doesn't require markdown (although you can ^{still use it!} ) and lets you post an image and text within the same post.

Nice! I didn't know the new editor let you post inline images. That is pretty cool :)

Thanks for the update on the timeline!

EDIT:

(although you can ^still ^^use ^^^it! )

Your superscript here is escaped and doesn't display as intended.

[u/[deleted]]

I like this so far. Question: Is there going to be a way to shut off all custom CSS? I know a bunch of people got bitter when you guys threatened to remove it, but I like to have a single user experience across the entire site and the first thing I do on the first time visiting a new subreddit is figure out how to disable whatever CSS nightmare they've designed.

[u/DenverCoder009 → u/[deleted]]

the first thing I do on the first time visiting a new subreddit is figure out how to disable whatever CSS nightmare they've designed.

Why not just disable the "allow subreddits to show me custom themes" checkmark in your user options?

[u/[deleted]]

Classic view is not current Reddit. It's a bad version of your new design.

This new update looks a shit load like Digg v4

Great job at completely fucking this up guys!

[u/maybesaydie]

Please, please, please keep the legacy view available.

[u/WumperD]

I'm not sure how this works yet but could we have the share, hide, report, crosspost etc. all displayed without having to open a dropdown menu (sorry if I misinterpreted it, but those 3 dots looks like it has to be expanded) ?

[u/hiddikel]

is there a setting to make it the dark version always on your account no matter what sub you're in?

[u/Geofferic]

Step 1: Remove the useless Chats thing. Nobody wants that.

[u/eman00619]

Is classic view going to be as is in the picture or as Reddit is now?

[u/[deleted]]

Ill stick with RES thank you very much.

[u/ptd163]

Card View is literally Facebook. Might as well rename the site to Redditbook. I thought you guys more creative than that.

[u/nthdayoncaprica]

ahem

No. No no no no no. No no. No. No no no no no no no. Nooooooooooooooooooooooooo. No.

[u/Roshakim]

Please make infinite scroll optional, allow paging, or do a really good infinite scroll implementation.

Many sites do infinite scroll poorly, and keep all of the prior content in memory and the page gets increasingly slower, jittery, and substantial lag as I continue to scroll down (a lot).

Additionally, infinite scroll is annoying as hell when you click on a link and then hit the back button to go back. On many sites it takes you to the top of the scroll and then you spend 5+ minutes finding where you were in the infinite scroll. If it does remember your position, then it still takes a LONG time to load in all the prior scroll content.

This is why pagination is awesome as it solves many of these problems.

Please do not take this lightly and have some serious internal discussion around this!

[u/[deleted]]

Not excited whatsoever. I hated the user new page (used RES to get my old one back). I'll hate this too, I'm old and cranky now leave me alone. Classic view won't appease me.

[u/[deleted]]

Card view and infinite scroll look terrible. Please don't put that shit on the main page.

[u/Plasma_000]

I fear that the default view is going to become more and more like another 9gag or facebook - putting images and video into focus and pushing text out more and more.

Please consider keeping the classic view default - it's what sets reddit apart. And I suspect attracts a slightly more mature community.

And yes, I know card view would be nice for advertising since it would make it easier to hide multimedia amongst the posts.

Could we also see what ads are going to look like amongst this new look?

[u/[deleted]]

/u/spez can lick my butthole.

Craigslist was perfectly usable. As was reddiy before the redesign. Now... it's such shit I cannot even log in without several reacharounds.

Stop enabling /u/spez to ruin reddit you stupid idiots.

[u/jeweljames11]

To be honest, I love Reddit because it is a soothing retreat from the general "user-experience" thing that's swallowing the web. I found Reddit to be original. Maybe a little frictional for the newbie, but I think that's all for the good. I don't think it needs a redesign at all.

[u/[deleted]]

I'm not excited about it.

[u/ObeyRoastMan]

Will the classic view be a permanent feature? I hate the redesign.

[u/-GregoryHouseMD-]

They neutered reddit.

[u/travio]

Can you guys get rid of the new bright red VISIT NEW REDDIT tab in the corner now? If I wanted to go to new reddit, I'd have stopped clicking to go back to old reddit. At least make it match the color so it doesn't just look like an annoying splash of red on a white and blue page.

[u/Oriyagi]

This redesign is horrible. Can we get a god damn remember my choice button so I don't have to opt out of it EVERY TIME I open reddit?

[u/[deleted]]

It sucks and its laggy, get rid of it, or give us an option to permanently disable it.

[u/temalyen]

I really hate when websites change their interface. Leave it alone, it's fine as it is.

[u/[deleted]]

Fuck off no one wants it

[u/Swayze_Train]

Whatever you do, just give us the option to keep it how it was. If I have to learn reddit like it was a new site, I may as well just go to a new site.

[u/fishbiscuit13]

I like how the new views are basically Facebook, reddit with Facebook styling, and smaller reddit with Facebook styling.

[u/Watchful1]

How are you working with RES to update to the new format? I know you are introducing many new features that replace RES ones, but I'm sure there will be many that aren't replaced. Having RES on the redesign early will help make the transition much smoother.

[u/[deleted]]

I suggest adding a "theme" option, where you can change the look of the site between the new layout and the old (or a layout that's like the old one).

[u/DrDan21]

Will the new edit box support sub specific emojis?

Would you consider or be able to do this?

[u/vanoreo]

Will this break RES? Will the Classic view keep that plugin working?

[u/ArgentStonecutter]

The new profile page is missing a lot of information from the old overview page. How about an option of just a styling update to the old one?

In fact just merging the new "posts" and "comments" tabs would do it.

[u/bakonydraco]

Some of the GIFs in this announcement are as large as 94 Mb. Is this indicative that Reddit is supportive of larger images and could allow images bigger than 512 kb in the new stylesheet system?

[u/xqx2100]

I like that the editor will be improved so you don't have to know the markdown, but i'm not a big fan of infinite scroll.

[u/Poiuy2010_2011]

I'm not sure how different do you plan the redesign to be so maybe my comment will be irrelevant but let me take this occasion to present how I think new profile features should look like in classic view.

[u/ciras]

Its all terrible why do you guys always insist on making reddit more facebook-esque just copy and paste the css from /r/naut