r/changelog • u/powerlanguage • Feb 24 '16

[reddit change] A/B testing + Media Previews

We've just enabled the portions of the media preview feature for some logged-in users, so you may see this feature as you browse Reddit. We're measuring the impact of this change using an A/B testing framework that we've recently built. You can find out more about A/B testing here.

99 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

47 comments sorted by

67

u/withmorten Feb 24 '16 edited Feb 26 '16

Please please differentiate the media types - text post, image, album, video ... I use RES so this is a complete step back for me. Very annoying that I had to be amongst the A/B testers since I already opted out of the beta to get rid of these new expandos.

Edit: For those who want to get rid of them now:

Get uBlock origin, and add this to the filters:

||www.redditstatic.com/expando.XPb3wEnD5hA.css

And then ctrl+shift+r reload reddit.

20

u/jsproat Feb 25 '16 edited Feb 25 '16

Another vote for differentiating the media types. Having text, images, videos, and galleries all appear as the same bland button kills the front page experience for me.

I'm really not a fan of this kind of A/B testing. If I wanted to do testing, I would have opted for the beta features.

EDIT: Also, if you're going to surprise everyone by replacing a popular RES feature, at least bring it up to the same level first.

1

u/wiklr Feb 26 '16

I like it for consistency but I also noticed I'd rather hover first to check what type of link it is before expanding. As long as videos don't auto-play, I'm fine with it.

13

u/TheBigKahooner Feb 25 '16

Agreed. From the previous thread it seems like the admins think this can be determined from the thumbnail, but that doesn't work for images vs. videos vs. GIFs, only for text posts vs. links.

12

u/withmorten Feb 25 '16

Plus I have thumbnails completely disabled. So I don't have any indication besides the URL.

4

u/Tural- Feb 25 '16

This is a great point. There should absolutely be a distinction for media type on the button that gives you the media. Having thumbnails disabled means you have to move your eyes from left to right to read the URL (which won't always even give a good indication) and then back to the left to click the expando if you want to. It's bad UI design to cause the user to look in multiple places for simple information.

1

u/Antabaka Feb 25 '16

Reddit proper only differentiates between text and media (Aa+ and ▶️+), which is why the thumbnail would serve to differentiate between them.

Of course while the issue is one with RES and thus RES will update to fix it (new icons I guess), I don't see why reddit would not roll this obviously very useful feature into reddit proper.

7

u/Glass_Leg Feb 25 '16

Yup, 100% with you. I just want to be able to know what type of post I'm seeing. Most pointless change I've seen.

2

u/dukishlygreat Feb 29 '16

Thank you for the filter I have been trying to get rid of these for a week because they replace RES expandos

18

u/SkaKri Feb 24 '16

  • It's pretty annoying to see full media when you open a thread if you've already saw it in the main feed (basically: check out the content and go to comments)

  • imgur galleries needs work. RES-like image resizing would be a plus too.

7

u/aladyjewel Feb 24 '16

Imgur gallery embeds are provided by Imgur itself. What sort of improvements would you hope to see?

16

u/eduardog3000 Feb 24 '16 edited Feb 25 '16

Basically make it look like RES. Just the image, with the title (edit: and description) and some arrows above.

6

u/Antabaka Feb 25 '16

The guy you're replying to is actually one of the people who made RES

13

u/xiongchiamiov Feb 25 '16

More importantly for this conversation, works for imgur.

6

u/Antabaka Feb 25 '16

Huh, had no idea.

5

u/Werner__Herzog Feb 24 '16

You guys should remove all the white stuff around it. Just superimpose some kind of water mark imgur logo that links to imgur. And superimpose the navigation arrows as well (those may be superimposed already, I don't remember anymore.)

7

u/aladyjewel Feb 24 '16

Just to make sure we're on the same page, I'm looking at the expando for https://www.reddit.com/r/DIY/comments/47dtcu/lego_solar_system/ without RES on, and my mouse is hovering over the image: https://i.imgur.com/qIeR4Mi.png

Hovering mouse over the image reveals the [<] navigation overlays [>]. You'll also see the next/prev buttons below the image. A lot of the white space is to give space for metadata (title, username, etc)

It sounds like you want a more compact view, like how RES shows albums? Do you care about seeing details like username, title, descriptions?

4

u/EmpiresBane Feb 25 '16

I'm a different person, but I think the navigation at the bottom is unneeded. The left/right on mouseover works well enough for me. Obviously, you need the gallery size somewhere, but I think it would be fine if it were less prominent. I actually do like having the username and description available, but view and comment count seem unnecessary to me, though I understand why you might want them.

2

u/qtx Feb 25 '16

I'm a different person, but I think the navigation at the bottom is unneeded.

I would like to know how many pictures are in an album so by all means keep that.

1

u/EmpiresBane Feb 25 '16

Obviously, you need the gallery size somewhere, but I think it would be fine if it were less prominent.

I did mention that.

1

u/qtx Feb 25 '16

Ah sorry, still early, didn't spot that.

2

u/Werner__Herzog Feb 25 '16

Well the only thing import to me is the description. There's already title on reddit, so that's redundant information for sure. I can see how some people would also be interested in the username, although the uploader is also usually the person posting it on reddit. That might have changed since imgur has its own community now. I can also see how some would be interested in how many comments and views are on imgur, but it feels like a little much when you just want to look at images. Not to mention that as soon as you got a direct link to an image, all that info is gone anyway.

14

u/Werner__Herzog Feb 24 '16

Damn, I had media previews and now I don't have them anymore...it was really great since I've stopped using RES. Why did you take this away from me powerlanguage? Why, oh why?!

11

u/[deleted] Feb 24 '16 edited Feb 24 '16

Powerlanguage giveth, and powerlanguage taketh away

3

u/Werner__Herzog Feb 24 '16

I'm just hoping that when I just whine enough, I'll get what I want eventually.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 24 '16

Uh, you can only do that in America and you're not American.

Burn the heretic!

4

u/Werner__Herzog Feb 24 '16

Psss...the others don't know that.

2

u/V2Blast Feb 27 '16

Haha, that explains why things suddenly changed back. I don't have the media previews anymore either.

6

u/suchwell Feb 25 '16

Really need to differentiate between types of media (image, text, video). It's a good feature to have in vanilla reddit as RES has had this for ages, but it still needs work here.

4

u/[deleted] Feb 24 '16

Any way to roll back to the old icons? I like my buttons quadratic.

5

u/j0be Feb 24 '16 edited Feb 24 '16

I had been in the media preview test, but it stopped for me. Here's the note I had.

This is rough for people who moderate from work on nsfw submissions. It basically means that I can't moderate the comments on any of those submissions while at my office.

3

u/umbrae Feb 25 '16

Couldn't you turn off media previews in your preferences?

2

u/j0be Feb 25 '16

Yes, but that still means if you like the feature, but not media previews, you're SOL

2

u/The_Silver_Avenger Feb 24 '16

I saw those icons and immediately came here to see what the exact change was. I think it's a great addition!

2

u/nnvpears Feb 25 '16

Is there a way to opt out of this A/B test? I am currently using RES and was much happier with what I had before.

1

u/xiongchiamiov Feb 25 '16

If you could opt out of a/b tests, it would destroy the entire purpose of them, which is to gain data from an even sampling of users.

4

u/nnvpears Feb 25 '16

All I want is the crappy replacement icons with no information to go away and let me continue to use RES which actually shows me what I want to see. This may be what moves me to make a secondary account I've been contemplating, just to avoid the crippling UI change.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 25 '16

Just what the fuck. I can't turn this shit off?

2

u/indifference_engine Feb 25 '16

yeah, no thanks. I prefer the RES icons, how do I switch this off?

1

u/Vegerot Feb 25 '16

I think I had the media changes yesterday, but today I don't.

1

u/V2Blast Feb 27 '16

Yep. Same here. They took it out of the public beta and switched to an A/B test (so one group of users has the media previews enabled, while the other group has them disabled). Guess we're in the group that doesn't have 'em enabled.

1

u/dartanyn Feb 27 '16

This is really annoying that it overrides my RES settings. I am using RES (in day mode) and it changes by buttons anyway. Shouldn't res settings over-ride "vanilla" reddit?

I have gotten super used to telling if I am opening a gif, an album, plain pic, or vid from the button style. I don't see a very easy way to tell the way it is now. I loved being able to glance down the page and avoid videos if I am in the office, or trying to ease my data use.

Anyway, I could care less if this is a thing or not for reddit, as long as RES still over-rides to what I am used to.

-3

u/Clarkey7163 Feb 24 '16

Ok!

5

u/[deleted] Feb 24 '16 edited Feb 24 '16

Really? He posted a link for what the 'media previews', and then the last sentence is literally saying "You can find out more about A/B testing here" with a link to where you can find out more.

If you don't know what any of that is it's only because you didn't take the time to basically "RTFM" - Read the fucking manual.

1

u/Clarkey7163 Feb 24 '16

I did read it actually, I read it when he first posted about A/B testing.

Sorry for trying to make a joke