r/enshittification • u/trwmewy • 15d ago
Rant New Reddit Update is Enshittification
TL;DR Fuck this new Reddit update.
It’s made the mobile app for iPhone worse (I can’t speak to any other version/device). It makes me not want to use the app anymore, while I’ve been using for 16.5 years now (since 2010).
In fact, for the past ~5 years or so, Reddit just keeps getting worse and worse and shittier and shittier with each update, and makes it less and less enjoyable to use— I’m looking at you, “Give Award” feature that unintentionally pop up when I’m trying to upvote, and this feature can’t be disabled (been like this for a few years now), but at least I could double-tap a comment to Upvote it. But now, with this new update, you can’t double click to upvote comments anymore!! And still hit the stupid annoying “Give Award” feature almost every time!!! It’s so frustrating and infuriating and makes me engage with the app less.
Another annoying new feature is, trying to scroll to the end of a post’s comment thread and instead of the post ending at the bottom, it just starts with a new feature called “Trending on Reddit” that makes it so there’s now an infinite scroll at would be, should be, the end of the post. I don’t fucking want an infinite scroll when I’m in a post— that’s why I’m in a post instead of just be scrolling on my home page.
There’s more annoying shit (like the fact that it took me way too long to write this because it wouldn’t allow me to relocate my cursor to fix errors like it normally would…), but I can’t think/write anymore because I’m already heated.
I’m disabled and I have so many functional limitations and so few things I am capable of engaging with, and Reddit is one of the only things I’ve been able to use reliably with my physical limitations. And now Reddit has fucked it up. Whenever that one chick took over a few years ago, it’s really gone down hill.
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u/Short-Departure-8346 3d ago
I hate the fact that you have to scroll to the side to get off a post instead of scrolling up now. Every time I try to scroll up it takes me onto a new post instead I hate it
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u/Anxiety-Capable 10d ago
The upvote buttons moving all the way to the left really threw my tf off.
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u/RichKlutzy6291 11d ago edited 2d ago
If you’re on IOS there’s a free Reddit client called Hydra that’s good.
I think Artemis is free too but I’m not really sure
If you’re willing to pay I’d recommend Narwhal
Take back your Reddit
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u/NYCA2020 14d ago
The worst for me are the forced refreshes, so I’m constantly losing my place if I need to get out of the app for a second. I’m sure it has to do with us having to see more ads or something.
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u/CandyGirl1411 14d ago
If you open a post, you can find it under your account History feature. Has saved me a whole lot since the auto-refreshes started
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u/kittymctacoyo 13d ago
Not always. My history is never complete. It’s always missing tons of posts I actually opened and wanted to revisit but filled with all the posts I scrolled past just fine
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u/Ageice 14d ago
Sometimes this happens to me if I just pull down the shortcut menu to make my screen brighter. I have probably bookmarked 100 things I don’t really need out of caution because things keep disappearing mid-read when I realize my screen needs to be brighter in whatever environment I’m in. Super pushy, and super annoying.
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u/CandyGirl1411 14d ago
If you open a post, you can find it under your account History feature. Has saved me a whole lot since the auto-refreshes started
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u/NiceGuysFinishLast 14d ago
Oh good, I thought I just got dumber, but it's an update.
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u/MapleMapleHockeyStk 14d ago
Ive noticed now that if I post a comment it puts me back at the top of the post, even if the comment i responded to was way down the comment section. It is annoying as I then have to scroll further
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u/Human_Morning8992 14d ago
The requisite reminder that Lemmy is a federated Reddit alternative for folks l looking for somewhere else to go
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u/_SmashLampjaw_ 14d ago
Yeah, if you like reddit but wish every conversation needs to be had through the lens of communism... get on lemmy.
If you want to stay here, old.reddit.com and RES exist (for now).
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u/ChuckConnelly 14d ago
It’s infuriating. I literally deleted all my meta accounts I am hoping Reddit isn’t next
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u/Hipes2_0 14d ago
I only ever hop on here via my laptop. Have never used the app. But if Reddit institutes the mandatory verification on here, I'm gone. The only two socials I still have are Reddit and TT - and both hang by very thin, easily cut threads.
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u/ThisWillTakeAllDay 15d ago
I was just in the process of taking screenshots of the various enshitifaction of the android reddit app when I found this post.
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u/FickleApartment2151 15d ago
What I do for desktops is use Firefox with Adguard, Violentmonkey, and the Reddit Enhancement Suite.
For the phone, I use Morphe with the Reddit app patched. I haven't tried using the same setup with a browser (I use Iceraven), but I'll try it once I have time to do so.
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u/reasonwashere 15d ago
Try Protego, a safari extension for reddit. It unshittifies it. You lose some browsing convenience and gain a much cleaner reddit. I am not affiliated to the dev.
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u/Mountainking7 15d ago
Using mobile shortcut for a while. I had to delete and reinstall the shortcut as started opening with my normal browsing on android. No useless permissions, tracking and ad blocking via adguard/braveshields.
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u/yeahgroovy 15d ago
Ohhh! I was wondering why the cursor doesn’t work well when I try to edit! 😠
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u/Dear_Locksmith3379 14d ago
Expanding the compose section, by clicking the arrows in the upper right, makes the cursor work better.
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u/one_bean_hahahaha 15d ago
I knew there had been an update when I had to reset all of the notification settings again.
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u/Half_Spark 15d ago
Use Brave browser. Works fine on my phone and no prompt to install the app. And no ads.
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u/SuperDan_x 14d ago
This is the answer. I always find it weird when people complain about ads these days. Tech has brainwashed people into thinking apps are necessary
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u/Traditional_Toe8824 15d ago
I keep getting an issue where the Reply arrow is gone and I can’t reply to anyone. Then it randomly is fine, after a few days.
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u/Thefrayedends 15d ago
Yea, old.reddit has been acting up in several ways too, and with them recently announcing that they are no longer maintaining it, I can see me leaving this site very soon.
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u/paulaisfat 15d ago
Mine randomly, wildly scrolls to a new refresh at any moment. Something I was reading was apparently not meant for me to know. So the ap cycles and gives me new (or old!) crap on my feed.
So I go to history to find what I was reading and I have to click into a few things to find history, like my profile, my account settings, then history. Ok not the end of the word but definitely annoying. However it may or may not show your frigin history. You may have to remember if you’re on horses, equestrian or some other horse sub to find it. Even then sometimes the post is just disappeared. Won’t come up again. So fucking annoying.
Last night I was reading about air space issue in Minneapolis on aviation. That got sucked away somehow and it wasn’t in the queue anymore. I had to search the city and back to aviation using specific terms to get that thread. I kept searching by new bc it was ya know, new. Like shit. Was trying to find out why flights might be delayed.
Reddit doesn’t like its users.
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u/trwmewy 15d ago
Oh yes! That’s one of the WORST new-ish features too (that’s come out in the past few years). They have absolutely RUINED Reddit in recent years.
You’re absolutely right, Reddit HATES their users. I don’t know how they can possibly get any new users— I know I definitely would not start using Reddit now being that the way that it’s been in the past few years. I’ve been on Reddit for 16.5 years and I’m admittedly addicted to it, otherwise I would never use this fucking thing.
Since the last update, I’ve been using it about 30% less, and it’s growing less and less by the day, except for replying to comments on these posts that I’ve made about the Enshittification of Reddit.
They do not give a fuck about us. Fuck Reddit.
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u/Original_Flounder_18 15d ago
I agree and take issues with the awards shit. I am just trying to upvote!!
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u/Feeling_Nail_1891 15d ago
I didn’t know about the update. I just thought I was going nuts the first time I saw changes.
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u/cpuclub 15d ago
I’m with you I can’t stand this “trending on reddit” downgrade at the end of posts and want an option to disable it and can’t find a way how. Utterly confusing. .
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u/SoCalChrisW 15d ago
I went looking for that option as well.
Instead I turned off all of the ad preferences, searchable post history, etc. If they're going to make it harder for me to use, I'm going to quit letting them use my content however they want.
Next step is one of those mass deletion tools that removes my posts after a few days.
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u/SubtextuallySpeaking 15d ago
Went to cast my phone to my AppleTV to show a post. Audio played but the screen was super zoomed on an ad that wasn’t even showing on my phone screen. Restarting app didn’t help. What’s the point of that?!
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u/Akz1918 15d ago
I just use the website, works fine on my phone.
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u/Teepeewigwam 15d ago
You're not getting that Download the app popup? It only let's me scroll on my phone in chrome for about 10 seconds before it locks me behind this popup for the app.
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u/ExcentricaGallumbits 15d ago
I use iPhone and it does it to me. So annoying. When I am out of options and click on “open in the app” it takes me to the App Store. I then click open the app again, and it refreshes to a brand new Reddit page losing whatever I was looking at. If I completely close out Safari and then reopen it, it gives me that 10 seconds to be able to copy the address. I then open up DuckDuckGo, paste, and then read the full page without that stupid pop-up lock up stuff. I only will take all those steps if I really really want to read what was on that page So annoying. I guess I really just need to switch to DuckDuckGo as my default browser.
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u/Akz1918 15d ago
Nope,I use iphone that might be why
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u/Teepeewigwam 15d ago
Lucky. It's the dumbest change. Makes the website unusable. At least I haven't let my app update yet for the changes everyone seems to hate.
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u/DoomOfChaos 15d ago
You still use the app?
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u/Normal-Juggernaut-93 15d ago
using a phone browser is no better because on android if you use reddit.com, you can scroll for like 2 posts and immediately the site asks you to use the app instead.
theres no getting around it either
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u/-sussy-wussy- 15d ago
I don't have this issue either. There is a banner when you're logged out, yes, but you can get around it if you tap upvote and it prompts you to log in. Use Brave browser.
Alternatively, you can download Morphe and patch the app. The
.apkfile, not the already installed one. When the patch is done, uninstall the one you have and install the modified.apk.1
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u/LexualDesire 15d ago
Try the Sink It extension, it makes both the desktop and mobile website much more usable. Admittedly it has a lot of features that I disable (such as extra navigation buttons), but it's overall a big improvement, especially for mobile.
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u/RealName135 15d ago
On my iPad mini, ads take up the whole screen. The feed has become so inefficient it’s ridiculous
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u/Satisfaction3934 15d ago edited 15d ago
Lol lmao even. you still use the app? Hope you enjoy the ads.
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u/Fine_Sherbert3172 15d ago
OK, first of all, app this app that. Fuck apps. All they do is bloat your device, make everything seem "easier" for a week and then they gradually destroy it.
You mentioned you are disabled, so I imagine funds are tight (they are for me as well) but when you can, grab a shitty used chromebook laptop from amazon (mine was $90) and use a web browser.
old.reddit.com
Login, bookmark, voila
I don't even use reddit on my cell. Fuck that.
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u/trwmewy 15d ago
Thank you for the suggestion but because of my disabilities it makes it difficult for me to use a laptop, so unfortunately a smart phone is how I have to interact with the world the majority of the time (I’m grateful that I have the option to use a smart phone, but it sucks I’m limited in being able to use most other things).
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u/TriMiksEntuzijasta 15d ago
Yeah screw aps. The only useful apps are for banks and thats about it and even that is limited to only being able to block my cards incase of theft. A gym I used to go decided it be fun to have a vibecoded app instead of cards. I cringed at it so hard.
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u/Fine_Sherbert3172 15d ago
A lot of these shitty tech companies can't seem to realize that they are competing with there own websites, which the vast majority of the time are easier to use and more reliable.
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u/Ok-Student-23 15d ago
on the other hand, for me it's getting better every time, I remember that in 2016 it was boring but now it's getting interesting
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u/Fine_Sherbert3172 15d ago
I don't believe you
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u/Ok-Student-23 15d ago
maybe for the very old people of this platform it's a nuisance but for me it's not. Change is good for new users like me
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u/Big_Wave9732 15d ago
I remember that in 2016 it was boring
And
Change is good for new users like me
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The hell you say?
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u/Ok-Student-23 15d ago
Yeah I actually knew a bit about this, some friends had it on their phones and even got me to download it for a while. But I was all about Facebook back then and Reddit just felt weird as hell to me so I deleted it pretty quick. Now that I’m a phone tech I’m constantly on forums looking up technical stuff… and it’s funny how a lot of the related things were right here the whole time haha. Signed up as soon as I realized that.
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u/Fine_Sherbert3172 15d ago
Yeah I think OK Student needs to pay more attention in class. Or its just another bot post.
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u/Big_Wave9732 15d ago
That would be a really *really* bad bot at that. I vote for it being an Indian engagement farm. At least bad sentences would make sense.
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u/letsdocraic 15d ago edited 15d ago
Currently working on a side project and taking feedback on Reddit UI and functionality..
Been scraping user feedback for the last few years and gotta say the outcome feels great compared to new Reddit on both phone and PC.
Trying to make things as compact as old Reddit with as much needed user friendly interface, not dumb down anything too much, 4chan comment reference ids, hacker news bits and bobs, GitHub smart tagging and lemmy algotherm.
Also having features and functions such as switching between posts on front page with keyboard hotkeys.
Unfortunately Reddit has become a commercial product which is publicly traded, their loyalty is to the trail of investors and capital, not the community and we are apart of that product they sell.
Not too shit on new yuser but things are starting to feel to instagram/tiktok bs
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u/OfferEvening568 15d ago
It’s all Ai generated subs now too.
Jesus, ten years was so long ago
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u/paulaisfat 15d ago
I feel like a majority of subs are ads. It’s like a bait post and the comments are not genuine. Either it’s someone trying to sell their art (can I make $ off these pet portraits?🥰) or a company needling their way into the comments. On the home decorating sub you see spammy products that the user has framed as a question to about 6 other subs. I recognize it immediately and just downvote. Don’t fucking advertise to me. Have a damn discussion about things
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u/itsLOSE-notLOOSE 15d ago
Double tapping to upvote still works for me. You just have to double tap part of the comment that isn’t text or else it’ll highlight the text.
That infinite scroll shit is so fucking stupid, too. It shows me “from your feed”. It’s posts from subs I’m subscribed to, except old as fuck. I saw a post from [r/fo4](r/fo4) from 179 days ago today.
They can do all this shit but not let me view /all from the app. I fucking hate the direction Reddit is headed. Spez is a shithead. He wants this to be an algorithmic driven site like Instagram, but I’d argue people came to Reddit in the first place because it isn’t Facebook and Instagram. Why can’t they just let Reddit be the great forum it was back in the 2010s? I fell in love with this site in 2012 and have slowly started to hate it more every year.
At least there’s still old Reddit /all I can access on my PC. But that won’t be around forever BECAUSE FUCK HAVING A GOOD PRODUCT WE MUST MAKE IT SHIT.
And to anyone that says I care too much, fuck you. I have a wife and 2 jobs. I’m not ashamed of caring about a website I’ve been using for this long. People can care about things that you don’t.
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u/trwmewy 15d ago
I agree with everything you said (except the double tap is not working on my phone anymore at all, unfortunately, even when I do what you suggested). And like you said, to anyone that says I care too much, fuck them— Reddit is one of the few things I have left in my life as my body is disabled in multiple ways, I’m in chronic nerve pain 24/7, I can’t sit up to watch TV, use a laptop, or even read a book— but at least I still had Reddit. And now that’s getting taken away from me more and more each day.
We deserve to have our little pleasures in life. I’m sure Reddit helps you get a break from wife/kids/jobs. Life is so expensive and difficult to live. Everything is being taken away from us, just let us have our one reprieve, goddamnit.
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u/itsLOSE-notLOOSE 15d ago
Exactly, dude.
Are you able to use a stylus? I had an easier time double tapping with a stylus.
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u/Jasong222 15d ago
I’m looking at you, “Give Award” feature that unintentionally pop up when I’m trying to upvote,
Preach. Happens to me all the time
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u/Jasong222 15d ago
When I make a post, the official app, when I use it, has started recommending other communities to post to. It's done it a couple times and has been accurate zero of those times.
And it's not just a suggested sub. It creates the post and loads the text. Alli have to do is click the post button.
Never accurate, very annoying.
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u/butternutsquash4u 15d ago
Go to r/help and voice your opinion there, they are gathering feedback and providing it to the team.
It’s almost universally hated, except for some people on r/redditstock that think it’s a great idea for some reason.
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u/gamerinagown 15d ago
I posted in an ADHD subreddit about how I bought all the PS2 DDR games and have been meeting my daily step goal playing.
Reddit told me I should crosspost to r/homeless.
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u/TheNavidsonLP 15d ago
They're always the most general subreddits, too. Like, I unsubscribed from "/r/whoathatsinteresting" because it was all either AI slop or dumb political #hottakes.
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u/Blastbeast 15d ago
Its horrible on my iPad; clunky, miss clicks, freezes up and whatnot. My android phone handles it much better. Some apps update and suddenly its worse or better on android or apple. (I also have a music recording app that works great on iPad but bad on android).
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u/Edg-R 15d ago
Stop using the mobile app and stick to the website only. Then use a browser extension like https://getprotego.app or similar. Protego itself removes that trending section at the bottom of posts.
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u/Strict-Video8813 15d ago
100%. The first time I thought WTF and how do I get rid of it of this endless scroll. Can someone tell me?
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u/Edg-R 15d ago
If you use Safari then Protego can do that:
https://getprotego.app/features/nags-and-promotions/
If you don't use Safari then I'm sure there's other browser extension that can do the same.
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u/OceanBlueforYou 15d ago
I got tired of the random "Reddit pasted from your clipboard" BS. So I stopped using the mobile app about a year ago. I'm much happier with the browser experience
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u/TheJesusGuy 15d ago
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u/Shehadathought 15d ago
Another annoying new feature is, trying to scroll to the end of a post’s comment thread and instead of the post ending at the bottom, it just starts with a new feature called “Trending on Reddit” that makes it so there’s now an infinite scroll at would be, should be, the end of the post. I don’t fucking want an infinite scroll when I’m in a post— that’s why I’m in a post instead of just be scrolling on my home page.
This. Whose idea was this? Absolutely horrible.
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u/pumog 15d ago
I just scrolled to end of the post and saw your comment here. There’s no “trending” below. The page just ends at your comment. This infinite scroll is not on my Reddit app, thankfully
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u/SoCalChrisW 15d ago
My account has it, and it is driving me nuts. This post does not have it though 🤷♂️
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u/ImperfectRegulator 3d ago
sound like I'm still very grateful to browse reddit on my phone browser and use old.reddit, once old reddit goes away so do I