Reddit used to be a pretty cool thing. And it still has a lot of good information. But I always feel dirty when I do resort to searching Reddit for information.
Aaron Swartz would be appalled.
I feel like Aaron 100% would have backed Lemmy.
(Edit: Not that I or anyone can speak for him, obviously.)
Directions unclear. Reddit blocks my work IP for “network security” unless accounts are used to maximize data collection.
I’ve found that alternative reddit frontends bypass this. That and I believe changing the URL to old reddit.
Of course, this will only work until (if?) Reddit is successful in removing old reddit and preventing third party front-end.
Do you mean New Old Reddit or Old Old Reddit? /hj
No, seriously, they’re apparently working on a New New Reddit to replace their half-baked New Old Reddit (and presumably their still-working-perfectly Old Old Reddit).
For the record, the real trick is to add “site:reddit.com”. But as the site decays over time that will sadly become less useful.
I really think they are going to start requiring logins or the app to view most content. That seems to be what they are going toward with the “unreviewed content” thing.
100%. To be honest I don’t even use this “trick” anymore myself because like 60% of the links are inaccessible now.
It’s incredibly sad that they destroyed such a great resource, that place was like the Wikipedia of opinions.
Just go straight to Wikipedia.
For local information, such as what is the best inexpensive insurance in your city, for example, Wiki can’t answer.
I’ve had more luck with local facebook groups or word of mouth than the internet, for this stuff, in the recent years. This and some group chats are pretty much the only reasons I still have a Meta account…
wikivoyage
Not as useful now that so many of us who left Reddit deleted all of our comments on there. Broke a lot of those question and answer threads.
Reddit used to be really cool for actual niche advice without getting slapped with advertising. I tried to buy a certain kind of laptop, all the results were ads that contained those words, not what I was looking for. Heaven forbid I want pants that fit a certain body type or anything specific. Sometimes there are still older posts but…eh.
Reddit makes me feel dirty.
Quora is just plain vomit.
yahoo answers shutdown ruined it all.
I have never gotten a reliable answer from a quora result. I avoid them like the plague now.
I’ve only ever seen Quora as a joke, I didn’t think people were actually getting good answers there.
Quora is off brand yahoo answers. All of the misinformation and none of the humor
And a vaguely intellectual name, as if knowledgeable people go and post there all the time, when its’ actual academic facade is more analogous to stock photo models wearing labcoats and goggles.
Is Quora good now?
Hard to tell when the bar has lowered so far.
Has it ever been?
when Yahoo answers existed, yes (i think).
Lol no I think quota is beyond redemption.
No.
So this is not really google’s fault then but rather while people were using it to find answers in links, they expected shitty SEO and LLM written articles to not mess with the results.
Google doesn’t want you to find answers. They could improve this. They want repeated searches and more time spent on each Google page to increase eyes on their ads.
That is certainly one of the conclusions in The Man Who Killed Google Search.
Hit the gym. Delete reddit. Lawyer up.
I’m pretty sad these days when I see an issue marked as solved, but then when I get to the solution it just says “this comment has been deleted in objection to the API changes and Steve Huffman is a dirty little piss boy”. We’ve lost millions of hours worth of answers because of Reddit 's greed.
The best way to find information on the internet is to give up on Google and use Kagi. Add a question mark at the end of your search and it’ll summarize all of the top results for you, directly giving you the answer and saving you tons of time. They include sources if you want to dig deeper.
Sadly, their CEO is kind of a weirdo. There was a recent post chain on Mastodon I think where a user shared their disappointment with Kagi - had something to do with their not being as privacy-focused as they claimed they are - and the CEO just decided to keep sending unsolicited emails to the OP about this, trying to with them over with phone and video calls
I saw this too. Sadly I don’t remember where I saw it.
Bill Gates was a massive dick but people still use Windows.
Steve Jobs was a massive dick but people still use Apple.
Thomas Edison was a massive dick but people still use light bulbs.
People should disassociate creators and their products.
it’ll summarize all of the top results for you, directly giving you the answer
This is literally what the Google AI thing that everyone has been mocking does. For example, it suggested gluing cheese onto a pizza because that was a highly up voted comment on the reddit thread that was the top search results.
Except the Kagi one actually works well and doesn’t tell you to drink glue.
Tbh I find it hard to believe that it’s actually better, knowing how many resources Google probably poured into getting the summaries right already. If the same amount of scrutiny were applied to Kagi’s summaries, people would probably find similarly embarrassing answers.
Only thing holding me back from Kagi is the impossibility of privacy and a credit card associated with my user.
That’s understandable, but you’re nowhere near private with Google either. They definitely know who you are, even if you never log in. At least with Kagi they’re not logging everything and keeping a record of everything you do. They do have an option to enable history, but I have it turned off.
They do have an option to enable history, but I have it turned off.
Actually, that “setting” is there just for show. It can’t be turned on. Underneath the setting, it says
Currently this option can not be turned on. Kagi does not save any searches by default. In the future we may add features that will utilize your search history and then we will allow you to enable this.
Any chance they accept gift cards or a temporary Visa you can charge up? If not, that would be a bummer.
For sure. They don’t care how the money arrives. Tell them whatever lies you need to tell them as long as the credit card number matches up.
This is the way.
I deleted a year ago and can count on one hand the number of times I’ve used reddit since.
I don’t think using it for Google counts at all anymore because that’s Google’s fault. I occasionally look at r/beermoney for ideas but that’s it. Haven’t looked at the front page in a year.
There is a disenshittified version of google out there, for now at least: udm14.com.
Every time I’ve used it, it’s for info on a home improvement project. Being that my browser blocks ads, they get nothing from my interactions.
I’m using Qwant, which is the French government search engine, pretty good!
Yes this is the only reason I still have a Reddit account
REDLIB.
As asked already, why do you feel the need for an account for this? It changes nothing. You’ve surely misunderstood something, you keeping an account has absolutely no relation to any of this.
Not OP but every so often when I click on a Reddit link from a search result, Reddit doesn’t actually let me read the thread unless I login
I believe it happens on mobile b/c they are trying to force people to use their godforsaken app. Clicking desktop view bypasses the tomfoolery.
Use old.reddit.com
It’s the only reason I bothered patching my former app of choice.
Why do you need a Reddit account? Deleted mine, noticed no difference.
I like to use drug related subreddits that you can’t view without logging in
They block VPN users most of the time nowadays if you’re not logged in.
Fuck their little “network security” bullshit!
These days, I only ever use Reddit to find answers and to comment in one small community I probably could not live without. I’ve drastically cut down on my Reddit usage since whole API debacle.
(Don’t ask about trying to move that community to Lemmy. Already had someone ask that repeatedly the last time I mentioned this. They’ve polled their users, and they’re not moving.)
