While a few more people might indeed sign up for Reddit initially, many more could stop visiting the site altogether, which would reduce its ad revenue and lower its rank in Google search, potentially wreaking havoc in the long term. Regardless of the intentions, the test seems like a poor, shortsighted strategy, as explained on Hacker News. A Reddit employee, mjmayank, claims the latter is the case:īy encouraging more users to log in to participate in communities we believe that it will make those communities stronger and result in more discussion about interests, rather than just being a site where people lurk for meme-y content. or log in." Many believe that this change is being tested with revenue in mind, as the company could improve sponsored content targeting and convert more "lurkers" who don't actively participate in communities to proper members.
CONTENT SITES LIKE REDDIT INSTALL
For some, it looks like the prompt to install the app is also broken, as you can see in the screenshot below that reads, "To view posts in r/mobileweb, you must. The subreddit dedicated to the mobile web version of Reddit is currently flooded with posts complaining about the requirement. The corporation behind the network apparently still isn't happy with the conversion rates, as some Redditors report that they can't use the mobile site without logging in or downloading the app anymore. Reddit's mobile website is well-made and fast, but for ages, the platform has been pushing anyone who visited that site to the official app instead, complete with an obnoxious banner that shows up every time you open a Reddit link in your phone's browser.