Use an RSS reader. You will like the lack of feeling of being forced to comment on things you don't care much about in retrospection. No tracking or ads, only content. You can filter shady sites or posts from appearing.
I built a better rss feed for reddit to use with Feedly.
Notable features:
* Links to the content rather than the comments
* Embeds a summary of the content
* Supports images, gifs and videos
* Extra query params (nsfw block, up vote limits)
* Open source https://github.com/trashhalo/reddit-rss
Yup. RSS is the way to go for browsing Reddit without all the dark patterns.
Self plug - you can try my app Plenary on Android (no ads/trackers) - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.spians.ple... that has Reddit as one of the RSS Assistant option. It basically creates RSS feed for subreddits, users, search terms etc for you.
> Interestingly parent’s plug is a dark pattern to avoid dark patterns!
Sorry I didn't find any dark patterns here. If you can elaborate more on this, that would be really helpful.
> It’s also surprising that even on HN, a place where many people write software for a living, people are avoidant of advertising paid features.
Exactly! A lot of users want privacy focused - no ads apps. But many of them are hesitant to pay for it. For them, all apps should be FOSS (that means relying on good will of the developer that he will have motivation to maintain the app regularly or relying on some bug foundations) and no dev should generate revenue from their apps.
> Sorry I didn't find any dark patterns here. If you can elaborate more on this, that would be really helpful.
I don't think you were being malicious, but it would of been useful to know up front that those RSS features cost money is all. Otherwise I see nothing wrong in your initial comment.
You're right, I do want a FOSS solution and I'm hesitant to pay for something closed and controlled entirely by the dev.
But I am not opposed at all to pay for apps that include the source (and build instructions). I don't mind if it's licensed accordingly to prevent me redistributing it (which would undermine sales). I frequently buy apps like that.
More times than I can count I have bought an app that was later either abandoned when it stopped making money, or got an unwanted UI overhaul that wrecked it, or removed an obscure feature I depended on, etc. I will happily pay for software, but if it's not software I could potentially maintain myself then the amount of money I'm willing to spend goes way down and I'm a lot more hesitant to make the initial purchase.
> that means relying on good will of the developer that he will have motivation to maintain the app regularly or relying on some bug foundations
As opposed to paying for it which guarantees you'll get the service you want - except it doesn't.
At least FLOSS would give you and others the opportunity to fix bugs /maintain the app themselves.
> But many of them are hesitant to pay for it
Depends what it is. There's a difference paying for a non free app, and tipping for a free app.
Thank you for trying it out. Plenary has monthly, quarterly and yearly subscription options and even has a lifetime purchase plan. That is the way support the development of the app so that it doesn't have to rely on ads and works without any intrusions to users. That is the point of this post, right?
This. If you want something already hosted try Innoreader (https://www.inoreader.com). I like having software I can just support with money instead of seeing garbage ads and having my personal information sold because it's "free" (though they do have a free plan if you can't afford or don't want to support them).
Thanks for those links. Seems there have been some developments since I last checked into rss clients. Are you aware of any good browser plug-ins in that field? I've been using brief:
this is not my project but I have been enjoying this rss proxy which can let you limit which posts get into your feed by top rank, score threshold, or quantity of posts per day. I use it because even a moderately popular subreddit can be a bit of a firehose.
Here are some readers.
0] https://github.com/GetStream/Winds
1] https://github.com/FreshRSS/FreshRSS
2] https://github.com/feedbin/feedbin
3] https://github.com/yang991178/fluent-reader
If you like something closed source, try feedly.
Reddit provides rss for now. For sources that don't, you can use rss.app or similar.
https://www.reddit.com/wiki/rss
One more useful thing some readers provide is an email address that you can use for subscribing to newsletters.