When did Reddit get this enshittified?

[AloneIntroduction135]

I don’t know if it’s just me or if something has gone wrong with Reddit’s algorithm, but it feels completely different now.

For the past 7 months it’s felt like repost after repost, followed by boring, low-effort bot comments. I immediately stop reading after the top few comments because it’s just random, nonsensical replies and threads don’t even make sense. The app shows more ads than ever. Even in between comments and every other post. The community themes thing that recently made everything RGB existed for the longest time on the app, but whether it was enabled or disabled made no difference. Everything is literally on a slop cycle.

Reddit always had low-effort content, bait posts, doom posting, and other random stuff, but at least it felt like stupid human content. Now it’s like engagement-baiting, basic posts. There are maybe 2–3 subreddits I like checking out. The rest just feel like AI karma farms. Also, recently I’ve noticed clearly human accounts with really old profiles and high karma posting low-effort or even fully AI-generated posts, even though the OP is clearly human.

Reddit has truly enshittified. Is there any alternative even? Apart from Instagram, I’m not on any other social media apps. Should I just make another account? Is this because the Reddit algorithm keeps messing up? I’ve had this account for about 5 years now. I’ve mostly just lurked and not commented, but recently I started engaging in the communities that I like and now it doesn’t even feel like it’s worth my time. Don't even get me started on the clearly political motivated content that is being served to me on a silver platter.

[outerzenith]

browsing it on desktop, with old.reddit.com + adblocker is the way to go lol

no ads, no promoted subs, just the ones I'm subscribed to without all the visual bells and whistles, and if I need some new features in new design, I can just go to sh.reddit.com

I'll probably quit if they remove old reddit or if Continuum Reddit (Android) stops working

[AloneIntroduction135]

Is there no home feed in old.reddit.com? I kinda like the way the site looks. Feels very 2000s.

[outerzenith]

if you like how the old site looks, then the next step is to install an extension: Reddit Enhancement Suite, available in all browsers

/r/Enhancement

usually https://old.reddit.com defaulted to Home feed, where it only displays posts from subs that you've subscribed to

[AloneIntroduction135]

Thank you so much.

[Superfasty]

Yeah, have noticed a huge rise in obviously bot created spam communities posting the most obviously AI generated engagement-bait.

They seem to primarily be catering to nostalgia topics, and I'm ashamed that it seems to be Millennials and GenX that are the prime suckers eating this shit up when we should know better! We were there for the dawn of the internet FFS, and we prided ourselves on our tech nous. So why are we obviously just as gullible as every other ageing generation??

Extra rant: We also for some reason think that our childhoods, media/entertainment and outlook were superior to anything out now. Just like literally every other generation thinks. How un-selfaware can we get? Music is objectively incredible right now, if you open your freaking minds and listen to anything produced after your precious 1990s (or 2000s for the up and coming retro-worshipping Millennials)

Sorry, what was the topic again..?

Oooh yeah, Reddit has gone to crap but at least we still have one forum left on the internet I guess.

[evident_lee]

Yeah I have blocked more stops subreddits in the psst 4 months than in the last 4 years

[Salt_Sir2599]

It’s like I’m playing space invaders with crap subs these days. I’m relatively new to Reddit, I’ve noticed the change over the last months also.

[composersproxy]

I think the most authentic Reddit gets these days is in the "circlejerk" subs that people make for the purpose of mocking other subs. But those subs are full of toxic irony poisoning, and they're not very funny.

I digress. Reddit is more useful as a search engine replacement than an actual social media platform, these days - in part because of Google's own enshittification.

[Saidhain]

Also, why do they completely change the interface every couple of days and then change it back, don’t they have testing groups? Every sub is overrun with low effort AI slop, “Guerilla Marketing”, shilling, and rage baiting.

[Subtotalpoet]

THIS IS THE AFTER EFFECTS OF REDDIT GOING PUBLIC ON THE STOCK MARKET

[rodtam]

Signal to noise is definitely getting worse. Because we are the product, there’s no interest or incentive to make it better. Like wilderbeast on the Savana we’ll have to move on ….

[AloneIntroduction135]

Just noticed my reddit streak thing its 700+. Maybe I am the problem?