4 upvotes, 1 direct replies (showing 1)
View submission: Addressing the new video player
I thought I would put together a handy “field guide” for newer users to Reddit Admin behavior when confronted with months after months of negative feedback, so you can better understand what they mean when they finally say “oops, my bad” about the new video player… and promise to do better… here’s the dirty little secret. They won’t. The exact same pattern repeats itself:
Step 1: Reddit decides to upgrade/rebuild/redesign/add something
Step 2: They do it, but instead of designing it to function similar to the original product and then iterate from there, they try to jam in as many “hot in the moment” feature and designs as they can and completely change the user experience.
Step 3: Current users are confused and angry about this sudden change in everything that fundamentally made the thing work in the first place
Step 3.5: Things break, because they changed things so drastically
Step 4: Radio silence. Admins will either not acknowledge that there is an issue at all, or try to blame it on “old” users resistance to needed upgrades. I mean really why aren’t we all super happy they gifted us these amazing new features (that no one asked for)? /sarcasm. And now our current step for those playing along at home:
Step 5: After an overwhelming amount of negative feedback on every admin post, and even negative articles written in tech blogs or news sites, a few admins will finally post in one of the several hundred places where admins make announcements (will anyone see that post in r/blog? Maybe, maybe not, but who cares right?) and say how sorry they are and that they are here to take their lumps… maybe they might even roll back a few super bad things… not the whole thing of course, just a few peripheral features here and there. Don’t worry, those will all come back… just after people move on a bit.
They will then praise themselves for learning from their mistakes, and how closely they listen to feedback and take it to heart. They will then pat each other on the back about how quickly they jumped to fix the issue (that they created!) and how from now on they will never make this mistake again! Bonus step 5.5: I neat little trick that happens with the admin that draws the short straw to make this announcement, they will then just disappear for a while after getting huge downvotes. I like to call it ghosting(™). For example, /u/KeyserSosa hasn’t posted in over a month after getting savaged for announcing the cancelling of Reddit Gifts.
Right before the ghosting stage, they will try to answer a few cherry picked comments… nothing too in depth though, because after all they aren’t really changing or fixing anything, just a few band aids to placate everyone until they forget about how bad it was and move on to the next broken new feature. I believe they do this to make themselves feel somewhat better about having to trot out the same old excuses over and over before they start the ghosting(™) step.
Step 6: Repeat
So there ya go, please use this handy guide to apply to the next sht storm, and for extra fun look back to all the past fck ups and follow along with each step.
Tagging /u/Sn00byD00 for visibility... wishful thinking I know
Comment by austinTbird at 06/08/2021 at 14:59 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Next Steps: Part of my mental makeup is that if I identify an issue, I try to find a solution to offer along with pointing out the screw up. So heres what I think would save a lot of head aches for Users, Mods and Amins:
1. Announce in advance your intention to change something, don’t just drop it half baked and non tested on everyone and expect everyone to love it.
2. When redesigning part of the core experience of Reddit (i.e. “new” Reddit, Reddit official app, Mobile Web, etc.) make that redesign (at least at first) function somewhat like what you are replacing.
3. After you have stabilized the replacement,THEN start adding in those bells and whistles the stakeholders are so fond of… and FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY MAKE THEM EITHER OPT-IN or AT LEAST HAVE A WAY TO TURN THE DAMN THINGS OFF! (Please see chat, followers, new video player, etc).
A great example of this is the “new” reddit. No one is debating the fact that “old” Reddit’s back end needed to be updated… and building on a new platform made perfect sense.
What caused the blowback was that they put out a new reddit that didn’t look or function ANYTHING like the old Reddit that people have been using for years. They even put in a “classic” view THAT DIDN’T LOOK LIKE THE OLD REDDIT!
This is UI Design 101 people, if user’s can’t figure out how to use your new UI, then your UI design failed.
They could have avoided a lot of this by simply creating the new Reddit to make it close to design and functionality as the old, and then start iterating from there. But they won’t because see step 2 above.
To any admins still reading, please take the above as a plea from a long time reddit user… there’s a reason I use old reddit and 3rd party apps, I don’t want to be subjected to whatever new hotness feature you jam out there.
This is ruining the Reddit experience and if there was a viable alternative out there I would have switched already (re: Digg). Please stop doing this and let us decide how we use Reddit, not push what is deemed the right way by leadership/stakeholders on us willy nilly. (Yes I said willy nilly, and I’m sticking to that choice)
I expect zero response from admins to this post, but maybe one will glance over it, and the next time they are in a meeting planning the rollout of a shiny new feature… maybe one will raise a hand and say “Shouldn’t this feature be opt-in?” or “this has a lot of potential for abuse, maybe we should re-think it?” or “this is going to confuse a lot of people because we’re changing the way everything works without telling them about it!”
Probably won’t happen, but a boy can dream right?