Comment by giorgioz
3 days ago
Also www.reddit.com is/was doing the same back button hijacking. From google.com visiting a post, then clicking back and you would find yourself on Reddit general feed instead of back to Google.
3 days ago
Also www.reddit.com is/was doing the same back button hijacking. From google.com visiting a post, then clicking back and you would find yourself on Reddit general feed instead of back to Google.
I'm pretty sure what you're describing is this long-standing bug[1] I've experienced only when using Mobile Safari on Reddit - affecting both old.reddit.com and the (horrible) modern Reddit. It just doesn't happen in other browsers/engines except on iOS. It's especially annoying on an iPad when I tend to use back/forward instead of open-in-new-tab-then-close on iPhone.
[1] At least, I hope it's a bug.
A bug that just coincidentally affects the only reddit visitors that are worth any money?
Just like finally getting rid of r/all on mobile just happens to bury a bunch of political stuff reddit executives and their friends don't agree with
13 replies →
Do you treat every iOS bug this way?
For mobile Safari on iOS/iPad, the back button imo is just completely broken. It’s either a bug, or Apple might say I’m ‘holding it wrong’. One version it just stopped doing its one job correctly and it’s messing with my mental model of how I arrived at each tab. Currently:
Safari iOS: Be on a page, tap hold a link, click Open in new tab, go to new tab. The Back button should be grayed out and isn’t, and clicking it closes the tab. (???)
Chrome iOS: Be on a page, tap hold a link, click Open in new tab, go to new tab. Back button correctly grayed out as the tab has nowhere to go back to.
"You're browsing it wrong." This and other bizarre behaviours are why you'll never catch me using the thing.
News sites are doing it too. Displaying a full display ad when you try to leave
I would just like to point out that this was one of the things that the AMP straightjacket prevented. The whole online news industry has conclusively demonstrated that it can't be trusted with javascript and must be hospitalized, but they refuse to acknowledge their own illness.
Is it news sites fault or is it the fault of web standards/browser developers for failing to build any viable mechanisms for monetizing content?
The issue is hardly isolated to news outlets. It's endemic to the web.
1 reply →
AMP sites listed on Android Assistant routinely messed with back button behavior to trap you.
I wonder if Google will actually de rank them. Maybe a warning first for the big ones?
I do not see this behaviour on the latest version of Firefox. I do use old.reddit, however.
Old Reddit doesn't do this, it's the "new" one that pretends to be an app, that does it and host of other stupid/user-hostile shit.
In any case, Reddit lets open links in a new tab in their settings, which resolved the issue for me.
I don't use old Reddit, and haven't noticed this behaviour either.
Sounds like maybe some prevention against this is already implemented in either particular Android browsers, or ad blockers, maybe even for specific sites?
Just speculating, I can't imagine a reason why they'd implement this especially for Safari.
Other than A/B-testing or trash code that coincidentally doesn't work in all mobile browsers.
Maybe they use the same AI that generates their fictious relationship stories to add these dark patterns to their code base :D
2 replies →
I usually find the back button just doesn't work on new Reddit at all.
Even on old.reddit, it breaks the back button. When you navigate back, it usually reloads the entire page you were on and ignores all your collapse actions on conversations.
IIRC Reddit is also doing the same thing on their mobile (Android) app.