Reddit is removing the Direct Message feature, and all active conversations will be archived so you won’t be able to continue ongoing conversations. Reddit also deleted all bad reviews for their app awhile ago. Its rating went from 3.4 to 4.5 stars overnight.
One of the first things Google did when it bought YouTube was to remove direct messaging, don’t want people wasting time talking to each other when they should be watching ads.
That was such a good read. As an older millennial myself, it hit home particularly strong.
Really appreciate you linking that, like the other user said, it spoke to me.
Good find. This is gem.
Cool. The bots can chat among themselves without any pesky users getting in the way.
I just don’t understand how PM became DM for so many people. I mean it literally says “PM” in the screenshot, yet OP still changed it to “DM” in their post.
I remember it used to always be PM, then one day everyone suddenly started calling it DM and I just don’t know why…
My conspiracy theory is that big social platforms like Instagram and/or Snapchat are behind the change, because the P in PM is for Private and they are fundamentally against privacy, as they profit off your data, including likely analyzing your messages to serve you more relevant ads.
Lmao chat is one of the dumbest features they ever rolled out.
I love how their attitude is always “we made this useless feature, and instead of ditching it were going to get rid of what people preferred and force the hated alternative!”
Once again proving that the Reddit admins absolutely hate the fact that people use Reddit. They should just shit the site down already.
i did originally used with other person on reddit, with a job specific sub. that was about it, and every other time was a spammer trying to contact people.
It’s the Late-Stage Capitalist way.
enshittification actually.
I hated both features honestly. I’m there to converse in public, anything you say you can add in a public reply to one of my comments. If it was ever used for honest chat or messaging, I never saw it.
i Used PM alot before Trumps first term, and somewhat during him to. i stopped once i started getting into arguments with people about a certain they were doing wrong(like how a dude was trying to apply to same company job at different times or different position, i was saying there is no way they would hire you once you get rejected, he was deadset on reapplying no reason other than how convenient it is for him) and i was getting warnings. i do it doesnt clutter up the subs, that would flag my account as a spammer originally.
But then how can we ask for nudes? /S
I don’t mind DMs for one-off things. Like if I see something sketchy and want to tip off a user without alerting the sketchy one.
Also, everybody already owns a named subreddit that they mod, don’t they? So can’t you just send modmail there and still sidebar the chat in lieu of modmail DMs?
there were subs getting in trouble for asking nudes, mainly medical, where perverts were asking CP-type pictures of thier privates of minors, i think the subs became aware and started making it known you cant post as a minor anymore, or have to label the post without pics.
How does disabling DMs stop this?
I used to use it when I wanted to impart a little secret to another Redditor, without alerting the entire world.
For instance, I found a cool, lesser-used auction site that often had good deals on guitars. If I ran across someone whose guitar had been lost somehow, or who couldnt afford a new guitar, I would DM the auction site, and ask them to keep it quiet. I didn’t want to announce it publicly, and alert the entire world to it, and ruin it.
i do that too, trying to give them advice , that people wouldnt try to astroturf your comment.
It was useful for asking questions that neither you nor the other person would want to put in a public post. For example, someone posted a picture in the bad real estate sub that looked very familiar, and I sent a DM asking “is this X location?”. I might not want people to know I’m familiar with X location, they might not want people to know they’re familiar with X location, but maybe we’re both ok with each other knowing.
But I’m pretty sure its main use was sending hate to people without getting banned.
DMs had their uses, for example RemindMeBot cannot work over chat because there is no API.
I would use it for some video game LFGs. I wouldnt want to post my game name in a public forum and have my game account be flooded.
it may surprise you how many people use reddit for personals and porn
everyone on tumbler went to TWITTER and reddit for porn, and then OF. imagine the amount of users will disappeared if they banned porn. there were other forums, pics like subs that had regular porn you see on reddit but they were so unregulated they have discussion and imagery about CSAM and beastility.
I’m starting to see them banning me as a blessing. Spez is running that site into the ground. Guaranteed by the end of the year it’s just gonna be “X²” or smth.
he got what he wanted out of reddit, the 249mil in stocks.
What’s the difference between the two? I haven’t used reddit since the api shit and I don’t remember seeing 2 separate messaging options before that.
private messages as its called, when you directly send a message to someone, nobody else can see it. a chat is public and its possible to be join in the chat.
That makes sense, thanks
Digg picked the right time for a comeback.
Reddit dude is involved in the new Digg sadly… Oh and they already are big talking AI for it.
Alexis Ohanian, who co-founded Reddit, is not Steve Huffman (Spez/current Reddit CEO). He’s done some solid activism and charity work, unlike the piece of shit Spez. The fact it seems he’s trying to distance himself from Reddit by trying to revive their former rival is some rich irony.
Alexis left Reddit suddenly with some weird excuse, too. I think he got word of the stock plan and immediately jumped ship.
he knew it was going to enshittify from them on, took his money and ran.
Wait, how did they delete bad reviews for their app? That doesn’t even seem like it should be possible or allowed.
google probably allows the reviews to be astroturfed by indian spammers.
So, DM and Reddit Chat is not same thing ?
chat is more public, and prone to spammers. PM/DM is a private message to someone that the public cant see.
No, I had my chat hidden because I primarily used old Reddit, and so I pretty much never looked a it. Made 0 sense to me. If somebody wanted something in private, they can send me a DM.
I didn’t even realize people used the chat on there. When it rolled out, it was almost exclusively bots lol
it was for bots, still but barely, i think they gave up on it.
How is the Reddit app at a 4.7 on Google’s Play store, but all of the relevant reviews that pop up are 1’s and 2’s?
Google must be ignoring some reviews to calculate the average score.
Makes sense tbh, having two separate systems of private one-on-one communication wasn’t that logical.
im surprised they even kept it this long, considered even bots gave up on it.
Who cares? It’s reddit. Trash hole of the internet.
Sir/madam/???, this is a community called Reddit. This specifically is where people would care(though I agree with the sentiment).
this keeps happening because the posts rise up. I’m not subscribed.
but I do love watching it descend into trash. hard to say why I don’t block it but it shows up for non subscribers for sure.
its been in trash since they try to force new reddit down peoples throats.
How long until old reddit is gone completely? Its a damn shame what they have done to that site
do you remember when YAHOO answers was a thing, the old format was like old reddit pages, but permanently changed to the “new reddit format” and everyone hated it. endless scrolling is laggier than just changing pages.
How did they remove bad reviews, and on which platform? To my knowledge neither Google Play nor the App Store allows developers to do that, so it would have to be a more complicated situation with Google/Apple collaboration.
they probably allow astroturfing, alot of reviews sites do that.
Not trying to defend Reddit here, but what’s the functional difference between a chat and DMs? How is one better or worse than the other?
DMs are exactly what you expect, like private email. Every service has some form of this.
Reddit chat is real time, designed for shorter messages and real-time communication.
The other difference is that everybody uses Reddit DMs and nobody uses Reddit chat. I have my chat turned off as do most others that I talk to.
So this is yet again another example of Reddit management not reading the room and forcing the use of a system people generally don’t want.
Management didn’t miss the mark, they know everyone still on Reddit are easy marks.
