TL;DR we’ve made improvements to reddit.com to deliver a more consistent, reliable, and fast web experience for people not logged in. This experience is now available to everyone globally on desktop and mobile web.
Hello all,
I’m u/whizlogic, a product lead at Reddit focused on the performance, stability, and quality of our web platforms, and today I’m sharing an update from our earlier post on improving the web experience. This year we’ve been focused on updating the logged out web experience to make it easier for redditors to connect with relevant communities and conversations.
To set some context: Many of Reddit’s logged out visitors find us from external search engines. These people are often looking for community-verified content on their mobile, tablet or desktop devices. While some people in this group know Reddit and are seeking it out specifically, many others visit Reddit infrequently or are just finding it for the first time.
With these people in mind, we’ve made some changes to the logged out experience:
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Performance: The new logged out web experience is more than twice as fast as our previous web platforms - which means Redditors can get directly to the content they came for – instead of waiting… and waiting for the page to load.
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Search: Redditors can more easily find relevant content with a simpler, consistent, and more intuitive search results page. We’ve simplified the post units and layout to make scanning for relevant results effortless, and completely modernized the mobile experience to prioritize posts.
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Feeds: The feeds all have a similar look and feel and the Popular feed will now include six trending post units (an increase from four slots) at the top of the page on desktop to keep you looped in on what’s happening around the world. The desktop home feed features a sticky sidebar on the right showcasing Reddit’s popular communities. Post units have been refreshed – unused space within and between post units is reduced to highlight the content in your feeds. The size of post titles has increased in size and images and videos will now have an inset within the post for a cleaner looking post unit and less wasted vertical space.
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Comments page: On larger devices the content in the right sidebar has been updated to show related posts which helps folks understand what else they can find on Reddit. The right sidebar also scrolls independently, to ensure redditors don’t lose their place. (On smaller devices (like mobile) you can find the same content under the post.)
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Community page: Just like on the Comments page – the right sidebar has been updated to scroll independently, providing consistent context and access to community info (about, menu, rules, etc.) for users while they browse the feed. Post units within the community feed have been refreshed to match with the home feeds. The community banner has been relocated to the top right of the page so that visitors can easily locate your community’s content. Custom community styling is not available for the logged out experience at this stage. However, we recognize that community styling is an important part of Reddit communities. Mods will have the ability to customize their communities for logged in users.
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Profile: The page has been simplified and refreshed to match the other logged out experiences and an overflow menu has been added to the profile card to organize actions like “send message”, “report” user, and “add to custom feed” in one place.
Check out the mobile web pages here.
In terms of what’s next, we’re focusing on modernizing and improving the stability and performance of the logged in experience. As previously mentioned, we’ll continue to partner with the Mod Council to ensure communities can continue expressing their unique identities, and improve the moderation experience.
Howdy, Reddit. We’ve made it all the way to the end of July, which means it’s about time for another Changelog update.
Keep reading to learn more about a new experiment around Official labels, notification checks, and our peer-to-peer helper program.
Testing an Official label
Starting today, we’re beginning early testing of placing a visual indicator on certain profiles to provide proof of authenticity, reduce impersonation, and increase transparency across the platform. This is currently only available to a *very* small (double-digit) number of profiles belonging to organizations with whom we already have existing relationships, and who are interested in engaging with redditors and communities on our platform. These profiles will have an Official label appear next to their username wherever it shows up across Reddit, similar to how Flair appears across a subreddit.
This is how it will look:
https://preview.redd.it/changelog-official-labels-notification-checks-and-a-peer-to-v0-dhyz6h5wxceb1.png?width=2135&format=png&auto=webp&s=99e70845a2c6f8f7667cb7103de2803a1b996977This label is designed to help mods and users quickly identify these organizations, and allows them to trust that these users are who they say they are (versus impersonators). The label is a visual indicator of an authenticated profile, and it does not unlock any special privileges or protections. This new “Official” label should not be mistaken for our existing “Promoted” label, which continues to be our (only) indicator of a paid ad (i.e. a post that an advertiser has paid for). We’re actively working with a group of moderators to get feedback on this, and as this is an early test, the learnings we gain will inform next steps for this roll-out. We’ll continue to keep you updated.
Automod Notification Checks
Last week, we started rolling out changes to the way our notification systems are architected. Automod will now run before post and comment reply notifications are sent out. This includes both push notifications and email notifications. The change will be fully rolled out in the next few weeks.
This change is designed to improve the user experience on our platform. By running the content checks before notifications are sent out, we can ensure that users don't see content that has been taken down by Automod.
Reddit Helper Rewards Program
Like helping fellow redditors with questions about the platform? In case you didn’t already know, we have a peer-to-peer program that rewards redditors in r/help who help others learn how Reddit works. All comment karma that you earn in r/help will contribute to an overall score, which will place you into different tiers. When reaching new tiers, you’ll receive a new trophy and, depending on the tier, a new user flair. Learn more about the program here. Happy helping!
That’s Changelog for today, folks. Have questions? We’ll be around in the comments for a bit to reply.