They want our data badly.

I primarily browse on mobile, in a private window, without an account. For this, i am faced with constant banners and pop-ups to try and get me into the mobile app, which i'm told is "the best way to experience reddit". (It's not.)

Being logged in is an annoyance as it gives me a blank landing page that's an extra click away from the main "popular" page.

"New reddit" has brought some nice UI improvements, but their design team is choosing some absolutely miserable paths in the name of data collection.

Can't even expand most comment threads on mobile these days without logging in. Worse than most news sites.

The main reason why anyone would want you to use their App is your likely inability to block ads (unless you block them at network level, that is). Sure, logging your behavior while using the App is a nice to have component as well, but the best way to serve ads and make sure they are seen by majority of users, is by having the user not use a browser.

I'm working on 20-things.com, my alternative to reddit, still in the making. I use it as a personal public bookmarking service, posting things I find interesting/worth sharing. This does not scale well since large userbase have large operating costs, so my plan is rather simple: keep it small and closed, periodically opening it up for new users as others leave.

But how will it make money? It won't, and that's ok.

Would you ever consider making this open-source? It would be a great addition to the Awesome-Selfhosted list. [1]

[1] https://github.com/awesome-selfhosted/awesome-selfhosted