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TikTok Remix Culture

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327 points demail | 1 comments | 15 May 21 00:06 UTC | HN request time: 0.288s | source
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herpderperator ◴[15 May 21 03:01 UTC] No.27161933[source]▶
I think part of TikTok's success is the fact that they have a public/guest browser platform[0] that doesn't restrict you from seeing content without an account. It means people who wouldn't usually have the mobile app can still be a part of the action, and that may eventually drive them to sign up.

It's actually almost unbelievable that you can browse endlessly and never once be prompted to sign up unless you try to engage in some way. Instagram, Reddit, Twitter etc all bother you from the very second you load the page with modals and banners bullying you into signing up or getting their mobile app, if they let you see anything at all.

[0] https://www.tiktok.com/foryou

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zerocrates ◴[15 May 21 03:58 UTC] No.27162216[source]▶
Instagram in particular seems to have gotten much more aggressive in not letting you view anything without an account.

For whatever reason though businesses like restaurants and bars will often nominally "have" a wide range of social media accounts, Instagram is often the only one with actual content. I used to be able to reasonably use these but I now seem to get a wall requiring login immediately.

It's possibly/probably worse because I'm often doing this in incognito mode, which tends to make everything more aggressively naggy. Twitter seems to be fairly random as to when they'll let you, say, view replies or media or something without requiring login, while Reddit is basically fine on desktop (even better in the "old" mode) and a dystopian nightmare on mobile.

Pretty much everything "big" is much much worse on the mobile web, I guess because they figure they stand a pretty good shot at getting you to get The App instead. It sucks.

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strogonoff ◴[15 May 21 08:36 UTC] No.27163490[source]▶
> Instagram in particular seems to have gotten much more aggressive in not letting you view anything without an account. <…> Pretty much everything "big" is much much worse on the mobile web, I guess because they figure they stand a pretty good shot at getting you to get The App instead. It sucks.

Those are two separate issues. Almost all features of Instagram, except for interactive widgets in stories, are available from the web (doesn’t matter mobile or desktop). Like with Facebook, I chose to not install the actual app on my new phone, but I do fire up their web versions sometimes. Considering the extent of functionality, Instagram actually works really smoothly, and I hear the same about FB’s non-basic web version. Though yes, they do require an account.

Speaking of Twitter, it also works well from the web (albeit with no support for their equivalent of stories), but curiously they block VPNs (or perhaps just EC2 IP ranges) in a way that completely breaks some of the site (such as user profiles).

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vbsteven ◴[15 May 21 09:11 UTC] No.27163630[source]▶
Having to have an account is the problem. When someone sends me an Instagram link I used to be able to just watch the video and browse the profile. A bit later profile access was blocked. And now I can only watch a video once before it blocks for login. Only a matter of time before the window is completely closed.

On Twitter/TikTok I can watch any link without having to login. Twitter even allows anonymous search.

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1. strogonoff ◴[15 May 21 09:21 UTC] No.27163678[source]▶
The post I’m replying to made two separate problems out of 1) Instagram requiring to log in, and 2) “everything big” being poorly usable on the Web. I’m not arguing with the silly login requirement (considering Instagram supports private profiles for people who don’t want to share), but providing a counterpoint to the (2).