Honestly I’m tired of every website trying to annoy or force me to download an app. Mobile web design is perfectly capable of doing the vast majority of the functionality you get with an app. It’s all about gaining greater access to your device’s functionality and data.
If someone told me you’d be expected to install a separate piece of software on your device for each website you frequently visit back in 2010 I’d have said that sounds like a stupid idea and it’d never catch on.
I’ve never experienced the limited comments but it does constantly send an intrusive popup at the bottom of the screen that forces me to respond if I want to continue on my browser or go to download the app.
Also I have to switch to desktop mode to access certain features such as uploading a picture or a video when creating a new post. The Reddit mobile site only lets you make text or link posts.
All of this functionality could easily be added to the mobile site but it’s clear they’re hobbling the mobile site to annoy people into downloading the official Reddit app where they will have greater access to your personal data.
“Lemmy is a selfhosted social link aggregation and discussion platform”
Okay seriously, this was my first issue. Someone on Reddit recommended Lemmy to me and I saw that and immediately went back to them and was like “WTF?”.