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How I use Reddit

How do I block Reddit?

On my laptop

I want to be deliberate on how I spend my time.

I can get distracted for hours, especially on r/aww/ 🐰🐱🐶.

However, reddit is also the source of useful information, with Quora and Reddit taking over Yahoo Answers as the internet's go-to place for life's questions. (eg: plumbing questions)

This is how I'm using Reddit for my benefit and not just for Reddit's benefit.

Software

  • Freedom to block specific sites across devices, including Reddit
  • I also have a Chrome/Firefox extension called LeechBlock for redundancy purposes

On my phone

Software

  • Firefox for Android
    • Leechblock to block Reddit
  • Freedom app
    • When a Freedom session is active, I disable the use of Settings
  • Nova Launcher
    • I have it setup so that when I tap and hold on an app, there isn't an option to uninstall.
    • This is to prevent me from uninstalling Freedom.

How do I use Reddit if it's blocked?

I block access to Reddit on my phone.

On my laptop, I

  1. Run wget <reddit-url>
  2. I might have to rename the file to have an .html extension.

How do I view more comments?

When I run the wget command, I replace the www with old to download the old reddit version of the site.

What if I want to ask a question?

  1. Turn off Freedom
  2. Run sleep 3600 && open -a Freedom to turn on Freedom back in an hour
  3. Go on Reddit and use it normally.

How do I view videos

  1. I download the new reddit URL with wget
  2. I open the page with my web browser.
    • Reddit has some JS that hides
  3. I open the dev tools (right click anywhere, click Inspect )
  4. Press cmd shift p and type Disable JavaScript
  5. Press enter
    • the sources tab should have a yellow warning icon beside it now
    • ![[sources-tab.png]]
  6. Refresh the page
  7. Look at the elements tab
  8. Find the <video> tag and look for the <source> tag inside it
  9. Copy the <source> tag's src attribute
  10. Open VLC
  11. In the Menu Bar > File > Open Network
  12. Paste the URL

This approach works for me because it can't scale and I can't endlessly scroll. The friction prevents me from going on reddit.com and going to the home page and endlessly scrolling.

This is the reasoning behind my https://fullchee-reminders.netlify.app/ app where there are no links to other podcasts or YouTube videos and there isn't an infinite scroll.

Last update: 2023-04-24