2y ago

YSK: You can use Libreddit instead of Reddit for more privacy and no ads (and no traffic/views for Reddit)

The developer wrote a good post on Reddit, which I will mainly quote here:

10 second pitch: Libreddit is a portmanteau of "libre" (meaning freedom) and "Reddit". It is a private front-end like Invidious but for Reddit. Browse the coldest takes of r/unpopularopinion without being tracked.

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        🚀 Fast: written in Rust for blazing fast speeds and memory safety
    ☁️ Light: no JavaScript, no ads, no tracking, no bloat
    🕵 Private: all requests are proxied through the server, including media
    🔒 Secure: strong Content Security Policy prevents browser requests to Reddit

How does Libreddit enhance my privacy?

Reddit tracks a lot of data but Libreddit logs nothing and uses no JavaScript by default so client-side monitoring isn't possible. There are 35 community-hosted instances that can be used to access Libreddit; one can spread their traffic across multiple for even more privacy. 7 of our instances are .onion hidden services so you can browse Libreddit using Tor.

Can I use it to login to Reddit?

Libreddit doesn't currently support logins but using cookies, users can subscribe to subreddits, follow users, and import their subscriptions from Reddit.

Does Libreddit have any features not offered by Reddit?

On top of the minimalist design, Libreddit is very customizable with:

10 themes to choose from
A toggle to enable Wide UI (for those of you who like to maximize your screen space)
Filters so you can hide certain subreddits or users from your feeds

Instances: up-to-date table of instances -> https://github.com/libreddit/libreddit-instances/blob/master/instances.md

Not every instance is equally fast for you, similar to Lemmy. Try out a few.

GitHub: https://github.com/spikecodes/libreddit

For PC, I recommend the add-on LibRedirect, which automatically converts a Reddit link to a Libreddit link. This way, Reddit doesn't get any traffic from you, even if you want to access the page via a Google search.

66 comments

I just use Lemmy now but that's pretty neat.
- Yeah, I'm glad to be rid of reddit. Well, except for porn. It's still the best for porn. For now.
  
  Lemmynsfw is definitely filling my needs the way reddit used to
  
  Scrolller ( sources from reddit, but you aren't looking at any reddit ads and making reddit money )
- Why would I want to get angry 🤬😡 for no reason again. It was so exhausting
- This, along with LibRedirect, is still great for when you are searching for something and a Reddit post comes up. Like the direction Reddit is taking or not (and I don’t which is largely why I’m here), there are still some genuinely informative and useful posts on the platform and if you’re not willing to completely foreclose on viewing those ever again this is a great way to do so.
- And no John Oliver pictures here
  
  You say that like it's a bad thing!
  
  Nothing is perfect.
  
  Here you are, a community dedicated to our british birdman
  https://lemmy.world/c/johnoliver

Reddit ruined it. Reddit just isn't reddit without RIF. I don't even wanna see what's going on there anymore. From what I've heard it's going downhill anyways.
- Apollo was my app of choice, but I agree. Nevertheless, Reddit still has years and years of valuable product reviews and discussions that have not - and probably will not for years, if ever - be rivaled in the fediverse.
  Libreddit and Teddit are good for “{topic} site:Reddit.com” searches when you don’t want to give Reddit the traffic and ad revenue.
- Yeah, I've checked in a couple times, and it's just not enjoyable like it was.

Not really into reading Reddit anymore but I just wanted to comment that I found the assumption that people would know what a portmanteau is but at the same time not understanding that the name is made out of libre + reddit funny.
Have a nice evening!

I have an honest question for all the commenters saying "I'd rather not use reddit": where do you get niche information from other than reddit?
I don't want to give reddit traffic, but I find myself constantly looking for information that would necessarily only be available on a platform like reddit. Examples:
Product info and reviews
Niche troubleshooting for odd hobbies (fermentation, video games, diy)
Travel advice from locals/regulars (do I need wetsuit to swim here? Where are restaurants that won't harass my partner and I for being queer?)
Advice, when the "official" recommendations on SEO websites were clearly written for a litigation-happy American society (some healthcare, some law, etc.)
I consider myself pretty information-access savvy but a lot of these things require a "crowdsource" aspect that blogs and other websites can't provide.
What do y'all do?
- Currently? I just do without it and replace that surfing with other content.
- The poignant question is "where did you do those things before reddit?", and it's poignant because, for half of them, you either didn't do it in one place, or didn't do it at all.
  Reddit is convenient but not necessary.
- I fully agree. I went a few weeks without reddit but decided I don't need to be some noble reddit crusader. I downloaded the reddit app yesterday to visit once a day to check some major subs that I enjoyed and aren't developed here (fantasy football, bourbon, etc). I still spend 90% of my time here, less than 5 or 10 minutes a day on reddit.
  
  Same. And I don't get why you're getting downvoted for this. You're doing the right thing 90% of the time, which is better than doing the wrong thing 100% of the time. "What, you won't leave a platform you used everyday for years immediately without turning back? Shame on you!"
  It's the same problem with vegans who judge everyone who isn't 100% vegan, even if they try their best to get there. Guess what, that's gonna drive people away.
  I also use this platform for my daily dose of memes and news instead of reddit now, but some subreddits are not active here (yet), so I will visit Reddit from time to time.
- For reviews, depending on the product, I check tech websites, Amazon or productreview.com.au (I'm sure there are other local equivalents). For niche hobbies, forums on hobby-specific websites (eg. I sew, and find the forums on the Pattern Review website very helpful) or facebook groups. I don't travel, so I have no personal experience with that one. For health advice, I check sources such as health authorities and universities. I've never had to seek legal advice. I guess I never relied entirely on Reddit exclusively for answers on all of these things, I like to check multiple places.

Libredirect redirects all your links to libre sources, not only Reddit but also youtube, twitter, tik tok, etc
https://libredirect.github.io/
- Yes, after the installation of this add-on it will ask what and which redirects you want. I just activated the toggle for Reddit. You can change your redirects everytime in the settings.
- Oh that’s wonderful.
  I valued Reddit because of the occasional gem that I would incorporate into my life. For that I’d wade through weeks and months of trash.
  This comment might be the first gem I found on Lemmy. And the trash was quite nice so far.

Nah. Thanks for trying to help, but personally, I don’t want to have anything to do with Reddit. I won’t even follow Reddit links on Google.
The only way I interacted with Reddit was Apollo. And that’s gone. So Reddit is dead is dead to me.
- I started using SearXNG and actually blocked Reddit from the results. As someone who almost always put “Reddit” in my google searches, I’ve been impressed with the quality of my search results without relying on Reddit.

Libreddit is great !
There is also Teddit that you can easily selfhost too and import your followed subs to. Example using docker

Some public instances :
teddit.ggc-project.de
teddit.zaggy.nl
teddit.tinfoil-hat.net
teddit.domain.glass

I appreciate the concept, but I don't even want to give Reddit page views anymore.
I've moved on from various platforms before, but I've never done so feeling so thoroughly pissed off at the platform itself. (I never had a Twitter account, or that would likely be neighbors with Reddit in this category)
- Fair enough. With libreddit, you don’t give Reddit any traffic or views, because the libreddit instance already scraped all information.
  
  So that means it’s good to follow my niche topics that didn’t make it to Lemmy and likely won’t anytime soon, but it comes with the price with not being able to contribute?
  Maybe that’s a thing I can get behind.

How does it do this without the API?
- It works on the data that your browser receives from Reddit.com. It’s more error prone and may fail any time they do a change.
  
  So just a ton of DOM manipulation?
- Yeah that's what I'd like to know too. Dev must be clever.

Not being able to login to libreddit is a feature to me, since ideally people would not be contributing to helping add value to the ecosystem of reddit with comments for people to respond to.
Seen so many excuse like oh the subreddit I am on is niche so it doesn't matter. But, it's those niche ones that actually add the most value and have people come back, since the popular ones have been the easiest to replace. And it's the niche ones that show up in search results the most in my experience due to the obscurity compared to popular subs that have many different sites having the same resources.

I respect the project a great deal, but I just don’t see myself putting any effort into making Reddit accessible for myself.
Even if there were zero reasons to avoid Reddit on principle, Lemmy is just a better “product” for what I want out of it.
If I’m googling something at work and need to view a page there, fine. I’ll just use a cached page or visit directly with ad blocking as if it were any other webpage. That might benefit the company in some small way, but that doesn’t make it worth prepping my devices to better make use of Reddit.

I'm trying to boot reddit for good, but wonder, how does this work without the reddit API? Is it a web scraper? I think it is still possible to do that, but dk for how long.
- I have an honest question for all the commenters saying "I'd rather not use reddit": where do you get niche information from other than reddit?
  I don't want to give reddit traffic, but I find myself constantly looking for information that would necessarily only be available on a platform like reddit. Examples:
  Product info and reviews
  Niche troubleshooting for odd hobbies (fermentation, video games, diy)
  Travel advice from locals/regulars (do I need wetsuit to swim here? Where are restaurants that won't harass my partner and I did being queer?)
  Advice, when the "official" recommendations on SEO websites were clearly written for a litigation-happy American society (some healthcare, some law, etc.)
  I consider myself pretty information-access savvy but a lot of these things require a "crowdsource" aspect that blogs and other websites can't provide.
  What do y'all do?
- oops, meant to make a top level comment :)

Libreddit is great, been using it way before the Reddit drama (libreddit.caldeirag.xyz), there is also Teddit which is similar, they both support the cookie subscription thing.

I'd rather just not use reddit, thanks.

Hear me out.
You could also just NOT use reddit.
The most you use reddit, the more spez wins
- There is a lot of info and answers to specific questions that only exist on reddit. I'm not going to ask a question again when I could view the answer on libreddit.

when i click either of those github links it just reloads this page. when i went to libredd.it (is that even right? there's no link here) it threw an error. my internet is fine.
- Try this one: https://libreddit.privacy.com.de I don't know why the links don't work anymore... Here is the overview: https://github.com/libreddit/libreddit-instances/blob/master/instances.md

Is this still valid after Reddit'sAPI changes? Would rather not be the cause of some large bill to the saints who host instances
- Libreddit uses anonymous endpoints that still work for now, I use Libreddit daily on my instance.
  
  I'm asking about the devops, will the dev hosting it be charged by Reddit?

They have their bots upvoting here now? Lol whatever.

I'm not a developer, is there an app or something I can download or a web app I can install?

You can still browse reddit w RiF too, just not logged in. I just happen to like it here better.

66 comments