Thankfully there are also non-standard apps that are better (i use one called sync).
I think its tough to run a social network today and not be tempted to milk your users for everything a la facebook. Reddit does a reasonable job imo (and is being rewarded with good communities building there) though you can see the app is a bit of a grab in that direction (otherwise theyd just make the mobile web experience better). Hopefully their trajectory will stay positive though as always people will move on if bad decisions are made (a la slashdot, kuro5hin, digg, etc)
I think the fact that the Reddit management got to witness the rapid death of Digg and rapid influx of users resulting from it let them learn a valuable lesson at Diggs expense (at just how fast your users can destory you if you piss them off).
One thing I wonder though is where Reddit users would go in the event of such a collapse. I'm not aware of an established site in this format that's available like Reddit was available when the Digg collapse happened.
I think its tough to run a social network today and not be tempted to milk your users for everything a la facebook. Reddit does a reasonable job imo (and is being rewarded with good communities building there) though you can see the app is a bit of a grab in that direction (otherwise theyd just make the mobile web experience better). Hopefully their trajectory will stay positive though as always people will move on if bad decisions are made (a la slashdot, kuro5hin, digg, etc)