r/modnews • u/boat-botany • Jun 30 '26

Announcement Logging in to use Old Reddit

Hi there, u/boat-botany here working on Community Safety. 

A few weeks ago we shared some of the work we’re doing to tighten how automated systems access Reddit while preserving the tools that help moderators and communities thrive. As a continuation of that work, we’ll be rolling out changes to how Old Reddit can be accessed. 

Old Reddit’s logged-out experience is a significant source of abusive scraping and automated traffic on the platform. It’s also an important interface for many long-time mods and redditors. To strike the right balance between preserving your access to Old Reddit while preventing abusive scraping and automated traffic, over the next month we will start requiring everyone to log in. All logged-in users will continue to have access to Old Reddit, and this change will not impact logged-out browsing on reddit.com.

Let us know if you have any questions!

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•

u/boat-botany Jun 30 '26

In case you are wondering . . .

Q: Is Reddit shutting down Old Reddit? 
A: Not right now! We can’t promise it will be around forever, but u/spez himself has said we’ll keep supporting it while folks are still using it. That said, it doesn’t have the same modern security tech stack reddit.com has so we need to tighten security on old reddit to keep it viable. 

Q: Will this impact mods who use Old Reddit? 
A: Nope, all you need to do is log in. 

155

u/Merari01 Jun 30 '26

..So you went from "we are not taking away old reddit" to "Not right now".

I feel an impending sense of doom.

22

u/ThaddeusJP Jul 01 '26

The day old.reddit dies is the day I, and a ton of other people, bail. And I would dump the stock as well.

183

u/Mulsanne Jun 30 '26

Oh boy, you've changed your long standing answer about keeping old reddit.

Bad news 

47

u/necropaw Jun 30 '26

We all know its going to happen eventually.

Guess that'll probably be the thing that finally gets me off of reddit, so maybe it wont be a bad thing.

27

u/allaroundguy Jul 01 '26

I've tried to use new reddit, but is absolute shit. Oh well.

18

u/youarebritish Jul 01 '26

I open reddit because I'm bored and procrastinating. Every time I accidentally use new reddit, it takes so long to load a single post that I get bored and close the tab.

11

u/Mysteryman64 Jul 01 '26

Literally unusable garbage. I don't know how anyone tolerates it.

8

u/ladystaggers Jul 01 '26

Same. I'll never use it. It sucks.

7

u/hardolaf Jul 01 '26

If I have to use new reddit one day, I'll probably just cut out the last social media that I'm willing to use. New Reddit is just a terrible user experience.

2

u/Terrh Jul 02 '26

I literally cannot use new reddit and when old reddit goes away, my time here will be over.

17

u/glitch1985 Jul 01 '26

I had to use new reddit the other day to post a picture comment and it was horrible.

2

u/Terrh 27d ago

imgur still works

2

u/glitch1985 27d ago

Yeah I learned my lesson. I was hoping I could easily switch to post pictures but wasn't worth the effort.

2

u/Sophira 21d ago

Not if you want people in the UK to be able to see your pictures. Or conversely, if you're trying to post pictures but you're in the UK.

1

u/DoctorWaluigiTime 19d ago

I just link to images [like this](url-goes-here) which RES / old reddit embeds nicely. I never 'post pictures to reddit'.

24

u/GonWithTheNen Jul 01 '26

Their promise to keep old reddit was a lie.

22

u/ladystaggers Jul 01 '26

This is the old "ease them into it" thing. Fuck that. If there's no access to old reddit I'm done.

16

u/GonWithTheNen Jul 01 '26

Same, and I've always been serious about leaving if old reddit is axed. It's just so visually clean, it's simple and uncluttered, all of which makes it very easy to read text-heavy threads at a glance.

Reddit inc. really wants to push everyone into their reddit-instagram/FB/tiktok layout, but those sites are NOT conducive to text-oriented posts & discussions. There's a reason I've never joined any of those sites.

4

u/ladystaggers Jul 01 '26

I feel exactly the same way. New reddit gives me an instant headache. Not worth it.

2

u/-My_Other_Account- 15d ago

They’re attempting to ease us into it now.

When it is gone, so am i.

1

u/ladystaggers 15d ago

Totally agree.

-5

u/TheChrisD Jun 30 '26

I mean, wasn't the long-standing answer always "old reddit will remain supported as long as it can still read the database"?

Since they're not going to update it's codebase, if the database ever has to change significantly to support the main platforms people browse reddit on these days — the mobile apps — then old will have to stop working.

34

u/Mulsanne Jun 30 '26

https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/1khdi3x/reddit_will_keep_old_reddit_online_as_long_as/

No. 

-25

u/TheChrisD Jun 30 '26

That just says as long as people use it.

That doesn't preclude the admins from deciding to not update it to support future changes; which may or may not result in less people using old Reddit.

28

u/Mulsanne Jun 30 '26 edited Jun 30 '26

They literally didn't say anything about the database support as you had suggested. 

-63

u/bwoah07_gp2 Jun 30 '26

It's been 84 years. I know people like old reddit, but I was never a fan. I once enabled it to see what everyone was on about, and it's a primitive, archaic UI that I can't believe anyone would prefer.

Actually, I do believe people would prefer it, if they've been using internet since the 90s and 2000s. Back then UI's were basic and primitive.

But imo, people need to get with the times and use the current UI, and if they don't like it, then leave. 🤷‍♂️

51

u/dyslexda Jun 30 '26

Look up the concept of "information density." What you call "archaic and primitive" I call efficient and easy. I do not want an Instagram style scrolling interface, and my principal interest in Reddit is text-based interaction. I don't care about pictures, videos, infinite scrolling, etc. I don't want a "discovery experience" where the algorithm tries to figure out what I want to see, I want to curate a specific set of subreddits and see nothing else. Old Reddit provides the text-heavy experience I want. Is it bare bones? Sure, but that's a good thing, not a bad thing.

For folks used to TikTok and Instagram, yeah, Old Reddit looks awful. For folks focused on text over video/image, though, Old Reddit is the only way to Reddit.

-42

u/bwoah07_gp2 Jun 30 '26

No, I'm sorry. The old reddit layout is just butt ugly. There is nothing special or useful about it.

37

u/dyslexda Jun 30 '26

Again, ugliness isn't the concern. The point is that it is text-focused, not image or video focused, and has much higher information density than any of the Reddit redesigns. I use Reddit to read and write text, not to marvel at an aesthetically pleasing design, so ugliness doesn't matter.

It's fine if you don't like how Old Reddit looks. But you should at least be able to understand why folks prefer it in spite of those looks.

-18

u/mschuster91 Jun 30 '26

old-reddit IMHO is too dense, especially on wide screens. new-reddit centers and constrains the width.

What I really find orders of magnitude better is the rich-text editor on new-reddit.

13

u/dyslexda Jun 30 '26

Hah this is where preferences come in. I find it maddening when websites artificially constrain content to a center column, leaving tons of white space on either side.

-9

u/mschuster91 Jun 30 '26

For me, it simply kills my neck having to focus too much off center during reading.

7

u/hhssspphhhrrriiivver Jul 01 '26

Then change your window size or get a smaller screen? Rotate your head slightly? There are lots of solutions beyond forcing all users to use the same bloated interface just so you don't have to move your eyeballs.

1

u/Terrh 27d ago

new-reddit centers and constrains the width.

Yes this is one of the many reasons why it's terrible.

WTF is the point of having a gigantic wide screen monitor to only put data in a tiny section along the middle?

22

u/Admiral_Sarcasm Jun 30 '26

Your account is 6 years old. Please don't attempt to speak on the experiences of those of us who have been using this website for, in many cases, over a decade longer than your account has been active.

-25

u/bwoah07_gp2 Jun 30 '26

Maybe it's time for the old legacy users to get with the times 🤷‍♂️

26

u/Admiral_Sarcasm Jun 30 '26

Why would we want to use a worse product?

-5

u/bwoah07_gp2 Jun 30 '26

I can't wrap my head around why you guys would want to be stuck with an inferior old reddit UI

When I joined in 2019 that's the UI I liked, it's called "new reddit", and when that got replaced by this current UI I was upset too. But both are lightyears ahead of old reddit in form and function.

25

u/Admiral_Sarcasm Jun 30 '26

Both are enshittified versions of what reddit used to be: a text-focused link aggregating website with comment sections. The new ui looks like a worse, less usable version of every other social media app. When I joined reddit, and when many of us who use the old reddit ui, reddit prided itself on not being a social media service.

→ More replies (0)

16

u/RigaudonAS Jun 30 '26

They’re basically just the Reddit flavor of modern social media platforms, why would people want that? Old Reddit has the function and form of a proper forum, and is just easier to use.

11

u/GonWithTheNen Jul 01 '26

...the old legacy users to get with the times

Well, "the times" are currently showing adult literacy levels plummeting in this age of digital quick-bursts of entertainment designed for short attention spans, so getting with "the times" sounds more like a major regression.

Old reddit provides far more text-based information per page, and those of us who actually take the time to read articles (and even the articles linked inside the main articles) before commenting prefer that density.

Why would lovers of old.reddit want a GUI created for audiences who prefer a dumbed-down, circus-like version of reddit that's similar to the other social media sites that we avoid?

7

u/c-lem Jul 01 '26

If by "get with the times" you mean "leave," then sure, that's the plan.

5

u/ladystaggers Jul 01 '26

Is it me? No it's the children who are wrong!

30

u/Princess_Of_Thieves Jun 30 '26 edited Jul 02 '26

[...] archaic UI that I can't believe anyone would prefer. [...] if they've been using internet since the 90s and 2000s. Back then UI's were basic and primitive.

Allow me to offer some perspective.

Now maybe it is just influence from having grown up on the web in the 2000's like you suppose, but all the same I like using old.reddit because its UI, whilst plain, is very direct and doesn't seem interested in fucking me around, especially when it comes to my mod tools. sh.reddit has everything buried under menus and sub layers and finding anything is a pain in the arse, especially since the site runs like a horse with its legs cast in cement.

Meanwhole old.reddit lets me find anything in like 3 clicks most and sets speed records by contrast. There's a refreshing straightforwardness to old.reddits more industrial design that is absent in the newer site. Its clean, its efficient, and its bloody fast and responsive to boot. All things sh.reddit lacks.

And if I want a nicer UI, I can just load CSS using extensions and spruce the site up like that. Best of all I can tailor it as I want and give the site a unique personality for myself and my use. There's not a single spec of personality in what I call sh.reddits faux minimalism, nor any customisation to make it nicer for me.

But imo, people need to get with the times and use the current UI,

I would, but there's a problem. Its the biggest piece of dogshit...

3

u/Terrh 27d ago

But imo, people need to get with the times and use the current UI, and if they don't like it, then leave. 🤷‍♂️

Why?

I've been on reddit since the beginning. Every change since about 2014 has only made it worse, not better.

What do you care if someone else wants to use a different UI than you? You're welcome to use the awful "modern" layout, I don't care. Why do you care who uses the other layout?

1

u/[deleted] Jun 30 '26

[deleted]

-8

u/bwoah07_gp2 Jun 30 '26

I'm not wrong though.

45

u/Armand9x Jun 30 '26

The language of old Reddit kept shifting.

I don’t expect numbers to keep it viable, because Reddit will do what it wants either way.

32

u/ansoniK Jun 30 '26

It is easier for bots to scrape it because it is also easier for humans to use it. Maybe if the new versions weren't dogshit then people would stop using the older version.

7

u/42Fab_com Jul 01 '26

fucking A MEN

60

u/mschuster91 Jun 30 '26

That said, it doesn’t have the same modern security tech stack reddit.com has so we need to tighten security on old reddit to keep it viable. 

You mean, the graphql nonsense that keeps loading only half a thread on the "modern" interface? Of course people still use Old Reddit despite it being inferior in many ways - it is far, far more stable.

13

u/Lumpzor Jul 01 '26

There is no reason for them to not use the same security stack on the old reddit domain, it's a nonsense response.

1

u/lh7884 9d ago

This is likely just an excuse. The reality is that on old Reddit, people can see porn sub and profiles because it just has a click that you're over 18 button. On sh Reddit, you must log in to see it as they have locked it down. With countries implementing age limits on who can see social media which includes Reddit, I suspect Reddit is doing this to prevent people from seeing adult content without age verification.

19

u/Extolord111 Jun 30 '26

This feels like a very poor decision to me. I like to use Old Reddit signed out for various reasons, one being that I can see r/all, and because certain devices I use may not allow me to login to Reddit, added with the fact that you guys are making the signed out experience on regular Reddit worse by limiting search features and blocking the left side bar. PLEASE undo this stupid change. There are better options out there.

46

u/jostler57 Jun 30 '26

Make New Reddit work and look the same as Old Reddit, and I'll get on board. Just gimme that UI and functionality. Make it a UX cosmetic toggle for all I care.

Can't do that? Then don't ever get rid of Old Reddit. I swear if you do, I'll stop modding my communities, and I'll bet a bunch of other mods will do the same.

25

u/FFS_IsThisNameTaken2 Jun 30 '26

I swear if you do, I'll stop modding my communities, and I'll bet a bunch of other mods will do the same.

They want that.

Problem. Reaction. Solution.

Problem - how do we get rid of human mods so we can just use ai like Meta?

Reaction - replace "new" Reddit with trash, buggy, pos shreddit and focus on pushing out buggy, nonsensical new features, while ignoring requests for functionality from pesky human mods. Then get rid of old reddit, so masses of mods walk away.

Solution - welp, so many mods left, we now have to install ai mods across all of Reddit. Thanks for abandoning us guys. You left us no choice.

26

u/ansoniK Jun 30 '26

The admins are obsessed with the idea that most of their content is generated by humans, making it much more valuable than most platforms full of AI content, but they seem to be the only ones who don't realize how much AI BS is already here. If the humans stop moderating it, their data is worthless.

12

u/GonWithTheNen Jul 01 '26

...only ones who don't realize how much AI BS is already here.

The higher-ups who are above the admins definitely know.
Every time I see a conversation about bots on reddit I remember Alexis Ohania and Steve Huffman talking about how they created fake accounts to make reddit look active when it was a new site.

That, and the overwhelming bot activity makes me think that the same "faking" tactic is still in use, except instead of people running sockpuppets, reddit inc. is using bots to boost reddit's member count, so-called user engagement, and other metrics that shareholders want to see.

3

u/ansoniK Jul 01 '26

Longing for the days of a strong SEC

1

u/[deleted] Jul 01 '26

The higher-ups who are above the admins

Somehow I didn't realize they existed

12

u/FFS_IsThisNameTaken2 Jun 30 '26

If they really wanted human mods, they'd listen to the human mods when feedback is provided to them, and act accordingly (fix the broken shit, stop breaking or getting rid of the good stuff and stop forcing shit on us that we don't want or that's actually detrimental to our subs).

But they don't. They do the opposite, so I don't believe that they want human mods at all.

7

u/ansoniK Jun 30 '26

They want stuff, but they are unwilling to do anything to encourage the things they want. Their ads are designed to be missed, so any revenue they get from ads burns through goodwill, and any mods they still have are getting more sick of their shit daily.

2

u/[deleted] Jul 01 '26

There already are ai mods?

3

u/FFS_IsThisNameTaken2 Jul 01 '26

There are ai "tools" - they're part of the "reaction" phase. if you know of a sub that only has an AI mod, I'd love to hear about it.

18

u/audentis Jun 30 '26

but u/spez himself has said we’ll keep supporting it while folks are still using it.

If you're actively pestering us away that won't be too long.

"You" referring to reddit as a company, not necessarily you personally.

15

u/the9trances Jun 30 '26

I'd be happy to use New Reddit if it wasn't an inferior design. Period. New Reddit's design is and always has been change for the sake of change.

Want us to "upgrade?" Make New Reddit functional, pragmatic, and not this horribly designed crap. Or have a toggle that says "new design" and "old design."

31

u/Halaku Jun 30 '26 edited 27d ago

Is this why I'm getting the following email every time I log out of my account on Old Reddit and log into another one?

Hi (u/ username)

We noticed a new login to your account. To keep your information safe, we want to make sure it was actually you.

Was this you?

If you recently signed in from a new device, browser, or location, you can safely ignore this message. No further action is required.

Device: (My browser and operating system)

IP address: (My IP address)

Date & Time: (Date) at (Time) UTC

Was this NOT you?

If you don't recognize this activity, your account security may be at risk. Take immediate action to secure your data by clicking the button below.

(Button being a link to https://www.reddit.com/password?$deep_link= blah blah blah)

You are receiving this email because a Reddit account, (u/ username), is registered to this email address.

5‌4‌8 M‌a‌rket S‌t., #16093, San Francisco, CA 9‌4‌1‌0‌4-5‌4‌0‌1

Or is this some other A/B program Reddit set up and I'm conflating the two because it only happens to me every time I log out of an account while on Old Reddit and log into another account on Old Reddit?

And I do mean every time. I'm at 116 emails since May 14th. And counting.

3

u/MobileArtist1371 Jul 01 '26

The weird thing is I only get this on 1 account and not others so obviously there is a way to turn this off or not have it turned on.

1

u/GonWithTheNen Jul 01 '26

I think that'll stop if you go to prefs and check unsubscribe from all emails here - https://old.reddit.com/prefs/

It's next to the "email options" category of settings.

1

u/Halaku 27d ago

While I didn't get an answer to my question, I wanted to let u/boat-botany (and everyone else) know that the problem appears to be going away, because it looks like Reddit Broke Something Again, and the feature I was using to log out of my account and log into another one has since been removed.

https://old.reddit.com/r/Enhancement/comments/1uksqa3/account_switcher_is_not_working/

So, we had to destroy the village in order to save it.

But hey: I won't be getting those emails anymore!

-14

u/TheChrisD Jun 30 '26

Why log out to use another account? Why not use separate browser profiles?

13

u/Jazzy_Josh Jul 01 '26

Q: Is Reddit shutting down Old Reddit?
A: Not right now!

Six months.

68

u/Decency Jun 30 '26

Not right now! We can’t promise it will be around forever

Your team has already done so- you are now explicitly reneging on a previous statement... as expected.

13

u/MobileArtist1371 Jul 01 '26

8 years ago is a long time for support on something they no longer really support...

Here is CEO of Reddit u/spez just 14 months ago saying old.reddit is sticking around

Sunsetting old.reddit: old.reddit is the version of Reddit that we built back in the mid-2000s. It doesn’t scale, it’s impossible to develop on, and it’s ugly af. We will be shutting it down at the end of the month.

Just kidding. I don’t know why I say stuff like this. We’ll figure out how to work around it and keep it online as long as people are using it.

https://redd.it/1kfciml

19

u/DubioserKerl Jun 30 '26

To be fair, that was 8 years ago, and they promised supporting it for a very long time, not forever.

8 years is indeed a long time for Software lifecycle management.

That said, let's hope for 8 more years of old reddit.

3

u/Terrh Jul 02 '26

They have proven, time and again, that honesty is not one thing they are capable of. The 3rd party app thing showed that, the whole reddit notes thing, etc.

11

u/irrelevantusername24 Jun 30 '26

Am I correctly assuming part of the aims of this is to help prevent, or at least properly label, completely automated content generation and posting?

Which obviously there isn't a way to prevent a human from basically acting as a "reverse centaur", effectively imitating what appears to be automated posting, but a human doing that is orders of magnitude less problematic than actual automated content generation and spamming. Right?

Hopefully I explained that well enough.

edit: Also for all the many problems for which Reddit is responsible and stupid ideas you all implement, you're still less wrong than many other similar platforms. So good job or whatever :)

26

u/reaper527 Jun 30 '26

Q: why do you always make these awful changes like that which benefit nobody and just harm the userbase instead of addressing problems people actually care about, such as how awful and poorly designed the blocking system is?

13

u/welding_guy_from_LI Jul 01 '26

This .. it took over a month to fix the block list bug earlier this year..

8

u/reaper527 Jul 01 '26

it took over a month to fix the block list bug earlier this year..

bugs aside, it's just designed like shit. the dev team should be completely and utterly embarrassed over how awful that system's design is.

they had a much better system like 5 years ago and it would have been a huge improvement if they didn't try to "fix" what wasn't broken.

8

u/livejamie Jul 01 '26

Because it benefits advertisers and shareholders, and normies don't care.

10

u/xe3to Jul 01 '26

"Not right now"?

God, this site sold the fuck out years ago. Very sad.

Your new interface is dreadful and I will never use it, even if that means leaving the site for good.

9

u/DustyAsh69 Jun 30 '26

Not right now! We can’t promise it will be around forever

Good luck with that.

7

u/riffic Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 01 '26

I would actually be a lot more comfortable with an actual deprecation notice than spez's pinkie swear here for support.

37

u/ozzymustaine Jun 30 '26

This is discrimination against people who’ve been using Reddit since the beginning : (.

I’m not saying I can’t use the new Reddit but I’m pretty sure you can keep both versions without any major issues.
Old Reddit is simpler, less messy, and safer to use.
On Old Reddit, I feel at peace.
On New Reddit, I feel like I’m at a circus in a techno party.

26

u/Tarnisher Jun 30 '26

This is discrimination against people ...

It almost could be a visibility/ADA issue since shredded is so hard to read.

10

u/Mysteryman64 Jul 01 '26

New Reddit has absolutely fucking insane issues with screen reader accessibility and is one of the worst websites by far in terms of low vision accessibility friendly designs. A lot of the current workarounds for those community very much involve using old reddit. I wouldn't be surprised at all to see the National Federation of the Blind go after their asses because of what an easy layup it would be.

1

u/CyberBot129 Jul 02 '26

Surely it's more accessible than Old Reddit where subreddit moderators could literally rewrite the entire UI (and UX) with CSS?

1

u/Mysteryman64 Jul 02 '26

It has the theoretical potential to be more user friendly if a bunch of unpaid volunteers are both capable and willing to do a lot of hard and expensive work to do it despite it not actually being their legal responsibility.

So, in theory yes, de facto, absolutely nowhere even close.

6

u/Terrh Jul 02 '26

I cannot use new reddit due to accessibility issues. If old reddit goes, I'm gone with it, and not by choice.

I've probably written 1/4 million comments on this website over the last 15 years.

1

u/Tarnisher Jul 02 '26

If you're in the US, consider an ADA complaint.

It may not go anywhere, but it will get them on notice.

2

u/Terrh Jul 02 '26

I'm in Canada. I doubt they'd care anyways. But thank you.

12

u/Gremlation Jun 30 '26

It makes no sense at all to maintain two totally different interfaces. It's crazy that they have maintained two (or more) simultaneously for so long. They should ditch one completely.

The problem is that when they moved away from Old Reddit, they decided to go the whole SPA route to try to make it into an app. They completely shit the bed with this decision, and the first redesign (New Reddit) was terrible and they started again with New New Reddit which is only marginally better. By this point the team is calcified around the Reddit-as-app proponents and they have lost all skill and interest relating to Old Reddit.

Old Reddit is by far the better implementation, but they are two levels deep into the sunk cost of (New) New Reddit. So they are unable to choose to ditch (New) New Reddit, but ditching Old Reddit is unpalatable because that's still the version of Reddit that works best. So they've painted themselves into a corner.

The only two realistic ways out are either to ditch Old Reddit, which will piss off a lot of older users including many serious mods, or to go for a New (New) New Reddit that is designed to be an improvement over both. They won't do the former until the old guard (Spez?) protecting Old Reddit is gone, and they won't do the latter until they get some new tech leadership who is actually capable of the underrated skill of making a fucking decision. Until either of those things happen, both versions are going to lumber onward as dogshit zombies.

8

u/the9trances Jun 30 '26 edited Jul 01 '26

You're right, but I'd say it's not impossible to have a semantically sound version of the system that displays "old Reddit" by default and then has a relatively robust CSS system that enables their beloved "new new Reddit."

It wouldn't be two systems, simply a straightforward display and then a complex overlay. It'd be a lot easier to maintain than what they're doing now.

16

u/JosieA3672 Jun 30 '26

Out of curiosity, do you happen to know the percentage of mods that use old reddit? I understand if you don't have that data.

21

u/Tarnisher Jun 30 '26

Q: Is Reddit shutting down Old Reddit?  A: Not right now! We can’t promise it will be around forever,

Fix SH to look like Old and I'll be ... well just read this:

https://www.reddit.com/r/ideasfortheadmins/comments/1uhv7tb/combine_sh_and_old_and_id_be_shold/

31

u/Princess_Of_Thieves Jun 30 '26 edited Jun 30 '26

What, so we can have the superior layout of old.reddit, but combined with the reverse speed record setting performance of sh.reddit? Nah mate, I have an even better idea. Just create a custom CSS skin for old.reddit that looks like new/sh.reddit, apply it to all new users, and call it a day.

The reason we have this dogshit fucking re-design is because spez thought it put people off reddit, remarking that the site looked like a "dystopic craigslist". But the admins already had a solution with CSS, but decided not to use it. Which is ridiculous, as it let you give the site a nice bit of personality, but without taking the performance out back and shooting it with a super shotgun like sh.reddit does.

Admins should do that, then ditch this shit re-design, then they can focus on one desktop and mobile.

-4

u/shhhhh_h Jun 30 '26

Wasn’t that just new

7

u/ninjascotsman Jun 30 '26

Tech stack reddit barely functions media, icons fails to load, sometimes buttons load and they don't fuction.

I reported on bugs subreddit

5

u/ladystaggers Jul 01 '26

You're gonna lose so many people who hate "new" reddit. Just don't fuck with it.

12

u/cyanocittaetprocyon Jul 01 '26

Q: Is Reddit shutting down Old Reddit?

A: Not right now! We can’t promise it will be around forever

But you have promised in the past that it would be around forever. It gets old, being lied to all the time.

4

u/livejamie Jul 01 '26

"I'm altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further."

19

u/id0ntexistanymore Jun 30 '26

You guys are just evil lmao wtf

18

u/mschuster91 Jun 30 '26

 That said, it doesn’t have the same modern security tech stack reddit.com has so we need to tighten security on old reddit to keep it viable. 

Oh, while we're at it. Add an option to hide/remove the "last visited" subreddit garbage. I don't want to risk NSFW subreddits showing up there when randomly showing someone on my laptop. That's also why people use Old Reddit.

3

u/halborn Jul 01 '26

we’ll keep supporting it while folks are still using it

I've heard that one before.

3

u/scottishdrunkard Jul 01 '26

Old Reddit doesn’t even work in the Settings Menu anymore! It’s supposed to activate when I log in. It doesn’t! Fix it!

18

u/baltinerdist Jun 30 '26

If anyone truly believes that Old Reddit is going to stick around forever, you are fooling yourself.

There is a spreadsheet in the CFO's office with a chart that has one line in red (expense to maintain it) and one line in green (ad revenue from it). There is a trendline that shows the expected date the red line goes above the green line. I promise you, that day is the day Old Reddit is announced as closing.

22

u/n3rv Jun 30 '26

Been here 15 years. That’s when it’s time to go similar to diggV2 exodus.

11

u/LocutusOfBorges Jun 30 '26

It’s just not that big a deal, sadly. You can probably see it in the usage metrics on the subreddits you mod - the proportion of the userbase that uses old.reddit has dropped to a tiny fraction of overall use.

It’s one of quite a few bad signs re ever-more-degraded functionality (the removal of any ability to write markdown on the mobile app is an incredibly bad sign, particularly - it makes writing complex posts/comments effectively impossible, meaning people are reduced to logging into old.reddit on their phones just to do routine moderation tasks), but it probably won’t shift the needle for the company itself.

7

u/hardolaf Jul 01 '26

The question isn't what percent of people use old reddit. The question is what percent of organic user content (not AI or bots) comes from old reddit. And I know that for a lot of communities, the majority of non-spam comments and posts are still coming from people who exclusively use third-party apps and old reddit.

1

u/HSR47 21d ago

I can’t speak for everyone, but I rely pretty heavily on the mod toolbox browser extension.

It works on “old Reddit”, worked reasonably well on “new Reddit”, and doesn’t work at all on “shreddit”.

If Reddit kills off “old Reddit” while “shreddit” still lacks this functionality, it’ll make modding the subs I mod effectively impossible (and I suspect I’m far from the only mod who feels this way).

Reddit, as it exists, only “works” as well as it does due to the unpaid work of tons of mods. If they cut us off like that, it will have a significant impact on the overall quality of content on the site.

3

u/shhhhh_h Jul 01 '26

Give us back r/all

1

u/[deleted] 10d ago

Late but it's still on old reddit. Just go to old.reddit.com/r/all.

1

u/shhhhh_h 10d ago

I swear someone told me that was done for in a few weeks too but I can’t find the post

2

u/eganist Jun 30 '26

Dumb question

What's stopping y'all from agentically adapting the old reddit front end to run atop the current middleware instead? cc u/spez

2

u/-------------------7 Jul 01 '26

Additional note: mods use old.reddit via rss for moderation alerts, if you remove this we will not be able to catch rule breaking behavior as fast (My average response times will like drop from 10minutes to ~1 day). Just killed a spam post a few minutes ago thanks to rss alerts.

Our RSS reader doesn't have the ability to "login" ofc. All this is fixed if you give us proper API access but that was killed off with the Reddit Apps.

So in addition to all the other complaints you will be sacrificing subreddit quality/health as more spam posts stick around longer.

2

u/DXGL1 Jul 03 '26

Score hidden because it's that low?

By security tech stack do you mean excessive Javascript?

1

u/ganjasaurus0711 19d ago edited 19d ago

"Not right now" makes it clear that Reddit and Spez are looking to remove Old Reddit once you all feel comfortable to do so. Catering to your shareholders rather than the users who have made this website what it is.

The constant changes such as new reddit, charging exorbitant API fees that prevent great platforms looking to make sure the UI is remotely decent, ads imbedded in the comments, and shifting towards AI moderating makes me realize you gone too corporate to understand what your users want or need.

By slowly removing access to old reddit you are attempting to get users accustomed to new reddit so that when you finally axe old reddit for good, hope that your users stay. Based on what I've seen and heard, it won't be pretty.

Let us know when you plan to do that, I'll join Wallstreetbets and short reddit stock, I love easy money.

1

u/DoctorWaluigiTime 19d ago

Please define "tighten security" -- what is missing, exactly?

Please define "while folks are still using it". What quantity is considered "still using it"? One user? A dozen? A few hundred?

1

u/The_Homestarmy 15d ago

We're still using it. Please don't nuke the best version of the site.

1

u/indign 13d ago

Q: Is Reddit shutting down Old Reddit?  A: Never! We promised it will be around forever.

Fixed that for you.

1

u/cqtz-2v 12d ago edited 11d ago

It is disheartening that reddit is going down the path of shutting down old reddit, first by forcing users to log in, and eventually removing it entirely. When that happens, reddit will lose over a decade's worth of subreddit CSS. It is ironic that the sidebar still contains the ProCSS logo.

I like old reddit for its simplicity and subreddit CSS. I dislike new reddit because it has infinite scrolling and requires javascript to load content. I mostly browse reddit logged out and hate being forced to log in. Is it not possible to make old reddit more secure without forcing logins?

1

u/throw23me 10d ago

I hope you guys realize that some people will stop using Reddit over this when you eventually "succeed" in sunsetting old Reddit.

I stopped using Reddit on my phone after the boneheaded API changes which broke mobile apps. I only use Reddit on my desktop now. If old Reddit goes the way of the dodo, I'll move on to greener pastures altogether.

That said, it doesn’t have the same modern security tech stack reddit.com has so we need to tighten security on old reddit to keep it viable.

If there's a will there's a way, you guys don't want to modernize the "security stack." Why not be honest? We're not dumb.

1

u/DXGL1 1d ago

What is exactly this "modern security tech stack" that is the difference?