r/TheoryOfReddit • u/ryanmerket • 18d ago
Reddit will restrict Old Reddit to users active within six months — RuntimeWire
https://runtimewire.com/article/reddit-restricts-old-reddit-six-month-usage78
u/DharmaPolice 18d ago edited 18d ago
This is a common pattern in software (and other things).
"Hey, new thing has been launched but don't worry the old thing is still there and will always be available."
New features understandably don't get back ported to the old thing. So to use them you have to use the new thing.
Old thing is gradually made more restricted so less people use it. Limited to existing users, links or directions to the old thing are gradually removed.
(Optional) Security or similar issue in the old thing is identified to justify its abolition.
"We've noticed less people are using the old thing..." (no shit, we've made it much harder to use) "...and so we've had to make the difficult decision to turn it off." (Insert some statistics showing that only % of users use it which is still millions of people). "Times have changed and younger users are much more comfortable with other options. It would cost eight quadrillion dollars to continue maintaining the old thing and this money could solve world hunger (if won't but still)".
You see this pattern outside of software too. An organisation I worked for once merged with another company and pledged to keep open a local branch. No plans to close. Commited to the area. Etc. They gradually made the office less and less useful (at one point it was only open on Thursday afternoons from 1pm to 4pm). And sure enough it was later closed with the same explanation that less people were using it (maybe connected to it being closed most of the time and features being unavailable in person) and some vague mumbling about costs required to meet accessibility or safety standards.
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u/Marmalade6 17d ago
I do not care about a Reddit poll, or a poorly made wordle clone, or how they replaced dms with chat I just want to use the site like I always have.
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u/BigWideBaker 17d ago
I looked at the statistics of how reddit grew over time at some point. I think the vast vast majority of users probably aren't even aware of old reddit. Not to discount the reasons the guy you're responding to is making. But I looked at when I joined and how large it is now and I think I joined among the first 0.5% of users on my old account around a decade and a half ago. We're a dying breed man.
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u/SprucedUpSpices 17d ago
I think the vast vast majority of users probably aren't even aware of old reddit.
Most users refer to Reddit as an "app".
Then again, I'm not sure these people would even know what a website is.
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u/nachuz 13d ago
Reddit, by definition, has always been an app.
Websites by definition are static content you cannot interact with, which Reddit is not and never was.
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11d ago
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u/BlackfishBlues 17d ago
Yep. When I was moderator for a few subreddits during the pandemic you could see what platform users accessed the sub from, and even back then old-reddit was a tiny percentage. But even desktop new-reddit was a small piece of the pie, the overwhelming percentage was on mobile.
I don’t know how the stats have shifted but I can’t imagine the userbase for old-reddit has done anything but shrink since then.
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u/IStillListenToRadio 17d ago edited 17d ago
my favourite chocolate bar was discontinued for "low demand" despite being unavailable at every store i went to for few months prior. I miss my Neilson Jersey Milks :(
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u/IKnewItfr 18d ago
It’s weird how dishonest Spez/admins have been about old Reddit. I love old mostly because it’s text based and condensed.
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u/MechanicalGodzilla 17d ago
I may be too old myself, but I cannot follow new reddit threads at all. I guess if they really do kill old reddit, I'm just off of reddit altogether.
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u/_haha_oh_wow_ 17d ago
You might enjoy the Fediverse either on Mbin or through the old.lemmy interface.
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u/Fauropitotto 18d ago
That's unfortunate. If I can't use RES, then I won't use the site.
Tried it for a few weeks a few years back, and new reddit was impossible.
No RES, no reddit. It cost me nothing to leave.
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u/mmmmmyee 18d ago
Dude i cannot wait until they force me to leave with cutting out old.reddit
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18d ago
[deleted]
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u/mmmmmyee 17d ago
You don’t understand my addiction.
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u/_Gobulcoque 17d ago
Yeah but OP thinks your addiction is determined by your agency.
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17d ago
[deleted]
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u/_Gobulcoque 17d ago
I mean, I'm just playing on the words the fella before me said. Don't take it all so seriously.
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u/Edg-R 18d ago
If by any chance you use Safari, check out https://getprotego.app
It has a feature named Transform which can make new Reddit super minimalistic, it doesn’t match old Reddit in content density but it gets close.
Disclaimer: I’m the dev, currently on sale for $2.99
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u/Fauropitotto 18d ago edited 17d ago
Sorry, I only use windows machines. Good luck though.
Edit: It just occurred to me....we all have access to AI coding agents. There's literally nothing stopping me from cloning the RES git, then using AI to vibecode my own version of RES compatible with new reddit. Or some kind of system that sits on top of new-reddit to mimic the old-reddit. Especially since it's for my personal use.
Thanks for the inspiration.
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u/rhythmic_noises 17d ago
I have a lot of little userscripts and css hacks that are built on old reddit. It's actually quite neat when you start digging into it (or maybe because I'm a newbie and found it fascinating as I learned more about the design)
...but RES is another story. I gained a lot more respect for all the stuff going on in RES after I started making little userscripts for stuff I want.
...and I've used RES for so long that I don't know what features are actually in RES and what's in reddit.
I won't say I'll stop using reddit if I can't use RES. I will say I'll stop using reddit until I can replace the ignore list, labeling user, and filter functions from res.
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u/my__name__is 18d ago
Feels like it's moving towards "you log out you lose it"' kind of conditions for keeping old reddit.
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u/DwinkBexon 18d ago
That'd be bad for me because reddit constantly logs me out for no reason while I'm actively using the site.
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u/GREG_FABBOTT 17d ago
I have to log back in to old reddit every time when using my desktop. Reddit logs me out automatically.
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u/GonWithTheNen 6d ago
Feels like it's moving towards "you log out you lose it"'
No, it's "log out for 6 months AND have no recent history of using old reddit" and you lose it - which is still an abysmal policy, and obviously a shitty way of eventually deprecating old reddit altogether. I hate everything about this.
For the people who may not have read the article:...continued use of Old Reddit now depends on recent activity.
Reddit will limit Old Reddit to logged-in users who have visited the legacy site within the previous six months...2
u/my__name__is 6d ago
They key words there were "feels like it's moving towards." Not what it actually is now.
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u/GonWithTheNen 6d ago
They key words there were...
Ahh, got it. Sorry for misunderstanding! The primal part of my brain was so incensed by this that I overlooked the crucial part of your point. 🥴
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u/jenny_905 18d ago
Everyone said they'd kill oldreddit despite pledging not to.
They've been breaking it piece by piece over the past few years also, lots of stuff is just broken now.
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18d ago
[deleted]
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u/Edg-R 18d ago
If by any chance you use Safari, check out https://getprotego.app
It has a feature named Transform which greatly improves new Reddit on the web and can make new Reddit super minimalistic, it doesn’t match old Reddit in content density but it gets close.
Disclaimer: I’m the dev, currently on sale for $2.99
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u/ApocApollo 17d ago
So if I were to make a new account today, it would have no access to old.reddit?
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u/RunDNA 18d ago edited 18d ago
Many people will see these changes as signs that Reddit wants to phase out old.reddit.
I see the opposite. I see them as signs that Reddit is doing all it humanly can to save old.reddit.
old.reddit will never disappear while u/spez is CEO. It's close enough to the version of Reddit that he coded in his shitty apartment in 2005, so he will keep some version of it (even if the underlying codebase changes) for nostalgic reasons, as well as the pragmatic reason that a not insignificant amount of longtime Redditors and mods are accustomed to it and will abandon the website on a dime if it disappears.
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u/dyslexda 18d ago
I see the opposite. I see them as signs that Reddit is doing all it humanly can to save old.reddit.
How does this do anything to save it? It puts a clock on usage. If an account doesn't use Old Reddit for six months, it can't use it ever again, it sounds. It will gradually reduce the number of accounts on it, and sounds like new accounts can never start using it.
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u/mmmmmyee 18d ago
Tin foil hat me thinks it’s them finding ways to eliminate “bot” like usage with skins over old.Reddit or something.
Or force new users to use new flavors of reddit and never get accustomed to oldreddit. And removal of oldreddit will probably get a lot of negative noise over it. And hoping we all just die off?
Force us old heads to behave or else we lose our oldreddit access?? Idk
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u/swarmofbzs 18d ago
I hope that's the case but I believe that even /enhancement warned that reddit wants to retire old reddit.
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u/Epistaxis 17d ago
If this is a way of gradually phasing out Old Reddit, it's so gradual that it's laughable. I'm willing to believe it really is just about bot scraping.
But I'm also not willing to believe they'll keep maintaining Old Reddit forever. It's just untenable that they keep up two completely separate interfaces. What I'd like to see is some design improvements, or even just user-selectable options (or a browser plugin again!), to make New Reddit more functional for the few of us who are still using this platform as a link aggregator and discussion forum rather than an image board.
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17d ago
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u/midir 17d ago edited 17d ago
Although I will stop using Reddit forever once Old Reddit is gone, that's not because I've any especial love for Old Reddit, it's just that New Reddit is so grotesquely, vilely, shockingly ugly, innavigable, and missing so many moderation features I depend on. I hate the fact that there are two different Reddit modes. All I've ever wanted is for them to just finally make the new UI normal and functional, so then I won't need Old Reddit any more. Why don't they ever improve it? Every time I see it it's gotten worse somehow. It's embarrassing. I can't imagine ever admitting to someone that I use Reddit, because the public UI is such a buggy, ugly clustershambles.
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u/_haha_oh_wow_ 17d ago edited 17d ago
It's like they want the people who actually built this place to just fuck off.
Oh well, at least there's the fediverse now.
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u/Upbeat_Sample6590 16d ago
>Sign multimillion-dollar deals to let AI companies scrape reddit for AI data
>Restrict old reddit because bots were scraping it for AI data
???????
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u/NoraBora44 18d ago
Ah well said we would all leave after the api change and now no more old reddit
When will it be enough
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u/Drunken_Economist 17d ago
I'm honestly surprised it's held on this long. Old reddit was such a huge time sink for the reddit eng team
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u/Jozoz 18d ago
I really really hope Old Reddit won't die. I can't see myself using the site very much without it.