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Ask HN: Is Reddit trying to kill old Reddit?

14 points by lostaccount ↗ HN
It’s not news that Reddit requires login for old Reddit. That’s annoying enough but now I can’t login in incognito. Maybe it’s a network thing because I’m standing in a long line trying to login?

In any case the net effect is that it’s becoming harder and harder to use Reddit the way it used to be. Anyone know what’s going on?

12 comments

[ 0.33 ms ] story [ 12.9 ms ] thread
kay_o
You are a bad user to them. You are not a high value user that is valuable, registering with your real, non throwaway email that consumes meme slop and stolen content without ad blockers.
al_borland
As far as I can tell, the only reason old.reddit exists is to avoid the bad PR they’ll get from killing it. They seem to be trying to make things worse and worse, to lose the users through attrition, so the eventual shutdown is a non-event.

Also, maybe they learned something from Digg v4. That was a hard cut over, users hated it, but they had no way to revert and it killed the site. They’re probably trying to avoid that as well.

gaws
> avoid the bad PR they’ll get from killing it.

What "bad PR"? They easily survived requiring accounts to view old.reddit.com. Moving from one interface to another won't result in as big of a backlash as the API changes.

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ColdStream
Short answer : Yes. Long Answer : Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeessssssssssssssssssssssss!

They have cut off 3rd party API's and now forcing accounts on old.reddit. It is only a matter of time until they make accounts mandatory to view in the same way every other social media service does.

They are the same as every other social media company but have had a much longer runway of good will that has carried them for a while. Alas, I think that runway is almost gone.

jsLavaGoat
I'm pretty sure they would face a user revolt over killing old.reddit but I also know they give zero fs about user revolts. I also know that they are not suddenly doing super well because of all of the enshittification they've done and it's pointless but I am equally sure it will continue.
fiftyacorn
Not just that but they are trying to force you to the all or login. I stopped posting on reddit years ago but still browse it and just get use the app or login messages

Something new will come along soon enough

CM30
They definitely want to. Old Reddit is simple, efficient, and mostly free of the obnoxious limitations and extra 'features' found on the new design. It's the exact opposite to what a company pushing a mobile app wants to see.

But they're in an interesting situation where they can't really get rid of it, because many of the site's power users are using it. Subreddit moderators use it for tools that aren't available in the new interface, regular submitters have kept using it for decades, etc.

So, they're kinda stuck. They want to kill it, realise that doing so would be a terrible PR move, and are hence trying desperately to 'encourage' said existing users to move over or leave.

gaws
Reddit isn't "stuck." The moment all the features they want in the new interface are implemented and working, they will kill old.reddit.com and will force users to migrate. The old.reddit.com "superusers" are the minority, and Reddit won't care if they lose those users during the transition.
firefax
if they kill old reddit i will post like it's reddit here, so i am sure dang has a team of lobbyists peeling out from a philz like they're the men in black to make sure that doesn't happen

(it's a lot simpler with js off, and who among us doens't turn off js to do a little osint? don't kill it!)