They Killed Old Reddit

28 pointsposted 11 hours ago
by pluc

31 Comments

dTal

6 hours ago

Old reddit still works for me; however, ten minutes ago I encountered - for the first time ever - a mandatory signup modal on new reddit. The only options for viewing the thread without an account were old reddit, or DOM manipulation. They are definitely moving, and the writing is on the wall - no more anonymous reddit access, going forward.

Looking forward to nitter-style reddit proxies springing up so we can actually read the information freely contributed by decades of unpaid volunteers.

overflowy

10 hours ago

It seems to work fine here. Just be aware that you need to go into the site settings and re‑enable Old Reddit (even if it’s already enabled, you have to toggle it again). They did that some time ago, and it doesn't "remember" your preference if you use a fresh browser session.

cyanydeez

10 hours ago

nope. this has to do with not being logged in. you used to go to old.reddit.com without being logged in.

That's gone now.

nbf_1995

8 hours ago

I'm not logged in and I still get old reddit. It depends on where you are.

cyanydeez

5 hours ago

yes, I forgot to add they're slow rolling this so all the non-users can't streisand effect them into feeling bad.

iLemming

6 hours ago

Why the fuck people keep using Reddit (including myself) I still can't fathom. Maybe the lack of alternatives?

Reddit is actively trying to "kill the Internet" turning itself into a garbage pile of short window relevance. Whatever you see at any moment may have a meaning at that exact time and never again. I can never sight something on my phone and then immediately switch to my laptop and hope to quickly find it there too. If you want to find something older than two weeks - forget it. Why the fuck they made it so hard to search even through your own fucking comments?

Sharing a link to a thread often is a pointless thing - by the time one finishes typing a comment, the thread might get closed and all your elaborate prose and thinking turns into useless, throwaway garbage.

I lost my Reddit account because I once answered someone's comment while I was connected to a VPN - turns out that violates something. They've shadow-banned me without even notifying. I kept posting comments and didn't even realize - nobody could even see them. I spent three weeks trying to revive it - everything I sent to the support went to the void - no indication of anyone ever seeing my plea. All the content and traffic I have generated for them (for free), over the years was all for nothing. All the useful tips I shared in the communities I participated in and honestly was trying to help people, all were gone.

So what's the point of Reddit at all? It ain't "front-page of the Internet" - it's the blackhole of it.

red-iron-pine

5 hours ago

it is absolutely the lack of alternatives. centralization and ease of use are also big sellers.

15 years ago I was on 10 different forums and they all dried up as people went to the relevant subreddits. not even really a problem since they're all easy to aggregate anyway

evenhash

10 hours ago

I’ve found it depends on where I connect from. If I’m using my home WiFi, it works. If I use 4G or a VPN, I get the login prompt. Still seems to work on my WiFi at the moment.

red-iron-pine

9 hours ago

yup. been saying here several times that when old.reddit goes so goes me.

and thus, am done

tried to hit the profile or make the change but can't get to it -- straight to log-in / create profile

Superbowl5889

10 hours ago

Better to adopt with apps like redreader, customisable and away from ads and unusable mobile web ui.

cyanydeez

10 hours ago

pretty sure that's next.

lurn_mor

9 hours ago

The first of thousands of paywalls and gatekeeping of the old, free internet into the new subscription economy. All the old wisdom locked behind a login screen.

rationalist

11 hours ago

Still works for me (not logged in).

lazyweb

11 hours ago

Does not for me. Likely an A/B rollout.

pndy

10 hours ago

For me it stopped working suddenly yesterday (2026-08-10); some "proxies" are still getting in but heavens know for how long.

pluc

10 hours ago

Same here, went dark between two clicks.

jawilson2

5 hours ago

I stopped for me last week.

RGamma

9 hours ago

RIP. I quit ~10 years ago, but you didn't deserve this.

zecg

10 hours ago

Finally, I'm free

abroszka33

10 hours ago

Finally, I can stop using it. It's better this way.

Daedren

10 hours ago

They didn’t kill anything. What they did is require you to login to use Old Reddit as its simplistic web design made it easy to scrape.

user

10 hours ago

[deleted]

pluc

10 hours ago

"They didn't remove anything, they just removed anonymous access"

fragmede

10 hours ago

yes? you can use your words and come off less like an ass, y'know.

pluc

11 hours ago

So anyone knows a good Android RSS reader?

brador

9 hours ago

Someone’s about to learn how hard it is to get critical mass for a social media application in 2026.

Every user is gold.

No one sticks.

Cascading failure collapse starting with smaller subreddits.

ButlerianJihad

9 hours ago

There was an album by the Dead Kennedys called "Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death!"--an homage to the Patrick Henry battle cry--and I often recall its sentiments while reading HN comments.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Give_me_liberty_or_give_me_dea...!

chasetca

3 hours ago

I love that DK album! However, I think the comments here are more of the Patrick Henry "give me liberty" sentiment than the Dead Kennedys "give me convenience" one. The Internet has been on a trajectory of increased centralization, login walls, and removal of anonymity, even for read-only content. That is driven by companies protecting their competitive advantage of decades-old UGC that exists on their platform from scrapers and AI companies, which is their right, but it definitely is corrosive to the spirit of the (old) Internet, and of the publicly indexable forums that inspired Reddit. Information wants to be free.