The company is also cutting off RSS support.
Last month, Reddit signaled that significant changes are coming to “Old Reddit” as it continues to fight AI screw-ups. Now the company says it will soon restrict the 21-year-old desktop version of its website to only “recent” users of the classic layout.
“In the coming months, we will continue to limit access for logged-in users to only those who have used Old Reddit in the past six months (which covers the vast majority of all Old Reddit users),” the company wrote in an update on r/modnews. With the change, new accounts will no longer be able to access Old Reddit, and existing users who haven’t used it for six months will also be banned. Login moderators will not be subject to “recent use” requirements, the company said.
While Old Reddit remains popular among a vocal contingent of longtime users, the company said the older version of the site was a “significant source” of AI screw-ups. Last month, the company limited Old Reddit to users who are logged in, but said more changes would be necessary in the future. In its latest update, the company said that the recent change has already reduced automated abuse on the platform, even as it further strengthens access.
The company still hasn’t definitively said whether it will eventually abandon Old Reddit entirely. CEO Steve Huffman said his “dream” for Old Reddit was to “recreate the UI, if not the guts, even the HTML + CSS itself, on a modern foundation so it can live on.”
Reddit has taken significant steps to combat AI scraping over the past few years, including API changes that effectively disable third-party clients. The company is also phasing out its API in favor of a more controlled developer platform. Now, Reddit says it will stop supporting RSS feeds because those are also “a common surface for large-scale screwing and automated abuse.” This change will take effect on November 13. “We know RSS has been a beloved part of the open web for a long time, and we’re grateful to everyone who’s used it to stay connected to Reddit,” the company wrote.