You Could Lose Your Access to 'Old Reddit' Forever, but There's a Workaround

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"Old Reddit" is the only way I use Reddit. That's not the case for most of the tech in my life. I don't make a point of only using an iPhone from a decade ago, or avoid playing video games with more than 64 bits. But, in my view, Old Reddit is the only proper way to use the website. While "new" Reddit has more "features," it's bloated and slow. Old Reddit might be extremely basic, and looks about the same as it did when I first started "redditing," but it works. Unfortunately, most of us likely won't be able to experience Old Reddit for much longer.

On Wednesday, Reddit announced a series of infrastructure changes on its r/modnews subreddit. Normally, these updates wouldn't make tech headlines—I can't say Reddit "mod news" often finds its way into my feeds. But as part of these changes, Reddit confirmed a rather massive deprecation: Users will lose access to Old Reddit unless they've used the platform sometime in the last six months. It's not enough to use Reddit itself, mind you: Unless you use Old Reddit at least once in a six-month period, you'll lose access for good.

This builds on a previous Old Reddit change the company rolled out over the summer, which requires users to be logged in in order to access this version of Reddit. While we don't have a true deadline for when these new changes take effect, the new announcement makes it clear that, "in the next few months, we’ll further limit access for logged-in users to only those who have used Old Reddit in the last six months (which covers the vast majority of all Old Reddit users).” The only exception is for moderators.

Why is Reddit going after Old Reddit?

According to Reddit, these changes are designed to prevent abuse on its platform. By forcing users to log in to use Old Reddit, the company says it prevents unauthenticated access, its "largest source of abusive scraping and automated traffic." By blocking accounts that haven't accessed Old Reddit in the past six months, Reddit says it's solving another problem: Now, bad actors won't be able to make Reddit accounts for the sole purpose of accessing (and scraping) Old Reddit and its content.

In Reddit's view, these changes don't affect Old Reddit users. If you rely on Old Reddit, the company thinks you'll be using it frequently enough to bypass these new rules. As such, Reddit believes the vast majority of affected users will only be those trying to abuse Old Reddit, not those who actively use it.

The problem is, not everyone who uses Old Reddit is so steadfast. These new rules mean you can no longer take an extended break from Old Reddit and expect to return in the future. Sure, Reddit will always be there, but you'll lose access to the "best" version of the platform, as so many believe it to be. As this is the second change to Old Reddit in a short period of time, it begs the question: Is Reddit trying to shut down Old Reddit? That's what Ars Technica asked the company, and received the following in response:

"As [Reddit CEO Steve Huffman previously] confirmed, Reddit is continuing to work on the future of Old Reddit. This change is about limiting unauthenticated access and reducing automated abuse—not removing Old Reddit for people and moderators who rely on it. We want to preserve Old Reddit for the real people that use it, not let it be a vector for automated abuse."

How to continue using Old Reddit

Per the rules, the easiest way to continue using Old Reddit is to simply keep using it. If you've never done so before, you can head to old.reddit.com and sign into your account when prompted. As long as you access this version of the site at least once every six months, you'll maintain your access—assuming Reddit doesn't change the rules again.

But if you want a more permanent fix without having to worry about visiting Old Reddit twice a year, become a mod. Moderators don't have the same requirements; simply being a mod gives them perpetual access to the site. The easiest way to become a mod is to simply start your own subreddit. If you have access to Old Reddit, you'll see this on the front page as "Create your own subreddit." If you're on new Reddit, you'll see this as "Start a community" under the three-lined menu. Reddit will walk you through the rest, asking you to answer questions or fill out responses about your new community. Assuming the subreddit isn't already taken, you'll be able to create it at the end, at which point you will automatically become a mod of your new subreddit.