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I can't won't use the new ( decade+ old? )reddit. From the Reddit Post announcing this, : "In case you are wondering . . . Q: Is Reddit shutting down Old

I ~~can't~~ won't use the new ( decade+ old? )reddit. From the Reddit Post announcing this, : "In case you are wondering . . . Q: Is Reddit shutting down Old Reddit? A: Not right now! We can’t promise it will be around forever, but u/spez himself has said we’ll keep supporting it while folks are still using it. That said, it doesn’t have the same modern security tech stack reddit.com has so we need to tighten security on old reddit to keep it viable."[0] [0] https://old.reddit.com/r/modnews/comments/1ujtebf/logging_in_to_use_old_reddit/ https://old.reddit.com/r/modnews/comments/1ujtebf/logging_in...

deleted 3mo ago
[deleted]
rekabis 3mo ago
> it doesn’t have the same modern security tech stack reddit.com has so we need to tighten security on old reddit to keep it viable. This is how you justify it to anyone who doesn’t know web dev. For those who do, it’s an idiotic statement. The only difference between new Reddit and old Reddit is the visual styling and how content is presented. Both have all the same security.
- altairprime 3mo ago
  They don’t mean websec, they mean textsec. The old site doesn’t have the level of text scraper defenses that the new site does, without which Reddit can’t monetize the written output of their userbase for AI training. Putting old behind a login wall solves that. Having previously recommended on HN that blogs put up a simple basicauth that takes any password to stop AI theft dead in its tracks, I definitely agree with their reasoning; if nothing else, it’ll result in an honest accounting of users left using it.
  - deleted 3mo ago
    [deleted]
  - bardan 3mo ago
    Potentially related is yt-dlp getting a 403 lately when downloading from Reddit. The extractor uses old.reddit.com. Hopefully they'll find a way to use the regular Reddit gateway instead. But I can't stand new Reddit so maybe I'll take this as an opportunity to give it up entirely.
    - altairprime 3mo ago
      Yeah, that would align; this probably also cuts off most of the “download Reddit videos” websites. More textsec, though I guess that’s more like contentsec? CONSEC there we go.
  - vlian2088 3mo ago
    >a simple basicauth that takes any password to stop AI theft dead in its tracks https://www.youtube.com/shorts/GWu2fY9Pu-c https://www.youtube.com/shorts/GWu2fY9Pu-c
    - altairprime 3mo ago
      I’m having trouble opening this link; could you please reply in your own words instead?
      - vlian2088 3mo ago
        in my own words: if something is publicly visible, it will get scrapped. you could rate limit your website to 1 request per minute with a custom Turing test upon each request, and it would still, still get fully scrapped. the Internet is getting scrapped by hundreds of players, and at least some of them will bother to investigate and bypass the countermeasures even for a tiny obscure blog.
        altairprime 3mo ago
        Ah. I’m not talking about a perfect and total block like Reddit wants. I just want the vast bulk of scrapers (whether AI or not) to hit a 403 auth-required wall and give up, which is what they’ll mostly do. Good enough for me :) If I did want a near-perfect block I’d post to a telnet BBS and have forums accessible only by QWKmail. Which would of course drive some jerk to synthesize a republish just to troll me. Isn’t humanity wonderful?
baranul 3mo ago
Unfortunately, that does partially make sense about old.reddit security and is a slick way to push log ins. But the thing about old.reddit, was you did not need JavaScript to use and browse, which is more secure. Looks more like reddit brass wants to find ways to squeeze old.reddit for more ad pushing and to suck up more user data.

I ~~can't~~ won't use the new ( decade+ old? )reddit. From the Reddit Post announcing this, : "In case you are wondering . . . Q: Is Reddit shutting down Old

deleted 3mo ago

[deleted]

rekabis 3mo ago

> it doesn’t have the same modern security tech stack reddit.com has so we need to tighten security on old reddit to keep it viable. This is how you justify it to anyone who doesn’t know web dev. For those who do, it’s an idiotic statement. The only difference between new Reddit and old Reddit is the visual styling and how content is presented. Both have all the same security.

altairprime 3mo ago
They don’t mean websec, they mean textsec. The old site doesn’t have the level of text scraper defenses that the new site does, without which Reddit can’t monetize the written output of their userbase for AI training. Putting old behind a login wall solves that. Having previously recommended on HN that blogs put up a simple basicauth that takes any password to stop AI theft dead in its tracks, I definitely agree with their reasoning; if nothing else, it’ll result in an honest accounting of users left using it.
- deleted 3mo ago
  [deleted]
- bardan 3mo ago
  Potentially related is yt-dlp getting a 403 lately when downloading from Reddit. The extractor uses old.reddit.com. Hopefully they'll find a way to use the regular Reddit gateway instead. But I can't stand new Reddit so maybe I'll take this as an opportunity to give it up entirely.
  - altairprime 3mo ago
    Yeah, that would align; this probably also cuts off most of the “download Reddit videos” websites. More textsec, though I guess that’s more like contentsec? CONSEC there we go.
- vlian2088 3mo ago
  >a simple basicauth that takes any password to stop AI theft dead in its tracks https://www.youtube.com/shorts/GWu2fY9Pu-c https://www.youtube.com/shorts/GWu2fY9Pu-c
  - altairprime 3mo ago
    I’m having trouble opening this link; could you please reply in your own words instead?
    - vlian2088 3mo ago
      in my own words: if something is publicly visible, it will get scrapped. you could rate limit your website to 1 request per minute with a custom Turing test upon each request, and it would still, still get fully scrapped. the Internet is getting scrapped by hundreds of players, and at least some of them will bother to investigate and bypass the countermeasures even for a tiny obscure blog.
      - altairprime 3mo ago
        Ah. I’m not talking about a perfect and total block like Reddit wants. I just want the vast bulk of scrapers (whether AI or not) to hit a 403 auth-required wall and give up, which is what they’ll mostly do. Good enough for me :) If I did want a near-perfect block I’d post to a telnet BBS and have forums accessible only by QWKmail. Which would of course drive some jerk to synthesize a republish just to troll me. Isn’t humanity wonderful?

baranul 3mo ago

Unfortunately, that does partially make sense about old.reddit security and is a slick way to push log ins. But the thing about old.reddit, was you did not need JavaScript to use and browse, which is more secure. Looks more like reddit brass wants to find ways to squeeze old.reddit for more ad pushing and to suck up more user data.