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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
Something new will come along soon enough
Tell HN: Old Reddit Now Requires Login
(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!)