Reddit signals ominous upcoming “changes” for old.reddit.com

Reddit 暗示 old.reddit.com 即将迎来不祥的“变动”

Old.reddit.com’s days appear to be numbered. Reddit has strayed from saying that it will shutter the website, which many long-time Redditors prefer for its layout, navigation, and fewer feed recommendations. In a blog post today, Reddit made a vague statement about upcoming “changes” to Old Reddit: Old.reddit.com 的日子似乎屈指可数了。Reddit 此前并未明确表示将关闭该网站，但许多老用户因其布局、导航以及较少的推荐内容而偏爱这一版本。在今天的一篇博客文章中，Reddit 对 Old Reddit 即将到来的“变动”发表了一份模糊的声明：

In order to protect our platform, business, and users from abusive scraping and spamming, over time we plan to make changes involving Old Reddit, the legacy desktop web experience for Reddit that was built 21 years ago. In the short term, we will continue to require users to be logged in to access it and will work on migrating critical bots and moderator workflows to our modern stack. These efforts will help us mitigate the bad behavior and give us time to plan the complex follow-up steps. “为了保护我们的平台、业务和用户免受恶意抓取和垃圾信息的侵害，我们计划逐步对 Old Reddit 进行调整。这是 Reddit 21 年前构建的传统桌面网页体验。短期内，我们将继续要求用户登录后才能访问，并致力于将关键的机器人程序和版主工作流程迁移到我们的现代技术栈中。这些努力将帮助我们减轻不良行为，并为我们规划后续复杂的步骤争取时间。”

In late July, Reddit started requiring people to log in to Reddit in order to use Old Reddit. At the time, a Reddit employee said that “Old Reddit’s logged-out experience is a significant source of abusive scraping and automated traffic on the platform.” Today’s blog post further claimed that Old Reddit is leading to unwarranted content scraping. “These changes will strengthen Reddit’s foundation, ensure the platform is ready to support thriving communities for future generations, and preserve what makes Reddit uniquely human,” the blog says. 今年 7 月下旬，Reddit 开始要求用户必须登录才能使用 Old Reddit。当时，一位 Reddit 员工表示：“Old Reddit 的未登录访问体验是平台上恶意抓取和自动化流量的重要来源。”今天的博客文章进一步声称，Old Reddit 导致了不必要的抓取行为。博客写道：“这些变动将巩固 Reddit 的基础，确保平台能够为未来几代人提供繁荣的社区支持，并保留 Reddit 独特的人文特质。”

Ars Technica asked Reddit what specifically it means by “changes,” and company spokesperson Rosa Kim said the company is “exploring different options” without providing specifics. She added: We don’t have a hard timeline right now, but we will work directly with the mods, developers, and communities that depend on our systems and make sure to keep everyone updated. This follows June comments from a Reddit employee about Old Reddit, stating, “we can’t promise it will be around forever” while noting CEO Steve Huffman’s earlier promises to keep supporting the site while people still use it. Ars Technica 向 Reddit 询问“变动”的具体含义，公司发言人 Rosa Kim 表示公司正在“探索不同的方案”，但未提供具体细节。她补充道：“目前我们还没有明确的时间表，但我们将直接与依赖我们系统的版主、开发者和社区合作，并确保让大家随时了解最新情况。”在此之前，Reddit 一名员工曾在 6 月份评论 Old Reddit 时称“我们不能保证它会永远存在”，同时也提到了首席执行官 Steve Huffman 此前承诺只要还有人使用，就会继续支持该网站。

API access

API 访问权限

Reddit has previously fought against unauthorized scraping by suing Perplexity, Anthropic, and others, blocking the Internet Archive, and restricting crawler access for search engines it doesn’t have a deal with. Reddit also infamously started charging for access to its API in 2023. Although the more immediate impact was the shuttering of most third-party Reddit apps, the initial stated purpose of reducing API access was to stop generative AI companies from using Reddit to train large language models for free. Reddit 此前曾通过起诉 Perplexity、Anthropic 等公司、封锁互联网档案馆（Internet Archive）以及限制未达成协议的搜索引擎的爬虫访问，来打击未经授权的抓取行为。Reddit 还曾在 2023 年因开始对其 API 访问收费而臭名昭著。尽管最直接的影响是导致大多数第三方 Reddit 应用程序关闭，但其最初声称的减少 API 访问的目的是为了阻止生成式 AI 公司免费使用 Reddit 数据来训练大语言模型。

Reddit is building on those controversial API changes by starting to restrict new requests for access and requiring third-party apps to move to Reddit’s Developer Platform, it announced today. “We envision a future where all good, trusted automation on Reddit runs within an ecosystem that allows us to offer support and enforce our policies consistently,” Reddit’s blog said about the API changes. Reddit 今天宣布，将在这些备受争议的 API 变动基础上，开始限制新的访问请求，并要求第三方应用程序迁移到 Reddit 的开发者平台。关于这些 API 变动，Reddit 的博客写道：“我们设想的未来是，Reddit 上所有良好、可信的自动化程序都能在一个生态系统中运行，使我们能够提供支持并始终如一地执行我们的政策。”

The Verge reported today that developers who wish to make a third-party Reddit mobile app will continue having to ask Reddit for API access, and that Reddit hasn’t set a date for when all apps will have to be on the Developer Platform. Kim told the publication that the shift will apply to “all API apps except the ones we explicitly grant exceptions to.” The Verge 今天报道称，希望开发第三方 Reddit 移动应用的开发者仍需向 Reddit 申请 API 访问权限，且 Reddit 尚未设定所有应用必须迁移至开发者平台的具体日期。Kim 向该媒体表示，这一转变将适用于“除我们明确授予豁免权之外的所有 API 应用程序”。