- Reddit is restricting logged-out access to old.reddit.com, citing security concerns about scraping and abusive traffic.
- The author argues this is a pretext to curb scraping of valuable human-generated content, not a genuine security measure.
- Old Reddit loads content in plain HTML with minimal JavaScript, while New Reddit requires JavaScript and is more bloated, making scraping harder.
- New Reddit loads significantly more data (5x) and fewer comments initially (25 vs 200), yet remains accessible logged-out.
- The author criticizes Reddit's justification and fears future restrictions on all logged-out access.
- The piece reflects broader frustration with platform changes that prioritize corporate value extraction over user experience.