Reddit Is Killing RSS Feeds, Ending Public API Access (techcrunch.com) 88
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Amid a number of updates for moderators and developers announced Wednesday comes bad news for supporters of a more open web: Reddit is ending support for RSS feeds. Reddit says RSS has now become a "common surface for large-scale scraping and automated abuse," which is why it's made the decision to wind down RSS feeds on its platform. "We know RSS has been a beloved part of the open web for a long time, and we're grateful to everyone who used it to stay connected to Reddit," the company noted in its announcement, where it also shared a March 2027 shutdown date for its public API. Reddit said RSS support will cease on November 13.
[...] The RSS change was one of several updates issued on Wednesday by the company. Another big change will be the end of its public API. Public API access will also end by March 2027, which will impact any tools that used it for programmatic access to Reddit conversations, including social listening products, those used by researchers, and AI products, such as AI assistants. Today, those assistants can use Reddit to answer questions, but after closing public API access, they will need to forgo commercial deals with Reddit for its data.
In addition, Reddit provided an update on its Rules Hub progress and auto-mod changes, and said it was "adding safeguards" to its classic, text-heavy version of its site known as Old Reddit. The latter will include limiting access to logged-in moderators and recent users -- changes Reddit also said were required because of "abusive scraping and automated traffic." Reddit said in the next few months it will limit access for logged-in users to those who have used Old Reddit in the last 90 days. The company also reminded developers building approved third-party apps and bots to register them with the company before January 12, 2027, to avoid disruption. After that date, Reddit will remove API access for any developer that hasn't registered.
[...] The RSS change was one of several updates issued on Wednesday by the company. Another big change will be the end of its public API. Public API access will also end by March 2027, which will impact any tools that used it for programmatic access to Reddit conversations, including social listening products, those used by researchers, and AI products, such as AI assistants. Today, those assistants can use Reddit to answer questions, but after closing public API access, they will need to forgo commercial deals with Reddit for its data.
In addition, Reddit provided an update on its Rules Hub progress and auto-mod changes, and said it was "adding safeguards" to its classic, text-heavy version of its site known as Old Reddit. The latter will include limiting access to logged-in moderators and recent users -- changes Reddit also said were required because of "abusive scraping and automated traffic." Reddit said in the next few months it will limit access for logged-in users to those who have used Old Reddit in the last 90 days. The company also reminded developers building approved third-party apps and bots to register them with the company before January 12, 2027, to avoid disruption. After that date, Reddit will remove API access for any developer that hasn't registered.
Finally (Score:5, Funny)
About time. The open web has had its day. It's far too dangerous for people to openly express themselves and share ideas.
Re: Finally (Score:5, Informative)
The problem is ai vibe coded apps. I run a small piece of software with an open API that is about 20 years old. In the last 3 years, my appâ(TM)s user base has grown tenfold. API usage has grown by a factor of about 100,000, even with custom rate-limiters in place. Itâ(TM)s absolutely absurd and frankly, untenable. AI is single-handedly killing any remote possibility of an open web. I donâ(TM)t use AI in my software, but merely because of the existence of AI, the resources my app consumes has expanded by many thousands of times. Itâ(TM)s a repugnant cancer.
Re: Finally (Score:3)
(Typo: the software is about ten years old.)
Re: Finally (Score:5, Interesting)
In fact just yesterday I was complaining about this very thing to a guy who happened to be a vibe coder. He suggested I implement a Captcha.
On my API requests.
This is the kind of âoedevelopersâ who are consuming 90% of the worlds computing resources.
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> This is the kind of âoedevelopersâ who are consuming 90% of the worlds computing resources.
Can they parse a POST form that understands encoding though?
Re: Finally (Score:2)
That's dumb but it IS possible to at least use HTTP auth with RSS, though some readers don't support it.
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Interesting - would you saying that the x100K growth is from bad/misuse of the API or just a proliferation of other apps using the API (lots more users). Like is it vibe coded slop where a decent caching mechanism would reduce traffic 100x but no one thought of it (or anything else for that matter!)?
RSS feeds are dangerous (Score:5, Funny)
How can I track and capture your clicks if a third-party non-browser app is sucking up RSS feeds? The Internet does not exist to be a convenience for individuals, it is sole purpose is to serve the pipeline to consumerism. Data is collected, sold as market research, and people are bombarded with ads. Precisely what the Founding Fathers and Adam Smith intended!
P.S. disagree if you're a communist
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Little sub-Reddit dictators don't contribute anything useful to the open internet with their echo chamber that stinks like an open sewer.
Just take a look at their 'rules'. 'Say anything to offend or annoy other members on this subreddit and you will receive a permanent ban.'
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I just wish they'd hurry up and close down the HTTP access too.
Sounds right anyway. (Score:4, Informative)
Today, those assistants can use Reddit to answer questions, but after closing public API access, they will need to forgo commercial deals with Reddit for its data.
I think they meant forge commercial deals, OTOH I do see a lot of forgoing happening. I forgo Reddit regularly.
I gave up when they killed anonymous "old" access (Score:1)
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That said, that was just the final straw. Reddit has been going downhill for a few years now - Right around the same time bots outnumbered the humans, and AI has only sped that up by an order of magnitude. The "Dead Internet" is already here.
Not to mention Reddit's moderation has become so blatantly partisan it's impossible to discuss anything but the most banal of t
Oh well ... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Oh well ... (Score:4, Insightful)
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There are plenty of BBS clients/services that are still kicking.
People still use reddit? (Score:5, Funny)
I thought we all went back to forums.
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It does have valuable information, but after the changes it will all be behind a wall. Just like so many other sites.
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And the sad is that'll effectively remove a huge amount of the open web. Search engines will have difficulty indexing it, with the result that you won't be able to find that information anywhere except by going to Reddit and using their inadequate search tools directly.
You can find a lot of answers to relatively obscure questions by, today, searching for site:reddit.com blah blah blah, and that's going to go away if this continues.
I don't completely blame Reddit themselves, though they've been closing up th
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Nope. People all went into invite-only discord "servers", abusing a chat system as forum.
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one of the largest tragedies of knowledge sharing imo. at least in the past, on web forums, we could rely on archive.org to preserve them. now everything is in the "darknet" of facebook groups and discord servers.
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web.archive.org always had huge blind spots. I've found it's basically blind to Chinese sites. It was kinda OK for mainstream English-language sites, but you never had to go far before you'd click a link it hadn't scraped.
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Nah, we went to back to usenet, FidoNet, etc. ;)
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My
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I still use forums for special-interest sites. They are the best for curating a body of knowledge like fixing/maintaining a vintage car. Sites like reddit were never good for a how-to guide. Youtube can be helpful, but video can be a clunky medium for conveying basic information like a torque specification.
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Switch over to redgifs and browse there directly. Most of the niche stuff on reddit is hosted there, and they have a decent web interface.
They sort of enshittified themselves for reddit, where the audio only works when you're watching from their site but that just makes it a better experience going directly through them instead of through reddit. So it was a kind of shitty, but smart move on their part to introduce that limitation.
They're the least worst (Score:5, Informative)
They are reducing the potential exposure points to the site and erecting barriers to entry.
Over time they will probably lose more users than they gain.
They're massively popular and the best forum site I've seen for every interest of mine. There has NEVER been anything like it thusfar. I've never seen a site control bots as well as they do. Reddit has literally changed my life because it allowed me to engage in my various hobbies much moreso than I have been able to before with a diverse group of people of varying technical prowess. It's the king example of the network effect.
I am VERY happy with them because I have a long memory and remembered what it was like before them: having a login for each forum and the chaos of poorly-managed message boards...plus limited participation for non-technical interests.
The API had a lot more downsides for me and most users than benefit. Shitty websites were scraping Reddit and saving your old posts, including deleted one and monetizing them. Then every AI scammer was scraping it to build their models and contributing nothing in return. I am honestly happier with Reddit when it's used on their terms. I know abusers were a small fraction of the API users, but they really were ruining a good thing for lots of reasons.
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While I agree with the general availability to wide topics and the consistent approach, there is a downside to reddit that the old disjointed forum system didn't have: Demographics. Reddit has a clear demographic across virtually all subreddits. It's accessibility fosters an environment dominated more by the new people compared to experts. In the old days where you had to explicitly go out of your way to find a forum for your hobby, when signing up you were usually put into a group of fanatics and experts.
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>There has NEVER been anything like it thusfar.
There used to be this thing called 'Usenet'. It was everything reddit and more!
Usenet was a nerd echo chamber. (Score:1)
p>There used to be this thing called 'Usenet'. It was everything reddit and more!
Nope, definitely not. I remember usenet well and used it often. It was nothing but a nerd echo chamber. It was great for autistic dedication to a specific male-oriented band or discussing Linux and garbage for anything more civilian. Also, the spam was legendary. Reddit's strength is their bot management and diverse network. My hobbies involve non-nerds, like chefs, artisans, artists, mechanics, DIY folks, as well as nerds. If my only interest was programming, sure, usenet is great. If I wanted to d
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You have a medium memoruy. I remember how USENET was, prior to the web forums you complain about. Reddit has blocked the possibility of a real discussion forum that works for complicated topics, locking in a short term popularity contest with ever-shifting "hot topics".
I remember USENET well, a nerd echochamber (Score:2)
You have a medium memoruy. I remember how USENET was, prior to the web forums you complain about. Reddit has blocked the possibility of a real discussion forum that works for complicated topics, locking in a short term popularity contest with ever-shifting "hot topics".
Reddit is not all things for all people. There's a popular /. consensus that they hate the politics discussion. I don't give a rat's ass. I don't want to "dunk on liberals" or berate conservatives. I want to see new tools for my hobbies, rumors about upcoming product developments, discussion of technique or troubleshooting, etc. My joy in life is doing hobbies, not having "real discussions of complicated topics." That sounds like homework.
Usenet was an echochamber for like minded, technically-skil
Stop the abuse (Score:1, Troll)
I think its time to reign in how Open Source is used by others for profit. Reddit seems to have come to that same conclusion.
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OK: Why is open source being used for a profit a problem? Why is Amazon adopting an open source tool a problem? On what planet does WPEngine "seem to think they own Matt Mullenweg" when actually they've been the victim of an abusive campaign by the latter who's tried to pull the FOSS rug from under them after previously welcoming their participation and contributions to the WP ecosystem?
As for the "AI companies who have used it all for training", that's the nearest you've come up to a legitimate complaint b
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OK: Why is open source being used for a profit a problem?
It's a problem when everyone *but* the software's actual authors is making money off of it.
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I think its time to reign in how Open Source is used by others for profit.
"Open source for me, but not for thee" is the antithesis of open source. There was never an expectation that someone can't make a profit of the source code, in fact it is explicitly permitted by most licenses. Your UID is high so maybe you lack your history of the computing world, but fuck whomever modded you insightful for this.
Re: Stop the abuse (Score:2)
The word is rein. Don't use words you don't understand, it makes it obvious that you talk about things you don't know about. In particular mullenweg is upset that WP engine is using the license correctly for the code that he can't relicense because it's not his. What a crybaby.
Enshittification (Score:1)
Reddit was cutting the API before, which even caused a mod boykott (sadly the mods gave it up because keeping the mod job was more important than showing Reddit that they depend on users and mods), disabled reading reddit using VPN without login and now closed old.reddit.com without login completely. All of that since they have a data sharing offer for AI companies. Sure, they want to protect the user data ... so they can sell it themselves.
Fuck Reddit. It's just enshittification and increasing the walls of
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The mods who boycotted found their forums handed over to scabs by Reddit's admins, and very often were told to fuck off by their forum's users who didn't care how much damage the API changes did as long as they got their "fix" of cat videos each day.
Reddit is a very, very, different place to what it was pre-boycott. Moderation has gone way downhill, with lazy feckless "mods" depending upon automoderators to shadow delete posts that vaguely fit some criteria, often as ridiculous as "This contains a link". Th
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And a lot of them are just douchebags.
Somehow I got reported for "inciting violence" by inviting a public official to "jump up his own ass and die" - which is quite literally impossible to do, and also a line from a late 90s sitcom - if it's good enough for broadcast TV, how is it ban-worthy on a shitty forum aggregator?
I appealed the ban, which in the most opaque "process" I've ever seen, and the appeal was denied. So I decided that they can go fuck themselves right then and there. I don't have time for
Re: Enshittification (Score:2)
"scabs" ... "their"
I do not think you know what these words mean.
Those subs belong to reddit. Those volunteers aren't paid. They chose to do that work (it's not a job) for free. Can't be a scab if they're not taking your job and depriving you of income. Can't be their sub if they don't have a contractual agreement.
Choosing to run your forum on Reddit is like choosing to run your web presence on Facebook.
I just use reddit less since they insist an app (Score:5, Interesting)
I used to peruse reddit on my phone regularly. All of the sudden one day, I got an 'you must install the app' wall, that prevents me from being able to see anything past a few posts in any thread, and pushes me to playstore. This is just to read what is basically a website.
Whenever companies for you to install apps to basically read their website, it is because they want to have the spy-capabilities of their app installed on your phone (versus simple web browsing through a standard brwoser that doesn't allow them to slurp as much private data about you and where you go off your phone).
So now I just use reddit a lot less now, and only read reddit when I happen to have spare time on my desktop PC which is only once every few weeks now rather than every day.
Sayonara.. they are headed to 'digg' city with stupid antics like this..
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The mobile site works now, and they fixed the "only shows two comments" issue. You still have to manually expand threads sooner than on "old" reddit, but it isn't completely unusable now.
Reddit is shit. Where is the open alternative ?! (Score:4, Interesting)
So where is the open APIs, open source, open forum alternative site ?
Surely there is interest ?
Why doesn't someone set one up ?
Is it a problem of critical mass ? Or what ?
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https://alternativeto.net/list... [alternativeto.net]
Dozens of alternatives.
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[0] https://www.discourse.org/ [discourse.org]
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More important than that is a critical mass of posters to make it worth visiting and posting on.
Re: Reddit is shit. Where is the open alternative (Score:2)
digg recently triedâ"and failedâ"to revive itself. User base was the problem.
The world has changed. Kids are saavy in different ways. Iâ(TM)m old, under retirement funded, and therefore afraid and ignorant of the new hotness. At least /. is still here for me to grumble.
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No, hosting a site is cheap. You can run most of these BBSes etc on a cheap $1/month VPS.
The problem is, as always, attracting readers, which is now impossible with the genAI wall Google is putting between searchers and websites.
The open web is dead.
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No, hosting a site is cheap. You can run most of these BBSes etc on a cheap $1/month VPS.
Until your little site gets repeatedly DoSed by shitty crawlers, that is.
Hosting a *static*, low-bandwidth site is cheap. BBSes are very much not static.
Re: Reddit is shit. Where is the open alternative (Score:2)
All you need is a lot of caching and to not be stupid enough to allow anonymous users access to a lot of dynamic content. captcha your search and login. That won't stop a determined attacker from DDoSing you but it will keep down the automated crap looking for low hanging fruit.
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Every time someone says "all you need [to do] is X", X can be generically translated as "invest a disproportionate amount of your time and/or money"
You have to ask yourself if what you are trying to accomplish is worth the cost; both up-front and on an ongoing basis.
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Every time someone says "all you need [to do] is X", X can be generically translated as "invest a disproportionate amount of your time and/or money"
I wanted a CMS with caching among its features, so I just downloaded and installed one. It saved me a lot of time on the rest of the site functionality that I did want, so it actually took a lot less time and money than doing it myself, and I got caching and authentication for free.
You have to ask yourself if what you are trying to accomplish is worth the cost; both up-front and on an ongoing basis.
What I find myself asking is how you access Slashdot without also having access to a search engine you could use to find out that there's multiple platforms available that will do this for you.
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You're confusing the performance of a platform with the performance of a userbase. Any idiot can create an alternative to the "shit" reddit (hell tell Claude to magic one into existance). But, unless you convince other people to use it all you can do is sit around and talk with yourself. That's precisely what makes reddit the least shit of all options.
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No posts in relevant groups there for 7 days.
Not critical mass.
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Is it a problem of critical mass ? Or what ?
Mind share. It takes hundreds of millions of dollars to gather mind share... unless you are "lucky" and find/create a group that is interesting by default.
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Not critical mass on one minority interest I tried.
Good news everyone. (Score:2)
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Fuck Steve Huffman (Score:2)
That's fine. I'll just create a handful of agents that ignore all of that and scrapes Reddit the old fashioned way and then give the data away for free.
There's no $$ in RSS (Score:2)
The end is near (Score:1)
Hold two ideas (Score:3)
We can hold two ideas in our head at the same time.
1. We can understand the reason for Reddit dropping support for RSS, and see that the decision was, all things considered, a reasonable one.
2. We can feel a sort of sad nostalgia for the days when we used RSS, and the nature of the internet in those days.
We don't need to be 100% for or 100% against. In fact we could go one step further, and be a bit suspicious of anyone with that kind of ultra-strident stance... on just about any topic.
Re:Hold two ideas (Score:4)
We don't need to be 100% for or 100% against.
Get out of here with that nonsense. This is America. You're either with us, or against us. Republican or democrat. Blue or Red. Capitalist or Socialist (or Communist, no one knows the difference anyway). You're either hate the world's richest man, or lick his boots. You're either pro law enforcement or want to abolish the police entirely.
You're either for nuance or against nuance (which makes you a communist / opposing political ideology / do other things that aren't the same things I do!). /sarcasm.
Man I miss your kind of sensible discourse. There's way too little of it these days.
So Old Reddit is going away (Score:2)
> Reddit said in the next few months it will limit access for logged-in users to those who have used Old Reddit in the last 90 days.
This is a decreasing number.
I wonder what Carnage4Life has to say... (Score:2)
He had his own RSS reader app back in the day (and used to post here a lot)
Hopefully I can keep using old.reddit.com because I HATE the new interface. I want the content... not the flowery layout and noise that neo-Reddit thinks makes them money.
Poison is also medicine (Score:2)
The same AI that caused Reddit to end RSS support can be used to read Reddit's website via the user browser and replicate RSS functionality, whether Reddit likes it or not. But it will need to be local AI
Still bitter from the Reddit Is Fun debacle (Score:2)
I'm still bitter from the Reddit Is Fun debacle where Reddit implemented a pay-as-you-go model for anyone using their API, killing the app.
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The real world already solved this problem - cover charges exist for a reason.
Vibe coding and reddit bots (Score:2)
It seems reddit is mostly bots these days, which is sad. I hope google got an image of all that info before the bots got really bad. It will poison the data.
As for API's and vibe coders. When I first started vibe coding (I taught myself Turbo Pascal when I was a teenager) I was building a weather app, and watching the tool work, it would say "I'm downloading 3GB of old weather data for analysis." and I thought ok. Then we get the results, they're missing data, it says "I'm re-downloading 3GB of old weather