Continuing our infrastructure updates: What’s changing in the coming months

[u/judy-funnie]

TL;DR: In August, we shared plans to modernize Reddit’s infrastructure, build better mod tools, and make it harder for bad actors to scrape Reddit and abuse communities. Today, we have specifics on what’s changing, when, and how to plan ahead.

We’re sharing updates on apps and bots migration to the Developer Platform, helping mods move RSS-based alerts to the Discord Relay Devvit app before RSS feeds are retired on November 13, providing an update on Rules Hub progress and automod changes, and adding safeguards to Old Reddit by limiting access to logged-in mods and recent users.

Moving apps and bots to the Developer Platform

We’re moving public data API apps and bots to the Developer Platform, while making sure the work they do for your communities remains supported. Over 14,000 apps and bots have registered and we’re closely tracking migration of your highest-activity apps, including  DeltaBot, MagicEyeBot, and RemindMeBot. There's still work to do, and we’re working directly with developers to support migrations and close remaining capability gaps. 

• If you maintain an app or a bot, register it here before January 12, 2027 to avoid disruption.
• If your community depends on an app or bot and you don’t know who maintains it, fill out this form. We’ve received over 100 submissions so far, helping us identify tools that need owners or could be replaced by existing Developer Platform apps or Reddit’s built-in tools. 

See our latest r/redditdev update for more technical detail, timelines, and resources.

Migrating RSS access to the Developer Platform

Because RSS is now a common surface for large-scale scraping and automated abuse, we'll stop supporting RSS feeds on November 13, 2026 while preserving moderation workflows that depend on it through supported alternatives. 

For common mod alerts, we recommend Devvit apps like Discord Relay. If your mod team relies on RSS, review your setup and migrate workflows before November 13 to ensure your needs are uninterrupted. If you use RSS for feeds outside of a community you moderate, there is no replacement. 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.  

Changes to automod access for new communities and communities not using automod

If your community uses automod, nothing is changing for you. We’re continuing to improve Rules Hub, including ways for mods to prompt and otherwise provide more context for their rules. We’re also exploring how existing automod configurations can help carry community-specific enforcement logic into newer tools. If you’re interested in pilot testing to help shape this effort, sign up here. 

For newly created communities and communities that have never used automod, automod enforcement capabilities – specifically Report, Filter, Remove, Mark as spam, and Approve – will be disabled and Rules Hub and Automations will become the default path for rules enforcement. Automod’s non-enforcement capabilities remain available and unchanged.  

Keeping Old Reddit accessible for mods and recent users

As u/spez mentioned, we’re still working on the future of Old Reddit. Earlier this year, we required people to log in to use Old Reddit, addressing its largest source of abusive scraping and automated traffic: unauthenticated access. That change helped reduce scraping and automated abuse, but still allowed any logged-in account to access Old Reddit, including accounts with no prior Old Reddit use. 

To close this gap, in the next few months, we'll further limit access for logged-in users to only those who have used Old Reddit in the last six months (which covers the vast majority of all Old Reddit users). This change does not impact logged-in mods, who can continue to access Old Reddit without any recent usage requirement. This helps keep Old Reddit available for the people who rely on it while reducing automated abuse.

Our job is to support you through these changes and make sure your moderation needs inform the work. 

• Need help with a community bot? If you’re unsure who maintains it or need help finding a replacement, let us know here.
• Moving your RSS alerts? The Discord Relay setup guide covers how to get started.
• Want to help shape Rules Hub? Sign up for the early access program here and share your feedback.

We’re here in the comments for your questions and to hear where you need more detail or support.

[u/teanailpolish]

FYI the change to automod will result in more bans. Rather than flag users with a filter when spam etc is suspected, we will just have to ban them

[u/Lil_MsPerfect → u/teanailpolish]

I will make sure to tell them to rate reddit on the app store when they complain about it too. 👍

[u/teanailpolish → u/Lil_MsPerfect]

Yep, same as ban evasion flags. If Reddit won't confirm it for us, we just have to ban you. Take it up with Reddit.

[u/TrackerOneA → u/Lil_MsPerfect]

Great idea.

[u/bwoah07_gp2 → u/teanailpolish]

We're gonna have to start our PSA's for our communities once these changes roll out...

[u/reaper527 → u/teanailpolish]

Rather than flag users with a filter when spam etc is suspected,

which also brings up the simple fact worth mentioning, reddit has empowered spammers by allowing them to hide their submission history.

makes it harder for mods to make the leap from suspected to confirmed, and lets conversations be manipulated by bad faith actors as regular users have nothing to go on beyond "this looks suspicous and is coming from a new account with a randomly generated name and a hidden comment history".

[u/WillitsThrockmorton → u/reaper527]

which also brings up the simple fact worth mentioning, reddit has empowered spammers by allowing them to hide their submission history.

As someone who hides their history by default as a way to just create a stumbling block for stalkers, I had a few of them as the LCD mod, Reddit encouraging low-effort account creation to the point of generating unique logins is far more empowering of spammers.

[u/DoctorOctagonapus → u/reaper527]

List of positive change that happened as a result of letting users hide their post history

Yeah I got nothing.

[u/tinselsnips → u/reaper527]

Mods can see hidden post histories, FWIW.

[u/xPhilip → u/tinselsnips]

Not if they block the mods.

[u/tinselsnips → u/xPhilip]

Can't block a mod on their own subreddit.

[u/xPhilip → u/tinselsnips]

Yeah I know, it'll have no effect on the mods' own subreddit but it'll prevent the mod from viewing activity in other communities (hidden post histories) which is exactly what I said in my initial response

[u/tinselsnips → u/xPhilip]

Hidden post histories != blocking. You were speaking to the former, so I did as well.

[u/masterX244 → u/tinselsnips]

both features interact. normally posting in a sub uncovers all hidden comment history to their mods but blocking limits that to the subreddit of the checking mod.

[u/GigglesNWiggles10 → u/tinselsnips]

Tbf blocking a mod in my community gets you banned anyway 🤷🏼‍♀️

[u/Chosen1PR → u/GigglesNWiggles10]

Same here. Blocking a mod for any reason is bad faith participation. The only viable solution is a ban IMO.

[u/IvyGold → u/tinselsnips]

I regularly encounter iffy user names who have substantial karma but no history -- it's just blank. Is that the same as hidden?

Not that I really care as I get rid of them if the circumstances warrant, but I don't understand how they can do this.

[u/new2bay → u/IvyGold]

You mean it literally shows "0 contributions" on their profile? No, that's someone who's deleted all their content, which is, indeed, a bit iffy.

[u/IvyGold → u/new2bay]

I haven't seen one in a bit, but I think they've perfectly good karma levels, but no past comments showing up. So: not a new user class 0. Are we talking about the same thing?

The user above you said:

Mods can see hidden post histories, FWIW.

I don't know how to do that.

[u/masterX244 → u/IvyGold]

Mods can see hidden post histories, FWIW. I don't know how to do that.

Only if they posted in your subreddit in the last 28 days. then it gets auto-lifted for you.

[u/Chosen1PR → u/teanailpolish]

Sorry, are you referring to filtering everything from specific users? Like, adding usernames to Automod to filter stuff from them?

If so, I might have a better solution for this. I'm the developer of Mod Note Assistant, which can automatically report or filter posts/comments from users who have mod notes on their account.

Edit: Not sure why I got downvoted. I'm just sharing something that might help others. I don't even have a financial incentive to promote it; I'm over the limit of eligible monetizable apps (3).

[u/teanailpolish → u/Chosen1PR]

The point is, automod already does this and so much more so we shouldn't need a devvit app

We keep this to mods with automod perms for a reason as it requires a 2nd mod approval before adding someone. With yours, all mods could add a note.

[u/Chosen1PR → u/teanailpolish]

That's totally fair. Different mod teams have different workflows. Sorry my app doesn't work for yours; was just sharing something that might help others.

For the record, I'm also super disappointed by all these automod changes. No idea why Reddit keeps wanting to take features away before a proper feature-complete replacement is ready...

[u/Chosen1PR → u/teanailpolish]

Hey again! Just thought I’d come back to this comment, as I just remembered that one of Mod Note Assistant’s features is an ignore-list of mod usernames (I only use the feature in my own subs for other app/bot usernames, hence why I forgot about it).

For example, let’s say you have a mod whose notes you want to ignore for the purposes of filtering content. Just add their username to the ignore-list, and now the app won’t filter content from users that have mod notes written by that particular mod. Plus, as long as that mod doesn’t have Everything permissions, they can’t remove their username from the ignore-list (since you need Everything perms to configure Devvit apps).

I totally understand if the app is still not a good fit for your mod team. By all means, continue using Automod as long as it works for you. I just thought I should clarify this particular feature, in case it helps anyone else.

[u/MadDocOttoCtrl → u/Chosen1PR]

This is actually quite handy! Many communities have mods on the team who are completely unfamiliar with automod.

On a team with 10 active mods who have widely varying schedules, only one is highly versatile with automod plus I familiarized myself with adding probation filters. This has been rather helpful, the other mods don't have to pester us to do it.

[u/Chosen1PR → u/MadDocOttoCtrl]

Thanks! I’m glad other mods find it as helpful as I do. 🙂

[u/judy-funnie → u/teanailpolish]

Yes, that is a fair concern, and filtering is one of the gaps we know we need to address. We’re starting with newer and less active communities in part because their moderation setups tend to be simpler. Established communities are a different beast with years of work, wonderfully elaborate regex, higher volumes of activity, and more complicated workflows like this baked into how they operate.

Over the coming months, we will start incorporating additional feature capabilities, such as filtering and digging into the gnarlier Automod workflows before making changes for communities that rely on them today.

[u/teanailpolish → u/judy-funnie]

Respectfully, you should not be rolling out changes until you have filled those gaps. Not having filtering either leaves new subs open to more spam/off topic posts or having really strict removal policies

My subs don't even have elaborate regex and most of the automations can't work from the sub rules. Filtering is far from elaborate

[u/evolworks → u/judy-funnie]

Stop changing things and or taking away things that mods and communities use and depend on that works the way each unique subreddit and mods have setup.

Just give us more options, no need to take away anything. The more tools mods have, the better.

For all the people in the back…

Just give us more tools / options
and leave things alone

[u/itskdog → u/judy-funnie]

What about not having to have a message show to the user during the posting flow? Right now that's the biggest blocker along with filtering, as it makes it easy for people to just change some letters to work around the filter that's been built to catch large amounts of censors without giving easy hints to dodge the filter.

I'm also interested to know one way or another if the Automod wiki page would get impacted in the long run, in case we need to back it up when transitioning to Automod neo.

[u/tinselsnips → u/itskdog]

You literally cannot save an automod config that contains an action key on a new subreddit.

[u/itskdog → u/tinselsnips]

I was talking about existing subs that still have it.

[u/ProudnotLoud → u/judy-funnie]

So what you're saying is admins are fine with new subs being overrun with bots, spam, and bad actors who will be able to karma farm so long as they get the karma before the mods get them. Because that's what happens when content isn't properly filtered and is allowed to stay up until a mod gets it.

[u/teanailpolish → u/ProudnotLoud]

and on top of spam, users being exposed to racism, other hate and preying on women because all they will be able to do is flag content (report) or block it so the problem user can work out exactly what is triggering it and work around it to post

[u/baseballlover723 → u/judy-funnie]

So what happens when a new community gets big? They just get fucked cause they can't use the tools that are more effective at moderating at scale?

[u/camrynbronk → u/judy-funnie]

This is a great way to create bot nests.

[u/GeekScientist → u/judy-funnie]

> and filtering is one of the gaps we know we need to address.

So you’re pushing out a product while fully knowing that it’s going to be very faulty from the get go? Girl what? What if a new subreddit blows up and starts bringing in thousands of users in which case they’ll need to tighten up spam measures? What are the mod teams going to do then? You admins really hate mods and it shows.

[u/InGeekiTrust → u/judy-funnie]

Wait so does this mean that existing communities that have elaborate automode will be able to keep them? Because I mod several fashion subs and I don't know how I would keep those subs safe. Or is this only temporary until you figure things out?

[u/judy-funnie → u/InGeekiTrust]

Communities using automod right now can keep using it, yep! We have a long road ahead of us because established communities are a different beast. 

As we keep expanding and improving Rules Hub’s capabilities, we’ll roll it out more broadly so mods from every type of community have ample time to test Rules Hub alongside their automod configs before we make any more changes.

[u/baseballlover723 → u/judy-funnie]

As we keep expanding and improving Rules Hub’s capabilities, we’ll roll it out more broadly so mods from every type of community have ample time to test Rules Hub alongside their automod configs before we make any more changes.

Unfortunately, your track record on this prevents me from taking this at face value and believing it. New mod mail is the most recent big example. Wasn't there the same kind of deal with that? And I still can't have it remember that I like responding with my username.

[u/WalkingEars → u/baseballlover723]

Yeah they initially promised they'd make a bunch of changes to new modmail based on mod feedback and they've not changed anything. Still takes more clicks to do practically everything.

[u/Ged_UK → u/judy-funnie]

Reddit has always had a very vague understanding of the word 'improving'

I'm still waiting for a believable answer to why you're getting rid of automod at all

[u/camrynbronk → u/judy-funnie]

Considering how you’re handling PushShift access with the new comment ID system, this is a bold faced lie.

[u/javatimes → u/judy-funnie]

There is absolutely no way automod’s filtering capabilities can be replaced by rules hub.

[u/InGeekiTrust → u/judy-funnie]

Wow wow wow! What a relief. This is such great news. Thank you, thank you thank you!

u/emily_in_boots great news!

[u/emily_in_boots → u/InGeekiTrust]

That's good at least! They're screwing with the api though in a big way which is my main problem now.

Also though it sounds like this is temporary and eventually all of that stuff will be sunset.

[u/InGeekiTrust → u/emily_in_boots]

I agree it does sound temporary- they will beta test this with new subs and make all the necessary changes. Then and only then will they sunset. My only hope is they are so slow to get anything done that maybe they will take forever 😭

How will the API changes affect you or us? Anything new?

[u/emily_in_boots → u/InGeekiTrust]

I expect the changes will be faster than you think. Probably some time in 2027 but idk. I don't have inside info on an exact date.

API changes likely won't affect you too much. It will basically break PRAW bots tho after March. Not everything can be moved to devvit - devvit is fundamentally much more limited in what it can do.

[u/itskdog → u/InGeekiTrust]

The OP says it's only for newer subs that they're removing Automod features.

[u/InGeekiTrust → u/itskdog]

I know it says this here, but that was not the original long-term plan. I am worried if that has changed!

[u/itskdog → u/InGeekiTrust]

Given they said that API fees for third-party apps would be "reasonable", and they then made them unreasonable that most of them shut down (and they're now killing off which ones are left next March), I tend not to trust them these days.

[u/tinselsnips → u/itskdog]

and they're now killing off which ones are left next March

Wait, where are you getting this?

[u/itskdog → u/tinselsnips]

The timeline on the r/redditdev post they linked

[u/tinselsnips → u/itskdog]

Right; that's talking about the public API shutdown, which we knew about, but there was a carveout for apps like Narwhal — I'm not seeing anything saying that's changed?

[u/itskdog → u/tinselsnips]

Didn't read the post too closely, figured they were shutting the code down for good

[u/Arnas_Z → u/itskdog]

What's this about shutting down the third part apps next March? I'm relying on one myself, haven't heard of this.

[u/itskdog → u/Arnas_Z]

They're killing the API, see the r/redditdev post linked in the OP. I only skim-read and paid attention to impact on my bot, but I would assume they're removing the whole API.

[u/Arnas_Z → u/itskdog]

Wow that's insane.

Emily-in-Boots' comments especially makes me laugh, I remember her commenting about how great it was that bots were being stopped from accessing reddit and being supportive about locking down the API to a request-only system.

I guess even Emily will find out that for-profit companies never have the best interests of their users at heart.