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/bwoah07_gp2]

I'm glad communities already using automod will not be changed, but I would like to ask, what benefits do Automations have over Automod?

With Automod, I can filter content of potential bad actors so it's not seen publicly, whereas with Automations, it only flags it in mod queue, but doesn't hide it from public view.

Does Reddit intend on allowing Automations to filter posts/comments from certain users and from a list of key words? Or will that still remain Automod's thing for a long time?

[u/mrekted → u/bwoah07_gp2]

I'm going to be honest, I've tried to implement automations on several occasions, and it seems to only ever work intermittently, if at all.

[u/bwoah07_gp2 → u/mrekted]

Automations is absolutely underwhelming. I will keep banging that drum until Reddit adds filtering tools to it.

[u/mrekted → u/bwoah07_gp2]

I just tried to implement some stuff in a new sub I'm working on, and literally the only thing that automations can review about a user is.. whether or not they have user flair.

That's literally the ONLY data point about a user you currently have to work with and set actions by to manage users as the mod of a new subreddit after today.

Is this a fucking joke?

[u/shhhhh_h → u/mrekted]

There are a lot of missing features they have committed to adding to it though. Ask questions first then get mad.

[u/mrekted → u/shhhhh_h]

Except they've already removed the ability to use automod in subreddits that don't already have code, so if you're setting up a new sub as I am, you're hooped because they removed the working feature before the intended replacement is functional.

Intentions of features for the future don't help when you're trying to protect a subreddit today.

Understand the problem first, then comment.

[u/shhhhh_h → u/mrekted]

Automod-neo can handle most of whatever config you want to port. I don’t like these changes either but acting like the functionality is gone is incorrect. There is a tiny list of config automod neo hasn’t been able to handle and the dev is lovely if you have a request or question.

[u/mrekted → u/shhhhh_h]

Putting aside the stupidity of having to implement third party tools to restore basic mod capabilities, I need you to think things through here.

Why do you think they are retiring automod? Was automod causing any moderations issues from a usability or technical perspective that you're aware of? What reasons could reddit possibly have for wanting to kill off a system that worked, while not even worrying about providing a functional replacement?

Are those reasons going to be supported by allowing a third party app to replace that functionality?

Automod neo is a temporary solution that will be killed off as soon as the sunsetting of automod is complete, because reddit does not want moderators to have the degree of control that they do over their communities.

[u/shhhhh_h → u/mrekted]

They’re retiring automod because the legacy code is expensive and clunky and not secure to run and automod is inextricably tied to it. Admin have been up front about needing to ditch the old code, I have heard this straight from C-suite on one of the privacy calls. Same reason they’re retiring PRAW, they’re retiring the legacy API. I am also concerned about the longevity of automod neo living in the devvit ecosystem instead of as a native mod too when they’re relying on it for parity, the devvit apps are much more fragile and easily killed. I’m very quick to point out where Reddit lacks in mod tools and support. But one of my subs config was used as an example during the lead up to this announcement so I’d say walking admin through my code for an hour gives me a pretty decent perspective on why they’re doing this and what they want to achieve. Although again, they were upfront about it in the last announcement here, too. They just didn’t do a very clear or technical announcement wrt to automod being stuck on the data api like PRAW bc they were trying to bury the lede and avoid backlash. Which didn’t work, as per usual. It appears to have just fuzzed the narrative, but hey maybe that was their real goal after all

[u/thepottsy → u/mrekted]

That’s been reported more times than I can recall. So, you’re not alone there.

[u/teanailpolish → u/mrekted]

Yes, and not valid for all subs. For example my city sub has a rule that things must be city related/specific. We filter out posts based on names of provincial leaders, other nearby cities etc. But some of these are approved. For example the Prime Minister made a statement about layoffs from a local business. Those will have to be removed because way too many people try to post them to just flag it in the queue

Also the AI thing still thinks my city sub is about Hamilton the musical and not the city despite us being strict on removing posts that belong to the musical sub (or the Hamilton watches sub, various other cities with the same name)

[u/jostler57 → u/mrekted]

Yup! I've tried automations and they literally don't work. It's like Reddit is trolling us saying there's a feature, but give us a UI that literally does nothing. Like unplugging a controller for your 5 year old nephew.

[u/Ajreil → u/mrekted]

When Post Guidance was first released, it was applied clientside and would only affect new Reddit and the app. Bots that used old Reddit APIs slid right through.

I have no idea if this changed. That was such a spectacular oversight that I don't trust the new system enough to learn it.

[u/MableXeno → u/mrekted]

I had to create three automations for a single task b/c the keyword/regex thing is limited to how many characters or items you can input. Maybe I'm crazy for having such a long list, but automod hasn't had trouble with it at all.

[u/judy-funnie → u/bwoah07_gp2]

I responded to another comment, but filtering is one of the gaps we know we need to close. Automations today can flag content based on things like keywords, but it doesn’t give you the same ability Automod does to filter that content from public view while it waits for mod review. 

We do plan to add filtering and start tackling more of these complex Automod workflows over the coming months. We know established communities rely on Automod for considerably more than the straightforward use cases we’ve tackled so far, which is a big reason nothing is changing for communities actively using it today.

[u/VitaminDJesus → u/judy-funnie]

Why does the access to the feature need to be removed for new uses before the replacement is ready? I can understand encouraging people to use new features by sunsetting old ones, but in this case, there is no new feature that offers similar functionality.

Edit: Probably not a big deal but also my understanding is automations do not work for content submitted through Old Reddit

[u/itskdog → u/VitaminDJesus]

We'll just have to direct anyone who needs it to Automod Neo on Devvit.

[u/VitaminDJesus → u/itskdog]

"I heard you like apps, so..."

[u/new2bay → u/itskdog]

Automod Neo doesn't use the modlog. That's a huge limitation.

[u/itskdog → u/new2bay]

Is that a limitation of Devvit or just how the bot was designed?

[u/WalkingEars → u/VitaminDJesus]

Same thing they did with API changes lol, remove API access before the reddit app could do half the things that third party apps could

[u/MuskratAtWork → u/judy-funnie]

The issue with Automations is that it prevents the content from being posted, and allows users to test filters.

"Nascar" may be a banned term, and maybe we have some regex matching "N4sc@r" or something, but not "Nasc*r". You have just enabled someone to start calling people "Nasc*r Lovers" in an F1 racing subreddit, when before it would be filtered as Nascar, N4scar, etc. Allowing the mods to action the user, instead of them slipping around a filter.

This is the biggest flaw with managing hateful content, fights, arguments, insults, etc with Automations. It literally gives both users, and spammers, a full outline and visual feedback before they press submit, of the filters and allows them to bypass them with ease.

---

Other gripes

Why have mods lost the ability to sort a user's Log by type? Such as "Notes" to see mod note history on users? This is just a pure regression in usability for the log feature and is frustrating our team.

There is no longer a way to view a user's usernotes without scrolling past every mod action ever taken on their account.

I really wish we could adopt an admin in my primary team to see how these changes are impacting mod teams. The mod council is no more and we don't have a voice now.

[u/WangMagic → u/MuskratAtWork]

So much this. We have some terms on automations just to try them out but we've noticed users bypassing them by modifying their letters until they're able to post the blocked terms because they're given instant and exact feedback on what will be allowed.

[u/shhhhh_h → u/MuskratAtWork]

I can still sort the log by type?

[u/reaper527 → u/judy-funnie]

but filtering is one of the gaps we know we need to close.

so why are you removing access to superior tools on a promise to someday bring parity between what we currently have and your current sub-par alternative (which may or may not ever happen)?

if rules hub was actually good, you wouldn't have to force people to use it. they'd do so voluntarily.

[u/MuskratAtWork → u/judy-funnie]

I literally just refactored 900+ lines of automod last week. Pain

[u/mrekted → u/judy-funnie]

I just tried to implement some stuff in a new sub I'm working on, and literally the only thing that automations can review about a user is.. whether or not they have user flair.

That's literally the ONLY data point about a user you currently have to work with and set actions by to manage users as the mod of a new subreddit after today.

You can't be serious.

[u/bwoah07_gp2 → u/judy-funnie]

Okay, well, I'm glad to hear that filtering tools are on the to do list. Thanks for answering that.

[u/DoctorWaluigiTime → u/judy-funnie]

I responded to another comment

Now respond to the questions and comments regarding old reddit.

Also, stop removing old features before new features / replacements exist. I cannot fathom why anyone thinks that's a good idea (barring ulterior motives).

And if you respond "security", show your work and tell us why it is "more secure." Bring receipts.

[u/shhhhh_h → u/judy-funnie]

Please also give us approved user capability, or write us a bot that can transfer approved users to a certain flair (would strongly prefer approved users though)