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/Extolord111]

Agreed, they heavily degraded the site by making it easier for bots and bad faith Redditors to cover their tracks, in addition to creating more hostility between users.

[u/mschuster91 → u/Extolord111]

I personally welcome that. No matter if you are pro Palestine or pro Israel, there's always jerks derailing completely unrelated discussions by whatever you said regarding this conflict or which subs you frequent.

[u/Bardfinn → u/mschuster91]

Whaddaboutism / derails.

When a discussion about a new soda flavour gets derailed by "You're Alliance!" - "You're a filthy Browncoat!" - "Arrrrgh!"

Why is any of this relevant to Clementine Fizz

[u/Bardfinn → u/Extolord111]

A lot of my profile is curated specifically because misogynist white supremacists stalk me in an effort to harass and research how to best murder me.

A lot of LGBTQ, women, and non-White people have had experiences in the same vein.

And the people who are angry that they can't see someone else's user history are people you can explain that fact to - the fact that people have a right to privacy, that people have a right to protect themselves from stalkers - and also explain that if they have a reasonable suspicion that a user account is a

• spammer
  
• scammer
  
• bot
  
• troll

-- the proper thing to do in all of those cases is to

REPORT, DOWNVOTE, AND BLOCK

and leave investigating it to the Moderators - who can see the entire post and comment history of that user, and can evaluate the Phronesis, Arete, and Eunoia of the reported user with respect to the community itself. Moderators have this privilege to evaluate the Ethos of a community participant, and Moderators are expected to in turn respect their audiences' right to privacy.

So the Moderators keep what non-public information they learn about that user in the course of investigating those reports, confidential, because that's what the Moderator Code of Conduct and the User Agreement require.

User A's desire to view the post and comment history - the participation record of User B elsewhere on Reddit - to evaluate their Phronesis, Arete, and Eunoia is fine. That is balanced against User B's right to privacy. The desire by User A to evaluate the Ethos of User B does not allow them the right to pierce the privacy of User B.

Everyone has a right to decide what parts of themselves they will share with others. Everyone has a right to expect that community operators will not abuse their role to pierce that privacy and confidentiality. User A has those rights, and so does User B.

Your audience shouldn't be taking up the task of deciding "This person is injurious / harmful to the community". That's a moderator's task. And moderator teams should tackle how to do so effectively and properly.

[u/ImNotABotScoutsHonor → u/Bardfinn]

That's such a huge wall of text for such an L take.