Reddit forces login to access old.reddit.com

As of a few minutes ago old.reddit.com now seems to requre logging in to access it.

Shame as it was still the best place to browse for info about some niche interests.

Edit: Seems like they might be testing the change as it is hit or miss at the moment.

Edit: Adding this to My flilters in uBlock Origin seems to fix the issue for the time being:

||reddit.com^$header=referer:

arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/08/reddit-signals-ominous-upcoming-changes-for-old-reddit-com/

Interestingly enough, old.reddit users are in the single digit percentages:

Even if they weren’t hostile towards old.reddit (the ads are far less invasive and effective), they could make a strong argument for not wanting to support a dwindling, tiny userbase.

I’ve moderated a subreddit for about 15 years now, it’s built up to ~40K members and ~100K visitors per week, ~1M views per month, and over 95-99% of that traffic is mobile (varies by the day). New Reddit (desktop) runs 0.5-3%, and old.reddit doesn’t even register in the bar graphs. Still, my shortcuts all go to old.reddit.com - and not just for moderation, but it’s also how I browse reddit.com.

If they cut off my old.reddit.com interface, I’ll likely abandon my moderator’s post - no telling what happens to that community after that happens.

What percentage of old reddit contributes though? The 90-9-1 rule.

What’s the 90-9-1 rule?

the 90 9 1 rule is the rule of activity. its basically saying that 90% of users are lurkers, 9% contribute some, and 1% are major contributors.