They were not "blocking" ads and trackers, those features are not exposed by the API. They couldn't do it even if they wanted to, which was discussed at some point.

Not sure what you mean by "trackers". Reddit knows exactly what you did in the 3rd party app via the API. The app tells the API who you are.

>Hell you can't even browse Reddit without an account anymore!

Yes, you can, via old.reddit.com.

Which is exactly why i'm leaving Reddit. I don't imagine old.reddit will be around much longer either.

same here. once old.reddit is gone, im gone as well

…that’s going to be the next thing they get rid of

They tried to a while ago - and the old.redditors (like me, 17 year account) complained - and they keep it around. I exclusively use old.

Hate to break it to you, but nobody uses old anymore. As a subreddit mod you can see traffic breakdown stats, and old makes up around 5% of traffic. Up to 10% on some subs. I'm a moderator of a highly technical niche sub and it's about 5-10% for me. Other mods of various subs have commented with their stats and it's always in that 5-10 range.

Old users may create more content than normal users, I don't know about that. The niche subs might take a hit, but the main website and big subs will continue on without disruption if they kill old. (Assuming mods continue to mod - and Reddit can replace/hire mods as needed)

I use old. I’m sure it’s a minority, but either volume or quality of those users is, for now, enough value for Reddit to support it. As much as I’d like them to keep old indefinitely, I’m sure they’re just waiting for the value equation to tip negative before they kill old.

Can you see traffic through apps/API?

For my sub it's about:

5% old.reddit.com

>10% "iOS"

>10% "mobile web"

20% "Android"

50% new.reddit.com (non-mobile, presumably)

Most subs should have a pretty similar distribution, the numbers don't vary much.

Reddit doesn't specify how it tracks 3rd party apps and APIs in these stats.

Yeah, if they kill old.reddit I’ll use it significantly less. Not only is it more annoying with more friction, even if I was still willing to use it for a rough avg(minutes per day) pushing through the annoyance, I wouldn’t be able to consume as much in the same period of time

Precisely - information density on old is what users want - sparseness of information with plenty of space for ads and shiny-objects is what the suits want.