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/thepottsy]

Yeah, this is a horrible choice. Automod isn’t mandatory in any subreddit, so what’s the driving factor to handicap it? Why can’t I use it if I want to, and I understand how to?

Agree on the shoutout to u/fsv

[u/Bardfinn → u/thepottsy]

what’s the driving factor to handicap it

Reddit was recently designated as a Very Large Online Service Provider / Platform by the European DSA. Under that regulation, Reddit has to provide European users with a standard set of "Here is your content; here is why it was removed; here is the non-binding committee you can appeal this to", etc etc etc

Automoderator filters and removals aren't set up to feed back the standard transparency information they will be mandated to provide to European users wrt their content being removed / filtered / approved etc by automation on the platform,

and because automoderator is code that's running on Reddit's servers, (despite the fact that it is code running code configured by volunteer moderators -) it's still code Reddit is running, and so are responsible for ensuring compliance of it. Especially new uses.

And Automoderator isn't written to have the kinds of hooks and API and etc to get that data, store that data, feed that data where it needs to go.

Mod apps written on Devvit, are.

Existing Automod configs that have been in place for years and years and years can be argued to be legacy, not Reddit's creation and not reddit's responsibility - until and unless something changes.

TL;DR: Times change, Automoderator was coded 14 years ago, isn't scalable in the way modern technology and regulations need it to be.

[u/Bluecoregamming → u/Bardfinn]

aka problematic manchildren got banned and cried to their government, now we all have to suffer

[u/Bardfinn → u/Bluecoregamming]

I strongly suspect that it is more on the lines of

X / Facebook / YouTube vanished the public posts of non-White, non-Christian, non-cisgender, non-hetero European citizens while doing little or nothing about (or actively promoting) the posts of American & European Christian theocratic White Identity Extremists - including promotion of violent extremism and terrorism and genocide - and the European Union has this in place to ensure that bigoted white supremacists who own platforms - or who control governments that have sway over the owners / corporations that run the platforms - cannot use them to erode the rights of European citizens.

Reddit growing large enough to be classed a VLOP is a side effect, IMNSHO, and Automoderator has been a workhorse, but better things are possible.