The outdated Reddit format typically appears a bit outdated, however it’s beloved by many Reddit users, together with me. I’ve fearful for a while that Reddit would finally pull the plug on it in favor of the newer and extra fashionable interface, however primarily based on a latest put up from Reddit CEO Steve Huffman, it doesn’t sound like that’s going to occur anytime quickly.
As a part of a larger post printed Monday about “Reddit’s subsequent chapter,” which we noticed via TechCrunch, Huffman, who goes by the username spez, snuck in what regarded like heart-stopping information for us oldheads proper on the finish.
“Sunsetting outdated.reddit: outdated.reddit is the model of Reddit that we constructed again within the mid-2000s,“ Huffman stated. ”It doesn’t scale, it’s unattainable to develop on, and it’s ugly af. We can be shutting it down on the finish of the month.”
However, apparently, that was only a joke. (A daring transfer, given outcry to other Reddit-related shutdowns.) “Simply kidding,” he stated. “I don’t know why I say stuff like this. We’ll determine how you can work round it and maintain it on-line so long as individuals are utilizing it.”
The put up covers many different precise deliberate modifications to the platform, together with that “core product enhancements” like making it simpler to make subreddits and “evolving r/common” are within the works. Reddit additionally needs to shift the first position of moderators from “policing to neighborhood cultivation,” partly with “higher instruments – particularly extra AI-driven automation,” he stated.
Huffman acknowledged that “unwelcome AI in communities is a critical concern” and that it’s the concern he hears most from customers and mods. However he believes that “Reddit works as a result of it’s human” and stated that “our focus is, and at all times can be, on protecting Reddit a trusted place for human dialog.”
Reddit goes to ask for a bit extra figuring out info from its customers, too. Right here’s Huffman’s description of what’s going to occur:
To maintain Reddit human and to fulfill evolving regulatory necessities, we’re going to want a little bit extra info. Particularly, we might want to know whether or not you’re a human, and in some areas, in case you are an grownup. However we by no means need to know your title or who you’re. The best way we are going to do that is by working with varied third-party companies that may present us with the important info and nothing else. No resolution is ideal — together with the established order — however we are going to do our greatest to protect each the humanness and anonymity of Reddit.
On Wednesday, Reddit additionally shared particulars about improvements it’s making to Reddit Chat, together with the power so as to add customers to an allowlist. The corporate introduced in March that it could be changing consumer PMs with Chat.