The discussion stems from a blog post analyzing Reddit’s shift to a logged-in experience. The author explains that Reddit’s decision is driven by three main factors: preventing unauthorized AI scraping, countering the decline in search referrals due to AI-generated answers, and improving ad targeting through richer user profiles. The post contrasts this with Discourse’s decentralized model, where individual community operators control access and data boundaries, arguing that Discourse’s incentives align with keeping knowledge discoverable while ensuring proper attribution and community control.
Community members debated the implications of this shift. mbauman raised a critical concern about the long-term viability of communities if new users can no longer easily discover them via search engines, linking to a separate thread about dropping activity in support forums. HAWK countered that changing user behavior necessitates a strategic reassessment of a community’s value proposition rather than doom. satonotdead agreed, emphasizing the need for community builders to uphold human-centric principles and create value beyond “fast and cheap” interactions, even as launching small communities becomes harder.
Finally, Heliosurge argued that reducing discoverability, as seen in Reddit’s login wall and Discord’s removal of RSS feeds, is a mistake. They noted that platforms must prioritize what draws people in, warning that restricting access could alienate users frustrated by poor web search visibility, a common complaint in Discord communities.
On October 29, Reddit’s leadership announced plans to transition the site into a primarily logged-in experience, starting with initial rollouts in a few markets outside the US. Under the new setup, if you click through from a search engine or a direct link, you’ll still be able to read that specific thread - but for almost any other browsing, you’re going to hit a login wall.
I completely agree with the retrospective outlook regarding “knowledge platforms,” but the trouble is the ongoing liveliness of such “platforms” without new people joining.
An answer is only one output of a community
How do you continue building the community itself if nobody new ever hits it? This blog post completely misses the challenges in
You need to reconsider the value of the community for people. Just because the behaviour has changed doesn’t mean community is doomed, it means it’s time to reevaluate your strategy.
I agree, and I also point out that I think it’s time to re-evaluate our strategy as community builders as a whole. It’s about humanity, to keep our principles aligned and respected, for everyone.
I understand this period we are transitioning through is perhaps the most important in Internet history for keeping the fundamentals and offering something more valuable than “fast and cheap”.
I also agree with the user’s questioning. I felt a lot of their pain because not everybody has the reachability that some folks or companies had before all of this landed. And starting or re-launching small communities is getting harder every day…
But perhaps, that is where the motivation and also the strength lives. If the Internet is making doom easier for everyone, we have the power to work on the opposite, whatever it takes.
I am fully on it, and I know that I can also live with the people in the mountains, almost isolated. For the time being, I think the Internet is still a good place to meet people, exchange ideas and work together.
Agreed. I think more community needs to be re evaluated. As long as the platform in question has reasonable activity. It is more what draws ppl to your platform
I had a feeling Reddit might be heading to a similar idea I’d Discord requiring logins eventually as they announced in November they are removing RSS feeds. More or less due to decrease traffic/revenue. Under the guise of ppl not supporting Reddit with how they are being used.
imho closing Reddit off as they are suggesting is not a great move as ppl complain with Discord about lack of discoverability with web searches.
Imho this can be an opportunity to help detach from doom scrolling and excessive emails. RSS feeds adds an alternative with if the user wants to engage will visit and do so.