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:
Before the IPO, close to 100% of old.reddit likely contributed. For submitting, the old.reddit interface had better options for the experienced user. It was faster and easier to submit complex longer comments and posts.
The interface isn’t that great for reading comments/post. The third party phone apps did it better.
Besides you had to have a tiny bit of experience with the platform to know how to find that setting. Not something most casual readers who hit the site via a search engine would know to do.
Since the IPO it’s likely mostly few old-timers checking the niche subs. Probably very little engagement. Honestly, it’s likely still around because of some critical tool for moderators or bots that would be extremely expensive to upgrade. Definitely not because they care about the user.