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.
-- Replying to below:
???
I use OLD+RES for MY consumption and data density - if you dont know how to configure these together to create a much faster, and more aesthetically pleasing (to me) UX - then that sucks.
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.
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.
Yes, you can, via old.reddit.com.