Ask HN: Why Reddit blocks all automated access but has .json for all URLs?

Reddit is aggressively blocking all automated access (see their robots.txt) and uses a lot of heuristics to block crawlers that do not honor it.

However, at the same time all Reddit URLs can be made machine readable by adding a .json to the end.

Can anyone explain what's the point of that?

▲

brudgers 21 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

My guess is they see correlation between patterns of automated access and problematic behaviors.

In other words, the current state is the result of hard won experience not syllogistic reasoning.

▲

maheenaslam 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I guess it's Reddit saying we don’t want just any bot crawling around, but if you need the data in a simple format, here’s an easy way to get it.

▲

downbad_ 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I just want to know why Reddit keeps banning people for no good reason,while letting bots roam free.

▲

ksajadi 4 hours ago | parent [-]

It's turned into a bizarre place. Today I asked the same question on /r/meta and my question was immediately removed without explanation. I tried to message the mods and got bounced with a "you cannot send a message to that user"

	▲	downbad_ an hour ago \| parent [-]
		It was much better years ago.

▲

PaulHoule 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Circa 2009 or so I was interested in automated link building systems, there were some sites that had no defenses, but I saw enough going on around Reddit that I just didn't want to mess with it.