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by Cheezmeister 806 days ago
RFC: Is there some straightforward way to use a Pi-hole like setup to 302 redirect `reddit.com` to `old.reddit.com`?

I'm sure there are myriad browser extensions that will do it at the DOM level, but that's such a heavy-handed solution, and also lol I'm not putting an extension on the cartesian product of all my browsers on all my machines in the service of dis-enshittifying one once-beloved social network.

3 comments

I doubt you could do this at the DNS level. Reddit probably loads static assets from `reddit.com`.

You could perhaps intercept the HTTP requests, but that would require decrypting SSL, so you'd have to MITM yourself if you wanted to do it at the network level.

You'd replace the DNS request for `reddit.com` to some device that intercepts the traffic. That device would redirect the HTTP request to `old.reddit.com` if applicable; static assets would be routed to `reddit.com`. I don't know how things like HSTS and certificate pinning fit into an idea like this.

Doing this at the device level is probably easiest. I've used Redirector [0] in the past and it works well.

[0]: https://github.com/einaregilsson/Redirector

I found this extension that makes it even easier, and you can configure it to go to either old.reddit.com or new.reddit.com (instead of going to 3rd generation even worse sh.reddit.com) without having to configure Redirector: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/ui-changer-for-redd...
OP said they didn't want to use an extension, but if they did I would vote Reddit Enhancement Suite anyway
I guess you have a webserver there on your pihole?

Create a vhost for reddit.com, add reddit.com to your hosts file to point to the webserver (or setup a stub in the dns to the vhost webserver), and do a redirect to old.reddit.com on your webserver vhost.

This is probably the easiest (simple http server and a php file) and most reliable (https can be redirected to http to avoid any ssl headaches) way to accomplish what the OP wants.
Most straightforward way is to login once and then turn on the "Opt out of redesign" option. Done.

I can't imagine any type of Pi-hole setup which would be faster, seems like a "holding a hammer" kind of solution.

A nice thing about not being logged in is that it is less addictive as a lot of the front page is less relevant.