diff --git a/bridges/GatesNotesBridge.php b/bridges/GatesNotesBridge.php
index 24ba9b2ec17..0d9199680f2 100644
--- a/bridges/GatesNotesBridge.php
+++ b/bridges/GatesNotesBridge.php
@@ -23,12 +23,14 @@ public function collectData()
         $cleanedContent = str_replace([
             '<string xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/2003/10/Serialization/">',
             '</string>',
-            '\r\n',
         ], '', $rawContent);
-        $cleanedContent = str_replace('\"', '"', $cleanedContent);
-        $cleanedContent = trim($cleanedContent, '"');
+        // $cleanedContent = str_replace('\"', '"', $cleanedContent);
+        // $cleanedContent = trim($cleanedContent, '"');
 
         $json = Json::decode($cleanedContent, false);
+        if (is_string($json)) {
+            throw new \Exception('wtf? ' . $json);
+        }
 
         foreach ($json as $article) {
             $item = [];
diff --git a/bridges/RedditBridge.php b/bridges/RedditBridge.php
index 2b7fe84f9a5..bb3e7afcf38 100644
--- a/bridges/RedditBridge.php
+++ b/bridges/RedditBridge.php
@@ -1,10 +1,15 @@
 <?php
 
+/**
+ * This bridge does NOT use reddit's official rss feeds.
+ *
+ * This bridge uses reddit's json api: https://old.reddit.com/search.json?q=
+ */
 class RedditBridge extends BridgeAbstract
 {
     const MAINTAINER = 'dawidsowa';
     const NAME = 'Reddit Bridge';
-    const URI = 'https://www.reddit.com';
+    const URI = 'https://old.reddit.com';
     const DESCRIPTION = 'Return hot submissions from Reddit';
 
     const PARAMETERS = [