this post was submitted on 20 Jul 2023
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Unpopular Opinion

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This shouldn't need an explanation. If your post or comment is made just to get a rise with no real value, it will be removed. You do this too often, you will get a vacation to touch grass, away from this community for 1 or more days. Repeat offenses will result in a perma-ban.



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Users removing their entire Reddit history might block people from reaching useful info that was in that history. Think of people, who may not be Redditors themselves, searching in the future via google, or whatever, for some useful info that was in your deleted history, just because you wanted to feel good about yourself sticking it to spez, or just because you blindly followed the manic sheeple who advised you to do so.

Deleting your entire Reddit history does not help the cause, not proactively anyway.

What would help the cause is people knowing that a very useful/knowledgeable/interesting user, as evidenced by their Reddit history, has abandoned their platform. Even better, if people knew that the useful/knowledgeable/interesting user has moved to a new platform called Lemmy.

Whether you are planning to leave Reddit completely, or you are splitting your time between here and there, leaving a message like the one below at the end of comments, and/or in its own stickied post in your profile, would be much more helpful than trying to erase your Reddit history:


๐—ก๐—ผ๐˜๐—ฒ: ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—ผ๐˜„๐—ป๐—ฒ๐—ฟ ๐—ผ๐—ณ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ถ๐˜€ ๐—ฎ๐—ฐ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐˜‚๐—ป๐˜ ๐—ต๐—ฎ๐˜€ ๐—น๐—ฒ๐—ณ๐˜ ๐—ฅ๐—ฒ๐—ฑ๐—ฑ๐—ถ๐˜ ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—ท๐—ผ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ฒ๐—ฑ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—Ÿ๐—ฒ๐—บ๐—บ๐˜† ๐˜„๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐—น๐—ฑ.

๐—ง๐—ต๐—ถ๐˜€ ๐—บ๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜€๐—ฎ๐—ด๐—ฒ ๐—ถ๐˜€ ๐˜„๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐˜๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ป ๐˜‚๐˜€๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—ฎ๐—น๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ป๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ ๐—จ๐—ป๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ ๐˜€๐˜†๐—บ๐—ฏ๐—ผ๐—น๐˜€ ๐—ฏ๐—ฒ๐—ฐ๐—ฎ๐˜‚๐˜€๐—ฒ ๐—ฅ๐—ฒ๐—ฑ๐—ฑ๐—ถ๐˜ ๐—ฎ๐—ฝ๐—ฝ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐˜๐—น๐˜† ๐—ฑ๐—ผ๐—ฒ๐˜€ ๐—ป๐—ผ๐˜ ๐˜„๐—ฎ๐—ป๐˜ ๐˜†๐—ผ๐˜‚ ๐˜๐—ผ ๐—ธ๐—ป๐—ผ๐˜„ ๐—ฎ๐—ฏ๐—ผ๐˜‚๐˜ ๐—Ÿ๐—ฒ๐—บ๐—บ๐˜†.

๐—ฆ๐—ผ, ๐—œ๐—ณ ๐˜†๐—ผ๐˜‚ ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ ๐—ถ๐—ป๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฑ, ๐˜„๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐˜๐—ฒ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—น๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ธ ๐—ฏ๐—ฒ๐—น๐—ผ๐˜„ ๐—บ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐˜‚๐—ฎ๐—น๐—น๐˜† ๐—ถ๐—ป ๐˜†๐—ผ๐˜‚๐—ฟ ๐—ฏ๐—ฟ๐—ผ๐˜„๐˜€๐—ฒ๐—ฟ ๐—ฎ๐—ฑ๐—ฑ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜€ ๐—ฏ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ ๐—ถ๐—ป๐˜€๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—ฑ ๐—ผ๐—ณ ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—ฝ๐˜†-๐—ฝ๐—ฎ๐˜€๐˜๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—ถ๐˜:

๐—ต๐˜๐˜๐—ฝ๐˜€://๐—ท๐—ผ๐—ถ๐—ป-๐—น๐—ฒ๐—บ๐—บ๐˜†.๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐—ด/๐—ถ๐—ป๐˜€๐˜๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฐ๐—ฒ๐˜€


If it's possible to do this to old messages in batch, that would be great, as long as it can be done without triggering automatic Reddit admin alarms.

Getting a copy of your Reddit history via a GDPR request is something you definitely should do.

Saving a lot more of old.reddit in the Internet Archive would also be helpful and great.

But as things stand, do not erase your Reddit history!

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[โ€“] [email protected] 24 points 1 year ago

That's the point of deleting their history. To make reddit b useless. After a while, reddit will stop generating in the algorithm for search engines and they'll take a hit in their grip on internet media. It's a long game.

However me saying that isn't the reason why I deleted my account. I'm on the side that was interested in the change, but the mods that I interacted with got worse and worse. All of the subs were becoming politic cesspools of more hate and less communicating. I started to notice a theme where redditors were turning on birds of the same feather as well. Reddit as a whole is rabid and I got tired of it. Now my biggest fear is that the same garbage people that were on reddit are going to just ruin the fun on a different platform. People suck I guess

[โ€“] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Like reddit, you assume this is reddit's data and not owned by the people who posted it. Each individual should choose for themselves if they want it there or not, full stop. Of course reddit has the right to re-post what you delete, so it's just a never-ending arms race if it is that important to reddit to have that there. They cannot, however, ever claim that they own those words, images, video, or audio to the extent that they can ban you from sharing it elsewhere. Disclaimer: IANAL.

My recommendation is for anything that you put your own passion and time into that you self-host, or at least have the original copy somewhere. Then share that via URL whether it be on lemmy, reddit, your own blog, whatever. Social aggregators, IMO, shouldn't be the source of any technical documentation whatsoever.

[โ€“] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Thanks for your input, but I don't appreciate your condescension, and presuming my motives for deleting my data.

I can see where you're coming from, but I have no intention of raising awareness, or converting people into Lemmings. I deleted my data from reddit because the API issue represented the final straw, their actions and behaviour being totally misaligned with a company that I'm comfortable providing value to. And my posts, at least to some extent, were providing value to their business.

So I didn't like the >just because you wanted to feel good about yourself sticking it to spez, or just because you blindly followed the manic sheeple who advised you to do so>, it feels like an unnecessary barb. But good luck with your efforts.

[โ€“] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Thanking for taking the time to read the post and engaging meaningfully.

The perceived condescension was a deliberate addition by my humble self to make sure this post will be suitable for this community, which may not have been necessary after all.

I managed to post something actually unpopular here, and for that at least, I'm glad.

[โ€“] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Haha, "task failed successfully"?

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

More like success exceeded my expectations.

[โ€“] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Uh, bud, the whole point is to make Reddit less profitable. This means less valuable, less useful, etc. So, yeah, deleting your entire history absolutely does help the cause.

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago
[โ€“] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I'm actually reposting my older content here and on lemmy, so it's not a complete loss. Also, all of my posts were image-based, directly hosted on Reddit, that means I cannot redirect anyone here by any means.

[โ€“] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago

Yeah, I personally don't care about images.

I don't want to make assumptions about what kind of images you post, but I actively block all meme/humor communities anyway.

Images are not text-searchable anyway.

So, all in all, for me, deleting image posts is not that big of a deal.

[โ€“] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago

that means I cannot redirect anyone here by any means.

Forgot to mention, as I already alluded to, you can submit a post to your profile mentioning your full/partial move to Lemmy/kbin. Then in the post page trigger "make announcement" and "pin to profile".

[โ€“] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

It's an interesting discussion point but ultimately I think one that doesn't change much in the grand scheme of things. Primarily I'd start by saying we should respect whatever what anyone wants to do.

But I can see what the OP means that information that might prove useful to others disappearing from the internet and be seen as a loss, or an act of self censorship to prove a point. And that deleting that data will have a negligible effect on Reddit's profitability because very few users are doing it.

However, I also think as a protest against the way the site has treated its users over the last month it's understandable that people want to take their ball and go home. And more to the point show Reddit exactly who owns the content they are claiming to own. Users owe nothing to Reddit and want to exercise their freedom of choice, good on them.

I'm picking up on a trend in this community though - it is possible to have an unpopular opinion and not be a dick about it at the same time. I'm sure I read that somewhere.

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Bold of you to assume I was more than a lurker on reddit. /s

On a more serious note, although that does MAYBE help spread awareness, it does not stop the fact that reddit would be getting the initial traffic. The one searching for information would be directed to reddit via a Google search, then hear about Lemmy in the comment. This still leads to reddit getting traffic, which is ultimately not the goal. Additionally, because our hypothetical "researcher" is only looking for answers in this case, I doubt they'd be motivated to sign up for Lemmy purely out of gratitude.

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

While I don't agree with you, I must thank you for trying engage logically with the arguments presented.

I think what people miss is the big picture: critical masses, growth momenta, hype cycles... etc.

If Reddit is on its way down, it will be on its way down. It will be a question of who will benefit the most.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I recognize that I'm replying to an old discussion, but I think engagement and staying on the site benefits Reddit much more than hitting a single search result click and getting what you need from it.

IMO (and I claim no particular expertise) if your search results end up with links to edited or deleted posts, you are less likely to do OTHER things on reddit after finding out that's true, because you are still looking for your answer. And eventually, (not suggesting the mass deletions were enough to necessarily cross this threshold) you are going to start skipping reddit results in your searches the way I already skip pinterest and instagram results (though for different reasons).

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

In the same way as not leaving your stuff in your old rented apartment after moving because the landlord doubles your rent is a dick move.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I wasn't even aware of the delete thing happening, mass deletion/removal of my messages is just how I exit any community online.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The point if deleting your history is that people SHOULDNT go to reddit, this is literally failling the whole point of the protest

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

And how will people know that there was a protest, and more relevantly, that anything of value has been lost?

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Use delete suit and edit all your commends to a info abt the protest

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yes, that was one of my proposals in OP, to append info about moving to Lemmy at the end of comments, but without removing their original content.

I didn't and wouldn't be using the word protest btw, because we are supposedly past that now! We are done with Reddit for good, supposedly! We just want people to know where we moved!

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Why not delete the original content?

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Well, that's my unpopular opinion ๐Ÿ˜‰

Unlike content in let's say Facebook, there is a wealth of knowledge in Reddit that is indexed by search engines, covering a plethora of topics. Removing that knowledge will hurt people searching for that info, while hardly affecting Reddit. Erasing all traces of that content removes the opportunity to tell Redditors and visitors alike about what Reddit had done, and where the authors of that useful content had moved.

I already argued this in OP.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

In my opinion it actually is one of the main user sources for reddit and i think you should destroy it because reddit should completely die

[โ€“] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I agree with OP - it seemed like 95% of people deleting their posts were mostly doing it to be caught up in the drama and sticking it to Hoffman by saying their shitty โ€œthisโ€ or โ€œle epicโ€ comment is off Reddit, but saying under the guise of โ€œdenying contentโ€ to make themselves feel like they were doing something.

I also wonder if itโ€™s a moot move in the end - not that I know for sure, but I would suspect that Reddit would still have that content on their servers somewhere. If that were the case, couldnโ€™t they just restore those if they really wanted to and get back all they deleted?

[โ€“] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Deleting your entire Reddit history does not help the cause, not proactively anyway.

That's a incredibly oblivious take considering that messages are quite literally the only thing on Reddit with any value whatsoever.

Removing messages is the only way to remove Reddit's value for those that want to punish them for their ongoing Enshitification.

In fact, your post has made me decide to actually bother Greasemonkeying my ~250k Reddit posts. I was on the fence before, so good job!

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Would you delete it all? Or edit and replace it with the issue with reddit and redirect people to lemmy?

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