Erasing your Reddit history is an asshole move, and does not really help "the cause"

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:

𝗡𝗼𝘁𝗲: 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗼𝘄𝗻𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝘀 𝗹𝗲𝗳𝘁 𝗥𝗲𝗱𝗱𝗶𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗷𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗟𝗲𝗺𝗺𝘆 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗹𝗱.

𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝘄𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗻 𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗹𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗨𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗼𝗱𝗲 𝘀𝘆𝗺𝗯𝗼𝗹𝘀 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝗥𝗲𝗱𝗱𝗶𝘁 𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗹𝘆 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘁𝗼 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗟𝗲𝗺𝗺𝘆.

𝗦𝗼, 𝗜𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗱, 𝘄𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝗯𝗲𝗹𝗼𝘄 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗶𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗯𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘀𝗲𝗿 𝗮𝗱𝗱𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗯𝗮𝗿 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝗰𝗼𝗽𝘆-𝗽𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝘁:

𝗵𝘁𝘁𝗽𝘀://𝗷𝗼𝗶𝗻-𝗹𝗲𝗺𝗺𝘆.𝗼𝗿𝗴/𝗶𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲𝘀

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!

Coskii,
@Coskii@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

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

ProfessorFlaw,

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

badmin,

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

ProfessorFlaw,

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

badmin,

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!

ProfessorFlaw,

Why not delete the original content?

badmin,

Well, that’s my unpopular opinion 😉

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.

ProfessorFlaw,

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

Jaysyn, (edited )
@Jaysyn@kbin.social avatar

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!

Achyu,

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

HipPriest,

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.

Poggervania,
@Poggervania@kbin.social avatar

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 “this” or “le epic” comment is off Reddit, but saying under the guise of “denying content” to make themselves feel like they were doing something.

I also wonder if it’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, couldn’t they just restore those if they really wanted to and get back all they deleted?

irkli,
@irkli@lemmy.world avatar

I’m with OP. It’s clear that on Reddit, it’s the users posts that are valuable. That reddit hostscitcis fact, and their ruinous behaviour puts those posts in a new light.

But erased, no one will ever know wtf the issue was about.

All I hear with the “erase my posts” is emotional grandstanding.

badmin,

hostscitcis

Is this a word?

Lanusensei,
@Lanusensei@kbin.social avatar

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.

badmin,

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.

badmin,

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”.

doleo,

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.

badmin,

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.

doleo,

Haha, “task failed successfully”?

badmin,

More like success exceeded my expectations.

preciouspupp,

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.

DeveloperKai,

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.

badmin,

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.

be_excellent_to_each_other,
@be_excellent_to_each_other@kbin.social avatar

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).

Ganbat,

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.

ProfessorFlaw,

100% agree

MoonshineDegreaser,
@MoonshineDegreaser@lemmy.world avatar

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

knobbysideup,

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.

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