Call me cynical but I’m surprised how widespread the opinion is that Reddit is on a death spiral. It might end up being another Digg but I can’t help but feel like this is going to be a blip and that Reddit will by and large continue just fine.
If anything I think this is the moment that Reddit finally separates from the “geeky” crowd that originally birthed it (I remember the days when Reddit was the nerdier alternative to Digg!) I don’t think that community has been the lifeblood of Reddit for a long time, though.
For moderators, the switch from being able to use third party clients to being forced to use the official reddit client would be like a programmer being told their favorite IDE/text editor can no longer be used for code, and you'll have to get used to notepad or something.
Existing code? Fine! No problems, you can run it like normal. Writing new code? I'm not so sure you will have nearly as many developers willing to work in that ecosystem. Third party applications are part of the core moderation loop of pretty much every subreddit that operates at scale, and depriving those moderators of the tools they use will be to the detriment of the quality of the site.
People saying this won't change much probably haven't tried to moderate at scale using only first party tools. It sucks.
Who knows but i already deleted all my accounts and delete the comments earlier this year. The site is only good for finding reviews on products but companies figured that out and game it now as well.
I hope reddit dies if for no other reason than the less social media the better
>The site is only good for finding reviews on products but companies figured that out and game it now as well.
You're using it wrong. Reddit is the only place, in the history of the entire internet, that has successfully collected all of my interests into one location.
Astrophotography, Astronomy, Art Deco, Scuba, Amateur Radio, Radio Astronomy, Motorcycling (specifically Moto Guzzi bikes), EMS/Firefighting, Vintage Computing, Maps, Woodworking, and most importantly of all, Yoga-- all in one place.
There were fora for all of these "back in the good old days" but the user base is 100x more active and knowledgable, they're all in one place, and there are super-niches.
If you go to reddit and only see companies hawking a product, you're the problem.
Like the people who go on TikTok and only see chicks. What the fuck are you doing? I go on TikTok and only see astronomy and scuba diving videos. It's great!
It also had collected my interests in one location but i found the communities grew into toxic for lack of a better term “circle jerks”. It honestly just because a place to go to see people conforming to the majorities opinion on any sub reddit over 20k.
There is also a huge resentment among users about getting advertisements from Hobby Lobby. Their "He Get Sus" campaign is obnoxious and the $5,000,000 that Hobby Lobby has promised is worth more to Reddit than all of their users.
I think the Digg similarity is correct. For the sake of a buck, Reddit is going to destroy their userbase. CNN has shown us just how quick that sort of downfall can be. Chasing conservative money looks appealing to money counters, but if it is the enemy of your customers, then you may as well file bankruptcy right away.
Perhaps people who mostly browse small subreddits through the default client are spared from the current drama. The front page of reddit feels very different from the rest of reddit.
I suspect those small subreddits will continue for a while.
Is that the best tool to delete posts and overwrite comments? I took a look at the developer's comments and last month he said about v 1.4.3 (3 years old) that it still works as it always did, but 2 years ago he was talking about a complete rewrite to fix things, and he never got around to it.
Beware the export function is flaky, and it’s already deleted everything by the time you get to it. Copying the export link href (a huge data:// url) from developer tools seems to be the best bet
If running this again I’d rather use something else to export first
Did it - feel a lot better that that history of mine is gone gone gone. I also keep my Twitter history < 6 months. I don't need these long trails of comments haunting me in 5, 10 years.
You can edit on this one too. Overwriting with the same length (which Shreddit did) doesn't really help with how storage architecture works these days.
People are beginning to realise that any comms in public (even on this hallowed forum) will be used against you if not now but in 1, 2, 5, 10, 20 years time, and likely has already been used to train an LLM. Even Twitter actually deletes all your tweets when your account deletion is actioned, Reddit just replaces your name with [user deleted], hence the need for tools like this.
Discord is on the rise with Gen Z as a result. As long as they don't blow it with whatever pivot they are trying to accomplish with the username changes, semi private walled gardens will be the future of the internet.
Ever platform should be providing a way to delete everything you've done by now. Right to be forgotten is already the law for anyone that's an EU resident and the rest of the world is headed there too.
Saving/favoriting/liking posts/comments/tweets on the platform they exist on is just too risky, especially for things that you care about and want to preserve.
The previous content used to be available via the API, and there were several "undelete-reddit" web sites (ceddit, unddit, among others). Changes to the API broke them more than a year ago. If you wanted your account gone and unrecoverable (prior to those API changes) you had to use one of the deletion utilities (several mentioned in this thread) that edited each comment and replaced it with "garbage".
I guess this is on the frontpage because some people, in reaction to Reddit monetizing their content and ruining their experience, would prefer to burn it all down and delete all their history as a protest.
I get the wrath.
I don't get the action.
I have 15 years of history on reddit. Half of my life. It's a journal, a testament to my growth as a person. I've said brilliant things, I've said heinous ones. I see some things I'm proud of, and some I regret.
If it all goes to ashes, that's fine. The internet isn't permanent, and I lost far more on various defunct web forums from my time as a teenager. But I won't be the one to light the fire.
I didn't put those things on the internet to get rich, and if Reddit Inc. thinks they can get rich from me, that doesn't take anything away from me. They don't owe me anything, and I don't owe them anything either.
There is a huge relief in being able to let go of everything on social media accounts. Starting fresh, deleting (at the time) my 11 year old reddit acc felt great. It was stupid of me to stick to old comments on various subreddits. Did the same to twitter recently and my online habits have felt better than ever since ditching those two sites.
It's ok to delete your content, it's your content. If you cared, you would have archived it. Same with others who might care about that content. Archiving it can mean using systems like IPFS to keep it alive as long as someone wants it. It's not some grand erasure of history, you are just throwing away old CVS receipts, err in this case Reddit receipts. It's also ok to keep those receipts if you want, filling up a cabinet in the closet maybe to look back at the time you bought a toothbrush I suppose.
Deleting accounts and histories offers a major benefit for people, which is that if they are somewhat addicted it's easier to stay away from when you no longer have an old account to feel connected to that encourages you to keep returning. This is likely the primary reason for most people, and not that they particularly care about content written.
Going to ashes is the least of your worries. It was a cool project with cool leadership. It's been People Magazine for years. What has changed is that they're getting extortionate with the way they broker access to all the data we've donated.
It's not about what they owe you or me. It's about not paywalling the commons.
Whats more, as they're pursuing monetization, all your data is more for sale than its ever been. So it's not even Reddit you'd need to trust or have rapport with. They're using your misplaced trust and extending it to anyone who wants it.
If anything I think this is the moment that Reddit finally separates from the “geeky” crowd that originally birthed it (I remember the days when Reddit was the nerdier alternative to Digg!) I don’t think that community has been the lifeblood of Reddit for a long time, though.