2y ago

Power Deleted...but shadow posts are apparently a thing.

I might have to look more into my state's right to be forgotten law. I used PDS for about 2 weeks until no more zombie posts were in my profile (most resurrected by the opening of closed subs). I was cleaning out some gaming book marks and clicked on a reddit thread I'd kept and, lo and behold, I found myself in the comments. Except I'd purged all of those. And searching for myself yields no results. This is...disappointing.

73 comments

- Does it work on permanently suspended accounts?
  (The reason for was for "mod abuse" for reporting too much misinformation in a right-wing safe space subreddit, in case anybody was wondering.)
  
  Is it just me or is "permanently suspended" an oxymoron?
- Wait until you get the zip file
  been waiting for weeks at this point
- If you're allready making a GDPR request, why not use it to have them delete the account and all its contents?
- Commenting to find this easier later
  
  There is a save feature on lemmy :)
Known issue for older accounts with more than 1,000 posts. You should be using the Google search site:Reddit.com username to return more content to delete.
You can also do a data request on Reddit which will deliver your data on spreadsheets.
I never had my deletions reversed. The only thing that did happen is when subreddits restored, I had to delete that content too.
I had 6 accounts. I now have zero.
- Ugh, that's extremely disappointing. I've got thousands of comments coming up on Google all the way back to 2009 that don't show up on Reddit searches or my profile anymore. I wonder if there's an automated way I can edit and then delete these.
  
  There’s a premium service called Shreddit that will take your GDPR request files and delete them for you.
  YSK though that your top results in Google are also likely to be the top traffic to Reddit. So deleting top down will remove those traffic sources to Reddit.
  My top 5 results a month ago were also the posts that were driving questions via PM years later.
  I didn’t pay to delete mine. I didn’t have as much as you guys to worry about. Maybe 400 or so. Every couple years I created new accounts. I lucked out because of it.
  
  Likewise - 11,500 hits on google
- The way listings work on reddit is very confusing to most users. I used to think that listings refilled once you removed things from them, but they don't. If you have more than 1000 posts, comments, or whatever, you won't ever see the 1001st thing.
  
  Meaning that posts aren't actually removed, just set to deleted in the database. Also means that they don't use that deleted flag in the database query, instead filtering out the deleted posts after they have been retrieved, which in my mind would be a less efficient way to do it.
I commented a lot on tech support subreddits and I don't want to delete my comments because other people searching for the same problem might find the solution there. I think it's more important to help people than to spite Reddit. Why am I wrong?
- The only problem with that, and its not really a big problem yet, is that reddit is using your content to generate money for themselves in increasingly unethical methods. Previously you could see and interact with content without logging in from many different platforms. Now, on mobile, you can only interact with it on one platform (their own app that forces ads etc) and increasingly you need to be logged in to access it (so they can better track your movement and feed user specific ads). It is not unlikely that in the future they rework reddit premium to prevent people from seeing free content.
  So the end result of your content could be that reddit uses it to take advantage of someone in their time of need by forcing them to pay for a month of reddit premium just to get help with their issues which you provided a solution to for free.
  Now, that's a stretch but only because I dont see how reddit can force a premium subscription on people without everyone rioting and burning the place down. But they seem to have killed all 3rd party apps which was also something I didnt think could possibly happen without bloodshed and it did easily.
  With all that said, I didnt delete my comment history either because I personally feel that it's better to help people than to hurt reddit. But at the current direction and speed reddit is heading I think it's not out of the question that I would in the future change my mind and delete everything.
- I don't think you are.
- You're wrong because your comments don't have to be on Reddit to help people. You could copy them (including the entire thread as context, if necessary) and repost them elsewhere instead.
  
  I could also do that AND not delete them from Reddit, so really you didn't present an alternative but a complement.
- You’re not. I receive a few comment replies a year from old posts I made in support threads years ago, and I don’t want to screw over those people. I don’t plan on adding any more content to Reddit in the future, but I see no need in being petty and removing all my old content if it’s helping out individuals now and in the future. If the side benefit is that some rich asshole is gonna make an extra $.37 on top of his other 3 billion during an IPO or whatever, then so be it. I don’t feel like the trade off is worth it to me.
  
  Thank you.
- Because people who really need those comments can find them in a cache somewhere (such as The Wayback Machine), and while I am sure those comments are very helpful, they are probably not the only source for the information you provided. The difference deleting now makes is that Reddit can’t make more money from your work. People will still find the information, and, if they have to look further than Reddit, they might find you here.
  
  Most of the people I help with basic tech support questions have never heard of the Wayback Machine, and odds are that people who ask themselves the same questions in the future won't have heard of it either. I feel it's petty to take back information from people who have trouble finding it kust to spite the big guy, especially since I already went to the trouble of putting it out there anyway. And it being available elsewhere, while a good thing, is not a guaranteed good thing. Forums and wikis can close or be vandalized or go through what's happening to Reddit now or any number of other things.
- Using this logic, you didn't leave reddit, right?
  If helping is more important than spiting reddit, shouldn't you stay?
  Merely trying to understand your perspective.
  
  I can help people in places other than Reddit, so I did leave. That's different from deleting comments I already made that happen to be there.
- You're not wrong. It'd be helpful to copy these helpful anwers here somewhere, though
you must edit first. automated deletes are rolled back.
- Which is a dick move, but I can see that as a workaround. However, my account shows no posts, and a search of my u/name shows no posts, so they must be tagged with a fake/shadow username that is disconnected from my account. Maybe I can find myself by searching from an alt account (self-shadow-banned?)
  Edit: nope, I don't show up in searches from my alt, either.
  
  I've definitely had it happen where during a period of time when reddit's servers went wack, I had a comment post in a thread that did not appear in my comment history.
  I only noticed this because I used to post in one of those lounge threads, which I would check and refresh frequently.
- Automated edits were throttled to an insanely low level too. It took days for me to get all my comments out. At least I think I got them all… can’t really be sure.
  
  I did it a couple days before July 30. Took like 5 or 6 hours to edit all the comments of a 14 year old account
o7 Cmdr. Thanks for the hint, I’ve also used PDS a few weeks ago and Google is still finding lots of comments while my profile displays none :/
Just get banned. All your stuff will be purged.
How to get banned? Promote violence against the capitalists. It's guilt free!
- Wait it was so easy all this time!?!?
- Just go on a farright or farleft wing subreddit, ask for clarification on a subject, get banned and question the mod, come back with an alternative account and do the same thing again. Repeat three times and your accounts and any account posting using your IP will be automatically banned from Reddit 👍
  I asked on /r/breadtube what was the plan once police forces had been dismantled and got banned for promoting fascism... I'm a socialist so it's not as if I was asking to troll, I was genuinely curious... Then I was angry and kept asking the mod for a justification and that was the end of my Reddit career 🤣
  
  Your browser cookies are the snitches. Reddit will read all your session cookies and just ban them all.
Old Reddit doesn't search comments. 🤦
- It does appear to. I can find myself by searching on my username in either the old. or current web versions, but it's all people just referring to me - none of my posts show up. The author:overzeetop search returns no hits in both the old and new search engines.
  
  It doesn't. Not unless you have RES or some other extension installed.
  It should at least find your profile, though, and from there you can find your comments.
  
  I just double-checked, and Old Reddit search only shows posts.

73 comments