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Reddit doesn't allow you to delete your account either. You can only "deactivate" it, to delete posts you have to do it manually. Since the Internet has the att
by pacala 7y ago
Reddit doesn't allow you to delete your account either. You can only "deactivate" it, to delete posts you have to do it manually. Since the Internet has the attention span of a gnat, I can find no plausible justification to not delete one's contributions automatically. At most, a site may delay the delete by a few weeks out of respect for other users. After that, all conversations have long died and measurably nobody cares. Other than the Twitter cancel mobs.
- saagarjha 7y ago> Since the Internet has the attention span of a gnat, I can find no plausible justification to not delete one's contributions automatically. People often say things that have useful information in them?
- pacala 7y agoThe number of readers of forum comment decays exponentially over time. Is anyone reading years old forum comments looking for insights?
- saagarjha 7y agoYes.
- dredmorbius 7y agoIt happens rarely, but it happens. The first Usenet posts of Linus regarding Linux, or of Mike Godwin's coinage of Godwin's Law come to mind. The question of how to determine cultural relevance is a hard one. Ordinarily, say, social utterances or discussions wouldn't qualify. If a participant or subject of that discussion ends up in a socially-significant role (high office, head of a major company, etc.), that might change. Contexts vary, and can change over time. At the same time, records are lost with time, there is a forgetting curve, and a few high-water marks stand out, though even those crumble in time. Looking at HN's top-ever stories is an interesting exercise (either Lists or Algolia's search w/o any terms should give this).
- whereistimbo 7y agoYes! It's so frustrating searching on Google, clicking a reddit thread just to find out the important post is already deleted.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- monort 7y agoI read old HN comments quite regularly. When I need insight about some topic, my first search is always through HN comments.
- Anthony-G 7y agoWhen researching a topic, I regularly use DuckDuckgo with `site:news.ycombinator.com` as part of the search term. Sometimes the older comments will be out of date but it's often the case that they contain information or insights that are still relevant and interesting.
- stjohnswarts 7y agoThere are some python scripts that will go through and scrub your contents. Not that it really matters, all the big guys backup reddit everyday for future reference, you're just probably protecting yourself from low level doxers and not state actors. Then again state actors can always go down to the hardware store and buy a $5 dollar wrench or rubber hose and beat it out of you