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I hate when people do this kind of purge on Reddit instead of just deleting the account and letting the comments stay. So much useful information has been destr
by ziml77 4y ago
I hate when people do this kind of purge on Reddit instead of just deleting the account and letting the comments stay. So much useful information has been destroyed thanks to these tools. I'm glad that dang does not allow this to happen on HN.
- Klonoar 4y agoWe literally had a project on the HN front page a few months ago that could identify users from commenting styles. Removal of the comment itself matters, nobody owes you information forever.
- jareklupinski 4y agothat would be neat though imagine going to your account section and seeing the 'worth' of your comments if you want to delete your account, you would be offered that amount for the site to be able to keep your output
- kjkjadksj 4y agoThere are already businesses that will buy an established reddit account from you. These arrangements exist for anything with accounts with rep, whether they be reddit accounts or instagram or runescape accounts.
- kjkjadksj 4y agoIt sets a dangerous precent because these tools make it seem like you can remove stuff from the internet for good, when you cannot. They don’t do anything for services that crawl reddit and archive all your posts.
- zzzeek 4y agoso, then "So much useful information has been destroyed" claimed by grandparent post is not actually correct then?
- LegionMammal978 4y agoPlenty of information is archived after being deleted from its original source, it's just common that the particular information you're looking for is not included in any archives at all, much less any archives you can access.
- Klonoar 4y ago>when you cannot It's more of a "you might not be able to". Even with all the archival things that target Reddit currently, plenty of accounts who purge their comments squeeze through just fine. If you post on the internet, yes, you do need to understand it's not sitting in one database table somewhere. It doesn't mean it's futile to try and clean up though.
- marktangotango 4y agoAs someone who's been commenting on various sites for 20 years, I consider my comment history to be the very clearest representation of self and who I am. Like if my progeny ever wanted to know about me they could go read what I've written over the years. But then, I never crap post (some may disagree), and I usually always write sincerely. So the idea of shredding all that is kind of startling.
- Klonoar 4y agoI generally use my real identity on the internet and have a similar story to yours. That said, our stories are nowhere near representative of why it's important to be able to delete comments. ;P
- pixl97 4y agoCrap is definitely measured by the eye of the beholder, and not the depositor :D Of course these days with AI able to do analysis of everything we've ever wrote, duplicate our speech, and mimic our look, we may find out that leaving all this information in public was a foolish mistake.
- damagednoob 4y ago> If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men, I will find something in them which will hang him. - Cardinal Richelieu This was going through my head when I recently deleted 15 years of Facebook data. I am not the same person I was when I was 18.
- circuit10 4y agoPreservation of obscure knowledge is important, please don't do this
- Klonoar 4y agoNo. People's ability to preserve their own safety and identity is important. Obscure knowledge can be reproduced; people cannot be.
- seanw444 4y agoExactly. Preservation of obscure knowledge is important, but it does not take priority over peoples' privacy, security, and personal choice.
- Solvate8441 4y agoI think frequently making new primary accounts is a good compromise between preserving obscure knowledge and preserving privacy. A few times a year I'll even check my old inboxes just in case I can help someone since I myself have gotten lucky messaging inactive accounts about really obscure topics and getting a response. You would still have to take additional measures if you post in some communities with any regularity.
- circuit10 4y agoI don’t see how someone posting a helpful answer to a question destroys their identity, I guess it could be mixed in with unsafe or embarrassing things but please can people take the time to go over each message to see if it really needs deleting? It might be a lot of work but it will do so much good compared to indiscriminately wiping everything and breaking the history of conversations other people were involved in without their permission
- Klonoar 4y agoAgain, no. You do not need permission to withdraw your side of a conversation you engaged in.
- skeletonjelly 4y agoWhat was the project?
- BeFlatXIII 4y agoOk, then it's off to the archiving sites which flag edited comments with a red background.
- user_7832 4y agoThats an interesting view to take on HN given how much HN prevents editing/deleting old content. (To be clear I am not majorly in favour or against either side.)
- privacyking 4y agoBlame the script kiddies who like to dox people. This is one of the best ways to defend against that.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]