2y ago

Wiping my Reddit account as we speak as the 30th begins to roll on in. Anyone struck by nostalgia?

I'd been using Reddit for 6 years; thousands of hours. All gone, in a quick(ish) running of a script. And once it's gone, it's gone. Link rot is gonna be so much bigger soon. And everything that represents a mark on the platform from me will be gone.

I remember spending time on basically every interest I've had on there. I remember the memes, the political discussions, the anticipations of football transfers, the stunning source-gathering work on the Ukraine war, the shitposts, the communities willing to help me on the most stupid of questions. The hours spent defending random pixels on a canvas modified by other communities with friends, the awestruck silence of the Snap both in movie form and Reddit form. The support for me as a person when I needed it the most and real life couldn't, wouldn't, didn't give to me.

And in a few minutes, that'll all be gone. It's already going away as I type this. Almost feels like a microcosm of my own mortality. Maybe I'm being overly sentimental, but it hurts. Anyone else feel the same?

50 comments

9 years, and I've been a content creator that made it into the "top 1%" of my main sub. More than 200 videos (that have since been put on youtube instead) and just as many written guides, countless comments offering in-depth help etc.
I would be lying if I said the decision was easy, but I nuked everything I could. The posts / submissions are gone, a good chunk of the comments is deleted as well. Sadly shreddit didn't quite catch everything and now that the account is deleted I can no longer manually nuke my old comments.
The "interesting" part is that I don't even use third party apps - I use Firefox on my laptop. I also never used bots for moderation purposes as I haven't been a mod - whenever I called out scammers / repost bots, I did it with a comment warning others and a report to the actual mods. The various changes u/spez wants to still implement wouldn't even have directly affected me personally, but I found his attitude and behaviour just so incredibly sh*tty, hostile and egotistical that I decided to pull my content from his dumpster fire of a website in solidarity with the people who are directly affected.
- Yeah, his attitude and the whole fiasco signify the direction the platform direction. Today it won't affect you, but tomorrow he will force something unfavorable to you just so he can lure in and makes these teenager an addict.
- Same here. Not on the content part, just the bit about solidarity. It hurts, but all the comments are gone now.
- 9 year creator as well, and I was legitimately sad when I pressed that delete account button. Before running the automated removal scripts I read through each one of my posts and comments and that brought back a lot of interesting memories of a different younger me. I archived what I could and got rid of the rest.
  Yes I use third party apps but it's the whole response from /u/spez and Reddit that really made me call it quits. They're clearly catering for the Tiktok generation and not users who genuinely want to post original content and build good communities.

15 years.
I'm a shy person and was just now getting comfortable posting stuff.
Oh well.
It's sad that a lot of genuinely useful comments are going to be lost in the purge.

I'm at about 50/50. I realized I would just scroll a lot through junk and got some time back by not doing that. I set up an RSS feed for a few news websites that has replaced reddit for current events and tech news I care about.
However I haven't found a good replacement for hobby boards or video games I'm currently playing. I'm on a few game discords but I hate the chat format. I would rather have threads I could read about specifics topics instead of catching up on 100 post an hour with no order. For hobbies, I found that the fediverse has me covered on the selfhosted front, but things like comic books and vinyl really hasn't taken off that much here.

I'm a pack rat IRL. It unfortunately flows over into my digital life, me wanting to keep every file, bookmark, etc even it I haven't visited/viewed it in years. Knowing this I quickly hit the process button on power delete suite and didn't look back. I knew I'd want to keep stuff and go down a needless rabbit hole if I had peeked even at one page XD. Does feel good to go against my pack rat ways for once though!
- I haven't looked at it either. I'll look once the backup is ready when PDS is done running. I hate link rot with a burning passion, but...

I've been on Reddit since 2011 and feel very bittersweet about all this. Reddit has changed drastically since I first joined so I already mourned the earlier days of Reddit but this really feels like the last naio in the coffin. On the other hand, I wouldn't have discovered Lemmy without Reddit and I see so much potential here so that is the silver lining in all of this.

Actually, I'm not.
I kinda suspected an internet cancer diagnosis pretty early, so started mentally preparing myself to say goodbye. I've also been doing this thing where often I write specifically for the AIs, going out of my way to be polite, clear and extra explanatory. It was kinda exhausting though, so I'm glad I can stop now.
I'm still a fairly nice internet guy, but I can say whatever the fuck now.

I guess it's not too different than moving to a new town. The last town is still there, but it's not the same anymore. Those memories, though... You will make new memories in the new town, but you'll never lose the memories of the old town.
That being said, WELCOME TO LEMMYTOWN, FRIEND! I'm new here too. Let's make some new memories in a new context ❤️

Someone had posted the idea of unsubbing from everything so the numbers weren't inflated and I thought that was a good idea...so I did one by one and it just sucks, lots of good, obscure communities. Dumb convos. I really loved the politics megathreads especially, since literally no one else in my life carew like me lol
But I just have no interest in going back. And honestly I wasted too much time on Reddit. And Lemmy is my go to, and soon I'll use it for news/info etc without all the absolute timewasting

I use RSS feeds.
For a long time I tried to avoid being roped in by the biggest dominant players. I was once on holiday for a month and found myself locked out of my Google account because of something that happened on my Youtube channel whilst I was away (4 spam uploads - I have no idea how, but even deleting them didn't help).
After my first few months on Reddit, the same thing happened. One subreddit for my main torrent client banned me for telling someone I think their idea was a bit stupid. Zero tolerance... so I ended up having to leave all that behind and start up a new account.
I left Microsoft for Linux in 2013, and apart from a few evil email accounts, I have very nice (free) secure accounts too.
I don't use Chrome, or chromium browsers - I use Firefox.
So really, discussing Firefox on r/Firefox on Reddit always struck me as being a rather stupid idea.
I just hope that over the next ten years we'll see a newer, and less centralised form of content begin to emerge...
Can you believe that people would go to Reddit and have serious discussions about how bad Google is, about how bad Youtube is, about how evil Facebook is.
This is just another WAKE UP call.

Are you actually able to delete your stuff? I've tried a couple days in a row to delete my posts and comments and they kept coming back. I even tried editing my posts but they just revert back to the original.
Haven't tried in a day or so but I assume reddit is restoring from a backup or something
- in my uneducated guess this could be some caching issue, as most of the content i've deleted seems to be really gone (and even unlisted by google by now), but only small section isn't
- You have to do it manually. Some scripts don’t work.

12 years for me. I did a wipe 7 years ago so my oldest stuff is gone. I am bummed that I can’t read my oldest posts and comments, but I erased them for good reason. I was an edgy, annoying, Elon-worshiping teenager.
I will get around to wiping the last 7 years, but I’m not ready to just yet.
- power delete suite will stop working on 30., so better make decisions quickly
  
  Install Reddit Enhancement Suite on your browser (if you didn't use it for some reason)
  Head to your profile comments page
  Open your browser debug console
  Paste this script:
  undefined
  
  var $domNodeToIterateOver = $('.del-button .option .yes'), currentTime = 0, timeInterval = 1500; $domNodeToIterateOver.each(function() { var _this = $(this); currentTime = currentTime + timeInterval; setTimeout(function() { _this.click(); }, currentTime); });
  Hit enter. Sigh in relief as your profile cleans itself comment by comment.
  You may need to run it again after each page is cleared.
  
  Will it really? I didn't realize. I'm guessing its because the api will no longer be free?

Make sure that your changes actually “sticks”. There are multiple reports of people trying to delete or edit posts, only for them to come back soon after. It seems that deleting isn’t possible and when mass editing posts, there needs to be long enough delay (5 seconds or so) between each edit.
- I'm using Power Delete Suite on it, I assume it'll do it properly?

12 years in total across 2 primary accounts, 350k combined karma, and a ton of memories. so yea, i'm feeling some of that nostalgia while deleting. i appreciate that power delete suite allows me to download all of my comments and posts, but it's just not really gonna be the same. i haven't figure out how to save all my saved posts and links though, which has a bit more value for me, but ciest la vie.

I changed all my comments to a rickroll.
- I would suggest to copy paste some paragraphs from https://randomtextgenerator.com/
  I find it hilarious to see a +100 upvoted comment that when you try to read it, it's as if you had a stroke, for example:
  Supported neglected met she therefore unwilling discovery remainder. Way sentiments two indulgence uncommonly own. Diminution to frequently sentiments he connection continuing indulgence.
  
  I jumped the gun and simply deleted my account, but this is 1337% more genius. Having the script pull from Bullshit Ipsum to edit years of linked and quoted posts would have been perfect.

Watching 14 years go as I write.

13 years

Just did the same. 12 years. received a couple bans for profanity/pinging admins from automods.

12 years here; started erasing two weeks ago and just keep checking to see if anything has been recovered. So far it’s just been the odd comment here and there that’s resurfaced and then swiftly deleted. A lot of technical know how and solutions wiped as I used to frequent subs on Microsoft technologies. Feels for people who will experience issues whose solutions have now been wiped, but there was no way in hell that I was going to allow Reddit to make click revenue from the posts and comments that I submitted. Hopefully with time those subs will migrate to here and we start building a thriving community.
The switch to lemmy was easy; I feel this is much more of a an accepting place. I spend more time on here than I did on Reddit as am finding interest in communities that I previously would not have visited on Reddit. (I joined several weeks ago but on a different instance and switched to lemmy.world as it had a better fit)
- I'm also feeling more quality over quantity, as in the earlier days of Reddit. Ditto on broadening of interests, and more scrolling.
  Perhaps that's not all a good thing, but I'm rolling with it.

How effective is it to delete? Didn't reddit restore the posts / comments of deleted accounts to avoid losing content?
- So I deleted all my posts and comments 4 days ago now, and they have stayed deleted. I'm thinking if you leave your account active for a while afterwards, it doesn't trigger the "undelete" action, if it was ever a real thing. It was highly possible that peoples stuff they thought was being undeleted, was actually just the result of more private subreddits being opened back up. Content you have in a private subreddit will NOT be deleted, as it can't be accessed.
  
  Some things were definitely restored / not deleted tho. I've spent a week manually deleting all of my posts and comments until reddit displayed "this user hasn't posted anything" and "there seems to be nothing here" two days in a row,, then also used shreddit which found a whooping 981 MORE comments to delete, and then I nuked my account the next day after (!) checking that it was still empty.
  ... but now I can find a bunch of my older comments again. They're no longer attributed to me ("posted by [deleted]") but the content is still there. And that should not have been possible considering that I both manually deleted everything reddit chose to show me AND used a program that allegedly nukes everything.

I spent a lot of time this week rereading my old reddit comments before mass deleting them.

Nope, I wiped a lot of the stuff in my alt when the Aimee Challenor thing happened and tbh, I've been pretty disengaged since then because I found the real world to be more interesting.
The message boards I frequented when I was 14 don't exist anymore and thank fucking god. You don't want this cringe stuff tied to you 20 years down the road. You'll find that the memories of good times are enough!

I sorta felt the same before I started to delete... but it felt weirdly cathartic and satisfying once it was done.
The only thing that bugs me now is that there are still comments that I can't get to. My user profile shows zero comments, but googling my username + reddit, I can still find old posts, and I want them gone too.

Yes, but no, but yes, but only kinda.
The things that I will miss the most, are identical to the things that I'm enjoying on lemmy.

Reading your post finally convinced me to do the same. For me, Lemmy is my new home for endless scrolling. I will also continue to look around, but so far Lemmy seems to be the best alternative. 11 years on Reddit is not something I'll soon forget, but sometimes the cliches are the best... Just rip the band aid off.
Well, it's ripped off now. Power Delete Suite just completed and I finished deleting all of my "gold" awarded posts.

https://www.reddit.com/r/meme/comments/14mux97/i_hate_you_all_and_i_wont_miss_you_at_all/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button I know it's ironic that it's a link from reddit
- Like tears...in the rain...

Lemmy kinda reminds me of IRC, so yes.

Yeah, me too. Been there for 7 years, it's basically a time capsule of how i've grown for this 7 long years and in a few hours i'll have to bid my farewell with the friends i made along the way, then when midnight strike in my country, the account will be gone. I've met someone very special to me and also lost it over the last 3 years with that account, it's hard not to feel sentimental.
- It's almost like cutting off a part of myself. Also, watching PDS tick up on the page progress cuz it can only see so many pages ahead of where it's at is... distressing, shall we say. I didn't know I had (at least) 80 pages of content on Reddit, though it obviously makes sense. I'm kinda assuming it might have to run overnight, but it just... hurts. I've changed so much over the past 6 years and in a few moments all I will have left is my memories and a discord account that's even worse at archiving things.
  
  Yeah, clicking that button is like pulling life support off your loved one. I've never feel so hurt leaving a socmed platform before, mostly because i didn't meet much people before in those platform, everyone just trying to showoff their life but never try to communicate.
  My country sub in reddit have this daily thread where people will just post their thought and all that, and i've met more friend in those thread alone than any forum/facebook/twitter combined. It's a special place.

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