I nuked my Reddit accounts today. Deleted all comments and posts, then the accounts themselves. The tool I used showed each comment as it was deleted, and it was bittersweet.
I watched old gaming and movie discussions I barely remember appear and then get flagged as deleted. Communities I once participated in and then moved on as the years past flashed by. I remembered how I felt back then, and then watched them scroll on into oblivion.
Now I feel…I guess it’s grief. Sadness for that part that’s gone. Sadness that it’ll never be there again. Like footprints on a beach wiped away by the tide. It’s like it never happened. There is no trace.
And I feel anger. Mad that it came to this. Mad that I let a corporation have so much of my time and thoughts. Mad that they made it clear my life was nothing but a product to them.
It’s over now. Time for a new chapter.
Anyone else have strong feelings about losing a part of the past like this?
As much as I’m unhappy with reddit I don’t think I could bring myself to delete my comments. Seems like a loss for the internet at large to do so, nothing more frustrating to be searching for help on a topic only to find that the solution was removed.
It is a loss of information. That is not your fault. The blame lies at the feet of Reddit corporate management. The users benefit from your information, and even the visitors who find their way via Google or whatever. But the one who benefits more than anyone else is Reddit. And the thought of them benefiting from my and your contributions while fucking over their entire userbase for what amounts to nothing more than greed makes me sick.
I guess I’d be hypocritical if I did. I get so annoyed at threads that go something like
“Hey, how do I degauss the furbilnator so that it works correctly again?”
[deleted]
“That worked perfect, thanks kind sir or madam!”
Or when the solution post is still there, but someone commented something now unreadable on it and everyone just goes like “yeah, that is a serious flaw in that solution,thanks for pointing this out! But as long as you are aware of that, you’re fine.”