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?

  • EnderWi99in@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    I am struggling to go and do it myself but this helps seeing someone with 12 years of history. Would love to be able to download the 10,000+ pages of stuff I wrote though to not lose it forever.

    • parrot-party@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      To help, remember that those old comments are not really of any use to you anymore. Now, they are simply a resource for Reddit to mine for profit. Ditching them doesn’t deprive you of anything, but it does prevent them from making money off your work and content.

    • decavolt@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      You can. Reddit will let you request a dump of your data. It’s what I’m doing on my 11 yr old account, and once I have that for my own archives I’ll nuke the account.