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Interesting that it's possible with RES. But it requires the user to copy paste some code.
A better automated approach:
PowerDeleteSuite. Smooth process, can recommend. AMA if you have troubles or questions.
Also allows you to replace posts/comments with another text, for example hints where to go instead.
It's what I used to erase my account. Worked flawlessly to delete 8 years of comments and threads.
Wish people wouldn't do this, though I do understand the motivation. IMO it ends up punishing other Internet users (who are the ones getting value from years-old comment threads) vastly more than it punishes the owners and employees of Reddit, Inc. (who get most of their value from people participating in active discussions and seeing ads along the way).
The end result is that you search for "how to fix a broken curtain rod" on Google and the search results are full of comment threads like
Reddit still gets the revenue from the ad at the top of the page, so the only person you've successfully stiffed is the person who was looking for an answer.
Yeah, the idea is that that user might be less likely to return to Reddit after this frustrating experience, and over time user numbers dwindle.
Indeed; I’ve put in my request for all my Reddit content and plan to make it available out of context elsewhere. I haven’t decided if I’m going to scrub it or not yet. If I do, it will be over time, not instantly. Good luck to Reddit figuring out when to restore to. First pass is likely going to be replacing URLs to external content.
That's not quite how ads work.
You get fractions of a cent for displaying them, but the majority of the money comes from clicking, and the CTR (click-through-ratio) is how advertisers measure success.
If you've got the full solution on one page, users are more likely to engage in ads. If they follow a link off-site first and continue there, they are unlikely to engage.
Especially reddit redesign where it collapses comments instead of showing the entire comment chain in one go. So much clicking needed to read through and recommendations of other posts being shown. The redesign is intended to try and get non redditors to not leave when they come across it in searches.
We are not punishing internet users like you wrote, we are punishing reddit users.
Yes, people get frustrated when reddit is not good anymore and that's exactly what reddit deserves. A frustrated user will look for other places and not use reddit.
There has been many sites before reddit alienating it's user base. Many are forgotten now by young people. Reddit won't die over night, it's a slow process of just losing more and more popularity.
What if goal is to make reddit search results a frustrating experience that people start doing - reddit.com
Don't bother, they're restoring them.
I'm still going to do it. If nothing else to cost Reddit the time and expense of restoring from backup.
I’ll just keep running the script until they ban my 17 year old account.
Someone on Hackernews coined to use AI to generate random text and replace existing comments with threat, which I find really interesting. They won’t be able to restore those comments
They won’t be able to restore those comments
oh they definitely have the ability to do so.
Seems like there's some cages being rattled at Reddit HQ regardless of what spez claims.
I've already ran the script two more times since. Thankfully it was only posts from last week after I made the big purge, but I will make sure to come back to keep them deleted if they get restored again.
What a shit show.