I’ve always meant to do this, but after hearing about the AI thing I want to get it done. Is there no free solution? I have too much history to clear manually.
EDIT: PowerDeleteSuite did the trick, thanks!
I’m sorry to spoil this to you guys but reddit most likely doesn’t actually delete content when you delete it, it just marks it as deleted and hides it from view
Not sure about that. That might be a GDPR violation.
They probably actually delete it if you request them to from a country covered by GDPR, but not if you just hit the delete button on your post. This is fairly common.
Reddit has already clarified, your account is deleted, but any comments or posts made are left behind unless you remove them manually. The username is removed on each comment and post. The database doesn’t know who it belongs to if you delete your account before doing this. That being said, reddit only tracks the last 1,000 comments you have made. You have to go back and find any additional comments beyond that. Same goes for all other content such as your posts, saved posts from others, comments you upvoted, etc. The internal limit is 1,000. Additionally, the database keeps one revision. So even if you delete it, an admin can restore it if they so desire. The username will be missing of course. The delete counts as a revision state. You first edit your comment with something random, wait 24 hours, and then delete it. If an admin attempts to restore your comment, it will simply be whatever gibberish you put in.
As a result of all this, Reddit is not 100% GDPR compliant.
I used Power Delete Suite about a month or so ago, it’s foss and it worked great.
I set it to delete each comment, but in case Reddit tries to “roll back” my deletes I also set it to manually edit and save every comment to something (ex. “comment removed”), before doing the delete. It took a good hour to get through all my comments.
I also decided not to delete my 15yo account. My logic here was perhaps that will be a protection from Reddit resurrecting my comments or account in some way, since it’s still an active account. It just sits there empty now.
I deleted my ancient accounts a while ago. Let them have my random comments and snide jokes. Any LLM trained against my account would get decommed quickly
Unfortunately, they still have your comments saved in a database somewhere for LLMs to work on.
Why are we calling them AI when they aren’t? Why is AGI now what we’ve been calling AI all this time? Is it all just marketing and did “news” outlets just go with it because it was easier?
As someone who studied CS and has followed the field of AI for a long time, you have it backwards. Machine Learning and GPTs like ChatGPT have always fallen under the umbrella of AI. Using “AI” to refer exclusively to AGI is a new trend.
To be a bit combatative here, in my opinion this new definition of “AI” that some people insist on using is either repeated by people who don’t understand the history of the terms, or intentionally spread to mislead people by others who want to win an argument by redefining terms.
I’ll keep repeating this until someone answers it: name one task an AGI can do with text input and text output, that an LLM can’t do.
Understand it?
As far as I’m concerned, that’s a woo concept in this context.
Yeah, that’s because AGI isn’t here yet. When AI can finally understand that’s when we’ll have AGI. (Going with the current definitions)
I really hope you find something but I’d like to just add my own personal experience. I forget the pluggin I used but it rewrote everything and then deleted it. I searched shortly after for something I had posted and something I commented and was able to find them through Google. Clicked the link and it highlighted my comment and if I clicked my username it did say [DELETED]. Recently I rechecked my account and all of my content was restored.
It is too late. They have your data and arent going to brainlessly overwrite it with gibberish just because you used a shredder. They’re not brain damaged.
If I overwrite or delete the comments, other users won’t see them. So I won’t be feeding reddit ad traffic with all the content I created for them.
Perhaps they will decide to unedit and undelete my comments, and sure I won’t be able to do anything about that. But I want to at the very least make them put in that effort, if not successfully remove my comments from view.
The short answer is you really can’t.
Reddit Admins and developers have gone on the record multiple times over the last decade and then some, detailing how they specifically save every comment and every edited version.
Replacing your comments with a single SPACE or deleting them does nothing. At least insofar as you frustrating their attempts to sell your comment data.
True, but I don’t have to leave my content on the site and searchable to their benefit.
I’m sorry to break it to you but there’s no hope.
Reddit admins have gone on the record recently saying that the content from deleted accounts will just be restored at their whim.
You have no chance to survive make your time.
Can’t you force them sith GDPR? Or are they only required to anonymize the data?
If I overwrite or delete the comments, other users won’t see them. So I won’t be feeding reddit ad traffic with all the content I created for them.
Perhaps they will decide to unedit and undelete my comments, and sure I won’t be able to do anything about that. But I want to at the very least make them put in that effort, if not successfully remove my comments from view.
That doesn’t work. I went in and manually deleted EVERY. SINGLE. POST. I had on a banned account. I checked back later and they were all still up.
I’m glad you feel satisfied, I really am.
I’m not invested in this conversation to break you down or tell you you made the wrong choice.
I just think it’s much better for people to live in the reality of the situation. And the reality of the situation dictates a few things:
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Any effort to remove your comments in a permanent way from Reddit servers is not happening, and the technical reasons have been described; effort to prevent the sale of your comments in this manner is fruitless.
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Reddit leadership, administrators and developers have gone on the record saying that they simply restore deleted comments and those from deleted account at their sole whim and discretion.
The natural conclusion is to accept that you got burned by Reddit, and if you don’t want to contribute to them anymore, the only method to do so is by not participating in their app or site. You cannot retract your past participation and people need to understand this. Every time the discussion comes up about deleting one’s comments and account, it should be clearly pointed out by informed individuals that it will not achieve the desired objectives.
I really think it is better to describe how hopeless it is, so people get an understanding of some of the more sinister motives and machinations Reddit has.
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Your comments are coming up FOR YOU.
You are so far out of your depth and you know “just enough to be dangerous” - I wish you well.
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You dont understand. By even being there and commenting, they have your data. You cant just edit it out of existence. They dont go “oh woe is me you replaced the text in your post with gibberish so now we are obligated to replace the copy we already have and cant use it to train AI anymore. Foiled again.”
Yes but if I overwrite or delete the comments, other users won’t see them. So I won’t be feeding reddit ad traffic with all the content I created for them.
Cant you just send reddit an email and tell yoi want eveything they have about you deleted? Or is that just eu gdpr thing
I’m not sure if just deleting/GDPR an account is enough to get all of their comments removed.
It’s supposed to.
A collection of personal opinions are enough to create a personal profile, and are thus protected by GDPR for EU citizens who can withdraw consent for them to be used.
It is also not actually legal for them to change the usage of your protected data before informing you in a clear and concise language, but that part hasn’t been thoroughly litigated yet.
Yep, yet discord doesn’t delete messages nor does reddit with comments, they just “anonymise” it, US companies just doesn’t care. Those dumbasses
Irreversibly anonymizing data would no longer make it personal data according to the current GDPR regulations
Pictures, metadata from picture, the way you write and more is personnal tho… and can be and will be identified
What AI thing ?
Stopping AI does not work. The only winning move is to regulate AI with other AI. AI needs to be proliferated widely, in order to make AI friendly to all of us. Or at least maximally respectful and prosocial.
If we keep trying to put picnic tables in front of the bulldozer, we accomplish nothing.
Ah thanks
