Current Events > What's the deal with reddit users deleting their entire post and account?

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/13douen/die_hard_with_a_vengeance_is_just_as_good_as_the/

I've seen like 10 of these at any random time and I dont quite get it. I had a topic saved that had a fun behind-the-scenes for the office and it was deleted and the user who posted it seemingly deleted themselves.

The idea of throwaway accounts is stupid. Deleting their account means they don't want you searching through their post history.

I think there is no way to hide your post history at all on reddit, so probably avoiding a "look what you said 6 years ago though" kinda thing.

It's because they posted something that brought them so much shame that the only way to get out of the embarrassment is to essentially commit internet seppuku.

Mostly paranoia but some people can be indiscreet with their online footprint and divulge enough personal details that you could narrow down who someone is just by their Reddit posts if you had access to the right databases and search algorithms

When that realization kicks in, the only way out is to scrub all your posts and then nuke the account.

Many subreddits are blacking out over the next few days. Some aren't, but are instead encouraging their users to delete their post history instead

I regularly clear most of my post history on reddit. I just dont like leaving too much of myself out there. >_>

Seems like normal behavior to me, in light of the recent API changes.

Even beyond that though people scrub their profiles every few years to practice good digital hygiene.

It's for paranoids.

And it turns some decent old reddit threads into Swiss cheese.

Just delete the username? No.... Nuke all posts.

Selfish.

Kombucha posted...

Seems like normal behavior to me, in light of the recent API changes.

Even beyond that though people scrub their profiles every few years to practice good digital hygiene.

But this goes in complete contradiction to how in social media, people literally use their real names and pictures of their house and sometimes straight up their area!

I've never kept a permanent Reddit account. It's so easy to create one that whenever I want to say something I make a new one, post my comment(s), and then delete my account soon after.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

The Reddit upvote/downvote system is so toxic. I wish forums like GameFAQs were still popular, but I guess people just care about collecting Internet points nowadays.

gjdsj posted...

The Reddit upvote/downvote system is so toxic. I wish forums like GameFAQs were still popular, but I guess people just care about collecting Internet points nowadays.

You have to go to the more generalized subreddits if you want actual discussion on stuff, with a decent amount of leeway for positive and negative takes. (i.e. Going to a "Movies" subreddit rather than *InsertSpecificMovieTitle* subreddit)

gjdsj posted...

The Reddit upvote/downvote system is so toxic. I wish forums like GameFAQs were still popular, but I guess people just care about collecting Internet points nowadays.

I could live with this upvote/downvote stuff, but sorting it by score is just so annoying.

Yeah, good luck writing an actual answer with good content, and have it read by more than 5 people, when 12 hours ago some guy did an hillarious joke and has thousands of upvotes.

-BrokenSpiral- posted...

You have to go to the more generalized subreddits if you want actual discussion on stuff, with a decent amount of leeway for positive and negative takes. (i.e. Going to a "Movies" subreddit rather than *InsertSpecificMovieTitle* subreddit)

That is actually pretty close to what I was thinking about when I wrote that. There was a new movie based on a show, and while I haven't seen it, apparently it was pretty bad. But what really struck me as funny was that on the subreddit for the show, any positive opinion on this movie was heavily downvoted, no matter what. Apparently the people just decided that you aren't allowed to like the movie...

People are deleting their posting history on reddit to protest the API price skyrocket which is intended to kill 3rd party apps. I dunno if that specific topic is due to the reddit blackout protest in specific but that will be a cause of a ton of deleted posts

Kloe_Rinz posted...

People are deleting their posting history on reddit to protest the API price skyrocket which is intended to kill 3rd party apps. I dunno if that specific topic is due to the reddit blackout protest in specific but that will be a cause of a ton of deleted posts

They did it long before Reddit even started to talk about API prices.

Foppe posted...

They did it long before Reddit even started to talk about API prices.

yeah, thats annoying but some people just dont want old stuff coming back to haunt them. someone could stalk their post history and piece together their identity over the years of their posts with little tidbits here and there. its already happened on gamefaqs and its far harder to do that here than reddit

MabusIncarnate posted...

I think there is no way to hide your post history at all on reddit, so probably avoiding a "look what you said 6 years ago though" kinda thing.

post history is such a dumb system if you actually stop and think about it

FL81 posted...

post history is such a dumb system if you actually stop and think about it

Wait you're saying you're against it?