Looking for a way to delete all Reddit posts and comments at once? While there's no official way, read this guide to find just the workaround!

It’s about using Reddit Enhancement Suite to delete data

  • koreth@lemm.eeEnglish
    5·
    2 years ago

    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

    • Anyone know how to fix a broken curtain rod?
      • [deleted]
        • Oh, that’s a good idea. How do you unscrew the end if you do it that way?
          • Hello! I have removed my comment from reddit because I don’t like the way they’re running their company. You can find me on Lemmy.
            • Thanks! That worked.

    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.

    • maynarkh@feddit.nlEnglish
      10·
      2 years ago

      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.

      • Em Adespoton@lemmy.caEnglish
        1·
        2 years ago

        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.

    • mrmanager@lemmy.todayEnglish
      3·
      2 years ago

      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.

    • godless@latte.isnot.coffeeEnglish
      2·
      2 years ago

      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.

      • NightOwl@lemmy.oneEnglish
        2·
        2 years ago

        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.

  • Spzi@lemmy.clickEnglish
    5·
    2 years ago

    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.

    • Varyag@lemm.eeEnglish
      5·
      2 years ago

      It’s what I used to erase my account. Worked flawlessly to delete 8 years of comments and threads.

    • Banzai51@midwest.socialEnglish
      5·
      2 years ago

      I’m still going to do it. If nothing else to cost Reddit the time and expense of restoring from backup.

      • Freeman@lemmy.pubEnglish
        4·
        2 years ago

        I’ll just keep running the script until they ban my 17 year old account.

    • bloom@beehaw.orgEnglish
      2·
      2 years ago

      Someone on Hackernews coined to use AI to generate random text and replace existing comments with that, which I find really interesting. They won’t be able to restore those comments

    • Varyag@lemm.eeEnglish
      1·
      2 years ago

      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.