Not sure on the technicals but lots of rate limiting to prevent PDS from being able to get everything and outright shenanigans to make posts not appear in the old view which also prevents PDS from deleting them. Not to mention un-deleting comments after a while (even if you use the option to edit before deleting).
So run it early and run it often. And then just delete the account for the rest.
A dev here. Not a reddit dev, but a dev. Deleting thing online doesn’t necessarily mean real deletion of the content. For instance, every post and comment is a row of a “big notebook” (a table on a database) and every row is split by columns for specific data: who’s the author, where it was posted (which community), what’s the content and, sometimes, a yes/no column called “is it deleted?”. When you delete such post, you are writing a “yes” inside that column, without actually replacing the content. It’s an oversimplified explanation of how platforms register posts, sometimes there’s a “version” table (think of it as multiple notebooks keeping track of different things simultaneously) that will keep the different versions of an edited post/comment, so they will remain intact inside such table.
Tl;dr: once on the internet, always on the internet (unfortunately). Especially if we’re dealing with a corporation that profits over user’s data. Rare cases where a thing on the internet finds real oblivion.
This doesn’t make sense. What value do your comments have to reddit if they aren’t presented to users? Harming these future users is how you harm reddit.
I’ve checked a few times, and I’ve had a few posts show up after I thought I got them all. I think what is going on is that the delete script can’t get posts that are on hidden subreddits that you aren’t subscribed to. So when people are done protesting or whatever and they set the subreddit to public the posts come back.
Might be better to replace old posts with links to the fediverse. Or since those are probably filtered “Google search ‘Reddit alternatives’ and look for the mouse…” or some shit like that.
Would do so but they bring back allot of posts, and besides I deleted my account. I couldn’t take them making it more and more difficult for me to do what I enjoyed on the site.
And delete your posts and comments.
https://github.com/j0be/PowerDeleteSuite
They’ve done a lot to neuter that.
Not sure on the technicals but lots of rate limiting to prevent PDS from being able to get everything and outright shenanigans to make posts not appear in the old view which also prevents PDS from deleting them. Not to mention un-deleting comments after a while (even if you use the option to edit before deleting).
So run it early and run it often. And then just delete the account for the rest.
A dev here. Not a reddit dev, but a dev. Deleting thing online doesn’t necessarily mean real deletion of the content. For instance, every post and comment is a row of a “big notebook” (a table on a database) and every row is split by columns for specific data: who’s the author, where it was posted (which community), what’s the content and, sometimes, a yes/no column called “is it deleted?”. When you delete such post, you are writing a “yes” inside that column, without actually replacing the content. It’s an oversimplified explanation of how platforms register posts, sometimes there’s a “version” table (think of it as multiple notebooks keeping track of different things simultaneously) that will keep the different versions of an edited post/comment, so they will remain intact inside such table.
Tl;dr: once on the internet, always on the internet (unfortunately). Especially if we’re dealing with a corporation that profits over user’s data. Rare cases where a thing on the internet finds real oblivion.
They already have your comments. Deleting your comments only harms future users who are looking for whatever information you shared.
So hopefully if you deleted any informative comments you moved them elsewhere, right?
This doesn’t make sense. What value do your comments have to reddit if they aren’t presented to users? Harming these future users is how you harm reddit.
Did you actually read my comment?
Some users have seen their deleted content return later. So yes you should try but don’t assume it will be permanent
Can confirm! I’ve run that exact utility multiple times. Each time it finds a few posts that were restored.
But it’s like 99.5% effective in deleting posts. So it’s better than nothing.
I’ve checked a few times, and I’ve had a few posts show up after I thought I got them all. I think what is going on is that the delete script can’t get posts that are on hidden subreddits that you aren’t subscribed to. So when people are done protesting or whatever and they set the subreddit to public the posts come back.
Might be better to replace old posts with links to the fediverse. Or since those are probably filtered “Google search ‘Reddit alternatives’ and look for the mouse…” or some shit like that.
Would do so but they bring back allot of posts, and besides I deleted my account. I couldn’t take them making it more and more difficult for me to do what I enjoyed on the site.