Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Reddit appears to be restoring edited/deleted comments

kbin.social

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

411–420 of 579 posts

Re: Reddit appears to be restoring edited/deleted comments

#411

Post by kazinator »

mfcl wrote: post #313
randomdata wrote: post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wherein lies the value of seeing that others read your work? As the saying goes, work is done for those who pay for it. When I, like you, write comments on sites like these I am the one paying for it. I derive entertainment value for the cost I am sinking, so I find it to be an acceptable trade, but beyond that small window the entertainment is over and the value of what was produced is gone. To keep it around beyond…

So, you'd delete your old comments because you would rather no one in the world get any kind of value from them since you are not getting any anymore?

I wanted to delete my old posts so that Reddit doesn't get any value out of them.

That's exactly why they put in dirty hacks to defend against this.

Reddit depends on all the old content because it's indexed by search engines. People add "Reddit" when they search and then they navigate to the site. Old content brings in visitors.

Re: Reddit appears to be restoring edited/deleted comments

#412

Post by FireBeyond »

dmix wrote: post #26
notarget137 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe some database restoring gone wrong?

Definitely sounds like some DB issue or other mundane thing. Probably just bad timing with the protestors mass-deleting most likely.

Given that Steve (the CEO) has, now or in the past:

* edited the content of user comments without acknowledgment,

* threatened to or has removed or installed moderators into communities to circumvent the blackout

* threatened to "un-private" communities

Why are you so sure that he wouldn't authorize un-deletion of comments?

Re: Reddit appears to be restoring edited/deleted comments

#413

Post by dmix »

FireBeyond wrote: post #412
dmix wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Definitely sounds like some DB issue or other mundane thing. Probably just bad timing with the protestors mass-deleting most likely.

Given that Steve (the CEO) has, now or in the past: * edited the content of user comments without acknowledgment, * threatened to or has removed or installed moderators into communities to circumvent the blackout * threatened to "un-private" communities Why are you so sure that he wouldn't authorize un-deletion of comments?

What business value would it provide?

Re: Reddit appears to be restoring edited/deleted comments

#414

Post by arendjr »

crazygringo wrote: post #398
fho wrote: post #396

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> (I do actually think this is the most likely, because there's zero benefit for Reddit here.) The obvious benefit would be to artificially keep interaction rates high by "grave robbing" old comments and accounts. "Nobody is ever going to notice, those accounts are long dead!"

What interaction rates? For what ends? The metrics you use to attract investment are things like monthly active users, and whether a comment was deleted after it was made doesn't affect that at all.

From what I gather, a lot of Reddit usage comes from Google referrals, similar to how StackOverflow gets a lot of its traffic. If people leaving Reddit delete or scramble their comments (which some are definitely doing), they also screw up Reddit’s referral value and Google ranking, so Reddit has quite some motivation for trying to restore those comments.

Re: Reddit appears to be restoring edited/deleted comments

#415

Post by randomdata »

crazygringo wrote: post #407
randomdata wrote: post #365

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So long as I am paying for it, it is absolutely about me. I would consider offers to write for others if they see the value, but it is quite apparent that what I write does not actually provide value to others. Which is fine. I'm happy to leave that work to the professionals. Why do you feel entitled to the work I have paid for? It is one thing if I generously offer it to you, but to expect it?

Reddit is free, you don't need to pay to write comments. You're not paying for anything. And whether future users find value is up to them to decide, not you. You can't read their minds. And you're going out of your way to delete something you already wrote. That's extra work for you. Why do you hate the future users who might find value?

There is most definitely a cost in preparing the comments I write. I have to pay for my energy, pay for the lost opportunity, and I have to pay to recoup past investments that came together to allow me to formulate the comment. As I find entertainment in writing the comments, I am willing to pay the price, but it absolutely does not come free.

Other people don't enter the picture. There is no hate towards them, they simply don't exist in the sphere the comments are created in. It is a false premise to think that they are involved.

Re: Reddit appears to be restoring edited/deleted comments

#416

Post by vagab0nd »

nomilk wrote: post #408
vagab0nd wrote: post #401

I said this elsewhere which is relevant: I firmly believe that in the future, what you say doesn't matter. What matters is what you can prove you've said. What's the difference between the following two? (a) You say something and someone takes a screenshot of it, and (b) Someone just conjures up a fake screenshot of you saying something. These are indistinguishable. With LLM and SD, these fakes will become easier and…

I think the problem here is that content that the user expected to be deleted from Reddit's databases is popping up in public forums. Not to downplay it but the problem you mention is the inverse of the current issue.

That's true. However the solution solves both problems. If I can delete my post by invalidating the proof, then no one can "undelete" it.

Re: Reddit appears to be restoring edited/deleted comments

#417

Post by chongli »

NortySpock wrote: post #306
chongli wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not use a bot to automatically post brand new chatgpt-generated fake comments in between edits with fake stuff? Or automate making edits that insert/delete/replace one word with a random word? There's many different things to do that could trash the data and make it worthless for training AI. With the right tools, this sort of automation can also be made very difficult to detect (randomize the time interval betwe…

Costs more money to develop and run a ChatGPT bot than it is to say UPDATE comments WITH SKIPLOCK SET _soft_deleted_time = null WHERE _soft_deleted_time > '2023-05-01'

Why not shut down the whole site then? They already have an archive of everything from before then. The question is what you do about future content? If it can no longer be trusted then it’s worthless as a dataset for training.

Re: Reddit appears to be restoring edited/deleted comments

#419

Post by hajile »

jcranmer wrote: post #249
hajile wrote: post #171

Reddit's privacy policy here seems to be pretty clear [0] > Deleting Your Account > You may delete your account information at any time from the user preferences page. You can also submit a request to delete the personal information Reddit maintains about you by following the process described below this table. When you delete your account, your profile is no longer visible to other users and disassociated from conte…

Note this line that you quoted: "Please note, however, that the posts, comments, and messages you submitted prior to deleting your account will still be visible to others unless you first delete the specific content." The privacy policy is explicitly saying that deleting your account does not delete your comments.

> unless you first delete the specific content.

That specifically states that content you deleted will NOT be visible.

Re: Reddit appears to be restoring edited/deleted comments

#420

Post by crazygringo »

randomdata wrote: post #415
crazygringo wrote: post #407

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reddit is free, you don't need to pay to write comments. You're not paying for anything. And whether future users find value is up to them to decide, not you. You can't read their minds. And you're going out of your way to delete something you already wrote. That's extra work for you. Why do you hate the future users who might find value?

There is most definitely a cost in preparing the comments I write. I have to pay for my energy, pay for the lost opportunity, and I have to pay to recoup past investments that came together to allow me to formulate the comment. As I find entertainment in writing the comments, I am willing to pay the price, but it absolutely does not come free. Other people don't enter the picture. There is no hate towards them, they…

Then why do you post comments in the first place?

It would be easier to write them and then close the tab before hitting the button to post them. If you truly only derive value from writing them and none from anybody reading them.

And then it still "costs" you to delete them, by your logic. What is the value you get from that? If it's not from a desire to remove value for others, which you claim it isn't?

Post reply on HN