Reddit Removes Years of Chat and Message Archives From Users' Accounts (mashable.com) 50
An anonymous reader shares a report: The Reddit blackout protests didn't quite force the company to reverse course on its API changes that resulted in the shutdown of many popular third-party apps, but it did succeed in dominating the conversation around the platform for weeks. However, while everyone was paying attention to the protests, Reddit made some other big changes to its platform. One of those changes resulted in the removal of years of users' private conversations on the platform.
Over the past few weeks, many Redditors have reported the disappearance of their private chat logs and messages shared between other Reddit users over the years. Mashable also noticed the same on two reporters' personal accounts. Messages and live chats from before 2023 are no longer accessible by users. Mashable confirmed with Reddit that messages and chat history are no longer available if they were made prior to January 1, 2023.
Over the past few weeks, many Redditors have reported the disappearance of their private chat logs and messages shared between other Reddit users over the years. Mashable also noticed the same on two reporters' personal accounts. Messages and live chats from before 2023 are no longer accessible by users. Mashable confirmed with Reddit that messages and chat history are no longer available if they were made prior to January 1, 2023.
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Neither have been relevant for some time.
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if you think that post is trashing reddit, I got some abortions to sell you
Re: So Slashdot is willing to trash reddit... (Score:4, Insightful)
On demand abortions. Can't forget that folks are lining up down the block (including some men!!) to get one of those shiny new abortions! Hell, some days it's difficult to tell if the abortion clinic opened or if there's a new iPhone that got released. I've heard some women get 2-3 a DAY in some of those libtard states, can you imagine?!!
Now to wait and see if someone scrapes that and I end up on some brain dead "news" site like Newsmax or OANN.
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https://slashdot.org/comments.... [slashdot.org]
Twitter blocking non-registered users [slashdot.org]. (for example) Bottom line is not to waste time submitting posts about Twitter on Slashdot. It is as if this were a safe space for Twitter 'management'.
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hahaha you and your ego, it knows no bounds!!
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Is it news every time the now notoriously glitchy Twitter has a hiccup?
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Never trust the cloud. (Score:5, Insightful)
For sure, use social media and cloud services. But never trust them. If they are not contractually obligated to provide you with something, the don't have to. If it no longer serves their business interests to give you something, then absent a legally enforceable contract, they don't have to. The cloud is inherently unreliable from a user's perspective. It may work one day, and fail the next. The cloud giveth, and the cloud taketh away.
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The cloud is inherently unreliable from a user's perspective. It may work one day, and fail the next. The cloud giveth, and the cloud taketh away.
Some may assume a "platinum" level support contract with some cloud company bragging about "five nine's" of reliability, would guarantee their service or data.
On the contrary. A support contract only dictates how much of a refund you'll receive if they fail to meet a contracted level of service, which falls in the category of Shit Happens.
Even paying for cloud services, doesn't actually protect you. Which tends to question the point of it all these days.
Re:Never trust the cloud. (Score:5, Funny)
Move it the to cloud and watch clouds do what they do, evaporate.
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I always liked the German homonym analogy. In German, "klaut" is the plural imperative of "steal", i.e. a command to a group of people to take away something that belongs to someone else.
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But they provide such a solid platform, with well-defined edges!
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Recently I updated Windows, some update they were pushing. Silently the upgrade removed my paid for Office. That's right silently and automatically they removed the software. Turns out on a Windows upgrade. will remove apps if they haven't been updated in a while Microsoft just removes them. At least I had the license so I could reinstall the software.
If you allow any sort of remove control you are in danger.
Think about it.....
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Haha. They won't necessarily do it even if they are contractually obligated.
So? (Score:2)
They never made any guarantee those logs would be saved indefinitely. If those chat conversations were really that important, you shouldn't have been trusting a 3rd party to store them. But I feel for the folks who lost their years of worthless chatter and shitposting.
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Re: So? (Score:3, Insightful)
"The calculus was performed and this is the result."
You're assuming that they bothered to do the math. Most likely they just found problematic stuff in the content we're talking about and just removed it. Perhaps it was even just about protecting a small group of people, or even just one... Like a CEO famous for running a sub called jailbait.
Re: So? (Score:1, Troll)
What is it with the bootlicking pedo protectors on this site? Spez is well known to be a groomer.
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Well known by whom? Your post is honestly the first time I've heard the allegation.
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They didn't remove functionality. Their user agreement has always said there is no guarantee messages will be retained. That's on the user for making a poor assumption.
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When you sleep with dogs, you'll get fleas.
Social media users and manipulators forget who owns and controls what, to the peril of all.
That Reddit did janitorial maintenance is perhaps a good thing. People barge in and believe all will be good for ever and ever, forgetting that for-profit corporations will cut costs and seize control when it suits them.
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How much energy is given to keep storing old communications from your now dated, and cringe posts you did years previously. Lame rehashing of people political point of views, that are basically the same and a rehash of everyone else with the same political alignment. Confident posts about false stuff....
While it might create a poor user experience, in theory. I think for the most part, we will be doing most people a favor.
Re:So? (Score:4, Interesting)
What make you think they were deleted rather than just made inaccessible?
If, as some have claimed, the goal is to be able to feed the stuff to an AI as training material, deleting them wouldn't be a good idea. But it might be a good idea to remove the ability to prove authorship.
OTOH, you could be right.
Re:So? (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm with you on this... they had NO obligation to keep the data, but they had EVERY obligation to give people reasonable warning before wiping it.
Not "obligation" as in "legally you have to do it", but in the other sense of "if you want your users to continue to trust you".
I suppose if they don't care about their users losing trust in them, then do what you want, but this looks to me like a really bad blow to their public image. Kids these days LIVE on social media. This is their life, their history that you're deleting, and they DO care about that, even if the VIPs can't understand the value in it. "Empathy" doesn't mean you agree with them, it means you understand them. And this demonstrates a profound lack of understanding.
Re:So? (Score:4, Insightful)
What, exactly, has reddit done recently that shows they understand large masses of their users or the Internet in general?
Redit is making Yahoo look good (Score:5, Insightful)
When Yahoo killed Yahoo Groups a few years back, they not only gave notice but they gave you tools to download the archived conversations.
Granted, the tools weren't the best and Yahoo could've made things a lot easier with a little more investment, but at least it was do-able.
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Groups are more like reddit itself. A public chat record some of which worth keeping, much of it irrelevant shit. Reddit deleted really old private chat records. I'd be genuinely impressed if *anyone* ever read them, they certainly weren't public, and let's face it Reddit's interface and search is so shit that you probably couldn't find an old chat even if you wanted to.
Anyone remember MySpace? (Score:1)
If you are looking for pre-2016 content, good luck [theguardian.com].
Re:Anyone remember MySpace? (Score:4, Funny)
MySpace still exists?
Did the last person leaving forget to turn it off?
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MySpace still exists?
Weirdly enough, not only does it still exist, but I just found out my account is still active. I might translate some of my older material to Sumerian Cuneiform and upload it.
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Sucks but (Score:1)
Sure Reddit could've gave some warning to save some of the face it has left.
But I always assume these were temporary and save any info needed from them. In the long run they are chats and messages. Posts would be another thing entirely.
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Words matter.
So does getting a diagnosis and professional help for your autism.
Sell it to AI (Score:2)
Sell the data to AI .. slashdot ought to do the same. Would love to see the AI version of me.
Backups? (Score:2)
Better and Better (Score:2)
Isn't it a little odd? (Score:2)
Re: Isn't it a little odd? (Score:1)
It's always the period before an election.
the cloud (Score:2)
Just remember that "the cloud" is only a euphemism for "...on someone else's computer."