Users removing their entire Reddit history might block people from reaching useful info that was in that history. Think of people, who may not be Redditors themselves, searching in the future via google, or whatever, for some useful info that was in your deleted history, just because you wanted to feel good about yourself sticking it to spez, or just because you blindly followed the manic sheeple who advised you to do so.
Deleting your entire Reddit history does not help the cause, not proactively anyway.
What would help the cause is people knowing that a very useful/knowledgeable/interesting user, as evidenced by their Reddit history, has abandoned their platform. Even better, if people knew that the useful/knowledgeable/interesting user has moved to a new platform called Lemmy.
Whether you are planning to leave Reddit completely, or you are splitting your time between here and there, leaving a message like the one below at the end of comments, and/or in its own stickied post in your profile, would be much more helpful than trying to erase your Reddit history:
𝗡𝗼𝘁𝗲: 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗼𝘄𝗻𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝘀 𝗹𝗲𝗳𝘁 𝗥𝗲𝗱𝗱𝗶𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗷𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗟𝗲𝗺𝗺𝘆 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗹𝗱.
𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝘄𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗻 𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗹𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗨𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗼𝗱𝗲 𝘀𝘆𝗺𝗯𝗼𝗹𝘀 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝗥𝗲𝗱𝗱𝗶𝘁 𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗹𝘆 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘁𝗼 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗟𝗲𝗺𝗺𝘆.
𝗦𝗼, 𝗜𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗱, 𝘄𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝗯𝗲𝗹𝗼𝘄 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗶𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗯𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘀𝗲𝗿 𝗮𝗱𝗱𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗯𝗮𝗿 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝗰𝗼𝗽𝘆-𝗽𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝘁:
𝗵𝘁𝘁𝗽𝘀://𝗷𝗼𝗶𝗻-𝗹𝗲𝗺𝗺𝘆.𝗼𝗿𝗴/𝗶𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲𝘀
If it’s possible to do this to old messages in batch, that would be great, as long as it can be done without triggering automatic Reddit admin alarms.
Getting a copy of your Reddit history via a GDPR request is something you definitely should do.
Saving a lot more of old.reddit in the Internet Archive would also be helpful and great.
But as things stand, do not erase your Reddit history!
It’s an interesting discussion point but ultimately I think one that doesn’t change much in the grand scheme of things. Primarily I’d start by saying we should respect whatever what anyone wants to do.
But I can see what the OP means that information that might prove useful to others disappearing from the internet and be seen as a loss, or an act of self censorship to prove a point. And that deleting that data will have a negligible effect on Reddit’s profitability because very few users are doing it.
However, I also think as a protest against the way the site has treated its users over the last month it’s understandable that people want to take their ball and go home. And more to the point show Reddit exactly who owns the content they are claiming to own. Users owe nothing to Reddit and want to exercise their freedom of choice, good on them.
I’m picking up on a trend in this community though - it is possible to have an unpopular opinion and not be a dick about it at the same time. I’m sure I read that somewhere.