Reddit uploads all user comments and posts to Google’s virtual chipper, which means a recreated mass of your conversations will be spit out by Google’s AI language models. Movement, as reported by Reutersis worth $60 million a year to the social network.
After reading this, you may want to delete your Reddit account and everything on it. After all, Reddit isn’t very fun anymore — and not just because they killed the “Reddit is frigid” slogan last year when killed all good reddit customers. The truth is that the older Reddit becomes, the less relevant it becomes, in part because of the past year the company seemed downright hostile moderators and posters who power the site. The company’s upcoming public offering, if the history of other social networks is anything to go by, is unlikely to improve the situation.
But deleting your Reddit account is not enough. Follow official documentation and any post or comment you make will remain on the site – it will simply be deleted from your account. You may want all your posts to disappear forever to avoid them being repeated by any huge language models masquerading as general-purpose AI. You may also want to have your own personal backup of your posts. Here’s how to get that backup, delete your posts, and finally delete your account for good.
Back up your posts
You probably don’t want to lose all the comments and posts you’ve made over the years. Reddit allows you to request your Reddit data – follow this process and you’ll receive a ZIP file full of CSV files containing all your comments, posts, upvotes, and more.
To get started, log in to Reddit and go to data request page. You will be asked what type of request this is – if you are in the EU or California, you can operate the relevant regulations and Reddit will need to send you the information. If not, Reddit offers an “Other” box that still works. Specify which dates you are interested in or ask for all data and then click Assemble.
Source: Justin Pot
You will be notified that your data is on its way and you will receive a private message on Reddit when your data is ready. I only had to wait a few hours for the information. The archive is a ZIP file containing CSV files that can be opened using a program such as Microsoft Excel. Blogger Daniel Rosehill is doing great a blog post describing the contents of the fileif you want to know the details.
Delete all posts and comments
Now that you have a backup of your comments and posts, it’s time to delete them. The bad news: Reddit doesn’t offer the option to bulk delete comments and posts. They suggest simply going to your profile page, clicking the three dots to the right of such posts, and then clicking Delete for everyone.
Source: Justin Pot
It’s okay if you only have a few posts, but long-time Reddit users probably have many more. There are many tools that allow you to bulk delete senior posts. The best one I found is this Reddit NukerChrome extension with two buttons: Delete posts AND Delete comments. Click on any option while you are logged into Reddit and the extension will do the work for you.
Source: Justin Pot
Please note that due to API limitations, this extension can only delete 100 comments or posts at a time. Once this limit is reached, the extension will take a one-minute break, after which you can click the button again to continue. It’s a little annoying – especially if you have thousands of posts – but trust me: it’s a lot less annoying than deleting everything one by one.
If this isn’t automated enough, there is another Chrome extension, Bulk deletion of Reddit posts, which can delete 50 posts and 50 comments per day for free. More costs a one-time $9.99, but that doesn’t mean you’re playing the same waiting game as Reddit Nuker. Both tools are well proven, so it’s really up to you.
Delete your Reddit account
Now that you have backed up your comments and posts and deleted them from Reddit, it is time to delete your account. Head to account settings and scroll down. You will find Delete your account button.
Source: Justin Pot
You’ll be asked why you’re leaving Reddit – you can choose to answer or not (I recommend using AI to generate a long essay, just for irony, but I’m a huge idiot). You need to enter your username and password, check the box saying that you know your data cannot be recovered, and that’s it: you can click the button Delete button and your account will be completely deleted. You are free.
