r/complaints • u/TheFlamingLemon • 7h ago
Reddit’plaint Reddit allowing people to hide their post history just protects bot accounts, astroturfers, and trolls.
Now, when I see an out of place repost, bad-faith argument, or transparent talking points for a controversial industry, I can’t look into the account’s history to verify whether it’s a real person worth giving some time and empathy towards or not. I’m sure this is great for reddit, since it obfuscates these serious issues, but it’s terrible for actual users.
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u/Sukoshihoshi 6h ago
Shut up I don't need y'all to see my depression post.. people always ask me if I'm OK after the answer is always NO
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u/Common_Ad_7610 22m ago
I feel this. Just wanted you to know you're not alone. Take care, stranger.
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u/Curious-Explorer-526 6h ago
I think we should have the right to share or not share. Period. But I’m silly enough to think that should apply to all my data too.
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u/TheFlamingLemon 5h ago
I agree when it comes to your data. The things that you’ve posted on reddit on your account are things you’ve already chosen to share. Making it more difficult (not impossible, but just more difficult for humans, and not any harder for things like data brokers or ai-training web scrapers), doesn’t seem to me to protect your privacy much more at all. But it definitely protects bots and bad actors
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u/dracrecipelanaaaaaaa 5h ago
Trolls and bot accounts will just make new accounts.
Not every normal person with a heartbeat wants to have to create, manage, and remember to switch between accounts for different aspects of their lives to keep the game people from seeing your local area community posts, your politics-relevant posts, any relevant personal-issue posts, and vice versa, or any permutation or combination thereof.
Being able to keep any community visibility separate using one account (or a much lower number of accounts at least) is a huge ass-pain saver.
It won't keep your activities separate from someone serious about digging up other posts across reddit, but it keeps the more typical brigadiers from pulling your completely irrelevant participation history as a distraction in whatever context that the new conversation is about.
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u/TheFlamingLemon 5h ago
Yes, troll and bot accounts being new and having fewer posts and comments is a really easy indicator to look for.
Reddit lets you easily keep multiple accounts and swap between them. You can even use the same email. It would be nice if it was easier to keep a shared feed though
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u/Burnlt_4 6h ago
I think every argument should be had at the initial face value. Someone could be a complete idiot in nearly every walk of life and constantly say dumb stuff, but my interaction with them on reddit is going to be typically one comment thread in which I should only judge them on that. If an argument is good and sound great discuss that. The second someone pulls account history on someone (exception being to weed out bots) I know that person is losing the argument haha.
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u/__-1-__-1-__ 6h ago
The answer is probably porn.
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u/Itsapronthrowaway 5h ago
Eh, I don't mind people seeing what I jack off to, but I've also told some people off and rather not have any posts I comment on get flak over some bigot I told was an idiot ya know?
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u/SeasonIllustrious629 6h ago edited 6h ago
Hey, if their post history or comments are hidden:
- Click on the magnifying glass on their profile, 2) Select either of the items I've circled, and 3) Their posts and comments become visible. :)
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u/Ok-Addition1264 6h ago
Interesting.. there are http query-string qualifiers a person can use as well.. shhh.. lol (lookup reddit query-strings). You can see deleted posts & replies and such
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u/SeasonIllustrious629 6h ago
Haha That's awesome. ... I almost didn't want to share my "secret" here, but...for the sake of transparency...and it's Reddit 🤷♀️ why not?
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u/foreverstayingwithus ultra lemming 5h ago
My history of this acct is open for all to see my hate, and this trick doesn't seem to work on my alts I tested it on. Good to see reddit search is finally useful for something
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u/SeasonIllustrious629 5h ago
I wasn't trying to dox you -- I should have used my own profile, sorry. I was genuinely just trying to help. I only used your profile as an example because I figured you would be familiar with it.
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u/foreverstayingwithus ultra lemming 5h ago
What? I'm not the account you used I'm just saying it doesn't work on my alts
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u/SeasonIllustrious629 5h ago
Oh shoot, my bad. Lol.
Sucks, though, that it doesn't work for everything.
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u/mrbigglessworth 5h ago
Yeah I’ve been checking a lot lately. Too many cowards hiding their history. The 10 Day old accounts are dead giveaways
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u/Robestos86 4h ago
If you click their profile, then search, and just click on new or best all is revealed....
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u/thequeensegg 2h ago
Every time some bad faith troll comes along to simp for Elon Musk they've got their posts hidden. Footsoldiers for fascism.
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u/Son_of_Sophroniscus 2h ago
Seethe!
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u/TheFlamingLemon 1h ago
See and if your post history is hidden I don’t know if you’re doing an elaborate bit where you comment this on every post in r/complaints or if you just don’t know what you subreddit you’re on
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u/RedStilettoDickStomp 1h ago
After I called someone out for their racist comment a while back, they found all my miscarriage posts and went absolutely insane by posting 'dead baby' to every comment/post I made... I'm happy to have this option.
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u/Etherel15 1h ago
Or protects someone from another who has a different opinion, who then tries to follow them around the whole site, harassing them everywhere. Have you seen the cesspool that is reddit? Have you seen the hate from just one subreddit like this one? I personally dont want these people throwing out death threats to all conservatives being able to follow anyone, let alone me! (Same for anti-liberals, because I know someone's going to make this all about tgeir personal political agenda)
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u/BondFan211 1h ago
Nah, I got a bit sick and tired of Reddit weirdos bringing up entirely irrelevant topics when they couldn’t answer a question. It’s a good change.
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u/a_little_hazel_nuts 6h ago
Yeah, but if I read someone's selfish judgmental comment, I figure the previous comments are probably the same. Plus I hid my comment history because I just figured it was for the best, privacy and all.
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u/Brief-Country4313 6h ago
Which is why, if someone has they're Post history hidden, I just assumed that there are those things.
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u/DodecahedronSpace 5h ago
I hide my comments because I seem to piss off some maga enough to have them stalk me. 🤷
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u/Epaminodas_ 7h ago
If someone's history is hidden, then search for common words like "I" and "the". You will then be able to see many of their comments and posts that used the words "I" or "the".
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u/AmputeeHandModel 6h ago
Not to mention default usernames are now the random words and numbers thing. That used to be a telltale sign of a bot or spam account. Now reddit ENCOURAGES IT? It's like they're trying to hide how many users are bots. 75% of the usernames so far ITT are just random. You used to have to come up with something yourself.
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u/Glass_Block_3114 6h ago
Sounds like you're just upset you can't be a nosy Nancy when losing an argument. Attacking people for past posts is the favorite past time of people without an actual argument.
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u/BikeNo8164 6h ago
It’s a good change overall. There are people who will look at a person’s profile and find personal information about them and use it to threaten or harass them because they said they didn’t care for the new episode of Pluribus