I went searching for something today and instinctually clicked on a reddit link. Fortunately the sub was dark for the protest anyway, but it’s crazy how ingrained in me it is to go to reddit for everything.

Unfortunately now we’re going to have to get used to clicking on those clickbait tech articles like “TOP 10 FACEBOOK ALTERNATIVES 2023” to find information, and weed out the crappy blogs.

  • The fact is that there is some useful info that only is on Reddit. No shame in looking that stuff up since that’s where it is.

    The main thing is to stop using Reddit as your go-to time waster/doom scrolling app

      •  kadu   ( @kadu@lemmy.world ) 
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        241 year ago

        There are also lots of people using Shreddit to remove their entire log of comments.

        I’m debating whether or not to do that with my account… I have several comments with solutions to specific tech issues, documentation on specific things. At the same time, I feel less and less comfortable with Reddit benefiting from information users provided for free.

        • Grab those comments and repost them in a place where you are more comfortable. You can keep that knowledge out there without needing to keep your account if you don’t want to. Some of those apps actually give you your comment history in a file when they’re done.

        • I’ve been on the fence about wiping my account as well. It’s just hard for me - my history, wholesome interaction with users, friends made, how many people I’ve helped, I’ve written a few guides. Man it just sucks. (the largest guide I’ve written, for Vindictus, is partially outdated, but also I put in sooooooo much effort into it and I’m really proud of it. maybe I’ll download and save as a .doc or something)

          I think I just need to hear someone’s stance on it, hear their points, and be persuaded

          I also need to figure out -when- to do that if I end up doing it. I assume before the 30th, but I’m not sure if some have started doing it already, and why

        • Honestly? ChatGPT (4) is basically a stackoverflow 2.0. It’s my goto when I want help with specific problems. There are alternative options, is what I mean.

          I deleted all my comments on Reddit. I do not want them to benefit from my knowledge even if it might inconvenience someone else

            • I have seen a lot of highly upvoted comments on reddit which were very, very wrong.

              I still use reddit for help on things. But for topics that I’m less knowledgeable about (so I can’t gauge the accuracy myself), I try to just take everything with a grain of salt.

            • One of my favorite parts about reddit is people will always be there to call out your BS, whether it be via downvotes or a comment. I always appreciated that because more times than not, they will tell them they’re wrong and explain why, sometimes even with sources. A lot of the time, they redirect people to better sources of information, like a telegram group about a custom android rom

              Of course, this isn’t true 100% of the time, not even downvoted comment is wrong - like the other person commented, it’s fair to take it with a grain of salt

              That’s why my solution for this is to research a topic EXTENSIVELY by reading tons of threads and comments about it, put them all together in my head and consider them all, and then decide on the best outcome/answer based on all the research combined. That way, I don’t just rely on 1 person’s response and hope they’re right. For most things though, them being wrong might not even make a huge negative impact

              I’ve found that Redditors also generally have our backs - they warn us about stuff to do or not to do, that companies don’t warn us about because it would otherwise profit them

        • If you don’t have too many maybe consider posting them on Lemmy as new posts before deleting them? Keeps the information discoverable and helps populate Lemmy with good content, while giving Reddit the middle finger - TRIPLE WIN!

    •  Mia   ( @Mia@feddit.de ) 
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      1 year ago

      The fact is that there is some useful info that only is on Reddit.

      I mean reddit has become a insanely huge knowledge base for all sorts of technical problems and other topics. I’ve searched with site:reddit.com so many times for problem solving.

      • Yeah exactly and me too! It will still have its use (until they decide to remove that too).

        Funnily enough, I’ve found that ChatGPT gives really good technical troubleshooting tips (like DIY and programming stuff). Cuts my troubleshoot time down tremendously.

    • I think this is exactly right. I plan to use info available on reddit as reference material if needs be, but I will no longer be posting and therefore creating more content for reddit to sell on in the future.

    • I’d be interested to know from someone more tech-savvy whether googling advice, and then clicking on the cached version, still counts as viewing reddit. Because I’d ideally still like to append reddit to my google searches without giving them ad views.

      AKA if someone monetises advice given for free, we should be able to freely access it.