Another update and possibly a solution for some case where posts were not properly deleted. Seems I jumped the gun on this and the restores haven’t been intentional - at least not in this particular case.

There is a limitation in the popular Powerdelete that apparently prevents mass editing. Here is a link to a new version with a build-in delay and some other alternatives:
https://www.reddit.com/r/ModCoord/comments/145fico/comment/jnl4xmr/

There are other reported cases where manually deleted post reappeared or other scripts have been used, so this doesn’t solve all issues but explains how posts that were both edited and deleted withPowerdelete weren’t properly deleted and reappeared after subs went back live.

Update: As some have pointed out: the restores can be rollbacks from the server issues or post haven’t been properly deleted due to subs being private during blackouts. Many have experienced the same issue, I can’t explain how this happens. I’ll just run the script again, try the GDPR request and delete my account.

Also worth noting: according to the ToS Reddit can actually do whatever they want with existing content, apparently we agreed to this when signing up.

#redditblackout #redditmigration #kbin #lemmy

  • I’m not sure it’s ok in the GDPR rules?

    That would probably be related to “right to erasure”.

    But even this has limits, since sometimes the data can be necessary for a service (for example, you might be unable to get invoice data erased before X years, as a legal requirement)

    Since messages on forums can be considered “needed” to understand a thread, it’s usually advised to make all messages anonymous if a user requests complete deletion.

    I guess here it’s a little different, since the messages were removed by users, so it’s not a gdpr request. Not sure how it works in that case.

    Other issue is if the messages themselves contain personal information… Someone going through my old reddit profile could probably figure out my identity since I mentioned one of my (very uncommon) previous job a few times.

    Best way to figure out how it works here would probably be to contact the gdpr authority for your country… And they might have trouble with it too.

    • But even this has limits, since sometimes the data can be necessary for a service (for example, you might be unable to get invoice data erased before X years, as a legal requirement)

      But then it still needs to be marked as a “DO NOT TOUCH”. you aren’t allowed to use it then for any other purpose.