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this post was submitted on 22 Feb 2024
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update: turns out PowerDeleteSuite and others can only delete your 1000 most recent comments (a limit set by reddit), but I found something that actually works and does a thorough job.
https://github.com/andrewbanchich/shreddit
There are step-by-step instructions on the page.
I'm running the program in PowerShell with the GDPR option, and it's been nicely chugging away for hours now.
~~I must be an idiot or something because I've been trying to figure out how to use shreddit and after an hour of fiddling with things all I can manage is powershell telling me it can't use "<" or telling me I got the command syntax wrong.~~
~~Maybe the directions assume the user has some knowledge of programming stuff, but I sure as heck don't know it.~~
Edit: I was an idiot...
Edit 2: it's working but I have to babysit it. It stops ~~randomly.~~ after 100 posts without gdpr export
It got all my posts, it's just working for about 2 minutes on my comments before it just stops and I have to re-enter the command.
That's strange. It took me a while to figure out as well, but then worked non-stop for an entire day.
This is what I ran:
C:\Users\workPC\Documents\reddit-data\shreddit-windows.exe --username blah --password blah --client-id blah --client-secret blah --gdpr-export-dir C:\Users\workPC\Documents\reddit-data\export_blah_20240225It's possible reddit is rate limiting you, or the program loses access to the gdpr folder it's pulling the links from (antivirus?). You could try running it from a different path or on a different pc.
I ran the .exe from the same "reddit-data" folder that contained the gdpr files just to be safe with folder permissions and stuff.
So I finally managed to figure it out and let the gdpr run for 3 days.
After day 1 I figured out without the gdpr folder, you can only delete a certain amount, 100 I think.
The rate limit is also set to 30/min (sleep 2s between actions) so I managed to get two instances running at once without hitting the limit.
One gdpr deleting from 2010 onward, one with an auto-typer hitting f3+enter ever 2 minutes 21 seconds to delete from 2023 backward.
Took another 2 days but I managed to delete my old profile. Googling will bring up a few archived posts on other websites, and name mentions but no posts, and the random sampling I did showed nothing when I tried checking on the individual comments.
So it took me a bit to figure out, but I managed.
They definitely assume people have a certain level of knowledge of things when doing the documentation, but luckily it's easy to find information.
Cool, you managed to get it working after all. I never used Power Shell before this either.
It's ridiculous the average user has to jump through all these hoops just to regain control of their own data.
Hey maybe someday there will be a website that just allows you to delete everything they have on you at any time for any reason with only a few clicks and no input on their side...
I can dream!