Keeping Deleted Reddit Comments Alive

There were 535 million comments made on Reddit in 2014, which works out to 1.5 million per day. Reddit is not like other social networks. As a matter of fact, it is more like a forum for everything with the creation of ‘subreddits’. This means that the quality of the comments can be much higher than what you would find on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Vine. So, with 1.5 million comments made per day, and a large amount of these having high merit, it is safe to say that Reddit has become a huge archive of human knowledge, much like a library.  Although, no one needs any qualifications to post on Reddit, the community is keen to up vote only factual information on serious issues. And since the up voted posts/comments get the most visibility, you won’t have to worry too much about incorrect information, though it does exist (thankfully) buried.

The users of various online communities sometimes don’t realize how much of a profound effect their voice has on others. Some of these users tend to ‘clean up’ their profiles by deleting comments. While they definitely have a right to do this, once something is posted onto the Internet, it is available for anyone to see and pressing a delete button won’t always ensure that it is removed entirely.

Some services like ReSavr scan for deleted Reddit comments and will post them to make sure that every piece of knowledge stays permanently online for others. Although there is mostly junk comments on that website, it is imperative that every comment is saved so that the chance of something substantial being captured remains. The site claims that everything over 1850 characters, which is deleted within one day, is saved. Out of the scope of 1.4 million comments daily, there is sure to be some interesting stuff on there.

This advance in communication and digital documentation shows how revolutionary the times are that we are living in. Imagine one thousand years ago if every book written, story told or commentary muttered was backup up for everyone to see. This can be seen as both a positive and negative thing, depending on a lot of things and also depending on who you ask. 

Some people might complain that this is a privacy issue, but it is important to note that these people are voluntarily posting their thoughts online and Reddit does not associate usernames with actual identities. It is up to the author to specify his or her own identity. Even if there were a hypothetical instance where someone wanted their comment removed from ReSavr, they could contact the Webmaster and demand that it be removed, with proof of authorship of course. If the comment is only personal and doesn’t hold any significance, I’m sure there would be no problem having it removed. Ultimately, websites like ReSavr should be seen as a positive thing that denotes nobody will be silenced.