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Comment by JohnAaronNelson | Hacker News Reader

Much of the value in Reddit isn’t “what’s happening now” but in that trove of information gathered over the last ten years. Reddit is a primary source of information because of that trove. Engagement numbers will obviously suffer if Reddit drops out of search results.

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The archetypical older reddit discussion looks like this anyway:

   u/[deleted]: [deleted]
    +- u/[deleted]: [deleted]
      +- u/[deleted]: [deleted]
      +- u/[deleted]: [deleted]
    +- u/[deleted]: [removed by moderator]
    +- u/[deleted]: [removed by moderator]
   u/tehpunnyone: lame pun
    +- u/urmom420: pame lun
      +- u/[deleted]: [deleted]
    +- u/[deleted]: [removed by moderator]

And you can pretty safely assume all those deleted entries reference the size of someones balls or say "This is the way".

this is the way.

This made me LOL and remin6me of the askhistorians subreddit: we are so snobby that well delete any contribution to the discussion, unless it's by one of the moderators.

It's one of those subreddits that is great to browse from ceddit or reveddit. Very interesting [deleted] comments.

To add, it's also the how the information changes over time. Often, the same questions get answered and similar topics get discussed multiple times over the years for the topics where related information doesn't remain static. It's always interesting to see how certain things evolve over time.

The only example I can give off the top of my head is subreddit for the game No Man's Sky. Its subreddit provides the best illustration of how the game has evolved compared to anywhere else. Not just in player sentiment, which could be gleamed from Steam reviews, but also how aspects of the game have changed that are better reflected in pictures and discussions than a changelog or release blog. For example, you can find screenshots of how the procedural generation of planets in the game has changed from 2016 to today, interesting bugs that only existed for a specific patch, datamined assets that never got used, etc.

Their data is what is valuable to users. Their users is what’s valuable to the business. Supply and demand my friends. If you delete the supply, there’s no demand.

> Supply and demand my friends. If you delete the supply, there’s no demand.

Not quite. Demand is independent of supply.

I think they mean demand for reddit, which I don't think is the typical usage of the word but still makes sense to me

The demand for information and entertainment is independent from Reddit supplying it, yes. But if everyone used shreddid, this demand could no longer be fulfilled on the Reddit platform, thus the demand for Reddit would cease.

This is cutting off one's nose to spite their face. It's not like it'll be replaced by a new trove of historical conversations going back over a decade. That's still valuable to people not named Reddit.

When you have frostbite, you amputate. Sure there are less destructive ways with time but removal of dead tissue is still required.

Exactly. This is why I made a browser extension to batch delete all your Reddit history. It's easier than running a python script: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/bulk-delete-reddit...

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