Show HN: I got tired of reading "This posting has been deleted by its author"
clippings.june07.com
clippings.june07.com
I'm sure that's exactly what it does. It is definitely not archiving some Facebook pages I've been browsing (that I would actually like to archive). It's only been capturing the login screen or an error about abusing the site.
Other than that I imagine it leaks things like /bank/account/id/75795 but the crawler will drop it when it returns a 40X.
https://github.com/june07/clippings-archive/tree/main/craigs...
I'm still mystified about the purpose, though. Can you explain a use case or three?
Bunch of changes since the initial post 12 days ago and a new feature addition:
Reasons I personally like to revisit old ads sometimes:
- Seeing prices that people asked for an item at different times, and the full text of the ad and pictures so I can compare extras included and condition of item
- Something I bought and I don’t remember how much I originally paid for it
- Things that I did not buy, but I want to remember for the future and perhaps buy similar item from someone else in the future
- As a substitute for buying the thing. Instead of buying an item now I can keep a copy of the ad and over time I can think about whether I really need that thing, or if it is not as necessary as I impulsively had imagined
- etc
a) Too-good-to-be-true accommodation listings on CL/FB listing artificially low weekly/month-to-month rates on nice-looking properties, in order to "acquire" unwitting customers for marketing RE or 12+ month leases to. RedFin and/or their affiliates seemed to be doing a huge amount of this throughout 2022.
b) Deposit scammers on CL, FB advertising properties for which they are not the landlord; meet in person to pretend to take application and deposit. (Someone I know was scammed $1400. Obviously be skeptical, check owner, never give cash to strangers - but this still happens).
c) Another telltale is when the identity of the "apply to" URL is disguised using shorteners (or rendered as image).
d) Nuisance landlord(/roommate) scammers on CL/FB who repeatedly post a similar generic ad under different names/ addresses/ userids; then don't know which property in which country you're responding to, won't reply by phone, are in a different timezone/country, and insist you fill in their third-party application form incl. your contacts and SSN.
I've moved quite a few times and when it gets to be a week out and I still have so much stuff and no time, I've often tried to give it away, but people are so suspicious that they could get a free couch or desk that we have to go through 10 messages for them to trust me. I can't be bothered to exchange that many messages with 20 people just to give something away.
I want an apartment equivalent of a garage sale for good stuff, not junk
The broker who rented it to us swore the ad didn’t specify it was included. Thankfully I’d taken a screenshot, and caught the broker in a lie directly in front of her boss. They paid us cash right there to make up for it!
It would be nice to be able to disown a comment, instead.
Comments that accidentally reveal personal information, that would be a nice use-case for deletion. But on the other hand, nothing can be deleted from the internet, so having the button there could add a false sense of security.
In theory that's true; anything Donald Trump says, for instance, can never be deleted.
In practice, if someone on Reddit deletes their post, it's extremely unlikely you'll be able to recover it. It's not a probability of zero, but pretty close to it. You could file a lawsuit and then Reddit will have to find it, but otherwise, it's gone.
I doubt that unless it's criminal evidence or something
A file on the internet obviously could be backed up by anyone, so deleting things from the internet does not verifiably restore your privacy.
A file on the internet might not be publicly accessible in the future. But that doesn’t mean it hasn’t been backed up privately.
It is the worst of both worlds.
Probably it won't, though, for most people.
Posts made after the API access was removed would not be in Pushshift.
Posts made before, are still in Pushshift. Deleting a post from the site doesn’t remove it from Pushshift.
So… kinda not anymore? At least not publicly, using the officially supported API.
I created that content, I can decide what is done with it. If I dislike the direction reddit is going I should be able to remove said content and prevent reddit from generating income for it.
Reddit didn't pay me to provide the information I did, neither did you. Neither of you are entitled to it remaining there indefinitely.
I actually like OPs tool though, I don't have an issue with what it does, however I would if it stored that data on OPs servers and then trained an LLM on it or sold the information to an ad company.
Suffice to say I think LLMs are going to degrade the general internet due to people not wanting what they said in an LLM. I personally post for other humans to benefit, not for a corporation to train an LLM on and make a ton of income. I'm fine however with a platform using tasteful ads to fund it's own operations.
Insert random ideas about posts made online being equated to a public speech and where that falls in the copyright laws that currently exist for the future LLM that parses this stuff.
Not your content, not your choice.
Reference the current legislation being put in place around the world regarding privacy as proof that I am not in the minority here.
Also it did work exactly like that since reddit allowed me to delete said content and and chose to stop posting or interacting with reddit.
Could there be a copy my reddit history out there somewhere? Sure.
Do I have an issue with that? Nope.
Would I have an issue with that if that copy was held by reddit and they still trained LLMs or sold it to ad companies? Yes and I'm sure I also have legal standing on that backed by my government.
Don't like it, don't post it
Oh honey.
I ran into an rare issue with one software last year that I couldn't remember what it is. I saw the error in the log and posted it in Google. There are only one Reddit post in search of this error. The deleted user deleted the comment of the solution, preventing anyone from fixing the issue. That deleted comment have more than 200 child comments for thanking for the simple solution and other are asking other what are the solution after the deletion.
Some got around by quoting the comment to for those deletion situations. I get they want to protect their privacy and whatnots. It is rather infuriating when it is the only solution in the entire internet that are deleted.
I tried looking for banners one time, squares skyscrapers etc. (Just to populate a rotation script.) but couldn't find anything.
When I click on the topmost archived ad (https://clippings-archive.june07.com/craigslist/7675980380) I get a 404.
Others work, but what is the value of a deleted ad?
(They still do, it's just hidden because it's thoroughly uncool, for some reason.)
https://clippings-archive.june07.com/craigslist/7674411747?_.....
Is it legal to run a service like this when laws exist about providing the original author or a person present in a photo with a way to remove content or personally identifiable information? There are also copyright trolls and GDPR trolls, isn’t a service like this an opportunity for them?
You can always screenshot it.
> The right to be forgotten leads to allowing individuals to have information, videos, or photographs about themselves deleted from certain Internet records so that they cannot be found by search engines.
Source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_be_forgotten
It isn't reality. Reality is that it's simply data on a server. Data on a server isn't permanent, the web was never designed or intended to provide an immutable record of anything.
Data is only saved when it has value, and only as long as that value exceeds the cost of maintaining continuous copies, and sometimes (as recently nearly happened with Google code) people simply become careless and the one and only copy of something vanishes without a trace. Many, many things have vanished from the internet without a trace.
Assume permanent data when you want something deleted and temporary data when you want it saved. If you want it deleted it's probably because someone thinks it is worth saving. If you want it saved, well it doesn't mean anyone does,(or that who ever does will make it accessible) so you'll need to ensure it's paid for.
Undoubtedly, nothing on this planet, whether digital or physical, internet-based or in print, is truly everlasting. Eventually, everything returns to the earth, a poignant reminder of impermanence.
Drawing a parallel to tattoo removal by laser, I'm reminded of an old girlfriend's experience. While she possessed a remarkable pain threshold, it was an ordeal she wouldn't willingly revisit.
So again, I still feel data online is very much LIKE a tattoo in its permanent nature, and time only strengthens that feeling.
If I made an actual article hosted on a site which could be equated to news or magazines of old, I would assume it's permanent since I would assume the same in reality.
If I post something in a discussion forum, I cannot be sure nobody there is recording it and keeping a copy of it indefinitely.
I am however allowed to be upset and possibly persue legal action if the person who did happen to record it now sells it to anyone with enough money or trains an LLM on dictated versions of it.
For the former I believe there is actual legal grounds with damages, for the latter I feel I can choose to never interact with that person again and disparage them publically for what they have done.
That’s not okay, don’t do this.
But hey, it’s a way to guarantee that you’ll annoy people enough to not use it.
Thanks for taking that onboard and resolving it.
(There’s nothing in the panel, maybe that’s where there was previously an ad?)
https://github.com/june07/clippings-frontend/issues/1
Hope you understand that this was an unknown condition prior to your helping out (I'm on Android where back navigation was unaffected) and certainly not a deliberate attempt at bad UX just to push a DO ad. Again, thank you for the valuable feedback as it helped solve the problem faster!
https://github.com/june07/clippings-frontend/issues/1
Cheers
Btw, I've been aching for a browser extension that saves a copy of every web site I visit so I can reach for the archived copy in my history window. Does anything like that exist?
Not sure about the browser extension...