Can we make our post/comment history private like on Ruqqus?

submitted by GetOffMyLawn from self.SaidIt

I didn't see the option upon first glance.

Having your comment and post history viewable by all users is extremely problematic on Reddit as it leads to everything from people finding reasons to discount what you're saying on a topic (the most famous being "YOU POST ON THE_DONALD, YOU'RE JUST A TROLL" while you're discussing something not related to politics) to, the much worse, combing your post history to piece together information tidbits about location and job until they can cross-reference other social media like LinkedIn and doxx you. An anonymous forum isn't much good if people can find out who you are and harass you just because you disagreed with them. It happened to me before and I wasn't even discussing something political or offensive, I was literally arguing about the performance difference between two models of a car and it just got heated and the douche decided to comb all of my previous posts to try to doxx me. From now on, I won't use a Reddit-format website that doesn't allow explicitly private post/comment history, so please let me know if that is possible or can/will be added in the near future.

Thanks.

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[–][deleted]  (15 children)

[deleted]

    [–]GetOffMyLawn[S] 18 insightful - 1 fun18 insightful - 0 fun19 insightful - 1 fun -  (14 children)

    That's the thing, it's not like I posted a scan of my driver's license. Simply posting on a local subreddit (city/state), a sub for your chosen profession (or saying "as an XYZ professional"), and maybe including a niche interest in a hobby with a small community (a niche motorsport in the previous example), a savvy doxxer can put the pieces together and find you. Add to that ever posting a video from a personal other social media like Youtube or Instagram and it's infinitely easier.

    If people want their histories public, allow them to, but if we want it private for everyone except maybe mods/admins, we should have that option. Or I can just not use saidit and stick to Ruqqus that respects my privacy and minimizes doxxing/personal threats from nutjobs you bump into online.

    [–]DessieArdrey 9 insightful - 2 fun9 insightful - 1 fun10 insightful - 2 fun -  (7 children)

    Doxing is nuts, only solution is to switch accounts often. Even with private history there is nothing to stop third party sites collecting the info and still presenting it. This happens with reddit, where edited, deleted profiles and posts can still be searched on other sites....

    [–]GetOffMyLawn[S] 8 insightful - 1 fun8 insightful - 0 fun9 insightful - 1 fun -  (6 children)

    I have started doing that, but it is a hassle due to having to make a new account, re-attach all of your subscriptions to it, and waiting to have enough karma/account longevity to even be allowed to post and comment in some cases. Third parties will always be a problem, but having it built-in to a website makes it far too easy to do. Again, it's an easy toggle to make and I see no good reason it can't be hidden at least from other users.

    [–][deleted]  (2 children)

    [deleted]

      [–]GetOffMyLawn[S] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

      Ad hominem is more of an annoyance, it's the tidbits of personal info that concern me. I see screen name-based online forums as a chance to be brutally honest about things that modern society won't allow you to be under your real name. Without that protection of identity, I may as well post shit on Facebook.

      [–]Dragonerne 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

      You underestimate leftists. Their tactics might not work here yet but they are driven and they will figure out ways to do what they do in different ways.

      [–]DessieArdrey 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

      Well sites could allow anon posting or semi-anon attached to an account. Sub rules do present a problem, all the more reason to not allow such stupid rules or make them optional.

      I have faced some insane efforts to be doxed. Site owner has engaged community in effort to reveal me. All over me talking back to him. There has to be some law against that?

      [–][deleted]  (1 child)

      [deleted]

        [–]GetOffMyLawn[S] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

        Yes, we should be able to say our truth, but saying my blunt opinion on something controversial shouldn't be an open door invitation for a scumbag to comb my post history to piece together my identity.

        [–][deleted]  (1 child)

        [deleted]

          [–]GetOffMyLawn[S] 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

          OR ALLOW US TO MAKE THE FUCKING COMMENT AND POST HISTORY PRIVATE AND SOLVE ALL OF THIS.

          If I have to take so many measures to avoid doxxing I may as well just post on 4Chan.

          The whole point is I WANT to discuss local going ons (events, etc.), talk about my car, talk about my hobbies, etc., but I don't want a nutjob showing up at my door or other shit because I said something they didn't agree with and got mad about it.

          [–][deleted] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

          A solution to this is to use multiple accounts, ie one account for your local city/state, another for your profession, and another for a hobby.

          And you can always use throwaways (though the comments by these tend to get filtered out).

          [–]Questionable 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

          This will not only provide anonymity, but will also prevent the user from karma farming under a single account. Though I doubt Saddit endorses such use of alt accounts, they know it is something they have to allow to better provide freedoms to the user base.

          [–]Nelumbo 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

          Your comments can be perused without looking at your profile. Just go on google and type site:https://saidit.net/ "GetOffMyLawn" along with something you want to look up about a person, like their opinion on "Ruqqus", and this thread title shows up.

          Privating comments will only benefit trolls https://saidit.net/s/SaidIt/comments/5fja/can_we_make_our_postcomment_history_private_like/kvma as dedicated people can still dox you.

          [–]GetOffMyLawn[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

          I don't see anything when I search Google that way. It's also a clumsy way to browse things and only the most extremely dedicated people would ever even attempt that to the point they would have any success. It would also take more guesswork as you'd have to search for things like specific cities rather than seeing a comment history full of /r/Chicago and reasonably assuming they live in Chicago. It's all about making it more difficult, I don't care if the .000001% of computer users can maybe figure stuff out, I want the 90% to not be able to do it. Vehicle immobilizers don't stop 100% of car thieves, but it stops the random punk kid that could hot wire a car back in the 90's but won't figure out how to defeat a more complex RFID system.

          [–]Questionable 8 insightful - 4 fun8 insightful - 3 fun9 insightful - 4 fun -  (11 children)

          If comment history is hidden, then you can post all kinds of nonsense and contradictions. Today I will be a Black feminist Nazi, I am 12 years old. I survive solely off of a combination of cod liver and wheat bread. I invented the internet in 1962 to spread hate speech and appose the white devil, that was made incarnate in the flesh of Gary Coleman. Who never died, and lives in Vermont.

          [–]GetOffMyLawn[S] 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

          1) People can still delete their history manually, it's just a huge pain in the ass to do so

          2) WHO CARES? If a comment seems to absurd to be worth responding to...don't. Again, the problem is that I have a good natured discussion about oil change intervals in one thread where I reveal my car, where I take my car for service, etc., but then elsewhere get into an argument about something controversial with a nutjob and they go through my history and find out who I am and try to use it against me. I'd be fine if every post was anonymous like 4Chan, the only reason I like the Reddit format is because it makes posts more organized and I can continue conversations/arguments hours or days later without the thread dying or the response getting buried so far I'll never see it again. Also, Reddit-format sites tend to stay more on topic vs. 4Chan where people will just decide it's time to post porn mid-thread and other shit that makes it virtually unusable. If you want people to track everything you do and say, go back to Facebook, Twitter, etc.

          [–]Questionable 7 insightful - 2 fun7 insightful - 1 fun8 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

          Who cares if people spread lies and disinformation across multiple posts with no accountability? Um I do. I think honesty has an inherent value.

          Look, don't argue with nut jobs. Don't post personal information. Don't get into the van labeled "free candy inside", and there is no such thing as a "random wallet inspection".

          [–]GetOffMyLawn[S] 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

          How are you determining if what they're saying is true? And that's beside the point, anyway. Determined people can keep multiple accounts where one minute they're "Dr.Doctorguy" and the next they're "FireFighterSteve". Anything said on a forum with anything but verified real accounts (i.e. Facebook/Twitter) should only be taken as a jumping off point for further verification and research. On the flip side, if I want to voice a controversial opinion, the one time I did that could lead to a successful doxxing of something I said elsewhere. And we can keep putting the burden on the user to clean their history, etc. etc. but most people may not even know their posting/comment history is public in the first place and, like my almost doxxing, you don't know until it's too late.

          [–][deleted]  (1 child)

          [deleted]

            [–][deleted] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

            no he's right if you google how to do it you have to use a script and that will delete all the comments on a page of your comment history at a time but it goes slow if you have thousands of comments

            you might think deleting your account deletes comments but it doesn't

            [–]Jesus 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

            Use that moneywrench command tool.

            [–]flugegeheimen 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

            If comment history is hidden, then you can post all kinds of nonsense and contradictions.

            How exactly it's different with your comment history not hidden? Do you think sane people will believe you invented the internet just because there is no contradicting comments in your history? You are a random user of a reddit clone site, you have absolutely no credibility/reputation to back up any of claims with or without comment history. The only way you can make your arguments credible is by using logic and providing sources and hiding comment history at least cuts out a lot of ad hominems.

            [–]Questionable 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

            Power users commonly use fake stories for karma farming. They are sniffed out through the viewing of their post history. Where as my example condenses this idea into a single over the top segment for humorous purposes. A more realistic version of this, would have me being a Vietnam vet one week, and an 23 year old female nurse the next.

            Hiding post histories would also hide people posing as conservative in one thread, while posing as liberals in another. People do this to win arguments by feigning association or experience, or out right lying about their actual beliefs.

            They do this because they would rather win, then admit that they are wrong, or that their ideals need to be shifted to accommodate a more complex reality being present to them.

            [–]flugegeheimen 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

            People do this to win arguments by feigning association or experience

            But how? I wouldn't believe you are a Vietnam vet or a nurse just because you said it on Saidit or posted a story. And I don't need your comment history to disbelieve you. I just don't see how you can win an argument by saying "I'm an expert, I win". Okay and I'm a pope, I can't be wrong. Why would you need to disprove completely empty appeal to nonexistent authority by perusing someone's comment history for contradictions?

            [–]scrubking 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (3 children)

            Never post personal info on the internet, not even in 'tidbits'.

            [–]Jesus 6 insightful - 5 fun6 insightful - 4 fun7 insightful - 5 fun -  (0 children)

            Best thing to do is get a good browswr, vpn, don't have one yet, use virtual box, maybe, if you want and set up a command tool that searches random posts every day. Put tags in it like "I'm gay", sex toys, how to clean my grandmothers home, just random crap. Do it automatically.

            That way instead of hiding from online corporations, they will instead compile those false searches and will start advertising all thos random crap you don't like thinking that you do like it.

            It's funny.

            [–]GetOffMyLawn[S] 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

            The thing is, it's virtually impossible to do so. For example, if you're having a discussion about cars and you're a mechanic, you want to cite that as a basis for authority on the topic. In that instance, it could be a harmless non-inflammatory situation. However, down the road, you're having an unrelated discussion and someone gets butthurt and uses that plus other similar tidbits and can narrow things down. To completely remove all personal info from discussion would be to almost make any online interaction pointless and useless because every discussion would be so abstract it would lack substance and there would be no point. And, once again, I don't even have to explicitly state my personal info, just posting in the subs for my city and my interests can be enough to triangulate identity to the right person in the right situation.

            [–]radfem 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

            In fairness to you, haven't stalking cases actually been linked to wackos combing through 6000 random posts cobbling together info.

            I feel like there was an article on a tech site about it.

            [–]Locke 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

            I agree there should be an option for this.

            [–]Dr_Bukkake 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

            Clear your post history after a day or two. And post misleading info like if you have 3 kids say you have 2.

            [–]GetOffMyLawn[S] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

            Then you run into the opposite problem where people just call you a troll/liar because you have inconsistent info. For example, if I say I have my [real car] while discussing or asking a question about it, then claim to have another car to throw people off the scent, then people will just accuse me of being a no-car lying teen or something and a troll.

            I don't know why we can't all circle back to the point that our post and comment history should be allowed to be private. It seems to work fine on Ruqqus. I'd be glad to try out a few Reddit alternatives, but so far Saidit is seeming to be the same shit I left Reddit over.

            [–]Dr_Bukkake 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

            Just stick with the same inconsistencies.

            [–]Tom_Bombadil 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (3 children)

            Free speech isn't 100% anonymous speech.

            Hiding comment history would be a useful feature for shills and malicious comments.

            If you can't stand by your ideas/comments then don't post them.

            [–]GetOffMyLawn[S] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

            OK, so it's fair to get firebombs thrown through the windows of my house because I disagreed with someone about George Floyd? Trolls should just be ignored, but being able to express ideas outside of the narrowly defined "acceptable" speech we have today shouldn't mean a mob can show up at my door. If that's what people here think, then you fuckers are just as bad as shithole Reddit and I don't want to post here, either.

            [–]Tom_Bombadil 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

            OK, so it's fair to get firebombs thrown through the windows of my house because I disagreed with someone about George Floyd?

            No one is claiming this.

            If that's what people here think, then you fuckers are just as bad as shithole Reddit and I don't want to post here, either.

            We can only hope that you are a man of your word.

            [–]GetOffMyLawn[S] 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

            No one is claiming this.

            Except by proxy you are. You won't take steps to defend privacy and make it far more difficult for doxx attempts. It's like saying you aren't aiding crime by leaving a store full of merchandise unlocked every night.

            We can only hope that you are a man of your word.

            Eat a bag of shit, faggot.