I’d been using Reddit for 6 years; thousands of hours. All gone, in a quick(ish) running of a script. And once it’s gone, it’s gone. Link rot is gonna be so much bigger soon. And everything that represents a mark on the platform from me will be gone.
I remember spending time on basically every interest I’ve had on there. I remember the memes, the political discussions, the anticipations of football transfers, the stunning source-gathering work on the Ukraine war, the shitposts, the communities willing to help me on the most stupid of questions. The hours spent defending random pixels on a canvas modified by other communities with friends, the awestruck silence of the Snap both in movie form and Reddit form. The support for me as a person when I needed it the most and real life couldn’t, wouldn’t, didn’t give to me.
And in a few minutes, that’ll all be gone. It’s already going away as I type this. Almost feels like a microcosm of my own mortality. Maybe I’m being overly sentimental, but it hurts. Anyone else feel the same?
I never met anyone purely from Reddit, but it gave me connections I never could have elsewhere (except hopefully now Lemmy). Life advice, and a sense that I was not alone in my struggle; as someone autistic, as someone seeking democracy for Hong Kong (a prospect that seems more dire with every passing day…), as someone wanting the world to do something about neocapitalism and the overall enshittening of the world, as someone who tried their best to live a life and wanted to feel that they were not alone. I had actual discussions and debates. Actual ideas were thrown. Actual connections were shared. Actual emotions were felt. And it’s all gone now, flushed into the information void of the past.