Reddit technical issues seem to be leading to comments still being visible on the site that users assumed were deleted

0xSim
2023-07-06T14:26:57Z

Edit:

This might be a caching issue - Tildes mods have edited this post's title accordingly.

Anyway, this issue is concerning, as many people deleted their comments and accounts. Now the accounts are gone but the comments are back. Intentional or not, Reddit should fix this asap and communicate. This isn't acceptable.

Edit 2, 16 days after the original post:

For the 4th or 5th time, comments are popping back. Most of them in their original form, very few (2 out of 25) still edited as "[deleted]"

Original post:

(I know, more reddit stuff, sorry)

On June 16, four days after the beginning of the current Reddit protests, some users were reporting that their deleted comments were getting restored:

https://mstdn.games/@chris/110553477682106144

https://kbin.social/m/RedditMigration/t/34112/Heads-up-Reddit-is-quietly-restoring-deleted-AND-overwritten-posts-and

There were doubts if this was intentional or a bug caused by the blackout, or some rollbacks. Hanlon's razor, etc.

I then personally mass-edited my comments to "[removed]" two days ago, and lo & behold, they're getting edited back. And from what I've seen, there's definitely a pattern:

All restored comments are at least 8-12 months old, so several pages deep in the comments history

90% of them are about programming, a few of them on my country's subreddit.

(More than half of my comments are on gaming subreddits, they're still edited as "[removed]")

The vast majority of them have responses

(Though most of my comments also have responses)

They're edited back in "small waves". 15-20 this morning, 4 this evening (so far).

I'm now editing them back twice, hoping that Reddit only keeps the previous version of a comment.

I find Reddit's behavior to be absolutely shameful. I've been on internet forums for nearly 25 years, and I've never seen a site unilaterally and silently decide to un-delete or (un-)edit comments. Never.

It feels like a golden rule of internet has been broken, and I'm surprised to not see more talks about it.

Comments URL: https://tildes.net/~tech/16on/reddit_technical_issues_seem_to_be_leading_to_comments_still_being_visible_on_the_site_that_users

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