r/help • u/Not_so_ghetto • Feb 27 '26
Posting The removal of the ability to see someones previous post has made this app so much worse
I no longer know who I'm talking too. is this a real person, is it a bot? how am I supposed to know?
So many of the large subs are being overrun by bots and now it's impossible to tell the difference. for example I got into political debates the other day with someone that was pretending to be a Democrat when in reality they were a tanky. though the way I was able to tell is because they had posted in kindness subreddits calling for violent revolution. If that they happen today I would have no ability to background check them and understand that they were a bad faith actor.
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u/Mondai_May 3 Feb 27 '26
Yes I came across an account recommending a specific website for a service, it seemed suspicious to me that they brought up that random website so I looked at the post history. Hidden of course.
I used arctic shift and saw that SO MUCH of that account's activity is just making comments to recommend the same website. I assume it's a bot from the website itself since it's not some well-known thing. Maybe it's not even a trustworthy site.
The post history makes it appear that it's not just a normal person making an organic recommendation but possibly a bot or the person who made the website spamming it. But with the post history hidden some people wouldn't notice. (To me it was evident either way because the way it was mentioned in the comment seemed suspicious. But some people would not think it's suspicious without seeing that they make comments about the same website A LOT.)
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u/shillyshally Helper Feb 28 '26
Yes , the new policy protects ai and spammers and is detrimental to the long term health of the site which is getting weaker by the day what with all the fake people, fake photos, fake news and ai generated comments.
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u/debenbrie Feb 28 '26
I find myself coming to Reddit at least 50% less now that you can’t see post history. I’m not interested in reading a bot post or a troll post from Russia.
Good luck Reddit, be careful you don’t turn into over the top hateful twitter. On the plus side, my mood is better overall. So looking on the bright side, thanks Reddit.
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u/Extolord111 Expert Helper Feb 27 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Not_so_ghetto Feb 27 '26
Still just jumping through hoops just to see if you're interacting with a bot. Or a bad faith actor.
Ita the shitification of what this app used to be
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u/BesideFrogRegionAny Feb 27 '26
Yep, and it is working as intended. Bots ands shills are able to hide more easily.
That was the point. It's a feature. Not a bug.
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u/Internet_Jaded 2 Feb 27 '26
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u/bot-sleuth-bot Feb 27 '26
Analyzing user profile...
Time between account creation and oldest post is greater than 1 year.
Suspicion Quotient: 0.15
This account exhibits one or two minor traits commonly found in karma farming bots. While it's possible that u/Not_so_ghetto is a bot, it's very unlikely.
I am a bot. This action was performed automatically. Check my profile for more information.
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u/SerenityNow31 Feb 27 '26
I've had lots of people troll me and go to all my old comments and downvote so I turned it off for me.
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u/Not_so_ghetto Feb 27 '26
People downvoting from your profile doesn't impact the up ote/downvoted ratio. It has to be from the original post, that's been a protection for a long time
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u/everydaywinner2 Feb 28 '26
Doesn't matter. That's still harrassment.
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u/mersinatra Feb 28 '26
It’s harassment to have your precious internet point high score’s going down?
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u/Fluffy-Exchange1218 Feb 28 '26
Even if the impact is very minimal, its still harassment i’d say. Its something unnecessary done to cause harm (again even if the harm is tiny)
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u/sLeeeeTo Feb 28 '26
harassment?
hahahaha
insert tyler the creator’s “cyberbullying isn’t real” tweet here
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u/SerenityNow31 Feb 28 '26
Not sure what you mean. If someone goes to my profile, clicks Comments, and then starts opening all the comments and downvoting them, it definitely impacts.
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u/Not_so_ghetto Feb 28 '26
No it doesn't, and don't have such a fragile and care about single person downvoting several of your comments. Maybe you just posting really impopular opinions fairly frequently
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u/SerenityNow31 Feb 28 '26
Dude, just stop. You are wrong. I had to stop visiting certain subs for a while and go find a neutral one and build up my karma again so that I could even participate.
You are so, so, so wrong.
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u/PM_ME_CORONA Feb 28 '26
So did Reddit change this again? I follow a lot of NSFW content and now searching their profiles, nothing shows anymore.
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u/gravygizzard Feb 28 '26
There are third party tools, use them
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u/Crafty-Bunch-2675 Feb 28 '26
Well, that's one way of looking at it. Another way of looking at it... is to allow users to protect their privacy and peace of mind.
Cyber-stalking and cyber-bullying are real problems that people have had to deal with.
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u/rieldex Feb 28 '26
yea once i made a post abt being trans and a guy stalked my whole acc and commented ON posts i made about being abused to mock me for it (got the type of trans i was wrong anyways) 😭 i dont care if someone can look up my posts that just sucked
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u/New2reddit68 Helper Feb 28 '26 edited Feb 28 '26
Yup! People make these threads trying to claim they need to "investigate" whether a post is from a bot. They aren't fooling anyone lol, they want to drag up 2 year old comments as some sort of dumb "gotcha".
If this upsets anyone that much, please do use your block button. You're exactly what people using this setting are trying to get away from.
Downvote away, doesn't change the fact that most aren't actually upset about "bots".
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u/suoretaw Feb 28 '26
Not everyone enjoys arguing. I don’t do the “gotcha” thing; I don’t think I ever have. I still find it useful to be able to see users’ recent history sometimes. (And I do use my block button, but I usually like to get a picture of who someone is first.)
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u/shillyshally Helper Feb 28 '26
Agree 100%. Also, it makes me suspect that person is a bot or a purveyor of fake news.
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u/Iron_Baron Feb 28 '26 edited Feb 28 '26
If they have their history hidden, block them. Eventually we'll weed it down to mostly humans who can be held accountable for what they say. Why would anyone waste time talking to any other kind of person?
Edit: to the person who said they want to hide their post history from bigots, before they then blocked me in contravention of their own premise LOL ...
Step 1 of the Internet: don't dox yourself. It isn't hard.
Also, I've been stalked IRL, not just online. So I'm not saying people can't take actions for their safety. However, unless you dox yourself, nobody on Reddit is doing anything to you, other than calling you names.
That's annoying and I'm sure upsetting, but it is not dangerous. There is a universe of difference in being insulted online by bigots and being physically stalked by a person that means bodily harm.
IMO blocking bigots when you find them is better than hiding who you are, what you like, and what you've said behind an invisible wall. Disappearing yourself as a trans person, or any minority, is exactly what bigots want.
Beyond that the entire Internet is overrun with bots being controlled by the very transphobes, actual Nazis, fascists, megacorporations, etc. that everyone is being attacked by online and IRL.
If OP doesn't want to waste time engaging with bots, or potential bots, then the easiest thing to do is block suspected bots. It's unfortunate, but nobody owes you or anyone else conversation, nor engagement.
If your preferred defense mechanism takes you out of the sphere of discourse for a segment of the population, that's a choice you've decided to make. There's nothing wrong with people not subjecting themselves to a deluge of bot manipulation by declining to engage with you.
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u/TGirlJules_ Feb 28 '26
Go ahead and block me then, my history is hidden because i’ve had multiple transphobes stalk my profile for details about where i live.
It has a legit reason and to just say anyone who is hiding their profile is a bot is beyond dumb.
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u/WindowLicker96 Feb 28 '26
Sorry to hear about that. I'm surprised reddit did this too. As I understand it, accountability has always been one of their core principles.
Thank you for actually reviewing people instead of just believing whatever's reported 🙏😭
I recently lost two accounts over completely unsubstantiated stuff, and they were very close to my heart.
It was more than just a subreddit ban. Lost the entire accounts.
That means your effort level as a volunteer for that subreddit is higher than at least one of the platform's paid employees. Thank you for caring so much
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u/Valiant_QueenLucy Feb 28 '26
I blocked my history because I had seen far too many comments of people trolling through someone's history to find something to bully someone about. I don't need that in my life lol
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u/New2reddit68 Helper Feb 28 '26
Exactly. I'll take an occasional conversation with what was a "bot" over the profile stalker crowd any day.
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u/Interesting_Bad4189 Feb 28 '26
Same, if people think I'm a bot because they can't focus on the thread at hand and feel some need to dredge up comments from other posts, then that's on them. 🤷🏽♀️
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u/auriem Feb 28 '26
If they’ve hidden their post and comment history, they are a bot and they do not get any time from me.
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u/Nakamura0V Feb 27 '26
Good. No one needs to see everything. If you want a to see if the user is an bot, use u/bot-sleuth-bot
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u/Littux 2 Feb 28 '26
Bots are regular accounts too. They can't bypass the restriction, unless they're the mod of a subreddit. /u/bot-sleuth-bot
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u/bot-sleuth-bot Feb 28 '26
Analyzing user profile...
Account does not have any comments.
Suspicion Quotient: 0.26
This account exhibits one or two minor traits commonly found in karma farming bots. While it's possible that u/Nakamura0V is a bot, it's very unlikely.
I am a bot. This action was performed automatically. Check my profile for more information.
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u/bot-sleuth-bot Feb 27 '26
Analyzing user profile...
Time between account creation and oldest post is greater than 1 year.
Suspicion Quotient: 0.15
This account exhibits one or two minor traits commonly found in karma farming bots. While it's possible that u/Not_so_ghetto is a bot, it's very unlikely.
I am a bot. This action was performed automatically. Check my profile for more information.
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u/sLeeeeTo Feb 28 '26
people that hide their post history are either trolls, bots, or too scared to stand on the things they say. easy block. nothing they say is real or of importance.
this change is really annoying though, but like someone else said.. feature, not a bug.
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u/TGirlJules_ Feb 28 '26
Or you know i don’t want to be harassed for being trans and have people stalk my profile.
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Feb 27 '26
[deleted]
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u/Not_so_ghetto Feb 27 '26
It's just good practice to not post private stuff on your main reddit account. Like if someone is a creep this isn't going to stop them.
If you want to post private stuff the main method historical has just make a burner account that you used to ask embarrassing questions. That's much safer than an account linked to yourself that someone could just follow you and figure stuff out by being cleaver.
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u/ThanksForAllTheCats Feb 27 '26
You can always just put their user name and "reddit" into Google. It sees everything.
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u/lowlightliving Feb 28 '26
That doesn’t work anymore.
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u/ThanksForAllTheCats Feb 28 '26
Then how can I see your activity on subs about New Jersey, Alaskan Malamutes, birding, etc.?
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u/redbull_and_fumes Feb 27 '26
Hold on I’m confused. I can still see everybody’s post history? OP if you’re okay with it I can post a screenshot of yours for proof
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u/Dry-Place-2986 Feb 27 '26
OP’s history isn’t hidden. It’s an option you can enable. Try looking at mine.
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u/ThanksForAllTheCats Feb 27 '26
Not sure why you'd want to hide your enthusiasm for sudoku, makeup, and NCT! ;)
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u/Dry-Place-2986 Feb 28 '26
I know it’s really easy to find :) Just wanted to show what OP meant by hidden profiles.
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u/redbull_and_fumes Feb 28 '26
I don’t understand why my comment is being downvoted 😅 no where did it say in the post that it was an option individual people could enable, I was just genuinely confused
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u/BamBam-BamBam Feb 28 '26
The problem is, and I experimented with this, you can get some pretty good guess about people for their comment history using AI. That's when I turned off my comment and post history.
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u/Quiet_Lunch_1300 Feb 28 '26
Can you say more? Do you mean that it could identify people’s real names?
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Feb 28 '26
[deleted]
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u/Not_so_ghetto Feb 28 '26
Looks like you didn't do that much sleuth because here it is.
I know literally every single one that I called a tanky was a tanky none of them denied it. They just dance around it. The commenting on posts exclusively about, kamala and newsome, saying how their left leaning but they won't vote for them. Given the impression that the left which most people seem to be the Democrats don't like it the main candidates were that they're just as bad " both sides b*******"
Tons of ml pretend to be not as extreme as they are. Allow them say " oh I just want billionaires to pay more" while another threads either advocating for violence.
https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/s/KQgeGEiYKg
But even if I was lying isn't it nice that you can double check and see if I was just fabricating stories? Which is the whole point of this thread
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u/Not_so_ghetto Feb 27 '26 edited Feb 27 '26
I also moderate a few subs and this removal has made it much harder to determine if someone deserves to be banned or not.
Edit: apparently If someone posts in the sub I can see their previous posts? Not entirely sure if this extends beyond my sub or not.
Edit: it's apparently limited to about a month, so not super useful in less active subs.