[Cerium]

It's not my old work I want to read, it's that of others. Comments are a frequently valuable shared annotation system for discussion on a post. Frequently I will search reddit for answers to questions I have and find a useful result in a comment.

Other times I want to get a summary of a new topic so I will find an applicable subreddit and sort by top from the last year to get an idea of what is interesting for this community.

[randomdata]

Wherein lies the value of seeing that others read your work?

As the saying goes, work is done for those who pay for it. When I, like you, write comments on sites like these I am the one paying for it. I derive entertainment value for the cost I am sinking, so I find it to be an acceptable trade, but beyond that small window the entertainment is over and the value of what was produced is gone. To keep it around beyond that is just hoarding data.

I can appreciate that one might find value in feeling like they are helping out a greater community by allowing others to read their work. I commend those who see that value. But even that seems fleeting. If your work disappeared without you noticing, the value derived from that would not be lost. It is not the perpetual existence of the data that provides that value.

Although, I think the greater question here is: What value is there in allowing a for-profit company like Reddit to get rich selling the work you paid for?

[mfcl]

So, you'd delete your old comments because you would rather no one in the world get any kind of value from them since you are not getting any anymore?

[kazinator]

I wanted to delete my old posts so that Reddit doesn't get any value out of them.

That's exactly why they put in dirty hacks to defend against this.

Reddit depends on all the old content because it's indexed by search engines. People add "Reddit" when they search and then they navigate to the site. Old content brings in visitors.

[johnnyanmac]

>you would rather no one in the world get any kind of value from them since you are not getting any anymore?

I'd rather not get harrased from old comments in arguments I long forgotten about. Because some redditors will stalk you that persistently. I just don't want to bother to begin with.

If that cost some useful advice, I apologize. Rotten apples and all that.

[randomdata]

I would delete comments that are past their prime like I would discard expired food in my fridge, yes. What are you going to gain from keeping something that is now rotten?

[crazygringo]

It's not about you, it's about everyone else who might benefit from reading your comment. What are you taking that benefit away from them? Why do you dislike other internet users like that?

Also comments don't rot on the internet, nothing is ever "past its prime". Why do you think comments lose value to other people? In fact, there's quite likely a long tail of future users who would benefit, who are even larger than the short tail of people in the current 24h.

[Eisenstein]

This person is either really playing up their Ayn Randian philosophy or they are deluded. I think you can be somewhat relieved knowing that the comments which are deleted are probably in line with the ones made by the person today -- worthless.

[randomdata]

Absolutely they would be worthless to others. After all, if there was value available to others, others would be willing to pay for it. And that's just not going to happen for anything I am capable of writing. There is good reason why I'm the one paying for it even though it is quite common to pay others for what they write. It is not unusual at all to pay those skilled in writing for their work. For the rest of us, it's just a hobby. And that's okay. Not all work has to be for others.

[randomdata]

So long as I am paying for it, it is absolutely about me. I would consider offers to write for others if they see the value, but it is quite apparent that what I write does not actually provide value to others. Which is fine. I'm happy to leave that work to the professionals.

Why do you feel entitled to the work I have paid for? It is one thing if I generously offer it to you, but to expect it?

[crazygringo]

Reddit is free, you don't need to pay to write comments. You're not paying for anything. And whether future users find value is up to them to decide, not you. You can't read their minds.

And you're going out of your way to delete something you already wrote. That's extra work for you. Why do you hate the future users who might find value?