I used to comment frequently on a very niche hobby subreddit with fewer than 2 000 subscribers. After the Reddit API changes and the rise of AI-generated posts, I got sick of reddit and deleted my account.
Before deleting my account I made sure to obfuscate all my valuable contributions (for example as long term reviews of products and detailed analyses with pros and cons) so that if reddit somehow managed to restore them, they would be of no use. I thought this should have done the job, but it wasn’t.
Today I decided to google my old reddit username. Found some comments because other users had mentioned/pinged me in their comments. I don’t mind that. I couldn’t find any of my posts or comments on reddit and was happy.
As I scrolled through the Google search results, I stumbled upon a blog I had never heard of before. My Reddit username appeared in the search result preview which got my interest.
Could it be that another user that coincidentally chose the same username? I wanted to see what this other person had written.
I opened the blog post which discussed a product related to that niche hobby. Of course the post was infested with Amazon affiliate links everywhere. I continued scrolling to the comment section to see what “I” had written.
To my shock, it was the exact review I had posted on Reddit before editing and deleting my stuff.
The blog owner had copied my original reddit post and used my reddit username as the blog comment username. I felt upset because I hadn’t given anyone permission to reuse my posts elsewhere.
I don’t want to name the blog, hobby and reddit username so that blog don’t get more undeserved views.
I have a question. Is the mildly infuriating part for you the part where there is account masquerading as you on the internet, using your words and proliferating data/information essentially in your name?
Or is it that you wanted to deprive the internet at large of whatever advice or information was imparted in that comment and someone else/a bot is reuploading that information without your consent?
Because on the one hand, I agree that using your username and your written comment to validate an account that’s likely a bot account is dodgy and underhanded and messed up.
But on the other hand, if that advice is valuable to other people and the intent was to impart that information to others outside of reddit and this is attempt to attribute it to you, rather than an attempt at plagiarism, I’m not sure I would necessarily agree.
But this is unfortunately one of the downside to putting any comments/information on the internet.