Oh right. Unless I’m mistaken, Pushshift was a data collection platform that provided an API for getting Reddit data, before the API change ruined it. When someone deletes a comment, it’s still there in the database. Pullpush is a fork.
Comment on Every support thread on Reddit is literally this now
jsomae@lemmy.ml 3 weeks agoI didn’t mean to ask how one can view the comments. I meant to ask how it’s possible at all in the first place.
QuestionMark@lemmy.ml 3 weeks ago
rami@ani.social 3 weeks ago
Iirc using the ‘delete’ button just does the equivalent of breaking the link to a picture. The data is still there.
mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
This is why, during the mass exodus, many people were sharing scripts to edit your comments with random words before deleting them. Because deleting them leaves the content available in the database, but editing actually overwrites the data. So even if Reddit later decides to undo the deletions, (which they did), then they’ll just be a bunch of gibberish undeleted comments.