Reddit on Tuesday introduced a brand new function that may provide its customers extra privateness with regards to what’s shared on their person profiles.
The corporate says it’s rolling out an replace that may introduce a “Content material and Exercise” setting that enables customers to determine which content material from the subreddits they take part in will seem on their profiles. This consists of each their posting and commenting historical past.
By default, all posts and feedback will stay seen, as earlier than. Nevertheless, the brand new setting permits customers to cover all their public posts and feedback, together with these made immediately on their profiles.
Alternately, customers can determine to selectively show posts and feedback from particular communities on their profile, whereas protecting others hidden.
The setting is obtainable beneath a brand new “Curate your profile” part, the place customers can management their content material’s visibility. An choice to toggle on or off NSFW content material and exercise can also be obtainable, as is a Followers toggle to indicate or disguise follower rely.
The replace provides a layer of privateness to Reddit that wasn’t beforehand obtainable. Consequently, many Reddit customers created “throwaway” accounts after they wished to ask extra private questions. However as Reddit morphs into extra of an ad-focused tech firm post-IPO, it doubtless prefers that person information — like engagement and pursuits — stays related to a single person profile for higher advert focusing on.
The function’s addition may additionally encourage customers to take part extra on the positioning, as they’ll now know that they’ll considerably obscure their exercise from public view.
For instance, customers could need to chime in or ask questions on a subject of a extra delicate nature, like relationship or courting recommendation, or a well being problem they’re going through. Earlier than, they might have chosen to simply learn via others’ posts however not have interaction immediately in an effort to hold the data from displaying on their very own person profiles.
Reddit says that the choice to cover or show posts and feedback is obtainable solely on a per-community foundation, not on the particular person put up or remark stage. That makes the settings simpler to handle, even when it means you’ll be able to’t decide and select which particular feedback and posts present up and which don’t.
Nonetheless, customers ought to know that the curation choice doesn’t imply they’ve true privateness. Their username will nonetheless seem subsequent to their posts and feedback within the communities themselves. Plus, some moderators will nonetheless have entry to a person’s public put up and remark historical past for 28 days, whatever the person’s content material visibility settings, Reddit says.
This entry is useful to moderators who could have to evaluate a person’s historical past after they put up or remark, in addition to after they ship modmail, like be a part of requests, or requests to hitch a restricted neighborhood.
Profile homeowners can even have the ability to briefly see a person’s full put up and remark historical past if one other person feedback immediately on their profile put up, the corporate notes.
Alongside this transformation, Reddit launched up to date private exercise summaries, which offer an outline of a person’s exercise, together with their Karma rely, complete contributions, account age, and lively communities. The latter will probably be based mostly on their Content material and exercise settings.
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