Reddit is following in Twitter’s footsteps and charging third-party apps for entry to their APIs. The end result: Apollo, probably the most widespread Reddit apps for iPhone, is shutting down entirely after figuring out that the brand new pricing would price it $2 million a month. RIF, one other widespread app, is calling it quits for a similar motive. After the API information, a number of main Reddit communities are blacked out this week in protest.
Reddit has each proper to cost for its API, legally talking, and it stands to achieve if extra folks use the (horrible) official app. Reddit CEO Steve Huffman argued in an AMA that the modifications are being overblown. Feedback in that thread are, let’s assume, lower than pleasant to the corporate line.
If all of this leaves you questioning what may occur to the posts and feedback you’ve made on Reddit over time, you’re not alone. David Brownman, a programmer based mostly in San Mateo, California, was questioning precisely that.
“I’ve put a lot into Reddit over time, and I didn’t like the concept of it being inaccessible to me,” he tells me. “It’s my content material, and I’ll should be a steward of it if Reddit received’t. I additionally reference outdated posts of mine so much, so having full textual content search was necessary to me.”
With these issues in thoughts, Brownman wished an offline archive of his posts. Right here’s how one can get one too, both by asking Reddit or by utilizing a software Brownman constructed to obtain it your self.
Ask Reddit for Your Information
Reddit has a kind the place you’ll be able to request a copy of your data. The method can take as much as 30 days, after which you’re going to get a personal message in your Reddit a depend with a obtain hyperlink. The information comes within the type of CSV recordsdata which you can open utilizing Microsoft Excel or any textual content editor. There are separate recordsdata to your feedback, your posts, your voting historical past, and your chats, amongst different issues.
This technique has a number of downsides. First, CSV recordsdata could be a little unwieldy, particularly if you wish to search. Second, there’s a delay, which is annoying when you simply need to obtain the info and transfer on together with your life. Nonetheless, it’s simple, and for most individuals, that is in all probability the easiest way to again up their Reddit content material.
Obtain Your Reddit Information Your self
When you’d reasonably not anticipate Reddit to ship your knowledge, or would like to maintain your knowledge in a searchable archive, you should utilize Brownman’s software, reddit-user-to-sqlite. This command line software can obtain the whole public archive of any Reddit consumer and compile it in an SQLite database file. Simply understand that this technique will cease engaged on July 1, 2023, when the API change happens.
Brownman presents a blog post outlining the tool with a number of directions—when you’re snug with the command line, I like to recommend following the directions there. For everybody else, don’t fear: It’s not as exhausting because it sounds.
First you will want to install Python. For Home windows customers, that is finest executed by downloading and operating the installer to your laptop. After putting in Python, you will want to install pipx. On Home windows, that is finest executed with the next instructions, which you’ll be able to run within the Command Immediate or PowerShell: