Reddit on Tuesday introduced a brand new function that may provide its customers extra privateness relating to what’s shared on their person profiles.
The firm says it’s rolling out an replace that may introduce a “Content and Activity” setting that permits customers to resolve which content material from the subreddits they take part in will seem on their profiles. This contains each their posting and commenting historical past.
By default, all posts and feedback will stay seen, as earlier than. However, 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 resolve to selectively show posts and feedback from particular communities on their profile, whereas holding others hidden.
The setting is offered 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 out there, as is a Followers toggle to indicate or cover follower rely.
The replace provides a layer of privateness to Reddit that wasn’t out there earlier than.
Previously, many Reddit customers created “throwaway” accounts once they wished to ask extra private questions. But as Reddit morphs into extra of an ad-focused tech firm post-Initial Public Offering, it possible prefers that person information — like engagement and pursuits — stays related to a single person profile for higher advert concentrating on.
The function’s addition might additionally encourage customers to take part extra on the location, as they’ll now know that they’ll considerably obscure their exercise from public view.
For instance, customers could wish to chime in or ask questions on a subject of a extra delicate nature, like relationship or courting recommendation, or a well being difficulty they’re dealing with. Before, they could have chosen to only learn by means of others’ posts however not have interaction immediately as a way to hold the knowledge from displaying on their very own person profiles.
Reddit says that the choice to cover or show posts and feedback is offered solely on a per-community foundation, not on the particular person submit or remark degree. That makes the settings simpler to handle, even when it means you possibly can’t choose and select which particular feedback and posts present up and which don’t.
Still, customers ought to know that the curation possibility 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 submit 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 must assessment a person’s historical past once they submit or remark, in addition to once they ship “modmail,” like be part of requests, or requests to affix a restricted group.
Profile house owners can even be capable of briefly see a person’s full submit and remark historical past if one other person feedback immediately on their profile submit, the corporate notes.
Alongside this transformation, Reddit launched up to date private exercise summaries, which give an summary of a person’s exercise, together with their Karma rely, whole contributions, account age, and energetic communities. The latter can be primarily based on their Content and exercise settings.
