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Comment by uncletaco | Hacker News Reader

I was a moderator on /r/blackpeopletwitter and the amount of racist and outright vitriol we received was fucking insane. There are people out there who really have it out for BPT and we banned dozens of users daily who were legit there to only drop the n word with a hard r and make jokes about monkeys or something.

I deleted my reddit account in a panic after someone sent me a DM saying they knew where I lived and I saw a guy wondering around my apartment complex with his phone out like he was recording. I never want to be highly visible on reddit again.

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I feel the safest way to use Reddit is to create a new account for every subreddit/community/subculture that is in any way tied to real life, and absolutely minimize the amount of information you give out in each one by keeping it relevant to that particular topic.

If you have some niche gaming/entertainment/etc interests, use an account specifically for those without ever delving into personal details.

Have a separate account for BPT, where again, you minimize sharing personal details.

If you have a hobby that has more real life interaction (for instance is location based, or is small and you use personally identifiable information), use a separate account and minimize sharing anything not related to the topics.

Obviously if reddit gets hacked/info is leaked good luck, but controlling available information about yourself seems increasingly mandatory to protect yourself from the crazies if you want to participate in online discussions.

My solution was just to not use reddit interactively anymore. I used the site for about 10 years before I got tired of wasting afternoons browsing or arguing past other users. Stuff I want to discuss usually gets linked in a discord channel and I talk about it with my friends.

When I browse now I just skim a few subreddits I like and refrain from interacting.

Wow... this and the stabbing story are making me happy that I only mod relatively tame subreddits.

BPT twitter also did that "April Fools joke" where only verified black people were allowed to post there, so it's not a really a suprise that an overtly racist subreddit attracts racists.

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