For me, it’s a few things.
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A way to burn time that doesn’t feel like a digital sugar rush.
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Support, camaraderie, and kindness, primarily from /r/stopdrinking.
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Niche stuff, like ideas for local hiking and backpacking trips, propaganda posters, and kayaking info.
So, there’s people that have used the Reddit API to make basically a backup of it. If you could get a copy of that, you could very likely translate it into something Lemmy can read. Then, you go somewhere with protective laws in case Reddit gets involved and set up a special instance that just serves old Reddit content.
Afterwards, to re-use an example from one of my earlier comments here, you could seamlessly go to !SpeculateEvolution@fediverseredditclone.ru and see u/CanadaPlus101’s post about metal and aquatic aliens.
So sort of create a read-only Lemmy instance that re-creates the accounts and posts from archived Reddit?
Oh hey, look, here’s the exact software for doing it already written!
I wonder if someone started this already. It would be great if we can search through old Reddit for collective knowledge even post-Reddit Inc.
The trick is just hosting it. I don’t know how much data that would be. I guess it might not be too bad since it’s just text. Again, if anyone wants to fund it I’ll make it happen. Otherwise we’ll have to wait for the next person to set it up.
Exactly!