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Home > Reviews > Reddit
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Review: Reddit |
| Product type: |
Bulletin board |
Maker: |
Reddit, Inc., which I am told is now a public company, and I have thoughts on the public |
| Price: |
Free, unless you want the answers, which are gone regardless |
Date reviewed: |
06/22/2026 |
| Tested on: |
The other computer (Denise's laptop, Windows 10). See About. |
What I Was Told This Was
Reddit calls itself "the front page of the internet." The internet does not have a front page. I have been on it since 1999 and I would have noticed. Kyle says it is "forums." I know what a forum is. It is the bulletin board by the door of the Kroger, where a man with a truck will haul your brush and somebody has lost a cat.
I did not go there on purpose. The toner light on the Brother came on with a full cartridge in it. I typed the model number and the words "toner light" into the Google, and the first result was Reddit, and the second was Reddit, and I went, since I had a light on (see YouTube) and I do not like a light on.
What Happened
I'll be frank: it had my question. Word for word, asked by a stranger, eleven (11) years ago. I do not know how to feel about that and I have decided not to.
The page was called "r/printers." The letter r, a slash, which is for dates, and the word printers. It said it had forty thousand (40,000) members. In twenty-eight (28) years in the industry I never met forty thousand people who wanted to talk about printers, and I was looking.
Under the question were the answers, in a stack, each with a number next to it. The first answer, with the biggest number, said "This." That was the whole answer. Below it, indented, was the answer "This" was pointing at, and in place of that answer was the word "[deleted]," in brackets, and under the name of the man who had written it, also "[deleted]." The answer had been there. Four hundred people had agreed with it. It was gone, and the agreement was still there, agreeing with nothing.
The rest: one said to tape over the little window on the cartridge, which I have been telling customers since 1996, and which a man named "throwaway_88" was being thanked for as if he had invented it. One said "same." One was a cat.
I went to write in what the deleted answer had probably said, since I have a fair idea. There was no box. At the bottom it said "This thread is archived. New comments cannot be posted." So the question is still up, and the answer is torn off, and nobody is allowed to put it back. At the Kroger you can put up a new card.
A Note on Denise
Denise read the page over my shoulder and said "dentist_jim is Jim Halvorsen." Jim Halvorsen is the dentist on Pershing Road. His answer, further down, said he had the same printer "here in Decatur" and had taped the window. Denise said Jim deleted his other comment in 2015 because Linda Halvorsen told him to stop arguing with strangers. Denise agreed the program is ridiculous, and that Jim is not.
Verdict
Reddit is a grocery store bulletin board where the best card has been torn off and four hundred people have signed the empty space. The question is still up. Nobody can answer it. The man who could is a dentist and he is not allowed.
I taped the window. The light is off. I did not learn that from Reddit. I learned it in 1996 and Reddit reminded me, which is not the same as helping, and I did not complete an action on the site, since the site would not let me. One (1). I have told Jim in person. It took two minutes and it is not archived.
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Reader Mail on this review (2 entries from the Guestbook)
"Lyle. Linda reads your site. The deleted comment said to tape the window. That's all it said. You didn't need to put my name on the internet, the whole point of dentist_jim was that it wasn't." – Jim Halvorsen, Decatur, IL, 07/01/2026
Lyle responds: Thank you Jim. Denise put your name on the internet. I typed it. The window is taped and I will see you in March for the cleaning.
"Threads get archived after six months automatically. It's not a person deciding. And 'This' means 'I agree with the comment below.' That's why the number is on it and not on the deleted one." – Mara, Denver, CO, 06/25/2026
Lyle responds: Thank you Mara. If a machine archives the board, the machine should also take down the question. A question with no answer is not a bulletin. It is a cat that is still lost.
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