Before I left Reddit, I used a plugin through the api to replace all of my comments with random gibberish and then delete them. Part of this was because (mandatory) fuck spez. But more importantly, it was to protect the anonymity of my account. After years of posting, there is likely enough personal information shared to potentially connect my Reddit habits to my online identity. I wasn’t planning on using Reddit again in the future on that account, but I left it open in order to maintain some security control over the account. I’m not really sure what to do at this point because I still consider it a security vector that’s a bit concerning. There’s no way I can manually edit and delete all of my content with the snail’s-pace reddit UI, and I have no ability to assure that my content will remain unavailable or at least not publicly displayed.
They appropriated /u/borat. It was an inactive account which was removed and given to the producers of the film to use for an AMA when it was released.
spez, kn0thin, and reddit the company as a whole have zero scruples. There are no rules but what they say at any given moment. It’s subject to change at any time.
Like I said if they change their policy (even for a user) and allow someone else to use it, it is better than having all of your identifying information tied together under a username.