Deleted posts on reddit have an empty string url and so it fails to download, but still returns the JSON. Check out pushshift.io.
They crawl reddit have a huge dataset of comments and posts and an API that gives a JSON response with the url still there even if the original has been removed.
For example, see this request (warning, very NSFW):
Also, old.reddit.com still has the link in the html. You could even use the same API to get the rest of the JSON just fill in the blank url from pushshift or old reddit html. You will need a 'Cookie: over18=1' header for old.reddit.com html.
mikf
commented
1 year ago
Deleted posts on reddit have an empty string url and so it fails to download, but still returns the JSON. Check out pushshift.io.
They crawl reddit have a huge dataset of comments and posts and an API that gives a JSON response with the url still there even if the original has been removed.
For example, see this request (warning, very NSFW):
https://api.pushshift.io/reddit/submission/search?ids=xziujh vs. https://www.reddit.com/r/FemBoys/comments/xziujh/pinky_out_we_fancy.json
Also, old.reddit.com still has the link in the html. You could even use the same API to get the rest of the JSON just fill in the blank url from pushshift or old reddit html. You will need a 'Cookie: over18=1' header for old.reddit.com html.
Originally posted by @gdl-ps in https://github.com/mikf/gallery-dl/issues/2889#issuecomment-1344937805