One thing I’ve always wondered about Reddit:
Why is it so easy to get permanently banned, sometimes even taking multiple accounts with it?
My account was over 3 years old. I would occasionally comment on relevant posts and mention that I had built a web app that might help. I wasn’t blasting links everywhere, I wasn’t copy-pasting the same message, and I wasn’t even naming the app most of the time. These opportunities were rare enough that I might do it once a week, maybe twice at most.
Then one day: permanent ban.
Not just that account, but another account that was over 2 years old got caught in it as well.
Maybe Reddit’s systems detected it as self-promotion. Maybe there was another reason I don’t know about. But from a user’s perspective, it feels surprisingly harsh when years of account history can disappear so quickly.
What surprises me most is that they seem comfortable making these decisions knowing how frustrating it can be for legitimate users. Losing years of participation, conversations, and reputation in an instant is enough to make anyone pretty upset.
Has anyone else experienced something similar, or am I missing something about how Reddit approaches enforcement?
Yup! I got permabanned for suggesting (lightheartedly!) that the guy who had wrecked the local library be put in stocks so the community could pelt them with rotten fruit and veg. Permabanned for inciting violence! Account was, like, 10+ years old.
That’s really bad. They’re really bad 🥲
FYI, shadow banning is done by the admins, not mods and isn’t the same as being banned/muted from a sub
I was banned from a fishing sub. Someone posted some photos of all the trash people leave at their local lake. I commented that people that do that should have their license permanently suspended. I said that they do not respect nature. I also suggested that people should bring a garbage bag and to pick up any litter they see. Banned for “toxicity”
I messaged OP and they were also banned for toxicity and the post was removed.
Messaged the mods asking how my comment was toxic. They claimed I was shaming people. I said, yes, they should be ashamed. Leaving trash is disrespectful and shameful. They said, exactly, that type of rhetoric is not allowed. I then asked them if they leave trash at the lakes were they fish. Site wide permanent account ban for harassment. I filed an appeal and it was denied.
Reddit has become a shadow of it’s former self.
That’s how I found the fediverse.
You were talking about toxicity of the city. What do you own the world? How do you own disorder?
I’m just glad Aaron Swartz didnt have to see one of his creations turn so far from it’s original mission.
This one is slightly more deserved but equally infuriating.
I used to lurk in some right wing spaces on reddit. I had been there for years, just watching. Taking the temperature of the groups so to speak.
I spoke up one time, To correct something I found truly egregious.
Suddenly I was shadow banned in like a dozen left-wing spaces. Spaces that I thought were about discussion.
And then I was shadow banned in the right-wing spaces the next day.
It was definitely something.
I also got banned from the pro-choice debate sub once because I asked for clarification on a bad faith argument the pro-lifers always use.
I was told it wasnt the community’s job to educate me…um…yeah it kinda is because this is a DEBATE sub and I would like to know how to answer this bad faith argument when my aunt uses it at Thanksgiving.
I gotta say that this collection of stories plus all the others is starting to feel less like power mods with vendettas and more like a large scale astroturfing campaign intended to weed out people capable of using logic and/or bridging the gap in the various manufactured (or falsely amplified) conflicts dividing people for no good reason.
It’s especially weird how many feature “argued about it for 3 messages then admin banned for harassment”, especially since reddit’s mod problem isn’t exactly a secret and they’d be even more aware of it with the full visibility they have and you’d figure they’d want to address it if they were operating on good faith.
And then they train AI even harder on it.
If you ever feel bad about being shunned by predditors, just remember that child trafficker Jizzlane Maxwell was/is a r/worldnews powermod.
AND was defended by other mods. Even Admin iirc.
Yeah I’ve been muted in world news too. That one was for what you would expect. I criticized Isreal.
When you’ve been around since like 2007/2009, its almost expected that you have some bans under your belt.
As far as I know that was debunked. The account was active when Maxwell definitely couldn’t have been. See also: https://coagulopath.com/ghislaine-maxwell-does-not-have-a-secret-reddit-account/
What do you actually agree with in that article? Not philosophically. specifically about how they detect and evaluate the evidence they present.
Well that just tells you that these subs are not for discussion but for echo chambers and lamenting, even if they claim otherwise.
20 screeching libtards with blue hair vs gigachad alpha male
deleted by creator
Similar experience here. I corrected some wrong statement made on a right wing subreddit, the next day I’m banned from a handful of left wing subreddits.
I think half my issue is that I was raised in a conservative community before moving to the city, so sometimes, I use the ‘wrong speak’ for both groups. Even without the automods.
Let’s also not forget the very manipulative and toxic stuff people did to take over some of the more fringe political subs.
I cant remember the full story but I remember a few years ago reading a wall of text explaining how like 3 users took over a block of conspiracy subs by getting the original owner banned and claiming the subs were unmoderated.
I want to remind people that Lemmy is not immune to this
Lemmy is arguably worse than this. Just check out the mod logs and you’ll see this exact same thing on a massive scale.
Yeah, was gonna say this does not feel very Reddit specific. Just a nobody power tripping.
I asked a question once and got muted for life. When I asked why I was told that my participation in another sub proves that I’m a seller. I’ve never sold anything via reddit.
I just had the opposite problem on Lemmy. I told a mod they were wrong so they promoted me to mod and said “you do it” lol.
I think you were the exception that proves the rule.
Last few times I’ve pointed out this behavior on lemmy, lemmy.world and piefed admins did the above to me and others.
Yea the piefed people are peak hypocrisy.
As someone who used to mod, holy fuck that sounds satisfying.
This is how things widely work in nonprofits, churches, and HOAs. Your complaint is interpreted as you volunteering.
That’s hilarious 😆 now if someone corrects you, you can pass the curse
Lmao
How the turns have tabled.
Right, I did see your name somewhere, but I no longer remember the exact community. Anyway you are now and forever tagged “suddenly: mod” in my client!
I once got banned from several subs because of a comment I made in a totally unrelated sub, that some moderator saw, and was offended by.
I don’t remember what it was, but it wasn’t particularly offensive, and it wasn’t even directed at that person, and the mod didn’t even moderate that sub. They just saw it, disagreed, and then banned me from a bunch of subs they modded.
Yep same here. I dont even remember what it was at this point. It started happening so often that I just quit reddit.
I know for at least one I tried to take it to reddit admin as mod abuse but what a joke that was.
You have no right to police my behavior outside of your community and its bullshit reddit allows that kind of abuse of power.
I play FFXIV. I once criticized the producer in an FFXIV subreddit for promising things he doesn’t deliver, I immediately got banned.
The subreddit has nothing to do with Square Enix. Modding in Reddit is just a way for Reddit mods to silence whoever they want without reproach.
Went to r/whatisthisworth to try to get helpo on defining what type of a lamp I have and how much I can sell it for.
Made a post. Message says “All posts are manually approved” and shortly after “We have deleted your post due to rule #whatever”
Rule states: Items must be truly unique. Posts with items that are easily to find in google or with google lens will be deleted.
Lamp in question
Lamp has no stickers, no documents, no writings on any part of it except 2 numbers: 1812-1916. If to be googled, you find similar style lamps of all other types except exactly this type. There is no brand page, nor is there any info about how much it could cost. The closest looking lamp is sold on a site that sells refurbished antique lamps. Others are facebook makretplace and vintage item listings that are dead for years. Any description anywhere says: Vintage lamp for sale. Nothing about brand, model, production year, style. NOTHING. Even LLMs have no idea and wont hallucinate an answer.
Deletion message says that I can contact any mods to ask a question regarding my deleted post. First mod does not accept private messages. Second mod does. Shooting a message that in short was:“Hey! You deleted my post stating that it is easily google-able/google-lens-able. Can you point me to where you found my item? Cause me googling it leads to a dead end.” Week after waiting for a reply.
Checking this sub. Guy asks how much is this HiFi system worth. HiFi system in question has reputable brand name, model number, documents, everything. IT IS FUCKING GOOGLE-ABLE AS IT CAN GET. Post doesn’t get deleted. People in comments suggest prices.
WHAT IN THE FUCK?
Hey can you make a picture of the numbers and where they are and can you make a better resolution picture of the dumbbell weight thing? They were pretty popular in the 70ties afaik
Pictures
If it helps in any way, I got it from a local guy in Germany. He said it is from Berlin or something and could be worth a few hundred euros. I couldn’t back his claims.
Mods vary from objective to fanatical. Overzealous ones thinking they’re doing god’s work by slapping you down isn’t exclusive to reddit, but yeah it’s definitely there.
Went to reddit, made an account so I could chat in the World Cup match threads
Was told I was unable to participate because my account was too new
This message also had a link to message the mods
Click the link, message the mods, explain that I am a human and I’m just here to chat about the World Cup
Mod responds, says my account is brand new, has zero karma, and sees I’ve not once posted in any other subs
Explain to the mod that I don’t really like reddit and that I literally just made my account specifically to talk about the world cup
Got a nasty message back about how the mods don’t have time to answer my messages and that if I don’t like reddit that’s a me problem
I respond explaining that if they don’t have time to answer my messages then why is there a link to message them in the alert about being unable to post?
Muted
Refresh reddit. Red banner. My Account has been temporarily banned on reddit for 3 days for harassment
I’ve had reddit accounts in the past, but I had deleted my last one months ago. Only signed back up because of the world cup. Took maybe 30 minutes to get a sitewide ban and I only got to make one comment that didn’t even show up on the site
Anyway, that’s how I found this place. Although, the World Cup doesn’t seem that popular here :(
Although, the World Cup doesn’t seem that popular here :(
Most people here are boycotting it because of how the US has been behaving, both domestic and internationally… Threatening to invade allies, destroying relationships with other countries that go back to the end of WW2 for literally no gain, and the brutalization and illegal imprisonment of brown people in concentration camps, just to name a few things.
Yeah fuck that. Fuck this country and I hope the whole thing is a massive commercial failure.
Anyway, welcome to Lemmy lol
Ah yes, the other fun side of the coin.
The funky catch-22 of more than half the site.
“You dont have enough karma to post in this sub.”
“Your post has been removed because your account is too new.”
“Your comment was deleted because you dont have the minimum comment karma to participate.”
Okay…so how to I get karma to even join the community?
-fun fact karma farming is also against the reddit tos. They barely enforce it, but its technically wrong enough that if they flag you for some reason then they can ban you.
What a shit hole.
The account too new situation pisses me off so much. It punishes new users.
That’s what I thought
It’s not like a bot cares if it has to wait 3 days before posting
And considering the World Cup is something that only lasts a month anyway, out of all the subs to implement a waiting period, that one seems like one of the worst
“Welcome to reddit, in order to post in the World Cup match threads please miss 10 matches”
REDDITS AI moderation looks at new accounts and old inactive accounts as botting potentials thats why, even getting your comments/ post removal is a potential mark on your account as a bot.
Also on my account that was a year old.
I love the way everything is harassment to those babies.
I got banned for “hate” for a comment that said “the nips.” Fucking everybody has nipples. It wasn’t even sexual.
On an older account I got banned for saying that that Pizza-whatever comic sucks shit
It’s always on the front page and it’s Garfield level humor except worse because it’s mostly just political pandering
And the comments under those comics are always full of people who you know think they’re super informed, super intelligent, superior people that, in reality, are just mouth-breathing idiots repeating the most predictable shit and falling for the most tame political propaganda
Like when you have a friend that always talks about how crazy and wild they are and then you go out and party with them and they fall asleep at 10pm after 3 beers
I would guess it was interpreted as the slur for Japanese people (perhaps an automod thing - never really used Reddit though so I dunno how these things work in practice.)
Had an account for around 8 years, during that time I participated in some more and some less heated arguments on reddit. Had multiple local bans, mostly for some mild stuff whereas the harsher comments would usually slip under the mods’ radar.
My account has been permanently banned on the entire reddit only after I went into discussion with some mods for some .ml-level ridiculous decisions.
Obviously arguing with people with power is an oppression to them.
Thinking back, my gut tells me the World Cup is too big to leave the sub in the hands of, “just some guy”, so the sub was probably made by someone who works at reddit and the mods are probably other reddit admins
So when I explained that I had no posted anywhere else because I hated reddit… I may have just told a reddit employee that I hate their site and that’s why they got so mad and banned me
I don’t have any proof of that but I do wonder if that is what happened
Mods on the modhelp forum were delighted, to not work so hard trying to “review each ban” wether they were deserving of a ban or not. most of them are complicit, rarely some mods will fight for the said user(assuming they a long history with that sub). this right around the time when they were beginning the purges last year.
“Reddit moderators should be treated like celebrities” - Ex r/LiveStreamFail mod
FWIW the same thing happened to me on the Lemmy subreddit
