Reddit @lemmy.world

1y ago

Reddit no longer links your content when they ban you, and you can only appeal once

291 comments

Clown company doing clown things.
- To be fair, I'm not aware of any fediverse instances or other reddit alternatives that even have an appeals process. Reddit might be throwing away its best features, but it is a feature its competitors don't even have yet.
  
  On the Fediverse, you can go to a different instance.
  
  Lemmy.dbzer0.com has an appeals matrix channel 😁
  
  Honestly, I don’t think a message board has to have one. If a mod is powertripping, then why would you want to be a part of the community? If they’re not, then you’re probably not a good fit for the community and the mod doesn’t have to deal with trolls and angry back-and-forth’s.
  That isn't to say what Reddit did isn’t wrong. They established that system and they have a culture of appeals. Suddenly removing that isn’t really fair from a “social contract” or whatever perspective.
  
  I got a temp ban for 'trolling' here on .world a few weeks back. Literally no notice at all. Had to go to the discord and ask. They instantly reversed it because they could tell I hadn't been trolling.
  
  Ehh . . sort of?
  Appealing a ban for a social media post is . . . I dunno. Weird.
  
  Most instances have some way of contacting the admins and talking things out. Unlike Reddit's "did anyone even read this?" process, they tend to be actual people who actually answer.

I got banned for telling someone it's important to check for cancer, on a post about a sports person that died from rectal cancer, and I was banned permanently for "harassment".
I appealed and lost.
- Yeah, bad actors have weaponised the harassment rule to get people banned. I was banned because a tankie sub - that I had previously thought was cool - banned me from out of nowhere with an automated message and no explanation. Putting 2 & 2 together it was clearly for an anti-tankie post I made on a different sub. Literally a kind of harassment in itself. When I said "What the fuck?" In my reply, I was banned reddit-wide.
  Like they've gotta just be fishing for anything they can call harasment to get their ideological enemies kicked.
  
  The distinction between mod subreddit bans and site wide bans is basically gone
  
  Yeah I got banned from greenandpleasent the same time Russia invaded Ukraine because it was taken over by a bunch of boot lickers and likely actual paid russian shills, probably some of the same crowd hosting hexbear et al. And got a site wide ban soon after...
  
  Oh I got banned from the site. Reddit admins banned me lmao.
  
  What is a tankie?
  
  yep, and yet somehow reddit never does anything about the report abuse for the 'self help' thing which id get dozens of PM's a day about at one point, reported them and nothing was ever done about it
  
  If you approach things from a scientific perspective, the meaning of harassment is just "political speech I don't like". Some kinds of political speech, like protests and appeals, are important and should be allowed, but can easily be labelled harassment. Other kinds of political speech, like sexual harassment or hate speech, are bad. "Harassment" as a word isn't a useful one. Two people having a fight are harassing each other, regardless of who's right. We have created a society that hates political speech and welcomes the use of state and corporation violence to suppress dissenting politics.
  I don't say this from a place of callousness. I've been a victim of the most vicious harassment and it's given me PTSD. And what I learned from the experience is, talented manipulators and people with social power will always benefit from being able to call political speech harassment.
- God that's actually worse than my banning (I posted a Google Streetview link of a layby). Incredible. Has anyone ever appealed and won? Ever?
  
  Yes, I did. But only because multiple subreddit mods, including all of the mods in the subreddit that triggered the ban, got behind me due to the bullshit nature of the ban.
  
  I won my appeal once. I was banned for "hate speech". I was literally being 100% sarcastic against someone who was truly being a hateful shithead. I assume I was banned by an idiot who doesn't understand sarcasm exists, but unbanned by someone who has talked to another human before.
- I really need context before I can get on the "mods bad" wagon for this one

Sorry, I don't know where or how I broke the rules, can you show and explain it to me?
No
But then how will I avoid breaking rules in the future?
Yes
- "Please familiarise yourself with reddits content policy.... which doesnt matter because your banned for life anyway"
  
  your banned
  See, I'd ban you just for that. Off you pop now 😂
- But then how will I avoid breaking rules in the future?
  That won't be an issue.

Nothing new, actually. When I was banned years ago (suspiciously after calling out some astroturfing), they didn't give a reason either.
- I pointed out that the Australian subreddits were being very obviously astro-turfed. And then I made a post naming the Aus PR companies that were openly running bot campaigns on Reddit and who was using them.
  That account got banned in record fucking time lol. And no reason was given either, it was a site-wide IP ban. Luckily one call to my ISP and that was sorted lol.
  
  They welcome the evasion since they don't actually want their number of ad impressions going down. They were just letting you know that under no circumstances were you to show anyone what's behind the curtain.
  
  Mind if I ask how long ago you were banned? It seems like over the last 6-9 months nationalist subreddits have ended up with a huge amount of sway in gettting people banned for arguing with them.
  IP ban isn't the only way they can get you though. I've had them catch me out even with a fresh IP. They fingerprint browsers, using their own implementation of backend Google captcha (you don't connect to gstatic.com, but redditstatic.com).
- sounds about right. I got perma banned for "harassment" for essentially saying spez is a piece of shit lol
  
  I got perma banned because I've gotten 4 or 5 accounts banned over the years for being toxic and harassing people. I made a joking "call to violence" and they hit me with a perma.
  Meh. I deserved it for sure. If they let me back on the platform I'd do it again 😈

Yea this recently happened to me. A had an argument with a mod and he reported a non offensive comment I had on his subreddit as a ban evasion. I got suspended for ban evasion despite not having another account. After my suspension ended he reported the exact same comment again giving me a second suspension. After the 3rd time I got banned entirely. 10+ year account with no prior suspensions/bans just gone because of one mod. Between that and RIF being gone, I'm just done with reddit.
- Also ran afoul with a mod. Merari01 specifically. I reported one of his comments, and he sent it up as abuse of the report button. Insta perma banned. My account was registered in 2010.
  Reddit's been awful for a while though so the loss wasn't too bad.
  
  The only good thing that came out of the API protest was watching AwkwardTheTurtle and iBleeedOrange get stabbed in the back and purged from the site by Spez.
  
  I dunno, I have like 15 accounts. One gets banned I move to the next lol!
- Star trek mod fucked me, I hate worf.

It's almost like total control over content and no recourse is the goal! Garbage company, move on from it...

Stop! You've broken the law!
Chances are you engaged in one of the following:
Arguing an objectively correct viewpoint with a moron.
Engaged in political sarcasm.
Made use of hyperbole, facetiousness, or facetious hyperbole.
Made a mod look stupid on their alt. account.
Hurt a fascists feelings.
Engaged in dark humour. (It's like food, not everybody gets it.)
Engaged in anti-reddit activism.
Or just cause.
If you're feeling vindictive you can still request your data under GDPR every 30 days even on banned accounts and they have to comply by law.
- Make sure you leave a bad review on the play/app store too, there's so many negative reviews 'absolute trash' appears as a review topic

My guy, at this point you're only abusing yourself. Time to look at the writing on the wall, that site died months ago (or years ago in my opinion), you will only suffer using it.

No one regrets getting banned from digg.
- No one regrets leaving Digg in any way.
  
  It's crazy to think or maybe my memory is misremembering history a little bit(?), but for Reddit users in general it was like "it's sad to leave this platform after +10 years" but with Digg it was mostly "yeah...fuck this place went to hell, I'm out!"

Isn't it trivial anyway, since you can still create unlimited anonymous accounts via old.reddit? I guess getting banned may actually matter for the subs that have a karma minimum to post, but...
...You could also just not use reddit.
- Isn’t it trivial anyway, since you can still create unlimited anonymous accounts via old.reddit?
  wait, you can do that? does it check IP?
  
  Yes but IP is less useful nowadays as a way to identify users. VPNs are commonplace now, everyone has at least two or three IPs (their home, their mobile, their work/school), more than one person can be using the platform in the same place, etc.
  Not to say they don't pay attention to that but it's not enough on it's own.
  
  I had over 10 different reddit accounts throught the years. Few of them were banned from certain subs but I just came back later with a different account and they never banned me again. I'm using a VPN though.
  
  It checks IP for things like you trying to boost your own posts. Beyond that it's fine.
- It's never been something I've done, and I can't say I really care, but that would make it difficult to comment in subreddits with a karma threshold.
  
  Well there’s subreddits created specifically for garnering enough karma to post around Reddit.

Ban their domain name in yours "hosts" file
Stop giving them views and complain about it

Our automated bot will take a second look.

Reddit? That’s still a thing?
- Yes but it's in decline
- Definitely not
  
  Sure, you can close your eyes and live in a make believe world. But Reddit clearly still has a ton of activity.

I got banned from Reddit while I was on a work trip to the USA. Hadn't posted in over a year at the time. I'm absolutely mystified as to why.
They refer you to the content policy but they won't tell you which post might violate it. I asked a few times what it was that caused the ban, but they either just referred to the content policy or once they said "Repeated violations". I actually requested my user data so I could stick up my complete post history publicly and see if anyone else could figure it out. My username was / is sirdeadbeef on reddit.
I haven't put any work into displaying them nicely, this is the format you get them in if you request your data:
https://db.osoal.org.nz/reddit/
- Hmm, what the acutal f_? Read all the comments, couldn't figure it out in the slightest.
- You probably commented on one of the verboten subreddits. That's how I got most of my bans.

This just so bad on so many levels.
Reddit, people, need to explain why; is it a insta ban ? If you’re not explaining the reason nor linking the post in question; you’re offering zero path back
One more reason to delete Reddit
- They are doing this to reduce the reliance on mods. Tbf appeals almost never worked, but not linking content is explicitly to obscure accountability. It becomes harder to show that reddit moderation is garbage, even more so since the shortage, and much easier to automate.
  
  They used to link to the content... then you followed the link, and all it said was "Removed by Reddit". Guess they're saving you a step there 🤷

So stop using Reddit

Reddit is trash

If I get banned for silly comments I'll find a new instance.
I've never been banned

"appeal" just means you are gonna waste time typing a message to a smelly incel dog walker on a power trip that isn't gonna read it. Fuck that place.

I got one for insiding violence, and it was something that everybody could fucking agree on, like punching Nazis or something. I don't remember what it was so long ago. It's fucking bullshit though.
- I got a permaban for posting a link to Trevor Moore's song time for guillotines in response to a guy asking for song recommendations for some random mandatory work bullshit where they are force to chose a song to play.... apparently the word "guillotine" is the reddit equivalent to running over a baby with a lawn mower. I had no warnings or anything on that account, just poof permaban.
  
  Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
  time for guillotines
  Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
  I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.
  
  TBf, they were probably worried about you getting every man, woman, and child in America to gangrape Janet Yellen and Jerome Powell until they died. There's a line about it in the funny song, therefore it's a real threat.
- I got one for saying we should destroy a bridge in Königsberg in the name of Euler.
  This is a reference to a famous problem in graph theory. This problem has been ruined since they built an extra bridge. It was an obvious joke in context, to an audience that would understand the joke.
  Unfortunately, Reddit's so-called "Anti-Evil Operations" team doesn't look at context and said I was inciting terrorism.
  
  They permanently banned me for saying we should be more progressive and intellectual as a country. Someone complained that I was "inciting people to violence," (?!?!!) for saying this. They never bothered to read anything I posted. So, to hell with Reddit and its scummy staff of moderators - they are the absolute worst people imaginable.
- Hey if spez wants another shithole site full of Nazis, more power to him.

Anyone using Reddit for more than search results is doing it wrong. If you have your own content, figure out how to host it yourself and get on the Fediverse.

Reddit has been aggressively banning people for many years. People used to cheer it on because it was mostly aimed at conservatives, but they've expanded and created what appears to be a first-strike policy with no appeal. Now it's affecting everyone. I support consistent application of the rules, but their rules are petty, arbitrary, and broad. A famous example is how they ban people for racism, unless it's racism towards white people. That was literally written into the site rules until recently.
I think Reddit is a lost cause. They peaked long ago and now they're coasting on their moat. As other services like Lemmy gain traction, Reddit will continue to decline, and they will continue to aggressively monetise the remaining users. The only thing to lament is the information already stored on the site.
- Did someone call you a mayo, you poor thing?
- I got banned for racism against white people earlier this year, but I appealed it and they unbanned me. That's because I explained I wasn't attacking the people who are labelled as white, I was attacking the label of whiteness itself. Whiteness was invented by trans-atlantic slave traders in order to justify what they were doing and create solidarity between europeans in the new world as they oppressed nonwhite people and enjoyed the privileges of oppressing together. It's perfectly reasonable to attack the idea of whiteness as a big load of baloney. Also, any person who feels attacked by attacks on whiteness obviously considers whiteness part of their identity, which is shitty because, again, whiteness is fake. Whiteness shouldn't be part of anyone's self-identity because it's nonsense.
  
  I'd be okay with your rationalisation if you followed similar logic for "blackness." Do you? Is it okay for me to attack blackness, and call it dirty and bad?
  
  The fact that people think whiteness and blackness are real, and sometimes treat people differently based on those labels, makes them real. That's how concepts and words work.

I got the same exact thing. I think it's because I reported Spez and said "you smell"

I never talk about my exes. Yesterday's gone. It's a new day. Long live Lemmy!
- And yet here you are

Another reminder to never trust a site run by a guy who has sex with busty cats.

dumb thing is they’ll ban you even when you didn’t violate any rules. insane.
- I got my final ban for criticizing trump
  
  That's crazy because I got a final ban for criticizing Biden.

Have you read The Trial? Funny how history repeats itself, even if it's from "fiction".

The Nazi admins won.
- For now.
  
  Nah, we aren't taking back Reddit. It's going to die off with those idiots still in control.

reddit finds a way to make their ban system somehow even worse

I got permabanned for repeating a meme from the Fark days, yet there are posts of the exact same thing from 12+ years ago that are still up with no issue. Even noting that when I appealed the ban I got the canned "we totally reviewed it, fuck you lol" response.
The only other time I had an issue was when I got a three day suspension for upvoting a Ghislaine Maxwell related post.

Appeal rejected, but familiarize yourself with the content policy for future reference?
I imagine they're banning people all over the place now, I got banned from a sub for talking about apartheid in Israel a while ago.
- Just FYI, sub level bans have nothing to do with the admins, that’s all on the mods.

If you were actually harassing somebody I couldn’t care less. When you’re banned what does that look like though? Can you not view anything?
- Sounds like you've never been banned in Reddit. You don't realise how differently mods on power trip understand the word "harrassment". Or anything else.
  Reddit is a trash place in general.
  
  About 3 months ago I was banned for saying "People have the right to use like force to defend themselves against an attacker, including using deadly force. It's not a happy outcome. But neither is being a victim." It was a comment on an article about a homeowner who killed a burglar, so context is king. /r/news banned me and reported me for "threatening violence". Then I got an account warning (whatever that means) by Reddit.
  When I contacted the admin team, I got a ban for abusive reporting.
  %reddit%.com is now blocked in my DNS. Fuck those fucks, they don't even deserve my ad revenue from searches.
  
  I was permanently banned on my first account of 11 years for saying "everyone would want to punch Nazis", no prior issues ever, the appeal was instantly rejected. I was permanently banned on my next account for making the mistake of saying I was banned on my other account about 2 years after the fact. From that point on I was fully IP banned so I could only use Reddit with a VPN made account. If I ever accidentally logged in on my computer because I forgot, even years later, instantly banned. All because I said Nazis should get punched. As far as I'm concerned, this all started when China got involved in Reddit via Tencent and Ellen Pao. Reddit just, BY TOTAL RANDOM COINCIDENCE, became super defensive about anything China or communist related and started handing out bans any time people said no no words (sounds like TikTok to me.)
  
  The message and the is sitewide and from reddit. Subreddit mods weren't involved
  
  You’re right. I haven’t been banned on Reddit. I was more of a lurker though. Didn’t participate in any political/sexuality/gender things either.
- Your account still works, you can still view everything (excluding those that have blocked you), but you have a banner at the top that says you're banned and you can't vote, post or comment. You can't send messages or use chat either.
  You can still edit your previous comments and posts.
  Justified or not, reddit have clearly stepped up their banning protocols, around 6 months or so ago or maybe even late last year (ie before the planned API price rise, well before even the announcements).
  
  LMFAO.
  "Your account still works"
  lists all the many many ways your account no longer works
  
  Well then I’d like OP to share his comment history with us.
  
  Last I checked I could still vote, just not coming on anything
- Reddit admins' definition of harassment now includes singular insults if the admin is feeling particularly power-trippy. Doesn't even have to be a swear word, my last alt got permabanned for calling someone (who I'd never interacted with before) a moron.

I have been banned pre-emptively from subreddits for making comments in other subreddits. The the sad part was my involvement in those toxic community's was to get them to see the other side in a reasonable way. If anyone had actually read the comment there would not have been a ban. I even appealed the ban and they told me I shouldn't even be there and it doesn't matter. Talk about being close minded and toxic!
(It was left wing subreddits banning me for arguing with right wingers in their own spaces, but I did in a soft way that didn't get me outright banned - it showed me that the left wing extreme groups are just as bad as the right - extremism needs to end full stop)
The fact that behavior was allowed on reddit should have been a red flag a long time ago.
- Got banned from r/offmychest for "participating" in incel subs.
  The thing is I was trolling in those subs. I should have been banned from them, not r/offmychest.
  
  I got banned from there too because I used to go on /r/4chan back in 2011. I was an edgy teenager back then.
  They apparently fetched every comment that had ever been made to that subreddit and banned everyone. It happened in like 2015-2016, long after I stopped going on any subreddit like that.
  
  It's something of a reddit truism that nearly all the subs that ban you for posting elsewhere are either lefty subs or subs that are run by mods who also mod lefty subs.
  Most right wing, incel, etc, etc anyone else you're likely to challenge subs actually require you to break their rules, and most of the time unless you're outright obnoxious about it will let downvotes and debate do the work. Except for r/conservative, who is fiercely defensive of their bubble.
- The mods on justiceserved will ban anyone that posts/comments in a conservative subreddit despite the content of the comment.
  
  Yeah, I got banned for posting in a Joe Rogan subreddit, and as OP was saying, I was calling out toxic viewpoints with a dissertation on how machio and toxic behavior can be destructive to friends and family. I was insta banned from the justiceserved within minutes. I laughed, shrugged and moved on
- I had similar experiences, and couldn't understand why they would discourage dialog and discussion around various issues. The thing is, they don't actually want dialog, they want to stamp out opposition to their views as though it never existed.

I got one the other day for "promoting hate" because somebody else started a fight and didn't like the fact that I called them out and insulted them back in the process.
The message I got contained a link which pointed to a comment that said: "Deleted by Reddit".
It was a pretty new comment so I knew what it was about, but had it been some old comment they reported instead I wouldn't have been able to successfully appeal it.
Possibly even worse is the fact that the comment remained deleted even after the ban was appealed.

!redditalternatives

Reminds me of when someone on an anime subreddit got permabanned for posting a tweet from Abroad in Japan.

Stop using Reddit, they're a total fraud of an online forum. They banned me for daring to stick up for gay people and for being on the left side of politics, though i never said anything harmful or violent of any kind at any time. They are currently being sued for disingenous hate crime practices of banning people with differing viewpoints.

That's real fuckin bullshit.

u/JosefK has been permanently banned

It is just ~~reddit~~ social site, make a new account 😂
Lemmy is even easier tho. Get a ban? Spawn another relentlessly as it is even more anon than Reddit.

Yeah, I got a temp ban for asking if someone’s ex, which they described as a “politician who was a habitual liar” described themselves as Jew-“ish” in reference to George santos.
Appealed, no response. Submitted a support ticket, no response.
I get that it could look bad, but cmon this is a widely known individual.
Edit: Moved a double quote

I was banned for saying “go outside fatso” in /r/cycling
Permanently. No reply to appeal. 15 year old account.
Then about 4 months latter, And without notice , I was re instated. Coincidently the same time Lemmy took off .
- You shouldn't have been banned permanently. I think the appropriate duration of ban for that kind of fatphobia is a month.
  Scientists have well documented the negative effects of stress and shame on health outcomes. Positive pressure to get motivated and improve one's health can be effective. But mean-spirited speech, insults, and shaming or blaming statements do not, statistically, have positive outcomes. They're more likely to result in stress eating, panic attacks, and depression, all of which increase your risk of heart disease. The idea that fat shaming works is pseudoscientific misinformation, and if you look at the consequences scientifically, it promotes an unhealthy lifestyle. Fat shaming does work for SOME people, but on average, it will make people less healthy. It's not supported by doctors or scientists. They would recommend more positive and encouraging ways to help someone lose weight, not just slinging insults.
  So when we're talking about hateful pseudoscience, banning people who engage in that behaviour is appropriate, but I don't think it should be permanent unless you've been fatphobic in the past.
  
  Even if it wasn't hurtful, it was needlessly rude. Fat people are, in general, aware that they're fat. They don't need to be told they're fat. You wouldn't tell someone with a big mole on their face, "go to a dermatologist, mole-face!"
  
  Bruh... read the room. I'm reasonably certain OP's comment was a lighthearted jab in a community of people who are probably all in good shape.

A homeless guy had taken a hostage in my city. One commenter said "I hope this poor man gets the help he deserves". That comment was at -17. So I comment "Light em up boys" and I get like +30 because it's pretty funny. And that is a "call to violence" so I got perma'd.
- Light em up boys? What did you mean by that? Did you reply to that comment, or as a top level response? Did you think you were being sarcastic?
  
  That means that instead of giving that homeless person medical treatment they should just shoot him.
  The wording, "light em up boys", refers to how cops might talk to each other and how the cops won't give the dude help they're definitely going to kill him. The entire joke implies I don't think he deserves help and instead he deserves to get gunned down in the street.
- It seems Lemmy doesn't like it either.
  The internet should have always been taken with a grain of salt, but nowadays half of society lives on the web and have made it into the shitshow it is now.
  I was unemployed for a couple weeks and spent them on my phone wasting away time between interviews so to say, i lost touch of reality so quickly to the point where just being allowed to live your life had become alien to me. I currently work at a construction company and i've quickly realized you can still live your life even though people don't agree because they have no control over you.
  The internet is a dangerous place

291 comments