Sorry for the rant, I don’t know if it belongs here, I’m new. But I am just super disappointed and want to maybe help people in the future experiencing something similar so we can cope together.
So, a few days ago, one of my random alt accounts on Reddit gets sitewide banned for harassment because I called someone dumb in the comments (literally no more than that) as a joke on a shitpost a few years ago. I laugh the random account ban off and delete the account and return to my normal Redditing.
Now, I’ve been a daily commenter and poster on Reddit for several years at this point. You could call it addiction. But I also use it for updates and questions at my local university, so it’s also made its way into my personal life, too.
So, after the ban, I figured I was fine and I could continue to use one of my many other accounts. I was wrong.
Nope. A few hours later, ALL of my accounts over the last decade or so get permanently banned for ban evasion. I did not know Reddit bans were global like that. So, obviously I try to appeal the bullshit original ban, but I DELETED the account so I couldn’t.
I try to appeal on the alts, but I get the same generic “your request has been denied” message. Over and over again across all of them, same message.
So, I figure that they banned me for having my other accounts on the same device. Really shitty all my accounts were gone but I was reluctantly fine to start over by removing them all and deleting the app.
Those accounts got banned too.
Okay, looks like it’s by IP and device. Cool. I’ll… use the browser version on Brave and use a VPN when I want to post on Reddit. Super inconvenient but I’ll do what I have to do.
All accounts created or largely used on a VPN get shadow banned and appeals are ignored.
Okay, VPNs don’t work. I’ll delete all my account info on all my devices, reset my router to change my IP, use a new device, and not sign into any accounts other than Reddit and that should be good!
It works for a few hours. Perfectly fine. But, as I scroll more and more, I start to see communities that I recognize from my old accounts. No big deal, they probably recommend those communities to a lot of new users.
But, as I scrolled more and more, even smaller communities showed up that I used. Smaller, smaller, and even smaller, until eventually these were subs under 5k members even though I didn’t interact with he vast majority. They caught me, again, on a brand new device with a different IP.
Well fuck. Reddit is going to be the biggest inconvenience ever to use again. But I had one last trick up my sleeve.
A special VPN that uses the network of its users to reroute internet so websites are extremely unlikely to ban each individual server. A fucking virtual linux machine. Brave browser with the most secure settings.
It went well for longer this time, a few days, but the same Orwellian shit happened. More and more tiny subs until I saw ones with mere single digit upvotes on all the posts on subs with just a few thousand members. And then, just a day or two after my account creation, boom. Permanent ban there, too.
There is literally nothing you can do to get back on Reddit if you’re banned and want to use it in even a slightly normal way. I have submitted an appeal on the reddithelp form, but this is also extremely unlikely to be accepted even though the ban was bullshit; they haven’t responded yet. I don’t think I can ever use Reddit again because their system uses the most advanced AI to detect evaders I have ever seen. They’re definitely spending tens of millions monthly on computer costs and research SOLELY to catch evaders and it fucking works.
So, I guess I’m a Lemming from now on. Super upset, Lemmy doesn’t have subs for my favourite games and even the more popular games are super inactive. But, there is nothing I can do. Sorry for the rant but I know I started reading ban posts like these for hours when I first got banned, so I hope I can help people in the future realize they’re completely done for unless their appeal gets accepted.
TL;DR: Even with a completely unrelated device, IP, and a virtual machine, Reddit’s AI will detect what types of posts you like until they are slightly confident it’s you. Then, permanent ban. You cannot avoid this. I’m super bummed out.
Edit: For peoples who have had site-wide bans doomscrolling about it in the future like I was, I’m not saying evading a ban is impossible. If you really want to get back on don’t give up hope, I’m just saying it’s going to be very difficult. But definitely consider contributing to the awesome Lemmy community. I know it’s missing a lot, but it does help scratch the itch. I recommend the Blorp app as it’s the most similar to Reddit’s UI.
Edit 2: It’s been 2 months and I haven’t been banned on a new account, but this mostly only works if you just use it casually for when maybe you figure out how to do something and want to help others in the comments or when you have a question you want to ask a community. Here’s how to do it: (and I’m not sure how mandatory each step is but this is how I did it)
- Delete the Reddit phone apps permanently. They track you super hardcore.
- Sign out on all devices and clear all browser info.
- Make a new Windows profile and get the Brave browser.
- Record your IP. Restart your router overnight. Check your IP again and if it’s different you’re good to go.
- NEVER log into your old Reddit accounts. Maybe even migrate away from those old emails. If you accidentally log into a banned account a few times you might be fine but it also makes it possible to be banned. I’ve done it a few times.
- Make a new Reddit account with a new email. DO NOT USE A VPN for the first month or so until you get some karma. You will always be shadow banned. Then consider switching to some sort of paid VPN but NOT AT FIRST.
- Use it for a few days on the new Windows profile and make sure not to get any crazy anti tracking reduction plugins, (or really any plugins at all besides maybe an ad blocker) just use default Brave. You don’t want to stand out to Reddit’s systems.
- After a month or so you can just look at Google searches that lead to Reddit on your old devices as long as you’ve completely cleared the browser info, but never log into your new or old account on there. Only use your new account on the new Windows profile.
That’s it. Not sure if I’ll ever get banned again but this has worked for about 2 months even with me accidentally logging into my old accounts that were banned on the IP somehow (but I started using a VPN about a month in since you CANT use one for the first month or so)
Yeah, if you were browsing on your phone you won’t really be able to do that in your favourite communities anymore. But you’ll be able to post questions or solutions to problems every now and then which is what really matters.
I hope I helped someone out there and let me know if you used this and if it worked
Be the change that you want to see on Lemmy. Make or participate in a community if you want it here.
True. And we need to stop bullshit like this.
Imagine if in the future, a company like Tencent managed to buy all the big social medias, or even if all the big social medias teamed up to ban stuff that goes against an agenda.
The future equivalents (or maybe the same as the ones we have now) of Reddit, Instagram, Facebook, Discord, Youtube, Google, etc. could share their moderation tactics and ban anyone that speaks badly about whatever agenda they have.
Then, the Orwellian tech giants could use lightweight AI to detect evasion like I experienced on Reddit. No matter what, where, or how, they would ALWAYS be able to link a user to a banned user within hours or days no matter how little IP or fingerprint similarities they were JUST BY USAGE PATTERNS.
This is fucking creepy and insane. The future we are heading towards does not look bright when it comes to surveillance.
Although I’m reluctant to use Lemmy because of its tiny (but not nonexistent) size, I do think I will create some small communities similar to the ones on Reddit that I miss even if I’m the only one there.
Personally I’ve moved on from Reddit communities to Discord server communities.
Discord is following the same paths as reddit and can easily do the same to you
Haven’t gotten sidewide permabanned so we’ll see. Maybe one day, we’ll revert back to good old fashion forums or internet relay chat or even newsgroups. The technophiles atleast, the masses probably will be still in their bubble of social media.
That’s why we’re building the fediverse right now. The enthusiasts have already evolved. No regression necessary.
I had all that happen. The initial ban was from AI for inciting violence when discussing JiuJitsu technique.
You are going about it the wrong way. The ban evasion is not as sophisticated as you make it out to be. Put a VPN or mobile data and create an account with a normal email. Use a normal web browser like firefox. Thats all. Ive been banned like 60+ times. Once you make the account dont comment for a few days and ease into it.
Using tor, vpns, etc makes you stick out. Commenting a ton and being super active makes you stick out. They aren’t detecting that it was YOU they banned they are just banning you because you are acting suspicious and botlike.
So do you literally just wait a few days and rejoin some of your favourite smaller subs after a few days no matter how small they are and still remain undetected?
Are you ever connecting to your old IP again after making the account on data or are you being super careful about it?
Also, if the bans aren’t for evasion, how are you coming back after 60 fucking times lol?!
After a month I’ll stop being careful and use my home IP
Because after I got banned for something so minor I was pissed at reddit and kept I being rude to comments and posts that were shit.
You know how you see the same reddit opinion over and over and over even though its completely incorrect. Or see posts that are so obviously false or rule breaking. I’d just be rude as fuck in my reply tone, not breaking any rules but still would draw bans.
The ones I hated the most were am I the asshole posts where they clearly weren’t. Like “am I the asshole for being abused by my parents”. Same with firecape posters in the old school runescape subreddit.
Frankly, I don’t understand why people keep insisting on using that cancer site. The Reddit many of us knew and once loved is gone. It is now just another right wing propaganda machine. Sad, but that’s the way it is.
It’s one of the only places to talk about some topics
The Reddit of old is long gone. The Mods on most subs are petulant cellar-dwellers. Censorship is off the charts. No thanks.
I wonder how many calories your brain burned trying to get back into the crackhouse that is Reddit. I’m impressed by the sheer height of that wall of text alone.
TLDR; tho
Welcome!
After the detox period, it’s quite nice here.
Hope you’re going to find, and create (you’ll be amazed how easy it is to pop up communities here, and there is no permanan possible) your future favourite communities here!
Cheers
Reddit banned my indie game studio account because my coworker logged in on the same computer I was using to comment on our latest trailer.
They said I was switching accounts to boost my post. Then banned my company account, and all the accounts for all my employees.
The more you look into Reddits community rules, the more generic they become so they can make up any excuse to ban you.
There’s a currency subreddit that also banned an alt I created years ago for me saying the word “crypto” despite that not at all being listed in their rules. I asked a mod why, and his response was that it was considered “vulgar” language.
So yeah. Reddit will just ban you for any reason, even if you are an active community member or contributer. The site will be unusable in 5 years as the CEO will have IPOd it for max profit and left by then.
Did you vape your browser cache? Take anti browser fingerprinting steps? So how do you think they’re identifying you?
Nothing but usage patterns is sufficient but browser fingerprints and IP location obviously makes it easier for them.
I linger on a post from a smaller sub they randomly recommend for 0.2 seconds longer than other posts? They get a little suspicious.
I click a google search link to a post about a hobby I was into on a previous account? They get more suspicious.
They say, “oh look, a dude that’s into Minecraft (joined that sub), 3D printing (from google question) that lives in x city and uses Windows. We only have like 10 of those on the entire platform, and one is banned! Let’s start suggesting them communities from their old accounts to see if it’s the same person.”
Then, after you even remotely interact with those older/smaller communities that they fire at you as a test suggestion, they gain more and more evidence until they’re very confident it’s you. Then boom, evasion ban again.
There’s no way around this unless you don’t use Reddit for what you want to and only browse r/all or something.
Edit: Yeah, forgot to answer the actual question. All browser cache data is removed. They’re doing it with data on what subs I like alone.
Once you’re over the addiction, maybe a month or so, you’ll enjoy your life better. There’s an energy about reddit that you see her occasionally, but not all of the time. It’s worse than you probably currently realize.
vpn isnt going to work anymore, reddit bans most major vpns in general. plus they have definitely increased thier ban evasion detection, besides that they are looking for keywords they deemed doesnt fit the sites narrative, instant delete, or ban.
thier methods of detection usually is looking at your IP, device, its components, the browser, your screen resolution, time and date, fingerprinting. for any similarity.
more advanced methods if you are trying to use other methods IP, like datacenter, they will block of flag the most commonly abused IP datacenters, that uses to rotate around. VPN are so easily flagged by reddit its guaranteed a ban. they will also target genuine behaviour, if your on reddit logged in, are you acting human; posting too fast, or spaamming the same words, style of writing. old inactive accounts and new accounts are extremely susceptible to this type of monitoring.
reddits pratically mostly spam/bots now anyways, they purged way too many users.
the true ban evaders are using paid methods, plus new devices and rotating IP that isnt vpn(mostly mobile proxies), and they are usually using hundreds if not thousands of account at once, and they use this method to market OF or some kind of business they are running, so they can afford it
I use a VPN to access Reddit all the time. I haven’t once been hit with a block.
