4 ms·

I'm permabanned from Reddit, as in all my accounts (yes, I let it get so bad I had multiple accounts) and any new accounts (yep... tried making more) are banned

by jotm 4y ago

I'm permabanned from Reddit, as in all my accounts (yes, I let it get so bad I had multiple accounts) and any new accounts (yep... tried making more) are banned based on previous logins and IPs (they're actually pretty thorough with it). Some mods are power tripping, but also the value of a user is now near-zero. As long as you don't piss off too many, your subreddit will be fine. Especially for popular keywords - it's like owning "startrek.com", people will find it. Subreddit owners can't actually make money in most traditional ways (so yeah, they may be paid behind the scenes), and there's a strong anti-monetization culture among Redditors, which is hilarious given that it's a for profit company that makes money off everyone's content. They still see it as an underdog online community. Newsflash, Facebook users also think they're enlightened on an exclusive platform/group. Setting up a forum has never been easier - even security wise. Yet even that is too hard for people, so centralization is what we get. Hell, it's too much of a pain even for companies (for different reasons) - I still can't believe they shut down NotebookReview Forums - I was a long time active contributor. Surely no one in their right mind does that? Surely the decent Google traffic is worth something? Apparently not! Now I look suspiciously at TechPowerUp and Level1techs Forums... I hope Reddit's asinine Facebook inspired user acquisition strategies will lead to its downfall, but I don't know... too many people have/make accounts. Hell, people make Facebook/Instagram and even Pinterest accounts, so clearly gating works. Maybe once they decide to disallow indexing by search engines? But then again Facebook is doing fine... Discord is even worse - contributing unique information publicly (apparently that's what users believe, that it's "public"!) on chat platforms? I don't even know why people started doing that.

huimang 4y ago
Honestly, I'm not sure if anyone is really interested in advice from someone who somehow managed to get permabanned on reddit.
- jklqa 4y ago
  Yes, being permabanned on some Internet discussion forum is the single defining characteristic of a human being! Off to the Gulag with him and shame him whenever he speaks up! /s
  - multjoy 4y ago
    You don't just get permabanned with extreme prejudice. The author is leaving out a huuuuge chunk of the story.
    - richbell 4y ago
      Yeah... usually the 'worst' that could happen is their specific account being shaddow-banned. Being _permabanned_ suggests that they've done something particularly egregious. Either that, or their behavior is indistinguishable from a spam bot.
      - snickerbockers 4y ago
        It could also be something as innocuous as software piracy. Not sure about reddit specifically but a lot of websites will immediately nuke anybody who tries to link to pirated content because they're terrified of getting sued.
        richbell 4y ago
        Reddit has a fairly lively /r/piracy subreddit.
        kentrado 4y ago
        Doesn't mean people don't get banned for it.
    - antifa 4y ago
      While that is probable, as outsiders we can't tell if that user is the troll we could assume they are or if they just accidentally logged in to the wrong VPN or was given a cursed IP address by their ISP once.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
- winternett 4y ago
  Maybe one day when a bank permabans you after you've put years of money into it, and then they just reclaim all of your credits, and the reason they give you is only that "you promoted your business in a sub and that's not allowed on this tiny part of reddit" and that is against "Rule #12" on a random subreddit that didn't even publish the rule... You probably still won't understand the ideal of how people regularly get chewed up and spit out by the massive social platform machine with no rights to appeal. Or perhaps you work as a Reddit mod and can't feel empathy for normal users any more... meh...
  - snickerbockers 4y ago
    That's going to be a huge problem going forward. The whole parler thing from last year has me afraid because it showed how corporate america can collude together to remove you from society if you piss them off. In this specific case it happened to a bunch of assholes who probably deserved it, but in general this is extremely dangerous because of how much power is vested in private entities that have no public accountability. I'm personally of the opinion that, with respect to net neutrality, "service provider" should be interpreted as liberally as possible so that CDNs, hosts and SaaS platforms are subject to it instead of just companies that provide layer-3 internet access. And maybe the law should even be expanded so that it applies to financial institutions.
    - winternett 4y ago
      Agreed. Most of the people that make the decisions and execute them are people who have no idea of the impacts of their moves. In so many situations now, platform code is written with a certain intent in mind, but then administered later by replacement employees who have no indication of the end result of what controls do... These sites often assume that one user persona can accommodate a user base full of multiple different personas and motivations, and they brutally punish anyone that goes outside of the personas they create as templates because their user bases are far too massive to care about individual user issues. It's now easier (and better for their bottom line) to just ban people than to properly address customer support.
  - huimang 4y ago
- kcplate 4y ago
  Frankly, I’d be more interested in the advice they offered, but then again I am not afraid of reading controversial non-PC opinions and have the intellectual and emotional capability to discern right from wrong.
- jotm 4y ago
  It's not advice, I'm just barfing thoughts out in the void like everyone else. After more than a decade talking online, I finally realized that it's all pointless. It's not a fact, it's just my opinion. I loved it since it was full of people who shared the same interests. I like that I helped people and they were happy. But ultimately, for me, it was a waste of time. I now have a blog that I won't share anywhere, it's full of rants and posts on niche technical stuff and the few people who find it seem to like it. Comments are disabled and the only way to contact me is via email. A couple of people actually contacted me lol I'll tell you how I got permabanned. First account was banned because I shared my experience with the German healthcare system on r/germany and r/europe. I absolutely despise it to this day. I'm forced to pay insurance just to get discriminated against and get zero help. I concluded that mandatory insurance means a stable stream of income for people who have zero desire to help anyone. So I ranted about it online, since I could not do anything real. Two comments triggered a lot of people because it got the account suspended, then banned. That was rather weird. Second account was banned because I ranted about suicide, particularly how I hate myself for failing a couple of attempts and being a coward because of that. It did not sit well with the depression subreddits, and probably Reddit itself since it's a heavy topic and a turn off for advertisers. So, uh, yeah, third account. I posted about suicide again... in retrospect it's pretty cringe and I know complaining that much is pointless, but at the time I was pretty fucked up. Luckily, the account was suspended fast and then I received the permanent ban message. So, that's what it takes, getting 2-3 accounts banned. I mean, yeah, what sane person has multiple accounts in the first place? :D I made several new accounts just to have them banned almost instantly (Jesus, it's an actual addiction). So I gave up on it, thankfully. I'm not saying the ban was unjustified, and I'm not mad at Reddit. Just my opinion, what I wrote wasn't worthy of a permaban, but yeah for those reading it I seemed like an asshole who loves to complain. I used to write a lot of well thought out comments and posts, it's just that after years of it I got tired and jaded, my writing went to shit and I started shitposting and then complaining too much. No one wants that kind of customer. Yet I still participated. It's an addiction, there's no other explanation.

by jotm 4y ago

huimang 4y ago

Honestly, I'm not sure if anyone is really interested in advice from someone who somehow managed to get permabanned on reddit.

jklqa 4y ago
Yes, being permabanned on some Internet discussion forum is the single defining characteristic of a human being! Off to the Gulag with him and shame him whenever he speaks up! /s
- multjoy 4y ago
  You don't just get permabanned with extreme prejudice. The author is leaving out a huuuuge chunk of the story.
  - richbell 4y ago
    Yeah... usually the 'worst' that could happen is their specific account being shaddow-banned. Being _permabanned_ suggests that they've done something particularly egregious. Either that, or their behavior is indistinguishable from a spam bot.
    - snickerbockers 4y ago
      It could also be something as innocuous as software piracy. Not sure about reddit specifically but a lot of websites will immediately nuke anybody who tries to link to pirated content because they're terrified of getting sued.
      - richbell 4y ago
        Reddit has a fairly lively /r/piracy subreddit.
        kentrado 4y ago
        Doesn't mean people don't get banned for it.
  - antifa 4y ago
    While that is probable, as outsiders we can't tell if that user is the troll we could assume they are or if they just accidentally logged in to the wrong VPN or was given a cursed IP address by their ISP once.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
winternett 4y ago
Maybe one day when a bank permabans you after you've put years of money into it, and then they just reclaim all of your credits, and the reason they give you is only that "you promoted your business in a sub and that's not allowed on this tiny part of reddit" and that is against "Rule #12" on a random subreddit that didn't even publish the rule... You probably still won't understand the ideal of how people regularly get chewed up and spit out by the massive social platform machine with no rights to appeal. Or perhaps you work as a Reddit mod and can't feel empathy for normal users any more... meh...
- snickerbockers 4y ago
  That's going to be a huge problem going forward. The whole parler thing from last year has me afraid because it showed how corporate america can collude together to remove you from society if you piss them off. In this specific case it happened to a bunch of assholes who probably deserved it, but in general this is extremely dangerous because of how much power is vested in private entities that have no public accountability. I'm personally of the opinion that, with respect to net neutrality, "service provider" should be interpreted as liberally as possible so that CDNs, hosts and SaaS platforms are subject to it instead of just companies that provide layer-3 internet access. And maybe the law should even be expanded so that it applies to financial institutions.
  - winternett 4y ago
    Agreed. Most of the people that make the decisions and execute them are people who have no idea of the impacts of their moves. In so many situations now, platform code is written with a certain intent in mind, but then administered later by replacement employees who have no indication of the end result of what controls do... These sites often assume that one user persona can accommodate a user base full of multiple different personas and motivations, and they brutally punish anyone that goes outside of the personas they create as templates because their user bases are far too massive to care about individual user issues. It's now easier (and better for their bottom line) to just ban people than to properly address customer support.
- huimang 4y ago
kcplate 4y ago
Frankly, I’d be more interested in the advice they offered, but then again I am not afraid of reading controversial non-PC opinions and have the intellectual and emotional capability to discern right from wrong.
jotm 4y ago
It's not advice, I'm just barfing thoughts out in the void like everyone else. After more than a decade talking online, I finally realized that it's all pointless. It's not a fact, it's just my opinion. I loved it since it was full of people who shared the same interests. I like that I helped people and they were happy. But ultimately, for me, it was a waste of time. I now have a blog that I won't share anywhere, it's full of rants and posts on niche technical stuff and the few people who find it seem to like it. Comments are disabled and the only way to contact me is via email. A couple of people actually contacted me lol I'll tell you how I got permabanned. First account was banned because I shared my experience with the German healthcare system on r/germany and r/europe. I absolutely despise it to this day. I'm forced to pay insurance just to get discriminated against and get zero help. I concluded that mandatory insurance means a stable stream of income for people who have zero desire to help anyone. So I ranted about it online, since I could not do anything real. Two comments triggered a lot of people because it got the account suspended, then banned. That was rather weird. Second account was banned because I ranted about suicide, particularly how I hate myself for failing a couple of attempts and being a coward because of that. It did not sit well with the depression subreddits, and probably Reddit itself since it's a heavy topic and a turn off for advertisers. So, uh, yeah, third account. I posted about suicide again... in retrospect it's pretty cringe and I know complaining that much is pointless, but at the time I was pretty fucked up. Luckily, the account was suspended fast and then I received the permanent ban message. So, that's what it takes, getting 2-3 accounts banned. I mean, yeah, what sane person has multiple accounts in the first place? :D I made several new accounts just to have them banned almost instantly (Jesus, it's an actual addiction). So I gave up on it, thankfully. I'm not saying the ban was unjustified, and I'm not mad at Reddit. Just my opinion, what I wrote wasn't worthy of a permaban, but yeah for those reading it I seemed like an asshole who loves to complain. I used to write a lot of well thought out comments and posts, it's just that after years of it I got tired and jaded, my writing went to shit and I started shitposting and then complaining too much. No one wants that kind of customer. Yet I still participated. It's an addiction, there's no other explanation.