Reddit

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)

1. Delete the Reddit phone apps permanently. They track you super hardcore.
2. Sign out on all devices and clear all browser info.
3. Make a new Windows profile and get the Brave browser.
4. Record your IP. Restart your router overnight. Check your IP again and if it's different you're good to go.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. 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