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Tell HN: Reddit accounts cancellation/suspension caused by VPN usage

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71–80 of 254 posts

Re: Tell HN: Reddit accounts cancellation/suspension caused by VPN usage

#71
post #14
post #10

What is the most promising original-Reddit clone?

There isn't any, unless someone solves the spam or bot account problem.

There are a bunch of them, but by far the largest problem with new networks like this comes with the network affect. In the beginning no users use the network, but if no users use it no body migrates to the platform and the circle continues. This is the reason why it is so hard to migrate your social circle away from FB Messenger or Whatsapp.

Re: Tell HN: Reddit accounts cancellation/suspension caused by VPN usage

#72

All is not lost if your account is mistakenly suspended due to VPN usage. They still allow you to: * Communicate with reddit admins via /r/reddit.com modmail * Appeal your suspension via https://www.reddit.com/appeals with a permanently suspended account. See https://reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/360045734911-My-acc...

Did that already, first for the original account, then the two older ones. Suspension reconfirmed almost immediately, on all three, indicative of an automated system in the backend. There is no Kimi (human intervention) behind this alleged appeal process.

This is sadly the case for may online platforms.

Re: Tell HN: Reddit accounts cancellation/suspension caused by VPN usage

#73
Both Reddit's admins and their future-employee mods are completely out of control, in a way that makes Facebook's intentional topic manipulation seem tame by comparison. These people go out of their way to ban people for no reason -- constantly, every single day -- in a way that can only be described as intentionally abusive. They appear to get some kind of sadistic pleasure in reading ban appeals and denying them, knowing full well that the bans are improper and the appeals are justified.

In fact, they make a point of not properly responding to reports of harassment (including the sexual proposition of minors), but they will permanently ban well-known and popular accounts that never broke a single rule. They'll even ban people directly out of spite, or because they disagree with you. There is nothing too petty for them.

They're even swindling advertisers in the most brazenly shameful way, and they've been banning live streamers to protect the lie[1].

Ultimately, Reddit's strategy is to simultaneously file their IPO and switch the design to be a TikTok clone with a web3 component attached to the awards system. They're going to tank rapidly, but it doesn't matter to them because they already got paid.

The bans were a way to prevent rocking the investor boat until the IPO, but they got caught up in it, and now it's going too far.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29574786

Re: Tell HN: Reddit accounts cancellation/suspension caused by VPN usage

#74
post #9

What were you posting? I've used a VPN constantly and I have a Reddit account in the 15-year club, it hasn't been an issue.

I haven't seen any issues with my 10+ year old accounts. They are probably marked as safe and only newer accounts at risk.

Re: Tell HN: Reddit accounts cancellation/suspension caused by VPN usage

#75
post #73

Both Reddit's admins and their future-employee mods are completely out of control, in a way that makes Facebook's intentional topic manipulation seem tame by comparison. These people go out of their way to ban people for no reason -- constantly, every single day -- in a way that can only be described as intentionally abusive. They appear to get some kind of sadistic pleasure in reading ban appeals and denying them, k…

I'm utterly amazed at how ban-wild some communities can be. I occasionally see stories of people being banned from communities they've never posted to (reading/lurking only) simply because they also subscribe to another community that is "opposite" of the first.

Take /r/novavax_vaccine_talk for example. There was recently a member [1] there who was banned from /r/coronavirus simply for being a member. These people aren't anti-vax by any means, but because it doesn't "fit the picture" they get ousted.

[1]: https://www.reddit.com/r/Novavax_vaccine_talk/comments/sa78h...

Re: Tell HN: Reddit accounts cancellation/suspension caused by VPN usage

#76

People shit on facebook but honestly how reddit is still pushing that redesign is unfathomable.

I find the Chat feature to be an awful addition as well. Sometimes when I'm trying to sell things, people will send a chat instead of an Inbox message and I end up not seeing it for days because there's not much of a notification and Apollo for iOS doesn't support chat (maybe no unofficial Reddit client does?)

Re: Tell HN: Reddit accounts cancellation/suspension caused by VPN usage

#77
post #73

Both Reddit's admins and their future-employee mods are completely out of control, in a way that makes Facebook's intentional topic manipulation seem tame by comparison. These people go out of their way to ban people for no reason -- constantly, every single day -- in a way that can only be described as intentionally abusive. They appear to get some kind of sadistic pleasure in reading ban appeals and denying them, k…

"They appear to get some kind of sadistic pleasure in reading ban appeals and denying them, knowing full well that the bans are improper and the appeals are justified."

Or they get pleasure by making more money, in not paying enough people to manual review issues.

Re: Tell HN: Reddit accounts cancellation/suspension caused by VPN usage

#78
A few years back I started completely separating my Windows/gaming system from anything I care about, which includes any credentials. While I never really considered Reddit an "important" credential for my main account, I decided to avoid starting a slippery slope and created a separate account for my gaming system since I am usually reading subreddits related to the games I play and want to post comments.

For the most part this worked great. Except one day I happened to post from my main account before a gaming session to a popular gaming subreddit while there was a controversial debate happening. The debate exceeded the mods ability to manage the discussions and so a large sweeping keyword temporary ban was put into effect and anyone who violated it received a 24 hour ban from the subreddit. Fine, whatever.

However, before I even knew I was temporarily banned on my main account I was logged into the gaming system and posting unrelated normal comments about the game. After a few hours I noticed that I wasn't getting the replies I normally would and I thought it was strange. Eventually I logged I went to check my email and stuff on my real computer and noticed the temporary ban message. Then I started looking at my gaming account in private browsing and noticed none of my comments appeared: it was shadowbanned. Not just in that subreddit but entirely. You actually couldn't even load my profile page content. The account would "exist" but none of my content such as pinned posts, avatar or bio/description etc. would be present.

I thought it was strange so I contacted Reddit. It was entirely automated I highly doubt a human was involved in responding to the message through their support channel. I got a canned message about how my account was circumventing a subreddit ban.

My guess is that anyone using a VPN or Tor is also having this same problem - probably just with a lot more subreddits and a lot more accounts though =/

Re: Tell HN: Reddit accounts cancellation/suspension caused by VPN usage

#79

People shit on facebook but honestly how reddit is still pushing that redesign is unfathomable.

https://old.reddit.com/ On Firefox, use Old Reddit Redirect: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/old-reddit-re...

This is also a one line UserScript if you're using Tampermonkey or whatever.

Re: Tell HN: Reddit accounts cancellation/suspension caused by VPN usage

#80
post #73

Both Reddit's admins and their future-employee mods are completely out of control, in a way that makes Facebook's intentional topic manipulation seem tame by comparison. These people go out of their way to ban people for no reason -- constantly, every single day -- in a way that can only be described as intentionally abusive. They appear to get some kind of sadistic pleasure in reading ban appeals and denying them, k…

I'm utterly amazed at how ban-wild some communities can be. I occasionally see stories of people being banned from communities they've never posted to (reading/lurking only) simply because they also subscribe to another community that is "opposite" of the first. Take /r/novavax_vaccine_talk for example. There was recently a member [1] there who was banned from /r/coronavirus simply for being a member. These people ar…

This used to be a joke. "You have been banned from /r/Pyongyang."
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