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A peek into Reddit's anti-spam internals

lyra.horse

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Re: A peek into Reddit's anti-spam internals

#81

Post by kps »

TFNA wrote: post #59
someonebaggy wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The flip side of this is that for many years it's been basically impossible for a real person to convince Reddit to let them have an account. They track so many signals and if they don't like a single one or a combination, you get shadowbanned - I've tried it a few times since then on different computers on different networks with different email addresses, and I concluded they must have an extremely specific idea of…

For the last several years, I’ve created a new Reddit account, posted heavily, and then deleted it when I felt I needed a social-media break. Rinse and repeat. I’ve never had problems creating those new accounts or having them banned. You just need to verify your signup with some new email address, at some domain that isn’t already a known throwaway-email domain, and accept that some subs won’t show your comments unt…

When I become a dotcom^H^H^H^H^H^H AI zillionaire, I'll start a web-only platform that blocks mobile user agents. (If you can work around that, you've passed the entry gate.)

Re: A peek into Reddit's anti-spam internals

#82

Post by Rebelgecko »

VierScar wrote: post #70
Rebelgecko wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's harder now that post history is hidden but I did something similar in the past. Start with a single comment you think is a shill. Maybe 80% of their post history is vague inane generalities (like "aww so cute" in r/cats, or a reply to a top rated post that only paraphrases the existing context without adding anything new). You can use an LLM to identify every comment or post from that account that mentions a pro…

It's a good idea. But this would no longer work now that Reddit hides post history, right? Or does the API still provide a user's post history? You'd basically need to be pulling all the data for all the subreddits, and then recreate a user's partial post/comment history from that.

It's hidden for users who opt in (not all spambots do, believe it or not) but there are some 3rd party databases that index comments- no idea how complete they are

Re: A peek into Reddit's anti-spam internals

#83

Post by kumrayu »

Cider9986 wrote: post #60
lelandfe wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure you love Reddit's decision to allow users to hide their post history.

I hate that change. arctic-shift.photon-reddit.com still works, at least with comments before the change. Not sure about current comments.

It hasn't been working for about a week now.

Re: A peek into Reddit's anti-spam internals

#84

Post by Terr_ »

qingcharles wrote: post #17
Terr_ wrote: post #3

Damn, maybe I can finally find out why my 10+ year account was globally (and retroactively) shadowbanned, even though the appeal was allegedly granted. In the past, those post removals didn't even exist in the moderation log, so perhaps a reason could give me a clue... On the other hand, I'm taking a kind of emotional damage just remembering.

Is it still shadowbanned? If you go to reddit.com/appeal what does it say?

As I said, the appeal was granted, or at least that's the message I got in reply.

However everything remained in the nether-realm and the appeals page claimed that my account was normal, and that therefore couldn't be used

No response from any support ticket either. They still advertised me IPO opportunities though...

Re: A peek into Reddit's anti-spam internals

#85

Post by VierScar »

Rebelgecko wrote: post #82
VierScar wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a good idea. But this would no longer work now that Reddit hides post history, right? Or does the API still provide a user's post history? You'd basically need to be pulling all the data for all the subreddits, and then recreate a user's partial post/comment history from that.

It's hidden for users who opt in (not all spambots do, believe it or not) but there are some 3rd party databases that index comments- no idea how complete they are

Ah, I thought it was opt-out and hidden by default now. (For new accounts, that is)

Re: A peek into Reddit's anti-spam internals

#87

Post by qingcharles »

Terr_ wrote: post #84
qingcharles wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it still shadowbanned? If you go to reddit.com/appeal what does it say?

As I said, the appeal was granted, or at least that's the message I got in reply. However everything remained in the nether-realm and the appeals page claimed that my account was normal, and that therefore couldn't be used No response from any support ticket either. They still advertised me IPO opportunities though...

That's strange. I've never seen that set of circumstances. Pop me an email on my profile and I can try to put you in touch with someone who might be able to help.
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