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

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

#91

Post by lelandfe »

burntoutfire wrote: post #57
dzhiurgis wrote: post #45

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

The redesign has one major advantage from their point of view (which I suspect was the reason behind it in the first place) - the individual posts on main screen now take up much more screen space. This allows to seamlessly insert fairly large ads masquaraded as posts, which wasn't possible with the old design.

Two more major points: image/video hosting (i.e. they own the data), and inline autoplaying video.

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

#92

Post by beckman466 »

segfaultbuserr wrote: post #39

It's how the Reddit spam filter works. Once your account is flagged as spam by the system, it would be global shadowbanned automacially. At this stage, your account is essentially finished, it's basically impossible to talk to someone and get your account unblocked. Eventually the account would be deleted, all the post you've ever made would also be gone in the worst-case scenario, just like my previous account. My R…

> Recently it almost happened again with my current account

(Reddit allows the creation of multiple usernames using the same email address,) were your two different accounts that were (1) permanently banned and (2) temporarily banned using the same email address?

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

#93

Post by beckman466 »

eyeball wrote: post #89
profmonocle wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> At this stage, your account is essentially finished, it's basically impossible to talk to someone and get your account unblocked. Seems like they're following Google's strategy. Presumably, ad profit from each individual user is low enough that it's cheaper to accept false positives in their anti-abuse mechanism than it is to provide a functioning appeal process. Maybe if the user manages to go viral on Twitter or…

Is Google banning accounts just for vpn usage?

why wouldn't they? modern browsers constantly snitch on all sorts of things, including IP addresses (I say 'snitch' because so few people outside the industry are aware of even this basic fact/practice), so it's not unlikely they would have some automated banning tool. and the banned google accounts we hear about when some knowledge worker on here goes viral have fallen victim to those tools/systems.

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

#94

Post by jorams »

invalidusernam3 wrote: post #51
dzhiurgis wrote: post #45

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

If it wasn't for the Apollo reddit client I would have stopped using reddit a long time ago. I used to use it mostly in the browser on my laptop/desktop, but it has become unusable even when using old.reddit.com (and plugins to force old.reddit.com). I now only use it as an app on my phone which has ruined a lot of the conversation because it's far more cumbersome to type on mobile, as well as stuff like switching be…

> but it has become unusable even when using old.reddit.com

Can you elaborate on that? From what I've noticed old.reddit.com has essentially not changed over the past years.

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

#95

Post by core-utility »

0cVlTeIATBs wrote: post #80
core-utility wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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."

I miss that joke. It's too bad the mod didn't create a bot to automatically actually ban people from the dead sub when called out, just for fun.

Edit: Ironically said in a comment about the overuse of banning people

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

#97

Post by andybak »

krono wrote: post #87
segfaultbuserr wrote: post #39

It's how the Reddit spam filter works. Once your account is flagged as spam by the system, it would be global shadowbanned automacially. At this stage, your account is essentially finished, it's basically impossible to talk to someone and get your account unblocked. Eventually the account would be deleted, all the post you've ever made would also be gone in the worst-case scenario, just like my previous account. My R…

Shadow banning is such a disgusting practice. It's basically sweeping the "problem" under the rug, whilst leaving the "problem" completely in the dark with regards to what it was they did wrong. It's lazy, it's abusive, and it should be illegal. Edit: to clarify, I'm totally fine with this tool being employed to combat spam(bots). Just not against normal posters/contributors.

I think dang might disagree with you there.

Also "illegal" is a little over the top. Are we talking misdemeanor or felony, here?

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

#99

Post by krono »

andybak wrote: post #97
krono wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shadow banning is such a disgusting practice. It's basically sweeping the "problem" under the rug, whilst leaving the "problem" completely in the dark with regards to what it was they did wrong. It's lazy, it's abusive, and it should be illegal. Edit: to clarify, I'm totally fine with this tool being employed to combat spam(bots). Just not against normal posters/contributors.

I think dang might disagree with you there. Also "illegal" is a little over the top. Are we talking misdemeanor or felony, here?

I totally get it when it's used solely to combat spam(bots), but, at least on Reddit, this tool's use has become too widespread and hits too many normal community contributors.

Edit: I'd just like it to be not allowed by law to hopefully curtail its use. I don't really care about what the repercussions of doing it anyway might look like.

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

#100

Post by StevePerkins »

profmonocle wrote: post #63
segfaultbuserr wrote: post #39

It's how the Reddit spam filter works. Once your account is flagged as spam by the system, it would be global shadowbanned automacially. At this stage, your account is essentially finished, it's basically impossible to talk to someone and get your account unblocked. Eventually the account would be deleted, all the post you've ever made would also be gone in the worst-case scenario, just like my previous account. My R…

> At this stage, your account is essentially finished, it's basically impossible to talk to someone and get your account unblocked. Seems like they're following Google's strategy. Presumably, ad profit from each individual user is low enough that it's cheaper to accept false positives in their anti-abuse mechanism than it is to provide a functioning appeal process. Maybe if the user manages to go viral on Twitter or…

It's the strategy of all the major social players.

Several months ago I followed a new cardistry (look it up) personality on Instagram. I scrolled through and "liked" one or two dozen of their performance clips, out of the hundreds that they've posted. My Instagram account was blocked, for "manipulation" or some verbiage like that. Basically, the algorithm thought that I was a bot hired to inflate that person's numbers.

The Instagram appeals process is to email them a selfie, holding a piece of paper with the current date and something else written on it. I did this, but never got any kind of response. My Instagram account that I had for 5-10 years is just gone.

Turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I created a new account attached to the same phone and email address (somehow THIS isn't detected as abuse?). But I just lost interest in the app, and life seems to be better now for having done so. If Reddit ever nukes me, then it would be the kick in the ass that I need to stop wasting time on that toxic site as well.

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