Hi, I hope its fine to write about this here.
I recently got PERMANENTLY banned from Reddit on my alt for rule 1 (Hate speech / inciting violence).
Apparently the reason was for writing a slur ? I had no idea it the word I used was even a slur in the first place, because I saw so many others use it before me with no issue, and there were posts using the same word as I did BEFORE and AFTER I got banned and those posts are still up. I have no idea how Reddit AI moderations even judged that my own comment was offensive.
Sadly for me, even my main account, that I have had for 8 years and used to talk to a lot of communities, was also permanently banned.
In just one night, I had lost a lot of the communities I interacted with over the years. Besides, you might hate Reddit (and rightfully so) but atm its too mainstream and widely used, and there sadly isnt a better alternative for a platform where you can access forums for any sort of niche topics, ask questions etc… Many of these are not available elsewhere, not even here.
Anyway, I tried appealing to Reddit but I have been automatically rejected within 5 minutes of writing my appeal (idk if I can believe their “This decision was made without the assistance of automation”).
I have now written to them through their reddithelp explaining that I had no idea it was a bad word, that I will be more careful in the future and wish for another chance. But I dont expect a positive response (if I get one to begin with).
I have read how their ban evasion detection works and it seems either impossible or extremely hard to bypass, and I am worried about this because I am scared I will forever be unable to ask questions there ever again, or interact with my previous subreddits.
Reddit stopped caring about users a while ago. They’re not going to reinstate you, because they have no motivation to do so.
Unfortunately, it’s time to give up on it. Find similar communities elsewhere, and if you can’t find them, make them. Over time, there will be more and more people in your situation looking for it.
I still like good old niche forums.
Unfortunate :/
Lemmy so far is an interesting alternative but it doesn’t have the same popularity (I hope it changes over time because Reddit has been going to shit with their AI moderation). Sadly the Reddit community I was in is a small niche community that helped me a lot with my mental health so it’ll be hard for me to make one from scratch.
Thank you in any case
I’m sorry that you’re losing that community. I hope you can find or help build another. If not Lemmy, it’ll crop up somewhere.
I’m starting to suspect that Reddit bans accounts that have been long-standing and in good standing, only to take them over with bots, because accounts with longstanding credibility are a powerful tool for bots to take over. Because once we’ve been banned, we can no longer login to our account, so we can’t even go in and check if it’s been taken over.