Reddit CEO says facial verification may be introduced. Ostensibly to prevent bots.
But we all know how dangerous this can be. But most likely Reddit users will just accept it.
Although they have a great free analogue right under their noses - Lemmy. Which is many times better than its competitor.
I wish more people would discover Lemmy, but that’s unlikely.
That’s good to know. I was wondering and testing the exact pattern to avoid shadowbans. I’m just bored after getting permabanned and got curious what methods they use to give out shadowbans.
Few specifying questions, if you don’t mind.
On the part without VPN. Wouldn’t that get a usual ban? Or it’s already beyond that scanning timeframe after 10d.
And you mentioned browser. Is it specifically browser and app usage must be avoided or was it just an irrelevant word choice and app can be used as well?
Additionally, wouldn’t just aging the account by 30d work or the no activity part still gets flagged by the system?
It’s complex to answer. Reddit’s permanent ban is too strict.
They look at your IP address, cookies, local storage, your linked IDs if you linked them (phone number, email address, Google account, Apple ID, etc.), browser metadata, your digital fingerprint like WebGL data, WiFi BSSID, the app also keeps a note of the IMEI number of your device.
And I’ve read this somewhere that their AI moderation keeps an eye on your language that you type in, the words you use often and activity timing. I am not sure about this claim but they probably do it. System links all these activities with accounts that have banned in the past and if they find more than 5-7 very obvious links, you get another ban.
The system stays on high alert for first 10 days of suspicious activity on your account. It gradually lowers the flagging by 30 days but its still a risky zone. One mistake and it picks the flag. You have to clean your browser before you use it again on your main browser. Uninstall and reinstall in many cases, clearing any session data, cookies and even %TEMP% files and cache files from your root folder.
I am not sure about the app though, a friend of mine had a secondary phone where he used Reddit, he was able to evade the ban only by factory data resetting the device and then installing the app from a new Google Account. I never really used the app, I am not a phone person, I use my laptop most of the times so don’t know how the app thing works.
I’ve reached to similar conclusion myself after some testing and words of some moderators of subs. I was thinking about testing it out on a virtual machine, but it’s probably easier to just move over to alternatives. I’ll probably still give it a shot at some point when I’m bored.
Though thank you for elaborating more.