Basically what I mean is, did you also come here from reddit?
I came here after I got my Reddit account banned permanently. And the thing is, I don’t exactly know why I got banned. Nor what I did wrong. I always tried to follow the rules, post and comment appropriately and nicely, but on New Year’s Day last week, I got a message simply saying "Your account have been permanently banned for violating the rules.
But when I replied asking what rule or rules I unknowingly broke, they just messaged me back saying “you got banned because you violated the community guidelines”. So now I’m here.
What about you? Are you also a Reddit Refugee?
Oh, you want a story? I’ll give you a story.
I was banned for using a MVNO while on holidays. A MVNO (mobile virtual network operator - aka a phone company) often has changing IP endpoints.
I was in Japan (using Rakuten) which has dynamic endpoints in Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore. To the reddit bots, that seems like someone stealing or spoofing your account.
Reddit flagged my account and forced password change to confirm identity “for my safety”. I complied. They then silently shadow banned my account after I did so. Like, immediately.
I followed the appeals process (such as it is - basically howling at the moon). I provided logs, GPS co-ords and even details of my flights / boarding passes.
Auto mod basically replied “lol, get fucked”. (Its an auto mod, BTW. Their entire appeal process.Very easy tell).
OK then.
I then used their takeout service to at least grab my old posts, which have some niche technical know how that is worth preserving.
In the course of that, I notice reddit has set up their system in such a way that unknowingly (?) breeches GDPR rules and privacy laws.
Well, well, well…
At this point, I’m stunned at what a cluster fuck reddit really is. Like…wtf?
I then emailed them directly and basically said “listen.I know the laws that govern this. You have 48hrs to email me XYZ or I escalate”
A few days later, Reddit legal emails me saying “hi…we’re not sure what your complaint is. Please clarify”.
So I do - with forensic level detail. Politely. Professionally.
No response.
I send a follow up email a week later saying “look, one way or another this issue needs to be resolved and my complaint answered. I’ll give you 3 days. If its still radio silence, I escalate”.
I fly home yesterday (a full 7 days after the fact). Still radio silence.
Perfect! Today I launch GDPR and OIAC complaint, with full evidence trail, screenshots, logs - the whole works. Takes me 5 minutes.
Will that get me unbanned? Don’t know, don’t care.
Will it cost reddit time and money? Very likely yes.
For those not in the know, breech of GDPR and OIAC laws carry pretty significant penalties for the service provider (to the tune of several million pounds)…and reddit is registered in a EU country. Oops.
The moral of the story (if there is one) is this:
Reddit is rented land. Lemmy is too…but at least with Lemmy, if you really wanted to, you could set up your own instance, with n=1 users and turn off new sign ups, effectively creating a sovereign, unbannable island, where you actually own what you post.
I suppose I should thank Reddit, really. This is the second account in as many years they killed like this, for this very reason.
I was going to set up my own homelab anyway: this just pushed me to do it faster and create a telecoms stack to replace cloud based social media services.
What gals me the most is I spent a fair bit of effort rebuilding my fake internet points over the course of 3 months, to satisfy their “yo, is this a human?” algo…all the while watching bots and stolen accounts spam and flourish.
TL;DR: fuck reddit. You owe them nothing - not your knowledge, time or efforts. Let it enshittify.
Meanwhile, Reddit: I hope your lawyers cost $5k/hr.