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(note: if you falsely tell someone they are banned, or unbanned, when they are not, you will be banned from this sub)

tl;dr

Lots of people come here in mystification, wondering if they're shadowbanned, and wondering why. This post contains a list of possible reasons you've been shadowbanned. It also contains activities which can lead to an account suspension, which is more visible to the user, but just as inconvenient.

First, though, a little reddit background.

About reddit

The website reddit.com is run by reddit the company, a subsidiary of Advance Publications Inc. The CEO of reddit is Ellen Pao (/u/ekjp) with first lieutenant Alexis Ohanian (/u/kn0thing). The site is huge, with a hundred million visitors a month.

Reddit is grouped into subreddits, with each subreddit run by a volunteer group of moderators, who are generally unpaid volunteers.

Moderators have the power to ban users from their subreddit, to delete comments and submissions, and to manage the style and presentation of their subreddit. Through the use of third-party tools, some moderators have the power to ban a user from hundreds of subreddits at a time.

Being banned from a subreddit means that you are not allowed to submit links or make new comments, and might be reversed upon appeal to the modmail of the concerned subreddit.

reddit.com also has a small number of employees, called admins. These people have the power to see everything happening on reddit, to remove material as with moderators, to perform moderator actions in any subreddit they choose, and, most importantly for this place, to shadowban or suspend users.

A shadowban is different from a subreddit ban. A shadowbanned user can still submit and make comments, but all of the submissions are sent straight to a subreddit spam queue, where it will not be visible to other users until approved by a moderator. Because an individual's spammed submissions are still visible to themselves, a shadowban is almost invisible to a logged-in user.

Through the use of AutoModerator, individual subreddits can give the same effect to a user as a global shadowban.

If you are shadowbanned, your user page will appear nonexistent to anybody that looks at your user page, other than yourself. You will need to contact the admins to get your shadowban reversed.

A suspension occurs when the admins disable an account. Suspensions can either be for a few days, in which case it is not visible to other userts, or permanently, in which the user's page is replaced by a suspension notification.

Reasons for shadowbans and suspensions

It's not exactly spelled out what will cause a ban, and the rules do seem to change from time to time, but if you follow these rules you'll be unlikely to be shadowbanned or suspended. Thanks to the posters here who have suggested more ways to be banned.

• Posting some spam links results in an immediate and automatic shadowban

• Don't post advertisements for commercial products unless the advertisement has some redeeming features and is relevant to the subreddit in which you post it

• Don't post links to your own blog, unless you post a lot of content from other places.

• Don't post links to anyone elses blog, or to a single news source. Ensure that you post from a wide range of sources.

• Don't use a VPN to create your account

• Don't follow people around on reddit and hassle them

• Don't relentlessly downvote a user

• Don't send out mass PMs

• Don't be a bot, unless you're really really careful, and have the blessing of the admins

• Don't harp on the same subject in your comments

• Don't issue death threats

• Don't post child pornography or anything involving the sexualization of teens or minors

• Don't post sexual material containing unconsenting subjects (for example, revenge porn, upskirt photos or celebrity leaks)

• Don't abuse or hassle the admins

• Don't post any information that would identify another redditor, including links to other social media sites, unless you have explicit permission from the person involved. (doxxing)

• Don't advocate or encourage doxxing

• Don't ask for doxx, even privately

• Don't post anything asking for votes, from on- or off-site

• Don't respond to a plea for votes, from on- or off-site

• Don't vote in threads you were directed to from another part of reddit

• Don't engage in nuisance reporting

• Don't use multiple accounts to game the voting system

• Don't return to a sub you have been banned from with another account

• Don't use CSS in your sub to subvert reddit's subscription and voting system

• Don't follow links into someone else's subreddit and be a dick

• Don't impersonate another redditor with a name of similar appearance, e.g. /u/LaureIai ("I") for /u/Laurelai ("l")

• Don't be under 13 years of age

• If you're a mod, don't respond to PMs related to moneymaking or promotional offers of any kind. Report them immediately.

• If you're an arsehole, the admins will not give you the benefit of the doubt.

Also, it can't hurt to read the reddiquette: if everyone followed the reddiquette, the site would be more pleasant, and all-around better.

(EDIT) Also, there are some things for which there is weak evidence of triggering a shadowban:

• (weak) Don't signup using old.reddit.com without an email address

• (weak) Don't use more than one alt within one subreddit

• (weak) Don't submit every link to several subreddits at a time

• (weak) Don't accept moderator invitations to dodgy subreddits

• (weak) Don't comment in threads you came to via a non-organic link (i.e. external site, meta sub, from modmail or PM)

• (weak) Don't register using an email address easily detected as a throwaway.

• (weak) Don't give yourself awards from another account

tl;dr Don't spam, shill, doxx, brigade, stalk, game or pederast.

How to contact admins

Two ways, pretty sure that #2 no longer works:

• Lodge your appeal: https://www.reddit.com/appeal (or https://www.reddit.com/appeals ?)

• Message them: https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=/r/reddit.com

(This is the fourth copy ... aged pages are 1 2 3)

Last edited April 24, 2024

Please use the report system (click Rule #3) if you see anyone with an NFT avatar. (A screenshot is ok.) Those in violation will be banned from r/Shadowban.

*Yes, this includes the free airdropped avatars given out to certain ‘top Redditors’. Why?

Dont you dare do it. You know what im talking about dont you

Looks like im shadowbanned

I've got a bit of a complex about being shadowbanned. Just checking in!

There are two types of shadowbans: subreddit wide, and site wide. Moderators cannot impose a sitewide ban on it's users, but they can effectively automate something simmilar in their community. The anti-brigade filter in animemes is automatically making the comments of anyone who hasn't posted to the community before the trap fiasco invisible. This hyperfucks long time lurkers. (That's me)

**If you want to find out if you are "shadowbanned" on the subreddit:**
1.) Make a comment on a post.
2.) Go to the post in incognito mode, and try to find your comment.
3.) https://imgur.com/a/wUbJaTr Compare results.

Extra shit: You can just go post on another subreddit to see if you are site-wide shadowbanned or not. The subreddit "shadowban" is different from normal removals in that your posts will still show up under your user account. You can use this by going to your user account in incognito mode, and clicking context on your comment. If shadowbanned, you won't see shit. On the redesign, sometimes it'll say comment removed by moderator.

https://imgur.com/a/ESGusuV (Logged in
)https://imgur.com/a/XGPNIXT (Same page, but incognito)
https://imgur.com/a/EGf16hO (Clicking through to bottom link, logged in)
https://imgur.com/a/c2nMeQq (Clicking through to bottom link, incognito)
What it'll look like, varies depending on how your viewing reddit, but the bottom line is that if your comment is not there while incognito, you are shadowbanned.

Thanks for coming to my Ted talk.

P.S. Links used in images:https://www.reddit.com/user/millermcgrawhttps://www.reddit.com/r/Animemes/comments/i5m75u/im_sorry_if_its_offensive/g10l8i5/?context=3https://www.reddit.com/r/Animemes/comments/i6z3nh/im_sorry_guys_but_im_out/g0ze460/?context=3

EDIT: Not a subreddit shadowban, Effectively a subreddit shadowban.https://www.reddit.com/r/Animemes/comments/i7igp0/huzzah_youve_found_another_shitpost/g1334s1?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x

tl;dr

Lots of people come here in mystification, wondering if they're shadowbanned, and wondering why. This post contains a list of possible reasons you've been shadowbanned.

First, though, a little reddit background.

About reddit

The website reddit.com is run by reddit the company, a subsidiary of Advance Publications Inc. The CEO of reddit is Ellen Pao (/u/ekjp) with first lieutenant Alexis Ohanian (/u/kn0thing). The site is huge, with a hundred million visitors a month.

Reddit is grouped into subreddits, with each subreddit run by a volunteer group of moderators, who are generally unpaid volunteers.

Moderators have the power to ban users from their subreddit, to delete comments and submissions, and to manage the style and presentation of their subreddit. Through the use of third-party tools, some moderators have the power to ban a user from hundreds of subreddits at a time.

Being banned from a subreddit means that you are not allowed to submit links or make new comments, and might be reversed upon appeal to the modmail of the concerned subreddit.

reddit.com also has a small number of employees, called admins. These people have the power to see everything happening on reddit, to remove material as with moderators, to perform moderator actions in any subreddit they choose, and, most importantly for this place, to shadowban users.

A shadowban is different from a subreddit ban. A shadowbanned user can still submit and make comments, but all of the submissions are sent straight to a subreddit spam queue, where it will not be visible to other users until approved by a moderator. Because an individual's spammed submissions are still visible to themselves, a shadowban is almost invisible to a logged-in user.

Through the use of AutoModerator, individual subreddits can give the same effect to a user as a global shadowban.

If you are shadowbanned, your user page will appear nonexistent to anybody that looks at your user page, other than yourself. You will need to contact the admins to get your shadowban reversed.

Reasons for shadowbans

It's not exactly spelled out what will cause a shadowban, and the rules do seem to change from time to time, but if you follow these rules you'll be unlikely to be shadowbanned. Thanks to the posters here who have suggested more ways to be banned.

• Don't post advertisements for commercial products unless the advertisement has some redeeming features and is relevant to the subreddit in which you post it

• Don't post links to your own blog, unless you post a lot of content from other places.

• Don't post links to anyone elses blog, or to a single news source. Ensure that you post from a wide range of sources.

• Don't follow people around on reddit and hassle them

• Don't relentlessly downvote a user

• Don't send out mass PMs

• Don't be a bot, unless you're really really careful, and have the blessing of the admins

• Don't harp on the same subject in your comments

• Don't issue death threats

• Don't post child pornography or anything involving the sexualization of teens

• Don't post sexual material containing unconsenting subjects (for example, revenge porn or upskirt photos)

• Don't abuse or hassle the admins

• Don't post any information that would identify another redditor, including links to other social media sites, unless you have explicit permission from the person involved. (doxxing)

• Don't advocate or encourage doxxing

• Don't ask for doxx, even privately

• Don't post anything asking for votes, from on- or off-site

• Don't respond to a plea for votes, from on- or off-site

• Don't vote in threads you were directed to from another part of reddit

• Don't engage in nuisance reporting

• Don't use multiple accounts to game the voting system

• Don't return to a sub you have been banned from with another account

• Don't use CSS in your sub to subvert reddit's subscription and voting system

• Don't follow links into someone else's subreddit and be a dick

• Don't impersonate another redditor with a name of similar appearance, e.g. /u/LaureIai ("I") for /u/Laurelai ("l")

• Don't be under 13 years of age

• If you're a mod, don't respond to PMs related to moneymaking or promotional offers of any kind. Report them immediately.

• If you're an arsehole, the admins will not give you the benefit of the doubt.

Also, it can't hurt to read the reddiquette: if everyone followed the reddiquette, the site would be more pleasant, and all-around better.

(EDIT) Also, there are some things for which there is weak evidence of triggering a shadowban:

• (weak) Don't use more than one alt within one subreddit

• (weak) Don't submit every link to several subreddits at a time

• (weak) Don't accept moderator invitations to dodgy subreddits

• (weak) Don't comment in threads you came to via a non-organic link (i.e. external site, meta sub, from modmail or PM)

tl;dr Don't spam, shill, doxx, brigade, stalk, game or pederast.

(This is the second copy ... aged pages are here 1)

sdfd

Looking to see if I am banned. Many of my posts didn't even get an upvote.

can you see me?

To those that haven't been following the lovely reddit traditions of admins doing questionable things our sub has been private in protest of the admins' antagonistic and hostile behavior towards its userbase and mods in particular. Alas, we have finally received the "open up or gtfo modmail"... So now without further ado, in the spirit of John Oliver we are now open in read only mode. To those who were expecting to argue with the bot (or about the definition of what a shadowban really is), we are sorry to disappoint.

-----

www.reddit.com/appeal

If you think you are shadowbanned click the appeal link above. If you are able to make an appeal then you are shadowbanned, suspended and/or really unlucky as a lot of shadowbans are mistakes by the admin's already broken system. Do your appeal daily. Check your shadowban status by going to the appeal link.

If it does not let you make an appeal then your Karma is safe (for now).

Be aware that newer accounts and accounts with low or negative karma may automatically have content pulled in many subreddits.

r/NewToReddit is a good place to learn the ropes

r/RedditAlternatives has been a highly relevant community for a good while

support at r/ModCoord

and if you have any complaints feel free to send modmail to https://old.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2Freddit.com

If you are viewing this on the non-official app (BaconReader, Reddit Is Fun, Apollo etc) please know that due to the admins actions they will no longer function properly after July 1st.

Good luck on your appeals.

Steve Harvey: "We asked 100 people, what is the male reproductive organ?" Contestant: "The penis" SH: "A WUH... HUH??" audience erupts into laughter Steve Harvey grabs onto podium to support himself laughter gets even louder SH: O lordy... one man goes into cardiac arrest and many others begin vomiting profusely from laughing too hard SH: YOU PEOPLE NEED HELP the Earth shatters and Satan rises from the underworld to claim unworthy souls the universe begins rapidly closing in on itself SH: (putting on a weary voice) Survey says... the board shows 100 for "penis" Harvey is able to get off one more shocked look before existence as we know it comes to an end

It's difficult. It's really, really, really, really difficult. The admins have deemed you guilty. They did not give you a trial (or if they did they didn't invite you), they didn't provide you a writ of guilt, or even a message informing you of the ban. You just woke up one morning and you found none of your submissions were getting upvotes, downvotes, or comments. You asked around, and got no replies. Eventually you figured out that you've been shadowbanned.

So how do you get un-shadowbanned?

• Check http://nullprogram.com/am-i-shadowbanned/ to make sure that you are actually shadowbanned. I don't want anyone going through the trouble of all this, only to find out they were never shadowbanned.

• Once you have done that, send messages to the admins until you get a reply. No more than one a day, but often enough so that eventually they will respond. I recommend two or three a week at maximum. Don't expect a quick reply, the Admins are very busy and often single messages fall through the cracks.

• This message should include a few very important things. First; your shadowbanned username. Second; a request for an explanation. Third; try to make it respectful. Its a really unfair process, and being respectful makes it more likely they will respond to you. It should pretty much read as:

"Hello! I believe my account [Shadowbanned username here] may have been shadowbanned in error, is it possible that one of the Admins could take a look at my ban and tell me why I was shadowbanned, and perhaps give me a chance to show you why I believe it was in error?

Thank you so much!

[Username Here]

• Keep it up with slight variations of this until you receive a reply. Once they have told you why, think long and hard. Are they right? If so, stop now, and go forward with your alternate account. This isn't a guide to circumventing the rules, its an appeals process.

• If they were in error, prove it. Find the post/messages/comments in question, and use them to, politely, prove your innocence. Take a screenshot and underline key words and phrases. Upload it to imgur and send it as a simple image, the kind that is very difficult to fake. Once you have done that, just keep messaging them. The only advice I can give you from hereon in is persistence. Don't give up.

TL;DR

1) Message Admins asking why you were shadowbanned (politely)

2) Use post/messages/comments in question to prove innocence

3) Keep messaging the Admins, no more than once a day.

Am I?