Reddit

CQS or Contributor Quality Score is a hidden, internal rating system that classifies users from "Lowest" to "Highest" based on their likelihood to contribute positively, rather than spamming or trolling. Increasing this requires time and "human-like" account patterns.

This helps moderators filter content and identify risky accounts using metrics such as account age, verification status, and past violations. However it punishes "new users" for simply posting anything falsely flagging them as bot accounts.

Even if a reddit user has been on the site since it's debut, if the CQS is bad then the account is banned outright, so account age or Karma points is useless. This may be the reason why some give up on reddit since it's a metric difficult to combat against outright.

This is just 5 of the links and their about 10+ links on the subreddit asking for the head mod to step down

https://old.reddit.com/r/MtF/comments/1rwlmqj/fixing/_this/_subs/_image/_problem/_is/_long/_overdue/
https://old.reddit.com/r/MtF/comments/1rwmson/another/_mod/_just/_dropped/
https://old.reddit.com/r/MtF/comments/1rwnjz9/its/_pretty/_clear/_cedar/_wont/_step/_down/_and/_drewie/
https://old.reddit.com/r/MtF/comments/1rwl34a/just/_resign/
https://old.reddit.com/r/MtF/comments/1rwnsuq/dont/_move/_subreddits/_that/_just/_disperses/_pressure/

So WHAT HAPPENED?

So a few days ago a user posted about an ex-mod of the subreddit that was a pedophile, https://archive.ph/jg5u2 . They were calling out Cedarwolf for defending the ex mod basically. The ex-mod is a registered sex offender and people understandably angry about it.

One of the users, crystal-lake gave a whole run down I am just going to copy and paste as it contains most of the content of what is happening:

---
Original thread with context

https://archive.ph/jg5u2

Gallery including CedarWolf's replies from original thread:

https://postimg.cc/gallery/G1X5kfZ

CedarWolfs previous response in /MTF:

https://old.reddit.com/user/crystall-lake/comments/1rwmsnf/cedarwolfs/_original/_response/

CedarWolf's new response in /asktransgender:

https://old.reddit.com/r/asktransgender/comments/1rw2jxc/comment/oaxi1u1/ Chat between me and CedarWolf:

https://old.reddit.com/user/crystall-lake/comments/1rwijqq/chat/_log/_between/_me/_and/_cedarwolf/

Mobile Friendly:

https://old.reddit.com/user/crystall-lake/comments/1rwmjy2/chat/_log/_between/_me/_and/_cedarwolf/_mobile/_friendly/

---

The crisis has gotten bad as most of the mod team has left leaving only 2 moderators left on a subreddit prone to transphobic attack waves and trolls. Elon Musk and various other transphobes have also posted about the situation on twitter. Has been posted and deleted about on various trans affiliated subreddits People are calling for the head mod's removal. Complete chaos.

ADDITION:

Head moderator for r /mtf is stepping down after constant action, what does the future hold? Who knows but chaos reigns on mtf
Post by head mod CedarWolf stepping down

Almost scrolled by their post because it was so stupid and hateful that I just assumed it was a joke. Apparently it wasn't

Ever since abandoning ship I've maintained a negative (1 star) review every time there is an update for the app. My review contained no swearing or anything else that I think would break a rule.

This morning I went to update and found my review gone, and trying to submit a new one fails with a "Server error". I was able to review other apps.

Hey all. I'm here to tell you about my experience getting "shadow-banned" on my 8-year-old Reddit account. Short alike others: https://lemmy.today/post/49087735, https://lemmy.today/post/48784920, https://lemmy.today/post/47876190, https://lemmy.today/post/47779751

Almost smart

I basically stopped using Reddit 3 year ago around the whole "Reddit's killing Thirdparty APPS" but, got sucked back in to a niche health/lookmaxing style Sub that I helped Mod for 10 months.

The day of

About a week ago I'm making posts, commenting, Moding, etc, and interactions stop working strangely lets of red error popups, and the "Important Information About Your Reddit Account" notification, saying "after detecting some technical irregularities on your USER_NAME account, we took the extra precaution of locking your account. To unlock your account, reset your password now."

Figuring it out

So, I reset it via my email and log back in. Worried, but it seem top be working.... then a few hours later the same red banner errors when I try to interact with users. So, I view my account on a logged out browser and it says "account suspended"

What to-do?

After filling out both https://www.reddit.com/appeal & https://support.reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/requests/new?ticket_form_id=360000600232 I waited for an email, Reddit notification..... And got nothing about it.

Now, the current non-signed in status is "This account has been banned" & all posts/comments are removed (Mods can still see them as from u/deleted & manually approve them)

When signed in:

• No banner on my account or reason for being banned.
• All public interactions fail with a Red popup error, and my entire history of posts and comments says "Sorry, this post was removed by Reddit’s filters." or "Removed by Reddit"

Why?

What did I do wrong? Only reddit knows that! We can speculate, but, there is no point really. Reddit's TOS allows them to!

How I feel about it

I feel disrespected, gaslit, lied to, and discriminated against. Sad, angry, depressed, etc... :( You all know the stages of grief.

Reddit pretending there's a technical issue to me, but banning me without even saying it, and removing all my past posts & comments is very disheartening. From my personal experience, Reddit has proven to be largely a waste of time, and very much uninvestable.

Moving forward

Well, I'm not gonna make another Reddit account just for the same thing to happen, that would be me participating in (as I see it) a toxic relationship. I still get other random Reddit notifications (modmail, streak messages, etc) I can't do anything with. It's like Reddit is teasing me now. This guy has a good point https://lemmy.today/post/47176601/22123471

A little help?

Anyway, I know there is a lot of hate for conservative/Christian views around here, so any TIPS on where to find a 'safe space' to be me & express my self, and how to limit/block toxicity would be appreciated.

Maybe this is a sign from God, that my time is better offline.

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.

Well, it may be a “tale as old as time” but here I am… 8 year Reddit veteran with 660K karma as of last week. I had a hella shock a couple of mornings ago when I refreshed the home page only to see a big red banner saying “this account has been permanently banned from Reddit, see your inbox.”

I check my inbox, and there is nothing there. Great.

OK, I’ve had some experience with weird Reddit moderation over the years. I’ve appealed sub bans and been reinstated, or not bothered. I’ve been permabanned from at least one group for saying sarcastic and critical things about Israel (not about Jewish people per se, about Israel the nation state under its current regime). I’ve waited out a week ban without complaining because I did use intemperate language late one evening, or carelessly broke a rule like “all top comments must include a link to a published paper”.

But a permaban from the entire platform?? That came as a real shock. And there was no explanation. I could see that one of my comments from the evening before had been deleted, but I have no memory of the content of that particular comment; I think I was saying something angry or critical about the US/Israel attack on Iran, but I don’t recall it being particularly fiery or profane.

A day or so later the message finally landed, telling me that my account had been banned because of “repeated violations of policy by other accounts that you own.” (Emphasis mine). This was really baffling — I have never had any other Reddit accounts, just the one I’ve been using these 8 years. I tried an appeal, explaining that I was bewildered and had no alt accounts. The appeal was flatly denied w/in 24 hours. So that was that. No other recourse. I have been excommunicated.

This raises all the usual questions about Reddit governance. It feels very arbitrary and opaque. There is no due process, no jury of one’s peers, and evidence is destroyed (comments deleted rather than just hidden from everyone other than mods and the original commenter). There is no proper explanation of what caused the ban, no debrief. It’s a bit like the cops arresting you because of something they say they found in your car, but they’ve removed and destroyed the thing they claim to have found :-). And you can’t remember every single bit of junk you kept in your car so you have no idea what it was that triggered the arrest.

Anyway, kissing g’bye to 8 years of content — and karma that I earned the hard way, 5 and 10 and 100 upvotes at a time, not by karma farming — is hard, like losing a carefully crafted RPG character after putting in hundreds of hours of campaign. I have enjoyed Reddit over the years and it’s oddly saddening to be thrown out so abruptly and with no explanation.

If anyone’s still reading at this point :-) I’d like to know whether other people have had this same experience. If you have not been posting racist/misogynist/homophobic drivel, threats, obscenities, scams etc — and yet you suddenly got axed for no clear and explicit reason, then we’re in the same boat. Are there any theories about why/how this happens? Is this the malice of specific humans, or some kind of automodding gone badly wrong?

I’m kinda done with Reddit at this point because of this incident. I don’t see the point in creating a new account (which I guess is technically a rule violation in and of itself) only to have to walk on eggshells wondering at what point some random statement of my opinions is going to get me exiled to Siberia again. Hence I’m giving Lemmy a try. The community is much smaller but several of my interests are represented and … perhaps… it’s a more transparent and sensible moderation model?

An investigation into the AI bots that appeared on Reddit after they partnered with OpenAI.

Key points:

• The bots post a lot of links to products and services which appear to be adverts but are not marked as such.
• Many of these links are for Sam Altman’s World ID.
• Reddit added terms on AI advertising to their business page around the time the bots appeared.
• The bots also make up stories about dead mothers, depression, drug addiction, eating disorders, medical conditions and mental health issues.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/43953278

After spending multiple hours on reddit putting up with karma limits and a 1 comment/10 minutes limit, I discovered I was shadow-banned for using a VPN the whole time!

I've also had some quite unfair removals of posts (in my pov) and bans after trying to re-post it without the part that is supposedly against their rules. Ex: making a post about 'y medication causes side-effect x', post gets removed for misinformation, because the moderator doesn't believe it's caused by the medication. Even after I provide some supporting studies. I re-word the post to 'I had this side effect x from this medication y, it could be rare and might not happen to you', and post it again. I get permanently banned for spam.

Felt like he couldn't accept that he is in the wrong/ that it's a possible side-effect of his beloved medication.

I was utterly frustrated at the time, since I wanted to warn others about the serious side-effect and be heard and not dismissed for what happened to me. I PM the mod about how he is a power-abusing (/power-hungry), egotistical (and possibly dumb, since he might not have understood how the medication can cause such side-effects even after explaining it to him, lol) person for not being able to admit that he is in the wrong. Because instead of discussing it and replying to the evidence I provided, he deleted the post. And also deleted any subsequent remakes that would "follow the rules better". No profanity outside of the insults I outlined here.

Stupid decision, I know, lol. But I just, in the heat-of-the-moment, wanted to stick it to him.

I also went (unwisely) to rant some about it onto a few other subreddits. I get a site-wide temp ban. Feeling frustrated I go on an alt a good while later to make a post that is worded very differently. Well, I end up site-wide permabanned for evasion (who would have guessed?). Stupid choices, I know, in hindsight.

But yeah, I don't have the motivation anymore to suck up to these mods and the system. Having to put so much effort into gaining karma at first and then having to tiptoe around and make sure you don't offend the mods. Having to follow such strict rules in each subreddit when you are trying to help other people benefit from your own experiences. And reddit freely using all the content you post for their own goals of data-scraping, profiling etc. anyway. Just taking any effort you put in and not valuing you at all for it. Also, the echo-chamber nature of it all.

I don't want to put up with it anymore. (For now at least, lol)

I understand why I got the penalties I got, now in hindsight. But I still think it's pretty unfair to get such harsh penalties so quickly for a situation that seems so nuanced.

Reddit feels almost like an abusive relationship at times. Where you are not being listened to and often not respected, but are expected to follow a huge number of changing rules, tiptoe around, and please the abuser and their whims. Lmao

Rant over

Edit: Oh, and I forgot to mention, they've removed all the subreddits or channels for any complaints against moderation on reddit. There used to be subreddits like r/moderationmediation and others where you could complain about and try to get help against (bad) moderation. But all those channels and subreddits have been banned! But of course there are tons of subreddits and channels for moderators themselves to got to for help and support, that are still very much up and running, a ton of them! r/modsupport, some subreddits for new moderators, for discussing moderation cases and 10's more! And these definitely have basically only one viewpoint represented, from the moderator side.

Edit 2: Also, if you think that I deserve the bans or just acted foolishly on my end, please do tell me and explain why etc. I just ask you to be respectful. I'm completely open to that after balancing out from the emotions.

Reddit has quietly removed nearly all avenues for users to provide direct feedback to the platform. Traditional support channels, appeals, and human contact points have been replaced with automated systems, and even r/RedditFeedback is no longer monitored by Reddit staff. This shift reflects a broader trend in large platforms moving toward automation over user communication, raising concerns about transparency, accountability, and long‑term community trust.

Reddit has quietly removed nearly all avenues for users to provide direct feedback to the platform. Traditional support channels, appeals, and human contact points have been replaced with automated systems, and even r/RedditFeedback is no longer monitored by Reddit staff. This shift reflects a broader trend in large platforms moving toward automation over user communication, raising concerns about transparency, accountability, and long‑term community trust.

I sold my shares a while ago as it seemed like it was in Vibe territory. Most people seem to think it was going to be some sort of AI super trainer. I was\am a little more skeptical.

Any way after today's permaban I'm even taking it's ticket off my watch list lol

I’m honestly confused about what Reddit is doing with their AI filters now. I tried posting in r/help a while back because I needed actual help, and the post got removed instantly. The mod message said something about “AI‑generated content,” even though I wrote it myself.

So I rewrote it in my own words, shorter, more casual. Removed again.

Tried one more time. That time I got banned and muted from the subreddit. No human review, no appeal, nothing. Just “you’re banned.”

The rules didn’t say anything about AI. I wasn’t breaking any rule. I wasn’t spamming. I wasn’t being rude. I literally just wanted help. And now I’m permanently banned from the one place that’s supposed to help people.

Has anyone else had Reddit’s AI moderation just nuke everything you write, even when it’s your own words? Is this normal now?

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/43509766

Just curious. I think the odds have gone up quite a bit, and if that happens, we'd potentially see a glut of people. I'm sure they must be watching this.

Everytime I try to waste my time on Reddit I am quickly reminded why I don't waste my time on reddit. That is all 🫡

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/43229202

I made this comment:

The executions of top Republicans are a necessity: Nuremberg 2.0. Not enough Confederate officials were punished as traitors.

It was removed and I was given a warning. On a whim I decided that "the system" might actually work so I made a straightforward argument that:

Arguing for Congress to initiate an inquisition as to who has failed the country and when, with the capacity to institute the death penalty, is within legally mandated freedom of speech.

And very quickly, my comment's removal was overturned.

The federal government has been usurped by a minority of White evangelical christians around a nazi-style fascist.

Not enough confederates were put to death. We have to stop making the mistake of failing to hold these people accountable.

Trump raped children.

Frankly I wish I had saved the text I used to submit the appeal. Oh well. It's my reddit cake day and I'm still in favor of burning reddit to the ground but that doesn't mean there isn't work available there for the enterprising shitposter.

I had two Reddit accounts for 10+ years, never received a ban on either account, even a temp ban. One was only for NSFW, weed and music discussion, the other was used much more broadly.

In the last few months I got banned on my primary account 3 times, twice for 3 days and once for 7 days.

All of the comments I was banned for were 100% factual, not specifically directed at any user, short and to the point but anti-Nazi/ICE/Fascism/Trump/Pedo in their content.

Reddit claimed I incited violence and harassed individuals, ultimately claimed because I had two accounts I was participating in ban evasion.

After this happened I created another account using a different internet connection, device, email, browser type, and VPN, it was banned in <5 hours for… ban evasion!

So fuck Reddit, they are complicit in all the nonsense going on and banning people for commenting about it.