Reddit

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.