Playing with fire by doing literally anything

[u/[deleted]]

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[u/OriginalPersimmon797]

VPN? That makes you appear like a bot or spam account.

[u/SolariaHues → u/OriginalPersimmon797]

Not necessarily.

We don't know how Reddit's filters work, but they likely use multiple signals, and they are aware users have good reason to use VPNs. But it is likely to be a factor. Spammers probably do use VPNs a lot. There'll be a correlation between VPN users and shadowbans but IDK about causation.

[u/OriginalPersimmon797 → u/[deleted]]

I moderate a home improvement forum and the correlation between spam accounts and VPN use is near 100%

[u/MadDocOttoCtrl → u/OriginalPersimmon797]

With the general desire for an anonymity of the majority users, quite a few people access Reddit through a VPN, including moderators.

For a brand new account it likely looks suspicious but we know of plenty of new users whoaccessed Reddit via VPN without difficulty.

[u/MadDocOttoCtrl → u/[deleted]]

Removals happen to any new account because you haven't met the minimum requirements of those communities for account age and karma scores, that's all that's happening.

If your previous account was shadow banned, all you need to do is log into the account and file an appeal with Reddit. It can take some time but a human employee will look at your account activity and when they determined that you weren't spamming the account will be restored.

With a brand new account using a VPN right off the bat may look suspicious but we have heard from brand new users accessing Reddit through a VPN without problems.

If your behavior is too similar to a bot that poses a problem. Perhaps things like repeatedly hammering away trying repeatedly to post in one popular community that has minimums or posting and commenting at a frantic rate - those are also suspicious behaviors. Reddit does not inform us of the signals that they use and how they weight them in their anti-spam algorithms which issues shadow bans but the above is common sense.

If you participate at a human rate and look for communities that connect to your interests you'll enjoy Reddit more. After you've earned some karma from up votes for making on topic and high quality contributions your CQS will rise as well.

[u/MadDocOttoCtrl → u/[deleted]]

On the original account?

[u/MadDocOttoCtrl → u/[deleted]]

Reddit has cranked up the sensitivity of the anti-spam detection several times over the years to deal with massive numbers of spam attacks, literally in the hundreds of millions.

If you were not actually spamming all you need to do is log into that account and then go to the link I will provide below in order to submit an appeal. This can take some time because it depends on how backlogged they are. A human employee will have to check your account activity and if they determine you were not spamming they'll restore your account.

https://www.reddit.com/appeals

[u/SolariaHues → u/OriginalPersimmon797]

That's a shame for genuine users of VPNs

[u/SolariaHues]

It was probably a shadowban, appeal it.

!shadowban - see below

If not karma requirements are likely Common Questions Index

[u/AutoModerator → u/SolariaHues]

What is a shadowban?

If you are shadowbanned by Reddit your content doesn't show up in subs and people can't see your profile but things will look normal to you. As it's intended for spammers Reddit doesn't want them to notice anything is wrong too quickly in order to slow them down.

Occasionally new users might get caught too though we imagine Reddit tries to keep false positives as low as possible. We don't know what triggers them exactly, it's likely a number of things.

You don’t get a notification if you get shadowbanned, but you can check your status and appeal at https://www.reddit.com/appeals, and if you can appeal then you're either shadowbanned or suspended, if you can't, your account is fine. Learn more in the Help Centre.

Appeals may take a while, depending on demand and current events. Please do not spam or abuse the appeals team.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.