r/canadaguns • u/Rusty_Stahlhelm Mod's Alt. Account • Aug 13 '26
Announcement TOWNHALL Discussion: Proposed Changes to Combat Reddit Admins Banning People Under Sitewide Rule 7
Hey guys:
Over the last few weeks, we've seen a large amount of people banned by Reddit Admins, always citing this same sitewide rule; Rule 7... One of our well known vendors, u/SpectreBallistics, was recently banned, but thankfully their appeal was granted. Unfortunately, one of our mods, u/Cre_AK47 was permanently banned, with their appeal also being denied, so we need to have a Subreddit discussion on how we can mitigate Admin actions because countless people are having their accounts wiped clean because of their comments and posts that are not rule breaking content as per their Reddit's own TOS, are somehow finding themselves being flagged for being in violation of Rule 7...
These are not set in stone, we are open to feedback, but these are the most realistic options the mod team sees as a way to attempt to curve this ban wave. We are also open to any alternative suggestions.
Proposed solutions:
- We ramp up Automod aggressively to either warn, or actively remove content that may be picked up by AI Reddit Admins.
- We try adding a mandatory experimental disclaimer to comments to posts and comments when people make mention of prices, posting links to gun stores, mentioning vendors. We have no idea if this would work, and frankly, it would be a PITA to code into Automod, but it might be worth trying stating explicitly that "This comment/post is NOT A TRANSACTION, SALE OR AN OFFER" in case it is in fact an AI that looks at these "reports".
- All links are banned, except media (YouTube, Reddit, News sites, etc.). Since Reddit admins will literally ban you for linking to a gun safe on a furniture catalogue website, any links are basically not safe if the word "gun" and "link" mix...
- We do nothing and people continue to get banned left, right and centre since Reddit admins love operating on ambiguity and outright lies on external links.
We really don't want to have to do any of this, but admins inaction are forcing us to do something because of their inaction and lack of clarity, never mind saying posting links to legal vendors is good to go, while at the same time, people are getting banned, permanently for doing just that... Also, please stay on topic. We know this is very upsetting, but something needs to change, and it seems it isn't going to be Admin enforcement actions that's going to be changing anytime soon.
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u/SpectreBallistics Spectre Ballistics International (Verified) Aug 13 '26
Regardless of what you do the bans will continue. Reddit does not care.
My ban was reversed by chance. They banned me for saying something was legal, that's it. There's nothing that can be done to combat that stupidity.
Prohibiting links might help. Maybe. But when they ban you for random reasons there's not much you can do.
My opinion, change nothing. New accounts are free and internet points don't matter.
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Aug 13 '26 edited 23d ago
[deleted]
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u/julienjj Aug 14 '26
I was able to get a ban reversed about a comment I made in a WW2 history group. Literally quoting an historical documents 😅
Ai moderation is wild.4
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u/Old-Selection-1012 Aug 14 '26
I remember getting banned from r/Canada because some guy was bait and switching his posts when it came to the topic of Conservatives and reporting people for violating the rules when they would respond to him. I see they're still an active poster and any attempts to point out the hypocrisy were met with finally being blocked on the private chat by the mods and the ban increased everytime I questioned their brain dead decision.
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u/airchinapilot Aug 14 '26
We are talking here about account banning sitewide, not issues with individual sub moderation.
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u/jachojanjandyjavage Aug 13 '26
Reddit trying to silence people who don't think exactly like them is such a Reddit thing.
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u/Rogan403 Aug 13 '26
They've been on a ban spree over the last year and half.
Went 11 years without incident then over the last year and a half i think I've been temporarily banned like 5 or 6 times for exciting violence even though I wasn't. Reddit is really gone to shit unfortunately.
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u/Additional_Fold_1350 Aug 13 '26
Sounds familiar; I receive those for sarcastic comments every few weeks in other subreddits. Mostly for poking fun at snowflakes and obvious trolling, but still. I even got a permanent ban from Canada. Reddit for agreeing with someone who made a borderline offensive comment about certain groups. But it was true, honestly, and I just pointed out that he was right and not full of horse manure.
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u/kestik Aug 14 '26
Same here. I was temp banned for quoting a line from a movie that the thread I was commenting on was about. Inciting violence as well in this case.
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u/scottsuplol Aug 13 '26
I think personally you just ban all links that isn’t a news article or a YouTube review. No sense in loosing the community we all know the big sellers and there are plenty of ways to search for deals.
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u/thxxx1337 Aug 13 '26
I'm glad their stock is tanking
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u/613mitch Aug 13 '26
I think the only appropriate solution is to either move back to or begin a new forum, or encourage migration to a different social media platform.
Reddit has been circling the drain for quite some time.
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u/DougMacRay617 Aug 13 '26
Yeah the migration to somthing else is the best bet, the real question is where to
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u/some_guy2024 Aug 13 '26
CGN for Canada stuff 🤷🏼♂️
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u/outline8668 Aug 13 '26
Oh boy you ever try reading the politics or news sections on CGN? I hate the liberals with my soul but that place gets so far off the deep end I feel secondhand embarrassment for all the cringe.
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u/some_guy2024 Aug 14 '26
Honestly, I don’t. Mostly cause I have no interest in reading people’s takes on that crap. I just read the gun specific sub-forums. There used to be tons of great info and posts before the 2020 bans by that sack of shit Trudeau et al. No reason not to migrate back there and just ignore news and politics 🤷🏼♂️
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u/Plasma_48 Aug 13 '26
I miss the days where individual forums were where communities gathered, they are so much more functional compared to Reddit or discord.
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u/Additional_Fold_1350 Aug 13 '26
All social media platforms have been caught in the Hydrodam whirlpool for a while: Instagram, Facebook, and others. It's all the liberal snowflakes, honestly; common sense seems to be extinct.
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u/IGnuGnat Aug 14 '26
Strongly agree
Let's reverse migrate. Back to Digg it is
It would be kind of hilarious if everyone just left overnight, they way they left Digg
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u/spicymeatmemes Aug 13 '26
reddit admins love operating on ambiguity
Why must we be victims of this online and through legislation
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u/DougMacRay617 Aug 13 '26
You don't have to be, w could just choose to not use this overly censored cess pool of a social media platform
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u/some_guy2024 Aug 13 '26
Honestly, that’s the answer. I’m pretty much only on Reddit for gun stuff. We should all just re-migrate to the appropriate forums: CGN fir Canada stuff, SH for precision arfcom for carbines, etc. Say what you want about CGN but the owner is a legit good guy and a shooter whereas Reddit’s owned by a bunch of garbage investment capital corps 🤷🏼♂️
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u/mywaaaaife Aug 14 '26
Reddit is the largest liberal cesspool on the internet and is heavily moderated as such. You're not getting away from this. Change nothing, carry on.
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u/Bubbafett33 Aug 13 '26
I stopped giving AF about the subs I’m banned from. The reasons given are so eye-roll-worthy and the infraction so minor that I don’t even waste my time appealing it. I have better things to do.
But yes, if Reddit doesn’t get its head out of its collective nether region on who/how/why bans are applied, they’re going to lose a ton of contributors. We’re all the product, after all.
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u/IGnuGnat Aug 14 '26
LOL
I've banned myself from some subs because the mods were complete asses
I once had a mod from onguardforthee ban me because he disagreed with a comment i made, in an entirely different sub. Then he gloated about, that's how I know why i was banned
r/onguardfortheeonlyaslongasyouagreewithme
most un-Canadian sub ever
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u/mokikithesloppy Aug 14 '26
It’s not a subreddit ban - it’s a full account ban.
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u/Bubbafett33 Aug 14 '26
Didn't realize that. Makes it even more assinine for Reddit to ban the folks making their product.
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u/airchinapilot Aug 13 '26
A supporting note: we installed the Admin Tattler module into the moderation tools here after that instance when the author posted a thread asking for research help for the book they were writing.
Someone narced on the author and we only knew they were banned because the author asked for our help (they were eventually reinstated).
Once we installed Admin Tattler it became clear Reddit admin bans were happening frequently, we just didn't know to what extent.
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u/cdn_sentry117 Aug 13 '26
I just got banned 2 days ago aswell. I appealed, and the ban was removed. Is this Reddit that is just banning everyone or is it some evil pricks that don't like the gun community? My message specifically said I was reported. That's sounds to me like there's some upset liberals who are behind this.
With that being said I think your number 1 and 2 ideas are probably a reasonable way to combat further issues. If auto mod could maybe warn people instead of just removing their content posted, then the risk is on the user to continue.
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u/Senior_Mail4090 Aug 13 '26
As a whole its really left leaning basement dweller types. Going no where. I get banned. So be it. Ciao 🤣🤷♂️
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u/Plasma_48 Aug 13 '26
It’s Reddit, I got banned for some absurd satire comments about a different topic. I don’t think anyone is reporting comments, it’s just the site moderators giving an excuse and deflecting blame.
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u/Curious_Joe2020 Aug 13 '26
Just wait until the "lawful access" and censorship regime starts. Posting links to other forums critical of certain government agencies and posting certain information critical of certain agencies also resulted in bans and accounts being nuked and all their content deleted. I think some of it is AI filter based on specific website links and some of it is phrases of keyword content.
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u/OneZookeepergame6427 Aug 13 '26 edited Aug 13 '26
I just got a post banned for trying to help a guy moving out of canada unload his 'stuff' so it doesn't get destroyed.
No mention of link, name, or anything else.
--- This comment/post is NOT A TRANSACTION, SALE OR AN OFFER ---
Let's see if that works.
We might have to post in code to get around the AI crap.
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u/airchinapilot Aug 13 '26
It's approved now. However, I suspect the Reddit AI filter will scrutinize all offers to send a 'D M' to someone in a thread like this. Just my suspicion.
Next time you can send a note to mods. We can change our minds and debate the validity of a comment we remove here in the community but the subject here is about Reddit admin actions.
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u/DougMacRay617 Aug 13 '26
Hmmm.... the most censored platform arbitrarily banning people, what a suprise
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u/Whispersfine Aug 13 '26
They banned me because they THOUGHT I was selling. Luckily I got unbanned but this is truly ridiculous.
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u/Purple-Character8206 Aug 13 '26
I just got banned a few days ago for posting a screenshot of an email for a new store opening in Calgary this weekend. They reversed my ban after appeal. Yet so many others posted similar with no issues. Wild eh?!
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u/TheSockington Aug 13 '26
Feels like a ‘back to the forums’ kind of future in this subreddit. The ol’ SomethingAwful forums get a new life
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u/Plasma_48 Aug 13 '26
I don’t know if referring to yourself as a goon is socially acceptable anymore, or at least even less acceptable than it used to be.
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u/No_Win_9797 Aug 13 '26
I also just had my permanent ban reversed, for mentioning a Canadian hardware/farm surplus store might be the option to purchase something
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u/Remote_Mistake6291 Aug 13 '26
I have been banned twice for the same bogus reason. The first time the appeal was denied and I had to go further up the food chain to have it reversed. The second time they reversed it on the first appeal. Neither time was I selling, offering to sell or telling people where to buy anything illegal. Facebook isn't even this anal. Banning links won't help I fear as I did not post any, just store names.
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u/Master-Editor2668 Aug 13 '26
No one cares just make a new account shoot your mouth off all you want it’s the fucking internet
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u/deepbluemeanies Aug 14 '26
Reddit has a pretty clear, and growing agenda. This is not some organic meeting of minds.
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u/MacintoshEddie Aug 14 '26 edited Aug 14 '26
Is it's just the admin bot detecting it, or is it a continuation of report abuse?
On many subs the reporting gets abused hard by people who either don't like the poster or don't like their content. I can easily imagine some disgruntled people who had bad experiences with a business start reporting any post that mentions the business. Or it's sometimes people outside the sub coordinating efforts to mass report certain issues.
The report option doesn't really make it clear which goes to the sub mods and which goes to the site admins.
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u/airchinapilot Aug 14 '26
It's a combination of both. It is easy for someone to go down a thread and maliciously report. We have seen it through our tools which unfortunately do not tell you which user is reporting.
But also we have seen bans for comments that weren't ever reported that we could see which speaks to AI.
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u/PteSoupSandwich The 10/22 Dude Aug 13 '26
Aye, post and you may be banned. Don’t post and you'll live -- at least a while. And while posting on the toilet many years from now, would you be willing to trade all the days from this day to that for one chance, just one chance to be banned here and tell our enemies that they may take our profiles, but they'll never take our shit posts
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u/Brandon_awarea Aug 13 '26
Everyone makes another account after being unfairly banned. Like really that’s the only solution, everything else is just for show really. The only one I can see working is filtering the links. I’ve started only sharing gun related links in DMs because of this.
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u/mokikithesloppy Aug 14 '26
Could there be an Automod to change the doll-hair symbol into something else, and to replace “be you why” word into something else to help avoid incorrect bans?
(I’m avoiding using the actual word and symbol lest I get perma-banned again…)
I’m fresh off an account-level perma-ban from an alleged “rule 7” violation the other day for a reply made in this sub. Someone asked for model suggestions within a budget, and I replied with 2 non-restricted suggestions. I didn’t post links.
I think in my case the combo of the word “be you why” (sound it out to spell it), combined with the “doll-hair” symbol triggered the rule 7 ban.
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u/tetraacetic Aug 14 '26
I think an aggressive automod that removes content including links, and warns people of potential consequences, is suitable. Mods can have discretion if filtered content should be allowed on the sub or not, and if it is, then the user is left to face potential bans. It's not ideal but if we want to keep this forum alive for critical discussions, we need to walk on eggshells under the assumption that social media platforms like Reddit are not our friend. This is just my opinion and people can chime in and feel free to disagree.
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u/Severe_Frolic8375 Aug 14 '26
Let the site kill itself with censorship, just like Tumblr. Reddit has become a cesspit anyway.
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u/DoYouGetSarcasm Aug 13 '26
Site wide rule 7 expressly allows links to legit business and discussing how to legally obtain firearms (see below quote). But if they're banning us for that there's no way to Mod around it, the admins are just using bad AI or automation to ban people. The auto bans are way over stepping. The admins have their settings wrong.
Im against the mods locking things down to try and avoid the terrible auto bans because it's just a guessing game of how an AI will make mistakes.
From site wide rule 7:
Note: Discussing how to legally access controlled goods or sharing external links to appropriately licensed vendors of legal goods and services are allowed. This includes, for example, licensed pharmacies filling valid prescriptions, licensed vendors of controlled substances, online or offline firearm dealers holding the necessary government-issued license ...
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u/The-Real-Mario Aug 14 '26
Migrate to another website instead of reddit, build bots that replicate every post from that website onto this subreddit, and anyone trying to post on this subreddit gets a message saying ti instead post on the other website
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u/Cre_AK47 Name Prohibited by OIC Aug 17 '26
Townhall discussion has concluded. Should we decide on any additional courses of action, we will let you know.