TOWNHALL Discussion: Proposed Changes to Combat Reddit Admins Banning People Under Sitewide Rule 7

[u/Rusty_Stahlhelm]

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:

1. We ramp up Automod aggressively to either warn, or actively remove content that may be picked up by AI Reddit Admins.
2. 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".
3. 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...
4. 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.

[u/SpectreBallistics]

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.

[u/julienjj → u/[deleted]]

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.

[u/Old-Selection-1012 → u/[deleted]]

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.

[u/airchinapilot → u/Old-Selection-1012]

We are talking here about account banning sitewide, not issues with individual sub moderation.

[u/jachojanjandyjavage → u/SpectreBallistics]

Reddit trying to silence people who don't think exactly like them is such a Reddit thing.

[u/Rogan403 → u/SpectreBallistics]

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.

[u/Additional_Fold_1350 → u/Rogan403]

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.

https://giphy.com/gifs/joxThEgTJuSBO

[u/kestik → u/Rogan403]

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.