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/cdn_sentry117]

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.

[u/Plasma_48 → u/cdn_sentry117]

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.

[u/IGnuGnat → u/Plasma_48]

The AI flags some stupid shit