It’s been a long time since I’ve been ban from Reddit in May so it’s been over a month. Could it be possible that they just forget who you are. I found one post talking about getting permanently ban that was 5 months old on an account still active. What ways could I get around a Reddit ban? Probably like use an email that doesn’t use my name I guess and don’t be too obvious. But yeah Reddit has permanently ban me and I’ve basically tried everything I could with other accounts. So there does seem to be a way around the Reddit ban and it seems like partly luck and making sure Reddit doesn’t remember you.
I don’t use reddit anymore, but I’ve had plenty of accounts banned there, mostly for arguing with sock puppets and tankies and stuff who will stalk your account and mass report anything that can be construed as even remotely violating the rules. Or one of the power mods just back channels the admins, who will ban based on that alone, no questions asked.
The key is, you need to create your new account on a separate computer (so the browser fingerprint they get is unrelated), use a VPN for the creation, build up enough karma to get past the automated systems (answering stuff on AskReddit was usually my go to, but don’t spam, take your time and give thoughtful answers) then make sure you use strong anti-fingerprinting settings on your browser on whayever device you plan on using. Possibly use a different third-party app on your phone (though I dunno how well this works since the API changes). Boost worked well for me, and Bacon Reader. And obviously delete your browser/app cache if you eventually use your main device.
Also, when you create your new account, sub to a bunch of shit you normally wouldn’t, if you’re not a sports fan sub to a baseball subreddit, avoid subbing to any niche subreddits you had on your old account for a while. Try to be bland and unremarkable in your choices.
The key is to avoid as many connected data points to your old account as possible until you’re pretty well established as “someone else”. Avoid attracting too much attention, and have multiple accounts that live on separate devices (I had one that I used on my phone only, and usually only when not at home so it was a separate IP) and one I used at home. Then a couple created on a laptop that were just kind of aging, just in case.
That might seem like great lengths to circumvent a ban, but I have a thing about abuse of power where it just kind of sticks in my craw, plus getting one over on the reddit admins was fun and I was curious exactly how deep their profiling went. I left the site on my terms eventually, which puts a smile on my face.
They are banning VPNs as well if I am not wrong, I created multiple accounts on reddit and all of them were banned after a while and I hadn’t even done anything except try and stay anon :(
Is it possible to just hide the computer or to try and mask it as something else?
That’s kind of what the anti-fingerprinting settings in browsers are meant to do. A lot of the info that sites like reddit and many others use to identify you are based on browser settings and data. This is stuff like your canvas/monitor size, timezone, browser/OS version etc. Note that not all browsers have anti-fingerprinting settings.
Anti-fingerprinting isn’t perfect though, it’s just one tool to help scramble your identifiable info a bit. Ironically, really strict security settings themselves can also be used as a unique identifier, because you basically stand out against the crowd of normal users as an anomaly, so it’s a double-edged deal.
That’s why I recommend using a different computer to create the account and don’t use the official reddit app at all, make sure that the browser cache and cookies for the reddit site are wiped before going to create the account. If you can’t use a VPN, you’ll maybe want to go to a cafe or somewhere public to create ypur account. That first IP that reddit sees seems to be most important, once you establish yourself on that IP for a bit, you can potentially start using your home network.
The reason your other accounts got banned together was because reddit was able to link them closely enough that they IDed them as alts. They collect data and build up a correlation, your aim is to make it difficult as possible for them to correlate separate accounts.
This is all just trial and error by me though, I’m no expert and we can’t know for sure all the efforts reddit takes to ID users, I can only speak for what worked for me ~1 year ago or so. I’d read up on browser fingerprinting to get an idea of how that tracking works and how to combat it (it’s actually really gross and distressing to anyone concerned with privacy).
Alternatively, you could leave your router off all night and see if you can get a new public IP, though you may need to ask your ISP to issue you a new public IP address. They might not do it without justification, but that would go a long way to giving you a fresh start, especially with the other measures I’ve outlined.
hey, thank you very much for the detailed reply!