Account bans on Reddit

I wanted to share my open-source solution on Reddit. I created an account, found a community where people post links to their projects, and posted a link to my GitHub project there. The post was immediately deleted, and my account was banned.

It turns out you first need to write normal comments and posts without links to make it seem like you’re a regular user who isn’t trying to promote anything. Only then can you post a link.

Okay, so I registered a new account from a different IP address and immediately wrote three comments. The account was banned.

It turns out that before posting comments, you need to wait a few days, and then post 1–2 comments per day.

That’s exactly what I did. I created a new account, gradually posted comments, and everything was fine. I made a post that had been popular on other platforms, without any links. A minute later, someone wrote that it was AI slop. The post was deleted, and the account was banned.

It turns out that if your post is longer than two paragraphs, is well-formatted, and contains no errors, the moderators or algorithms will determine that it’s AI-generated. And generated text leads to account bans.

Lesson learned. I create a new account, write comments, then short posts, adding mistakes to the text. I try to write them in the first person, rather than as an article or essay. Everything’s fine — the posts aren’t being deleted. I publish a post with a link to the project, and the account gets banned.

Hmm, what if, instead of posting in someone else’s community, I just create my own community? I create a new account, set up a community, and publish a post with a link there. The community gets deleted, and my account gets banned.

But how come other people can post links to their GitHub projects without any problems, and their accounts don’t get banned?

I talked to moderators from various communities and other Reddit users. They all advised me to first earn 1k karma and only then post links. I was also advised to sign up through the mobile app, as that would make my account seem more trustworthy.

So that’s what I did. I installed the app on my phone, created an account, and made posts and left comments. Within a month, I reached 1k karma. I created a post with a link to another one of my GitHub projects. The post was sent for manual review. I waited several hours, but the community moderators hadn’t reviewed the post yet. An hour later, my account was banned.

I didn’t try to create any new accounts. Reddit users never got to learn about my projects, which might have interested them.