an experience with reddit

[osprey]

This post is a tale of an experience I had with reddit. It's a longish read because it was a drawn out saga, but may be of interest to some readers. The account names are changed to protect the innocent.

About 6 weeks I ago I tried to log into my reddit account: fluffybird, but received a message back that my details were incorrect. On repeating the details, which I believed were correct, the same failure to login occurred. After a few more attempts, I gave up and chose to login as a new user, which meant opening a new account. When choosing to do that, reddit presented a suggested login name, something like: archeologist-321.

With the new username, I used the same email address as my original fluffybird account to verify the new account.

When I returned to login with the new account name: archeologist-321, with the new password I'd set, the login failed.

At this point, I wrote to reddit and described the problems with failure to login. They replied with this:

Thanks for writing in! We’re sorry you’re experiencing trouble with the site, but we’ll look into it
and reach out if we need any more information. In the meantime, we recommend logging in to the site or ensuring your script is connected via oAuth to regain access.

Cheers!

Well, I couldn't log in, but reddit was suggesting I log in. This is the nature of automated pro forma responding I guess. I thought I'd try and induce a more fitting response, so wrote:

Why would you ask me to login to the reddit site when I've specifically told you that it's exactly that process that I cannot do? That's why I wrote to you in the first place.

I hope you can sort it out because I cannot login for some unfathomable reason to me that your security has imposed. Do you get that?

fluffybird
archeologist-321

This time reddit responded with the following:

Hi there,

Thanks for submitting a request through Reddit Help.

At Reddit, we’re always watching out for your privacy, safety, and security. After detecting some technical irregularities on the account associated with this email address, we took the extra precaution of locking your account.

We are reviewing your issue now and will work to recover your account as quickly as possible. Please note that your account may not be able to be recovered, if this is the case, you will need to create a new account.

If you are writing to tell us that your email is being used for an account that you did not create, respond with:
NOT MY ACCOUNT

If you get a message saying your account doesn’t exist when you try to log in, respond with:
ACCOUNT DOESN’T EXIST

If you don’t remember adding an email address to your account or don’t have access to your email address anymore, respond with:
CAN’T ACCESS EMAIL ADDRESS

If you haven’t received a password reset email, respond with:
NO PASSWORD RESET EMAIL

If you’re being asked to enter a 6-digit code from your authenticator app, but you never set up two-factor authorization, respond with:
NOT MY 2FA
This email is a service from Reddit Support.

Reading this, the problem appeared to be with my email address. I speculated that since I'd used the same email address for 2 accounts now, fluffybird and archeologist-321, that this had signalled something malicious at reddit like a possible attack brewing from one email account, odd as that may seem.

In response to the email problem stated, I thought I'd try and open an account using another email address which I hadn't used with reddit before. This third account, after fluffybird and archeologist-321, was stuffybird, and went through the process of verification at the new email address. However, when trying to login with stuffybird at reddit, it failed again. In response to this third login failure, and the reddit suggestion that there was a problem with my email address, I wrote the following:

Thank you for your reply. I don't know whether to repeat the information I provided in my earlier email. You said there was a problem with my email address, without providing any evidence. So, I tried to open a new account from another email address, <....>@gmail.com, but that failed also! So your account that there is a problem with the email address is not convincing, rather, you may have a problem with the IP address since that's the common element in the three reddit accounts I've created. However, there are no problems with the IP address. It has not been hijacked, misused, or mishandled in any way, and my ISP can confirm that. Their confirmation is good evidence, but you provided no evidence. It seems you just operate a bot to automatically close accounts according to some algorithm which in my case has failed to determine the lack of anything bad at all. None of the conditions which you suggested I use in reply are relevant to my case. When I couldn't log in with my original login name: fluffybird, I tried different things to try and get into reddit, but they all failed, so my contributions to reddit could no longer be provided to the lists that I read. What I hope is that some human intervention will simply restore my single fluffybird account. The other accounts that failed can be discarded and I'm not interested in using any of them. Is anyone actually reading this?

After a pause in the correspondence without any reply to my last email from reddit, I decided to have another attempt at stimulating some useful action, so wrote:

I'm writing again to ask you to review my case and restore my fluffybird account. I've provided a very reasonable account of the issues, and there has been absolutely no malware of anything of a negative nature associated with my case, and you have provided absolutely no evidence of any problem at all. If you or your algorithm or AI are going to reject my request for restoration, then you show yourself in all respects to be mistaken and dysfunctional in relation to the protection of your site. Reddit has simply over-reached in the area of security in this case and shown itself to not care about individuals, which is a great shame. Organisations can be better than that and have review procedures to amend their inappropriate and dysfunctional behaviour. My guess is that this will only be read by some application in the first instance, so I ask the application or AI to pass it on to a human who can make a proper assessment of the situation and contact me for appropriate details on the matter.

fluffybird

There was no reply to this last message, and I felt some grief over having been locked out of a forum that I had benefited from by reading posts from some very knowledgeable and informed posters, and also contributed to with a modest number of contributions of my own. There had been nothing inappropriate from my end in relation to any of the accounts that I'd created with reddit, so the sense of injustice at having been locked out on spurious grounds, was quite strong. I continued to read the reddit forums of interest. Reddit attracts a great variation in quality of posts, so it can be like panning for specks of gold with a lot of tailings that are best discarded.

About a month after the last correspondence with reddit, just out of curiosity, I decided to try and log in with my original account, fluffybird, just to let their servers know that I still existed. To my surprise, the login opened my account! How on earth could I explain that? I could hardly believe it, so I logged out, and logged in again to see if it worked again. It did!

Thinking about the saga, I speculated that perhaps the final request I made for the application or AI to contact a human was indeed made, and that person restored my account after reading the relevant details. That could be a fantasy of course, but I'm not bothering to bother reddit for a proper explanation. Maybe the AI was smart enough to see the situation and make the change.

 

[Condobloke]

I am so glad, I am not the only suffering at the hands of boofheads/ai robotics/algorithms.gone.wrong.com/ and various other saga causers, who are described in language not fit for this forum (nor any other)

Ebay comes to mind. AN item I wished to buy. Searched for it and found it. Cheap $4.00. clicked to buy. price instantly skyrocketed to $38 !
Report it said the person I eventually got to.....they use "listing variation" said he (expecting me to know what he meant)

Listing variation is where instead of listing just the one item, they list two items. The one that shows when searched for is the real deal.....what you searched for. But, when you click on it to buy it, its price elevates, markedly !.
The second item ?...is usually a cheap dishcloth/lens cleaner cloth which sells for$4.00.

So, Ebay set up the trickery involved, and the sellers (who are so inclined) take advantage of it.

Reporting it: https://www.ebay.com.au/help/action?topicid=4022
Studiously fill out what is required (as long as I dont use more than 1,000 characters).....eventually click on Submit.....only to be told 'There has been an error, please try again later'
This is the case via 3 browsers....so no accident

I struggle to find another 'inroad'....somewhere else to voice my disgust, that will actually reach ears at ebay which will listen.

 

[theLegionWithin]

I struggle to find another 'inroad'....somewhere else to voice my disgust, that will actually reach ears at ebay which will listen.

post it publicly - like, to their twitter profile or something. companies cant have bad press, it'll get addressed asap

 

[CaffeineAddict]

I once contacted reddit about inability to use my account due to moderation issue but no response made me not use it, and I don't think I'll ever try again creating an account there.

Luckily my account was new so I had nothing to regret.

 

[Brickwizard]

I bailed from Reddit a while back due to the toxicity of some members

 

[balenshah]

reddit killed the fora...it is so sad to see a monopoly.

 

[Trml]

I had a similar experience, other than I did not try to reach out via email. My original account was disabled after a year+ being unused, no password reset worked, a new account with the same email allowed to sign up and do a (totally uncontroversial) post but was deleted/login failed already when I returned to the thread the next day. On return the site bot suggested to create yet another new account, so at least it was an opportunity to ignore.

I think the reddit decline shows in search results these days. It's much less linked threads (at least for topics I search); just a matter of time until its irrelevant.

 

[f33dm3bits]

I got called a corporate shill for pre-ordering a triple AAA game after creating a post about it in r/linux_gaming. That's when I deleted my account cause people can't even be happy for your anymore that you ordered a game that you look forward to, they only have mostly something negative to say about it.

 

[Ear Ut Ated]

Okay! I have been having this problem, only I can't access the site AT ALL from my laptop. Their bot keeps giving the same canned scripted response. I am going to do as you did and see what happens! I can access it from my phone and tablet, but if I am interacting in comments I much prefer the laptop because I despise a touch screen keyboard and small screen of a hand held device. Wish me luck!

 

[Condobloke]

Reddit have a 'set in stone' approach to things which their bot diesn't understand.

I have received the "you've been blocked by network security' thing a number of times.

All i have done is, I have closed the page, totally.

Clicked on my shortcut again to reopen reddit, clicked on login....entered the correct username and password, and in the vast majority of cases, i am logged in. I have learned not to rush after entering password etc....gotta give the bot time to think.

On one occasion, I chose to click on 'forgot password'

went through that process. This gives the bot the opportunity to "re evaluate you', to check you over...satisfy itself that you are genuine again ....the problem has disappeared again since then.

I can only imagine the crud that the reddit site has to put up with. Huge number of members = an equally huge number of non members trying to access the site (for nefarious reasons)

 

[Ear Ut Ated]

Reddit have a 'set in stone' approach to things which their bot diesn't understand.

I have received the "you've been blocked by network security' thing a number of times.

All i have done is, I have closed the page, totally.

Clicked on my shortcut again to reopen reddit, clicked on login....entered the correct username and password, and in the vast majority of cases, i am logged in. I have learned not to rush after entering password etc....gotta give the bot time to think.

On one occasion, I chose to click on 'forgot password'

went through that process. This gives the bot the opportunity to "re evaluate you', to check you over...satisfy itself that you are genuine again ....the problem has disappeared again since then.

I can only imagine the crud that the reddit site has to put up with. Huge number of members = an equally huge number of non members trying to access the site (for nefarious reasons)

Nice advice IF it even gave an option to sign in. It doesn't even allow that. And it doesn't matter if I go by book mark, or clicking a link, or even just manually typing it in and it doesn't matter what browser. I get the reject message pictured above telling me to submit a ticket if I need help. LOL

 

[Condobloke]

Do you have a vpn?...if so, use it

 

[Condobloke]

Also, if you have 'upset' reddit on any previous occasion.... do not do it again

Think before you proceed. A new gmail address could be the solution for you. (they are free and takes minutes to set up)

 

[Ear Ut Ated]

Also, if you have 'upset' reddit on any previous occasion.... do not do it again

Think before you proceed. A new gmail address could be the solution for you. (they are free and takes minutes to set up)

I'll try the VPN and tell you what happens. I have not upset Reddit in any way. I do not use gmail for anything. I have a gmail, but it's just associated with YouTube. I dislike the way google shoves their nose up my rear end at every turn.

 

[Ear Ut Ated]

Also, if you have 'upset' reddit on any previous occasion.... do not do it again

Think before you proceed. A new gmail address could be the solution for you. (they are free and takes minutes to set up)

Just updating this. The VPN made no difference, however I realized Barnes and Noble blocked me and that was due to a "do not track" setting. I turned that off and was allowed, so I started checking different settings for Reddit and the "motion sensor" was set to block. I changed that to allow and suddenly I could access the site. It seems like suddenly sites have decided if we opt out of certain intrusions they will block the user. Knowing that I will just have to remain blocked. LOL I won't be changing my settings for these nosey Nellies.

 

[Trml]

Knowing that I will just have to remain blocked.

I can resonate with that. Earlier you wrote you can access from the phone/tablet, while only the PC with settings did not work. As a thought: What you can do on a PC is use a browser that supports multiple profiles (with different settings). It's a little inconvenient, but no issue other than ram usage, and something a phone browser usually does not support.