The reason that users are "quietly" banned is because of how simple it is to create a new account. If you told the user immediately that they were banned, they'd simply go and make a new account.

I'm 95% certain this implementation is used as a buffer for spam.

With digg, they really have no choice. Your account is tightly bound to your email and IP, so it's really difficult to go out and make a new account. Digg kicks you in the ass, rather than putting a "cone of silence" over your head. I honestly like reddit's system way better. The ease of registration adds a lot of benefits to the user experience.

I hear what you are saying so I'm not against reddit in anyway. But I'm not a spammer and I the majority of submits I've made come from my digg subs.

Anyways I've deleted my account maybe one day I'll come back, and take heed to your advice and contribute more time and effort to be a top notch reddit user, but for now, digg & twitter eats up most of my time. Thanks for your response it's much appreciated

"I'm 95% certain this implementation is used as a buffer for spam."

I suspect that you're correct, because the same thing happened to me some time ago and I just kept submitting as if it weren't happening and before long, everything went back to normal.

And, as I mentioned on twitter, your poll offers no choice to voice opinion in your opposition.

Like it or not, the inability to voice dissent is a form of censorship.

For posterity's sake, here's what the poll currently asks:
Does Reddit Sux?
* Never used it never will
* Yes I got banned too!
* Don't like the content
* Too much spam on reddit
* Digg is better

How about a less-biased poll?

Anyway, I think all of the social news and bookmarking sites have their problems that you just have to learn to live with.

Update the poll sorry to sound so bias, just a little ticked due to the ban factor

@undacted,

It's his blog he can make the poll however he likes. Just like reddit deleting submission you don't think that is a form of censorship?

At least he is allowing you to comment here. I see why the poll is biased and see nothing wrong with that as a matter of making a point.

hurrrrr

Poll question: What is Gerald Weber's middle name?
* Idiot
* Retard

It's my comment, so I can make this poll as skewed as I like.

If the ballot for the United States' presidency only included republicans, don't you think people would be mildly upset?

And, no, I still stand by the opinion that "censorship" on reddit is insignificantly small, and significantly justified, when related to the censorship seen on digg.

Digg admins use many forms of censorship. They use the mystifying promotional algorithm as their scapegoat to keep things off the front page. Kevin Rose promised in 2007 to implement a "bury bin" where buried stories could be revived if they got enough attention, but of course that was never implemented, because censorship methods would have to be more obvious. They now simply tell you, "this didn't reach the front page because users buried it."

And it's similar in the comments. The admins can put a ban on you, with the only notification being that "other users reported your activity as inappropriate."

Sure, they *could* delete things of yours, but then they couldn't blame it on the users. They prefer having things hidden in the backstage. Of course, that's terrible from the user standpoint.

So, even if you don't like my opinion about reddit censorship, you can at least admit that the users and admins have it set up in such a way that at least you have PROOF that things are banned. This is not the case on digg, and that is very worrisome.

Also, I admit to being part of the censorship engine. For instance, I was contacted today by a user who was being harassed by a user who made several extremely inflammatory comments (topics such as tracing her activity through the internet to find her address, hunt her down, and rape her family, etc.), and similar submissions. I had no hesitation in banning the comments and submissions, and I needed the help of other moderators to do so. In such a case, you absolutely do NOT want such a user to be aware that they have been banned, because then they could potentially go on a rampage, or harass through other mediums.

I understand why you might feel bad about getting banned "invisibly," but there are certainly many instances where such a system has benefits. For example, spam, or harassment.

But there's absolutely nothing wrong with creating a new account. Reddit users are treated almost as equals. 'Elite' members often create new accounts after ditching old ones, and they get treated just the same.

I honestly believe that you should let go of this "issue." As the saying goes, "it's not a bug, it's a feature." You're far too boiled up about this. There are so many benefits of the invisiban that you seem to be overlooking. Complaining about it doesn't help.

But it sure did bring traffic to your article, and you guys all seem to be in the blogging biz for the money, so who the fuck am I to judge? But I do think that, morally, you should just drop it.

Wow! thanks for the name calling you sure showed me.

Also I'm not in the blogging business for money.

Please leave more over the top comments showing your internet god status to the world.

The original post did bring lots of traffic because I posted it on SEJ the premiere SEO industry leading blog. It always gets tons of traffic. Seemed to be like the best way to expose the shenanigans going on over at reddit. ;-)

If you read my SEJ post in it's entirety I also state that I understand why some social sites need to be able to ban users and I think the kind of harassment you described (a user threatening and over the top trolling) is justifiable reason for banning a user , but in my instance and the instance of many of my friends was much different. We weren't harassing others and we weren't spamming.Many people are submitting content thinking they are participating on reddit when they are not.

To me blogging, social media and the like is about sharing "quality content" period. You won't ever catch me submitting content to reddit or any other social medium that is not "in my opinion" useful, interesting or entertaining in some way. This is the essence of social media user generated content.

I stumbled on this blog.. and I have to ask how some random blogger's poll has relation to a US election? How can you possible compare electing someone that will rules the country for 4 years, so a poll that a handful of people will see and is meaningless? Whatever you're smoking, you can have it.

Matt,

Agreed.

Maybe they banned you for crimes against grammar.

Yeh I deserve that my Grammar needs to improve

This isn't grammar school. This is a blog. It's a place for communincating and weak attacks regarding grammar is not the point of this post or conversation. Become a grammar teacher if you want to spend time criticizing grammar.

Wait... are you complaining about getting kicked off reddit, and you just stumbled over a grammar joke about it, and you thought it was about the blog?

Dude. Reddit is all up in the shiz with grammar. It's awesome. If somebody makes a grammar or spelling mistake, people generally point it out. The overseas people learning english love it especially, because it helps them out with their language skills. For the rest of us, it helps us make sure we put time and effort into comments before posting. If you can't make a good sentence, then you surely cannot make a good argument.

There's a whole sub-genre of posts like these - spammer gets banned from website, writes longwinded diatribe about how unfair it is. What's amazing is that these people actually seem to believe their own bullshit. They really don't see any reason why sites might, possibly, want to protect themselves from abuse. In fact, they don't even see their behavior as abusive. It's quite pathetic. Bloggers are scum.

Bloggers are the lifeblood of social media. A statement like bloggers are scum is a good display of "narrow minded thinking"

There is more to the internet than Reddit.com and anti blogging.

I find it interesting that Reddit thinks any blog is spam. A great example of narrow minded thinking

I fail to see how you've never blogged in your life, creating your own blogspot just means that you are a blogger in one way or another. So keep your beautifully worded comment about why the entire web is scam because that's what most of the web is, just blogs after blogs. And yes porn too

This also makes me wonder if you think all bloggers are scum, do you have the same narrow minded prejudice against Jews, Black people Christians,Whites, Mexicans..... or any other group of people?

Yes, Gerald. Disliking bloggers is /exactly/ parallel to antisemitism. There's no /possible/ flaw in your analogy. And the hypocrisy of a site called "bloggersarescum.blogspot.com" had /completely/ escaped me until just now.

Like I said narrow minded thinking. Did it ever occur to you that reddit is one big blog?

You are actually calling yourself scum. lol. Genius!

I understand it's not your fault. It's mostly your ignorance. You don't understand blogging and social media you only know reddit.com. There is a big world out there on the internet. Give it a chance. You will be amazed at the possibilities once you open your mind a bit.

I just found this blog post, and I just needed to comment.

You know why blog posts are seldom seen on reddit?

Because they are shit.
Ads here, ads there, terrible commenting system, terrible commenters (read: you) (lol. I'm a genius. Well, my mom says so), etc. etc.

For the most part, blogs are simply a voice between data/facts, and the audience. Usually that voice is a mumbling retard (read: you), who has no idea what he's talking about. What if I could grab the source (press release, original article, .jpg file, youtube video URL), and give it straight to my audience? Let them put in the description and commentary that they want? Editorialization without justification of knowledge is the cancer of the internet. Sure, it happens on reddit as well, but it's easy to find out if they are qualified. Plus, people can "drop" that user's credibility instantly; they don't have an army following them. I'll get to that in a second.

Blogs are dictatorial. "I talk, you listen." If you've got enough mindless shits to read your blog on a regular basis, then of course you are going to 'enjoy' it. You've got your own little army. You've got power over your minions. Fuckin A, Castro!

Blogs are just as flawed as the people who run them (read: you). Communities such as reddit aren't dragged down by the "weakest link" of the team. They're powered by the content and comments provided by the most skillful of people. You need a trained virologist to weigh in on whether or not swine flu should be treated seriously? You'll probably find one. Need someone skilled at photoshop to help fix your ruined wedding photos? You'll probably find one. You get diversity in content, while staying away from having some fat greasy shit like you talking on topics you have no expertise in.

Let your mind rust in the bloggoverse. The twittersphere. The diggscape. The dixx. There simply isn't a community atmosphere out there comparable to reddit. Having been in the community for quite some time, I can honestly say that if you haven't dugg deep to look at how amazing some of the people are (see, for example: http://www.reddit.com/r/happybirthday ), then you'll have no idea what you are missing when you move through other sites and communities as you grow closer to death. You'll rot away not knowing the movement you could have been in. The friendships, and the sharing. But, most importantly, the vast knowledge of the reddit hivemind. You quickly find things that you'd never read elsewhere. Not by searching, and not by stumbling over them somewhere.

Have fun being a pathetic ignorant old soul, drifting past like dust in the wind. Skipping out on a sip of the fountain of youth.

Hell, I wasn't nearly as ignorant and narrow-minded when I was your age.

Wow! more name calling and profanity. Yes your wisdom is starting to shine through!

PS:

"Blogs are dictatorial. “I talk, you listen.”

Blogs are not so much a one way conversation I talk you listen. We are talking back and forth right now and have a very much two way conversation.

"You’ve got your own little army. You’ve got power over your minions"

I believe it pretty much the same way on reddit only most the bloggers I know don't love the four letter words and personal attacks as much as most redditors.

Also you complain about ads being on blog. Well Reddit also have sponsored advertising let me remind you. So to suggest that anything that has some kind of ad on it is evil would also be calling reddit evil. Correct?

Just to clarify I'm not saying that EVERYTHING about reddit is bad. It may sound that way because I am reply to personal attack after personal attack from reddit commentators here.

I think there are many positive aspects of reddit for example while perhaps a bit over the top at times I do appreciate the comment participation on reddit.

So I don't think reddit completely sucks just like I don't think any one platform completely rules the world.

However I do think there are some fundamental flaws in the moderation system as I have pointed out clearly in my article.

Thanks for stopping by and commenting.

>Blogs are not so much a one way conversation I talk you listen. We are talking back and forth right now and have a very much two way conversation.

If somebody much more experienced and knowledgeable about a topic, they wouldn't be following you around. They wouldn't be spending their time reading the entirety of your blog every morning. Interaction would be small. Even though me and you are having a conversation right now doesn't mean squat. The topic is set by the blogger. Even if a comment was 20X more correct than the bog post, the topic is still set by the blogger. You almost never see people RT'ing comments. Thus, you have more "power." That's why this system is bunk. I can't have a say unless I have my own blog, and my own network of people who share the same opinions. Even if you whiteflag this long after you originally posted, all your tweets and traffic have already come and gone, so it doesn't even matter anymore. That is why blog comments don't mean squat.

>"You’ve got your own little army. You’ve got power over your minions"
>>I believe it pretty much the same way on reddit only most the bloggers I know don't love the four letter words and personal attacks as much as most redditors.

1. Good lord, learn english, and try using it properly. Isn't it your JOB to write? What the hell.

2. No. Reddit is almost entirely flat-leveled. It's really hard to influence the system, because people act as individuals, and vote stuff that they find favorable. That's not how digg works. And, if you're referring to moderating "power"... it's not even power. They're moderating TOOLS. There's so many checks and balances involved with moderating that you don't have an opportunity to influence the crowd without getting caught in the act.

Reddit pulled this on me. I would really like to know what I did to get banned. Must have been bad grammar.

HAHA yeh, that's why I got the boot, broken ENGRISH, no warning nothing, just gone, so yes a nice you were not contributing to the community so we banned you would be a nice email

You should go fuck yourself, spammer.

What a fucking whiner. You spam, you lose. Simple as that,.

I'm sorry. I'm am so gay I instantaneously burst into flames upon reading the slightest retort against this article.

"because what gives reddit the right to delete my account without warning or notice."

Maybe the fact that they are a private entity?

To be honest, you sound like a jerk.

I've heard too many bad things about reddit lately. And I have noticed in the past when I would submit something to reddit, that a day later, it would mysteriously disappear.

Well that's the down votes you get from the category mods. They tend to do this because they either think your submission sux or because they only allow their friends or inner circle of friends through and you're not in that circle

have you ever heard of a 'phone zap'? that's what activists used to do en masse when they were pissed at a large, all-powerful media organization, like FORBES magazine, back in the 80s

perhaps there's an Internet equivalent of the phone zap? maybe a "new submission zap"?

I think you are perfectly right! It was the same for me! Mixx is better!