this post was submitted on 24 Feb 2026
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Mike Hardaker, who has maintained a Reddit account for 20 years, has been shadow-banned on Reddit. He has posted an update on X, stating that Reddit requires an ad spend to restore organic posting. This demand was given to him in writing.

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[–] bonenode@piefed.social 8 points 58 minutes ago (3 children)
[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 3 points 11 minutes ago* (last edited 11 minutes ago)

REAL humans posting. anything that utilizes bots, AI isnt organic, but reddit often bans the real humans over AI posting.

as you know reddit bans people if it looks for patterns thats repeating itself.

[–] darklamer@feddit.org 1 points 1 minute ago

A posting made by an organic life form, typically a human.

[–] daychilde@lemmy.world 4 points 42 minutes ago

Like you just did with your comment and OP did with their posting: non paid ad posting

[–] orbituary@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 10 minutes ago

The person in the email strikes me as a contradiction. On the one hand, they're posting their pronouns presumably to indicate some sort of support for inclusivity? On the other hand, they're actively strong-arming and bullying a person into paying for normal access...

I'm sure it's fully lost on that person. It feels so discordant to me.

[–] mrnobody@reddthat.com 10 points 1 hour ago (2 children)

That's nothing. I was permabanned for inciting violence or whatever they claimed, which broke rule #1. My "violence" was calling AI stupid (more or less) wishing it'd go away. Ironically, the mod bot banned me.

[–] daychilde@lemmy.world 3 points 41 minutes ago

Mine came from simply saying that a drone would probably take care of a Russian solder seen in a video on crutches heading toward the front lines in Ukraine. Literally just that. Not saying it with any joy or approval, just a statement of fact. Phrased pretty damn much like I said it in this comment here.

[–] doug@lemmy.today 2 points 35 minutes ago

My ~19 year old account was permabanned after three strikes that involved two upvotes of Luigi pictures and then— after seeing a vid of Trump falling asleep— saying he shouldn’t wake up.

Then my alt got a warning for “disparaging communities” after I said one of the two PDX subreddits started so they could talk shit about houseless people, which is a fact.

Three of those were flagged by AI, the last one— the warning— was a person flagging it and couldn’t be contested.

It’s gone to the dogs.

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 1 points 12 minutes ago

REDDIT is most AI and propaganda posts and bot posting.

[–] fubarx@lemmy.world 3 points 51 minutes ago
[–] FauxLiving@lemmy.world 12 points 1 hour ago

The bigger news here is that Reddit, as a policy, allows bot posting (organic posting) as long as you're buying ads from them.

[–] tidderuuf@lemmy.world 83 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

So let me get this straight. Some jerk off looking to advertise his site by spamming links on several subs was hoping to AstroTurf COUGH I mean organically post... And Reddit Ad Team saw that and figured they could milk him for some dollars? So this doucher takes to Xhitter to try to get sympathy?

Ahh capitalism at its finest.

[–] daychilde@lemmy.world 1 points 40 minutes ago (1 children)

wut

Unless the article is absolutely lying, it mentioned the subreddits wanted the posts and couldn't overcome the sitewide ban (i.e. manually approving the content). Your comment is a really huge stretch there.

[–] tidderuuf@lemmy.world 0 points 10 minutes ago (1 children)

Hardaker is the operator of Mountain Weekly News, and he regularly used to contribute to three or four subreddits

So I am going to stop right there and ignore any conceivably ingenious reply you may come up with to justify and spin what the dude is actually doing. Spend enough time on Reddit like the grownups around here and you'll eventually understand.

[–] daychilde@lemmy.world 1 points 1 minute ago

Listen, kid, I've been on reddit since 2009. I hung out with the admins in IRC back in the day. I was a default mod for a while, and I'm the "father" of /r/nottheonion.

There's plenty I don't know about reddit and life in general, but on this topic, clearly I know a fuck ton more than you.

There was a time on reddit when self-promotion was against the rules. That rule was dropped something like a decade ago.

The simple fact is that - from at least the article's telling - the subreddits wanted the content, and in that case, it is absolutely fine and encouraged for someone to submit.

There's a guy making youtube reviews of restaurants in my local city's subreddit. The content is popular - people like it. So we absolutely are happy to see him post. Is it self-promotion? Yes, technically. It's also relevant to the subreddit and desired by the mods and members of the subreddit.

You're like the people saying "dis a repost" when someone CROSS-posts. Note that reddit has a BUILT IN SYSTEM for cross-posting, but there are redditors who don't know that.

So, little boy, you can take your condescension and /r/confidentlyincorrect along with /r/iamverysmart and fucking LEARN something, or go off and continue to be willfully ignorant.

Disclaimer: If the article's reporting is incorrect and the subreddits considered it spam, well, that's not what the article said, and I don't otherwise have other knowledge of it, nor do I care enough to google for any other possible sources. But that's the informatio you're working off of as well, so there's that.

PS: To add a light-hearted end: I'll go to /r/dontyouknowwhoiam now :) (that name seems too long. Is that the right one/ Well, you probably know what I mean and I'm too lazy to look it up :P )

[–] comador@lemmy.world 59 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

First mistake: Staying on Reddit. Fuck Spez.

Second mistake: Complaining about Reddit on X. Fuck Musk.

Let's just hope this user stays away from substack next.

[–] wltr@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 45 minutes ago

Here’s my story on Medium about my journey from Reddit, to X, to Substack! Like and subscribe guys!

[–] ouRKaoS@lemmy.today 20 points 3 hours ago

"I got caught trying to advertise for free and they want me to pay for it like everyone else!"

[–] hopesdead@startrek.website 22 points 4 hours ago

If you didn’t leave when the API pricing went up, everything is your fault.

[–] aviationeast@lemmy.world 34 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

He posted this on xitter. It goes in the trash along with reddit.

[–] Ilovethebomb@sh.itjust.works 8 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

I mean, if you want more than three people to see the post...

[–] joyjoy@lemmy.zip 13 points 2 hours ago (2 children)

...you'll have to buy ad space. 

[–] orbituary@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 4 minutes ago

Organically.

[–] elvith@feddit.org 2 points 1 hour ago

How do I do that on Mastodon, Lemmy, Piefed,...?

^/s^

[–] CaptDust@sh.itjust.works 6 points 2 hours ago
[–] DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world 5 points 3 hours ago

Just one asshole fucking another with a double-headed dildo. That's all I see.

[–] minorkeys@lemmy.world 7 points 4 hours ago

Owners of the means of production will use that leverage to exploit you, every time.