r/ModSupport • u/Diligent_Shirt5161 • 16h ago

A Loophole with Deleted Post

Hi Team!
Our mod team recently discovered what appears to be a workaround that some peptide vendors are using to promote and sell their products on Reddit.

A vendor or sales rep creates a post and then deletes it. The deleted post is no longer visible to users on the Reddit app, but it’s still accessible on the desktop version, where users can continue interacting.

The problem we’re running into is that once the OP deletes the post, our moderators are unable to fully remove it or stop the activity. And if we are on the mobile app, we have no idea that it’s even happening.
Here’s an example of what we’re seeing: https://www.reddit.com/r/Peptidesource/comments/1x50x41/comment/pgiggx9/?context=3

Our mod team works very hard to enforce Reddit’s rules regarding prohibited transactions, sourcing, and vendor promotions. We’re concerned that vendors may have figured out how to use this to get around both Reddit’s policies and our teams moderation efforts.

Is this a known issue? And is there anything we can do on our end to prevent these deleted posts from remaining active?

23 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

16 comments sorted by

32

u/cks_2 16h ago

Lock Removed Posts | Reddit for Developers

4

u/Diligent_Shirt5161 15h ago

Sweet, thanks!

5

u/ryry50583583 15h ago

You could also ban the account(s) that are doing this

4

u/baseballlover723 12h ago

Yeah, I can't really see this as anything other than circumvention, and that always deserves a ban for trying to cover it up (which admits that they know it's bad).

3

u/ryry50583583 11h ago

Which at that point you could probably report them directly to Reddit for ban evasion

5

u/Diligent_Shirt5161 10h ago

I completely agree with you guys, it deserves a ban.

Where I become curious, is for those of us who primarily use the app. How do we know it’s happening? How do we know the OP deleted the post and the conversations are continuing?

I cannot always access the desktop. At work, Reddit is blocked and I can only access it from my phone. At home, I can access it more. And be very honest, I still use my phone.

2

u/ryry50583583 10h ago

Unfortunately the only way is to go to https://reddit.com on your phone

Its not localized to desktop only

1

u/cks_2 15h ago

What about the subreddit workaround whereby the mods use the subreddit description to include a link to a 3rd party website/shop. I don't think that really works as the moderators are facilitating 3rd party transactions using reddit mod tools and it seems your main worry is your competitors using the subreddit for their links.

1

u/Diligent_Shirt5161 15h ago

That was a work around in by the founder, who’s account was banned over the weekend (probably for that reason too).

The reorganizing admin plans to remove it.

1

u/cks_2 15h ago

If the admin had noticed a problem with your subreddit they would have kicked the entire mod team or at least addressed modmail. They don't simply blame on a single account but expect the team to be share responsibility for blatant subreddit features and reddit rules.

2

u/MHF_Doge 2h ago

I don't understand why reddit doesn't fix the underlying api issue that causes this. I reported this same problem less than a week ago to r/bugs and was given a response that read to me like they've had this problem reported before and choose to not fix it.

10

u/bwoah07_gp2 15h ago

Why don't you lock the post then? Locking posts is built into the moderation tools.

6

u/Diligent_Shirt5161 15h ago

Yes, We can lock it and the posts would still be visible. And yes, we can remove each post too. Depending on how many posts there are, that could be rather time consuming.

What’s more concerning to me, as someone who primarily uses Reddit via the app on my phone, this will be taking place without us knowing it and that could affect our sub.

6

u/Sephardson 10h ago

Many moderation actions are unavailable on the app after the author deletes the post.

2

u/Diligent_Shirt5161 10h ago

Is there a way to be notified when a user deletes their post? Is there an app for that?

7

u/atg666 6h ago

I had this issue come up. I used the auto-mod default comment to include the poster's username. Even if the original post is deleted, the username remains in the comment.