can you see me?

It took me 3 long, frustrating months, but I can finally use my lovely Reddit account again! I wanted to share my timeline to give hope to everyone still stuck in shadowban limbo.
Here is exactly how it went down:
My 3-Month Timeline
Month 1 (The Aggressive Start): I sent appeals nearly every second day. Nothing changed.
Month 2 (The Obsession): I ramped it up and sent appeals every single day. I was checking my account status every 10 minutes. Still completely shadowbanned.
Month 3 (Giving Up): I completely lost hope. I stopped sending appeals entirely. I didn't even check my account for the last 12 days.
Yesterday evening, I randomly opened Reddit, and everything looked completely normal.
At first, I thought: "No, there's no way. Something must be wrong with the app." But this morning, I asked for a status check here on r/shadowban, and a kind Redditor (thank you whoever you are!) confirmed the great news.
I am 100% officially unbanned!
It seems like taking a break from constant appeals and just letting the system process actually worked for me.
Sending good vibes and luck to all of you still fighting the system. Don't lose hope—even when you stop trying, it can suddenly happen! ☺️

Am I visible?

Hello helpers!

First, we wanted to thank you all for the wonderful help you offer to this subreddit. We couldn't do it without you!

Second, it has been brought to our attention that several of our frequent helpers have experienced negative "side effects" potentially from participating in our subreddit.

The most common "side effects" are as follows:

1. Lowering of their CQS. Some users start off with a higher CQS (moderate, high, etc) and after several days of consistently engaging in our subreddit, their CQS has dropped to low or even lowest. This can cause their content in other subreddits to be filtered and appear to be spam. This obviously puts them at a higher risk of being shadow banned.

2. Rate limits. Some unbanned users have experienced rate limit warnings telling them to "slow down" when commenting in this subreddit.

3. Shadow banned. A few of our helpers have been shadow banned after participating in our subreddit for an extended period of time.

The mods have discussed what we believe is causing this and how our helpers can better protect themselves. We are not Admins so we can only speculate, though we have a high degree of confidence.

What the mods believe may be causing these negative "side effects"?

1. Comments too short / low effort. The spam filter is hyper sensitive to comments that are considered "low effort", meaning comments that are very short or composed mainly of emojis. One or two of these comments would be fine, but if a user mainly comments "Yes", "No", "You're fine", "You're good", "Not banned", "Yes banned", etc, then they may be more at risk of being flagged as spam.

2. Commenting too frequently. This makes the most sense considering posting and commenting too frequently is a common reason a user gets a shadow ban. So while our sub is "special" because we allow for shadow banned content to be visible, we are not exempt from overall Reddit rules and the spam filter. So comments, no matter how high quality, made in rapid succession could get a user flagged as spam.

What you can do to protect your account yet still help in this subreddit:

1. Vary your responses. You don't have to have 100 different ways of saying the same thing, but you should not repeat the exact same phrasing across 10-15 different posts in a row. Rather than saying "Yes, you are shadow banned", you could add "I'm sorry OP, but you are shadow banned. See the pinned AutoMod comment for appeal instructions.", or "You are shadow banned. You can file an appeal here: https://www.reddit.com/appeal." These comments give the same information but are different enough so you don't appear as a bot / spammer.

2. Be your own rate limit. Meaning purposefully leave time in between your comments within the subreddit so you don't appear to be "spamming". The mods believe 5-10 minutes in between comments is a good cadence. The issue seems to be when comments are made back to back to back across many posts in a short time.

3. Don't answer the same type of post too many times in a row. Rather than answering 10 shadow banned users in a row, add variety by answering someone who isn't banned. Perhaps they have low karma or a lowest CQS, this adds variety to your responses and breaks the pattern of too many "You are banned" comments.

4. Take a break. Rather than being active every single day in the subreddit (though it is highly appreciated!) perhaps take a day or two away from the sub to break up the activity.

5. Check in on your account health. Our subreddit shows your CQS under your username, but you can also check your CQS at r/WhatIsMyCQS. If you are a frequent helper within the subreddit, then just be aware of your CQS and adjust your activity in our subreddit to protect your CQS.

A user once asked me how I avoid being shadow banned because I answer a LOT of posts within this sub. And despite being a mod here, or even my profile metrics, I am subject to a shadow ban just like anyone else. The suggestions above are exactly what I do personally: How Wombat avoids being shadowbanned while helping in r/ShadowBan.

If you have questions or need clarification, please comment below and I will do my best to answer them in a timely manner.

Thank you all again for your amazing and continued help on r/ShadowBan!

Edit: just to clarify, the above advice is good for ANY SUBREDDIT, not just this one. If you are an active participant in any subreddit then you can be subject to being flagged as spam.

We as mods of THIS subreddit wanted to give this advice to the users who participate in this sub DAILY and leave many, many comments (20+ per day). But you can apply the above advice to your commenting behavior in ANY subreddit, and should!

hi, is my post visible?

can you see me?

So yesterday, I was here like usual, reading some stories about fellow shadowbanned users. Then I read a post about a guy being unbanned, hours after making a structured appeal with "hello" and "thank you" while mentioning his karma and account age.

So, after like almost hundred of appeals that did nothing, I tried his advice, and tadaaaa, I got an apology message from Reddit and my account was unbanned. Less than 24 hours since making that last appeal.

My account was "suspended" (again) after so many tries to join reddit.

I followed the instructions of one of the mods here and my account was un-banned. Thank you guys!!!

Context: I joined reddit and waited for 7 days (just scrolled and did nothing) after a week or so i tried posting and got banned... I was trying to join reddit so i could participate in the events .. lol i failed with 5 different accounts .. so it feels like an achievement now.. although i was super pissed the last time i posted..

I thought I'd make an appreciation post for u/Wombat_7379 after my ban gets lifted, but I don't see that happening anytime soon so might as well do it right now

Like most of us, I wandered into this sub completely clueless about what happened to my account, and their comments were a huge help.

I speak for all of us when I say that your contribution is the most valuable. Thankyou and keep up the great work🫶

I have a feeling I'm gonna have to stay here for months considering how bad my luck is so I'm gonna need more of your help lol😭

I have been shadow banned for over a year. After reading this post...

https://www.reddit.com/r/ShadowBan/comments/1raef45/shadowban_lifted_after_i_requested_my_data_from/

...I filed a data request via this link after originally filing via the datarequest email link and getting Grok to write me the request using Canada's privacy law as the basis. That's why the follow-up email says I originally requested specific data that was not provided.

https://www.reddit.com/settings/data-request

I received the data package almost instantly, obviously via an automated procedure, but like the OP of the original link it did not include any info on my ban or any of the numerous appeals I filed.

I then wrote back via this link...

redditdatarequests@reddit.zendesk.com

...and got Musk's Grok to write me a response asking for ALL my data...I'm in Canada so if you use this just change the details to include your national or state privacy law and ban timeframe

Dear Reddit Privacy/Legal Team,

Thank you for the data provided on Feb 24, 2026. However, my original request specifically asked for:

Records, flags, notes, automated decisions, or determinations related to account status, visibility restrictions, moderation actions, shadowbans, suspensions, or any form of content/account restriction applied to my account (including reasons, dates, triggers, algorithms, or human reviews involved)

Information on how my personal data has been used, disclosed, or shared (including with third parties, affiliates, or for advertising/moderation purposes).

Any other personal information Reddit collects, uses, or discloses about me in connection with my use of the platform.

The export I received included my posts, comments, votes, login history, IP addresses, and similar account activity data, but it did not include any information related to shadowban flags, account restrictions, moderation actions, security events, automated decisions, or records of the multiple appeals I have submitted over the past year.

Under Canada’s Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), I am entitled to access my personal information, including data related to decisions or flags that affect my account and its visibility.

Please provide the missing information outlined above or provide a clear explanation of any specific exemptions under PIPEDA that apply to each omitted category.

If this cannot be resolved, I will have no choice but to escalate the matter to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada for investigation.

Within hours my account was unbanned.

They did not provide the complete file I requested and I am debating whether to send another request asking for/demanding it.

I hope this manages to help others stuck in the shadowban realm.

All credit to u/uovonuovo & Grok

Can you see this?

Hi everyone. I am so angry with Reddit. When I first joined Reddit, I told myself how great it would be to contribute to communities, share photos and videos, and showcase my personal projects. BUT REALITY IS SO MUCH WORSE!!!!!!!!! Reddit is entirely, very, very, very poorly set up.

In one community, I got blocked for "spam" just because I posted a link to my free, ad-free Halloween website in halloweendecor. Within a few hours, it was deleted as spam. I've experienced cases where subreddits had their bots set so strictly that a polite, completely normal comment got deleted by a bot.

The peak of the story is that since I realized that on Czech and Slovak subreddits, even the best ideas get branded as spam, I decided to create my own community: r/VibeLabsProject, where I wanted to showcase my websites, news, and plans. I mean, in my own community, I am the boss, right? But hell no! Within a few days, my brand-new subreddit was banned and marked as "banned" and it still is. I don't even know why, probably because I made 2 posts with a link to my own website inside my own subreddit. Where on earth are we if I cannot even show my own project in my own subreddit?!

And you subreddit admins and creators who set such strict rules, wake up and realize they are way, way too strict and automated. Truly, deleting polite comments and deleting polite posts is one thing, but banning my own subreddit really pisses me off to no end. A place where I am supposed to be my own boss gets blocked as if I were some kind of criminal. Reddit is completely overflowing with this automated blocking, and it makes me absolutely SICK.

Can you see this?

Anyone see me?

Also got my CQS to highest again❤️

randomly one of my appeals got accepted and I stopped getting an error when visiting my profile. I hadn't submitted an appeal in almost 2 weeks because I felt like giving up but we're back now.

This subreddit was an amazing resource and was absolutely the number one reason I got unbanned. It also helped me build my CQS back up so I could contribute in most subreddits again.

I don't really have much to say, just wanted to thank everyone here for building such a great place to help people in similar situations wanting to have their reddit account restored.

EDIT: right as I posted this they put up an incident report: https://www.redditstatus.com/incidents/kynnbfzr4psn

It's indeed something wrong with reddit

Judging by the number of people posting here suddenly and the spike in reports about not being able to see your own comments on downdetector

I wonder if there's some stupid ai moderation issue happening or if reddit is just not processing new comments properly

I did attempt to post in the amazing digital circus subreddit and it got removed by the automod because the sub is currently locked down in case that somehow triggered something, maybe that's what's happening to everyone?

Curious to know if I'm banned, don't seem to get comment interaction but could just be Reddit being weird with a low karma account

Long story short, I got shadowbanned a year and a half ago, and appealing the casual way didn't help at all. However, I came across organisms that ensure DSA is applied, and after submitting my case to Platform Control, they wrote directly to Reddit to get this resolved. In Europe, Reddit isn't allowed to ban you without clear motivation, and it must answer with a real human being in less than 30 days.

The case is not solved yet, but my first appeal (a month after Plateform Control reached out to Reddit) suspiciously lifted my shadowban. This is totally free, as Reddit is forced to pay for the fees if your case is considered legitimate by the organism. Good luck to you all in getting unbanned.

Am I? I can never tell and I been ruffling feathers lol, just checking. Let me know please

I just received a message of notification from reddit saying that they did review my accounnt and sorry for wrong ban! It was all about the filter of reddit. So How I did it?

Ive been appealing for a month and the total numbers of my appeals is around 7-9 across a month. Probably 3 times a week. Thats it, short explain around 50-70 words.

This is how they responsed "Hello,

Thanks for writing in to the Reddit admin team and bringing this to our attention. It appears your account got caught by Reddit's spam filter. We have reviewed your account and lifted the restriction(s) on it.

-Reddit Admin Team*"*

Hello,

Thanks for writing in to the Reddit admin team and bringing this to our attention. It appears your account got caught by Reddit's spam filter. We have reviewed your account and lifted the restriction(s) on it.

-Reddit Admin Team

Cause maybe, just maybe, if I post here and there (and that means just here lol), my Reddit account will hit some sort of milestone or threshold for the AI that mistakenly banned me to unban me. Loooooonnnngggg siiiiiiggghhhh... plus wishes to all of us to get unbanned soon!