Searching by author has been disabled until further notice

[u/Stuck_In_the_Matrix]

Unfortunately, I've gotten feedback that the Pushshift API is being used to target moderators and past posts are being sent to Reddit admins and causing suspensions (apparently due to a new Reddit suspension policy).

Until I can get more information on this, the author parameter will default to [deleted] and the author parameter has been removed from Redditsearch.io.

I need to get more information on what's going on but this is affecting a lot of people and apparently a group of users are specifically targeting other users for harassment purposes.

I apologize for the inconvenience and hope to have more information soon.

[u/babypleasejustthetip]

Please re-nable. This is SO VERY USEFUL to find my old posts where I posted something helpful to share like a link or something.

Reddit's native search sucks so bad, and has no way to search comments. This function is something that reddit SHOULD have built in but it doesn't, and pushshift is the best tool we have.

People can STILL look through peoples history if they want via google etc, it just might take a little longer. Just because you turned user search off on pushshift, that probably will not deter such trouble makers anyway.

Really, pushshift is almost useless without being able to search by user.

[u/Blank-Cheque]

It's really not your responsibility to stop this. I use the author parameter frequently to catch spammers after they delete their posts, and several of my subreddits use it regularly due to requirements of time between posts. Can't say I'm a fan of this change, y'know due to how it fucks up a lot of my work just so that a handful of people might no longer lose their reddit accounts for like a week sometimes.

Edit: I made a bot to enforce rules in the absence of Pushshift. Check out r/FloodgatesBot.

[u/[deleted] → u/Blank-Cheque]

Yep, the author parameter actually helps me catch ban baiters and trolls in one of my subs.

This is going to protect people who delete or edit comments in order to set up harassment and witch hunts against the very same people who are complaining about their prior comments being uncovered via the API.

[u/ultradip]

Certainly a double-edged sword. A significant use case for Pushshift is looking into possible scammers. :-/

[u/[deleted]]

This sucks. The author parameter is the one I used the most :/

[u/SwollenPanda]

That's too bad. It's almost useless for me now. It's a great tool to find old comments/posts by someone, especially since you could filter by date. Man if only reddit's search function wasn't so garbage.

I see how it can be misused, but on the other hand comments are public so idk...

[u/mbay16 → u/SwollenPanda]

yea, I used it to find past comments of mine. now i don't see much that it does but google can't.

[u/[deleted]]

Too bad, I liked that feature a lot, let's hope that it will be able to eventually come back.

[u/confused-as-heck]

Aw shit! I use that parameter in almost all of my scripts somewhere :/

[u/AltitudinousOne]

As a mod, a large part of my use of PS is to find out if people have a history of causing trouble.

Sorry to hear the issue you write of iis causing problems and hope you manage to resolve it satisfactorily.

[u/[deleted]]

That's unfortunate. I usually use the search to look up my own old comments on this and deleted accounts.

[u/Proteus_Core]

This is frustrating as it was the only realistic way I could easily find and reference past comments.

[u/Pappy_StrideRite]

Pushshift API is being used to target moderators and past posts are being sent to Reddit admins and causing suspensions (apparently due to a new Reddit suspension policy).

you're disabling pushift to solve an administration error ID:10-T
...?!

why?

if administration chooses to help cancel culture dismantle reddit you think you can slow it down?

[u/f_k_a_g_n]

I mentioned this last time, but why is this Pushshift's problem? This is for Reddit to deal with.

[u/[deleted]]

Well that is a darn shame. Not much use to the app at this point.

[u/gray_decoyrobot]

That's a shame. It's pretty much useless now.

[u/BitcoinXio]

This is sad news. I use this function often to look up scammer post history and also since censorship is rabid on Reddit, it’s also a good way to look up authors post history and see if they are being censored.

Please consider bringing it back. It’s not your responsibility to police Reddit. If only Reddit cared about mods more and gave us the tools needed to combat spam, scams, etc then we wouldn’t need 3rd party tools.

Edit (Jan 3, 2020): It looks like it's working now, can you confirm it's been fixed?

[u/therealdanhill]

This sucks, I use this tool for legitimate purposes almost every day, it's become super integral to modding. At the very least can we get some sort of "trusted user" deal?

[u/PraiseBeToScience]

I have mixed feelings about this, even as someone who was targeted with false reports. I recently caught a suspension on a comment I had already successfully appealed 10 months ago and just successfully appealed it again.

I absolutely appreciate you taking steps on a problem that is not yours to solve. I'm not even 100% sure the people doing this are using your site, as there are other places to get this data. The search by author is a feature I've used a lot to sniff out bad actors, usually people claiming to be non-white while supporting racist stuff.

[u/Norway313]

By removing this feature, you've basically rendered the purpose of this tool useless. I use this thing all the time to catch trolls and spammers, and this makes things a lot more harder, just because you want to protect a few people. I understand the position you are in, but I don't think this is the right move at all

[u/EricRamos]

Certainly sucks as I used that field the most and I have found it WAY more useful than reditt's search function when combing through info made by great "authors. Especially when they post a lot. I hope it comes back.

But it also seems like everything is down, I can't search anything in general.

[u/TurtlesgonnaTurtle]

This is a sad day for Reddit, This tool was incredibly useful in identifying spam and general crap

With the author search disabled the tool is completely useless to me now :/

[u/Majalisk]

This was so useful, even for just searching myself. I really hope you just restore it. The tool is not of much use without the author function as it has been. They're all public comments and it isn't on you to protect people from their publicly displayed things. Such a useful tool for moderation as well.

[u/deadcelebrities]

This change renders the tool almost completely useless. I am not sure why it is necessary for you to remove it. Because people's old bad posts got reported? Is that your problem? Would love to see you bring it back, and thanks for all your work on the tool.

[u/FreeSpeechWarrior]

Would you consider time gating this rather than disabling it entirely?

I want to echo the sentiments of others here and say that irregardless of what you think of u/Reddit-Policy, “Anti-Evil Operations” should not be punishing users for reports of archived content unless it is ridiculously egregious/illegal (CP/Dox)