Hi sorry if this is offtopic but it’s the only place I know and have access to that some people will understand and not just downvote me & start arguing, criticising or mocking me.
The vegan reddit is apparently the largest online community of vegans; it’s definitely the largest and most supportive one I know of, and that means it’s the only real safe space I have to talk about issues I’m facing with likeminded people, of whom I know none in real life. (There is also the Vystopia reddit which is often even more understanding, apart from a few non-vegan trolls showing up occasionally once they discovered it. And a few other subs). I used the vegan reddit community as an outlet and support network to deal with and get help and advice for what is basically extreme depression/sadness, anxiety & stress, isolation & loneliness related to being the only vegan I know, the hate and bullying I get from non-vegans, and the difficulty accepting the fact that most people are so cold and callous when the topic of veganism and animal rights comes up (not that I usually bring it up myself, believe me); or what could all probably be summarised by the experience of vystopia, which even most mental health professionals are not familiar with or trained in since ethical vegans are such a minority.
This community is the only place I know of now to ask questions, get help or just vent about the struggles of being vegan in a carnist, speciesist and largely anti-vegan society. However the problem is that this community doesn’t have that many vegans using it, and from what I’ve seen there are a lot of carnist trolls (and just non-vegans in general) who “brigade” the posts even when someone says they’re just wanting to talk to likeminded vegans. This happens on Reddit too but the community is big enough, with enough vegans using it, that those comments get largely drowned out and even when they don’t, there will be supportive vegans there to defend you, defend veganism/the animal rights position, correct misinformation, etc. I think there aren’t enough people using Lemmy in general, to the point that when someone posts in this community, it’s one of the only posts on “all” (or whatever the equivalent is) and so sometimes it seems like the majority of people seeing/engaging with it are non-vegans and trolls and it takes a while for the vegans to get here. I hope this is slowly changing as this community grows, but I wonder if there is a way to limit a post’s exposure to non-vegans by having it only show up in this community and not “all”?
Anyway I’m posting here because I have no way of posting to Reddit since I was banned sitewide for unknown reasons. I sent multiple appeals to be unbanned or at least request to know the nature of my ban, as well as attempting to think of what could have possibly gotten me banned and acknowledging those things & promising to never do them again (it’s a small and stupid list of things that wouldn’t realistically warrant a sitewide ban like posting a few animal rights messages in topical posts of non-topical subreddits, or accidentally voting twice on the same comment a few times when switching accounts and forgetting). It really doesn’t make any sense. I’ve sent heartfelt emails explaining my position to different places but never any response. I don’t think they even accept appeals anymore after a few months.
With this in mind, I’ve given up hope that Reddit would ever hear my case and unban me and let them post or comment (or even like anything) ever again. So I don’t know what else I can do besides trying to circumvent the ban somehow because I’m desperate, I feel like a crucial support network has been cut off that I rely upon for mental health support in a world where nearly no one understands what we’re going through. I’ve tried VPNs, Tor browsers, using different devices, new accounts of course, but somehow it always connects back to me via IPs, accounts, data trails or something and figures out who I am and bans any new account I try to create after a short period of time (less than a day, sometimes instantly).
Any advice would be much appreciated, and I know this isn’t really the kind of community that would know what to do about this issue, but if I said it anywhere else, they would definitely refuse to help me unless I explained my reasoning, and then if I did they would just bully me and use it as an opportunity to diss veganism and tell me I deserve it for being vegan or whatever.
I’m shocked that it’s so difficult to circumnavigate the site-wide ban, just wow! It sounds like you have to move into a whole new house in order to keep using the platform, that’s self defeating to their user growth for their quarterly profits because they need more of the rare posters.
If you’re looking for a Lemmy instance ran and hosted by vegans you’re welcome to join !vegan@lemmy.vg 🤗