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.

  • reddit fingerprints the fuck out of people and you’ll have a hard time evading a ban.
    It’s not just IPs and user_agents, but likely every possible metric… including technical things like screen size, supported languages, timezone and whatnot… paired with behavioral things like subscribing to that sub as the first thing you do.

    as an example… https://www.amiunique.org/fingerprint

    Don’t install their app, just check the kinds of stuff a web page can track.
    Keep in mind that fighting against such tracking is itself something that can also be used to track you.

    As for your needs of a community, you might wanna check out https://vegantheoryclub.org/

    Good luck

    • paysrenttobirds@sh.itjust.works
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      18 days ago

      Would it help then, if they used a new device with vpn? Almost the entire list on amiunique seems device/browser based. They could just keep a burner phone for the purpose?

      • Sure, maybe, until you forget the VPN that one time or slip up in some other way like log into your facebook on that device and some tracking cookie id gets referenced and it gets flagged too.
        They might very well flag all VPN users to begin with. It’s just one data point, but with your active hours, your interests and maybe even how you write, it can narrow it down quite a bit.

        vegans in timezone x that use a VPN and who also like subject y and they probably got OP figured out.

        reddit isn’t there for you, it’s there to profit off your data and sell ads to you.
        Sure, you can ban evade to an extent, but then you’re still on reddit which is being actively hostile against you. 🤷

      • rbn
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        18 days ago

        I don’t think you have to go as far as buying new hardware. I never tried to bypass a Reddit ban personally but in worst case, using a virtual machine with a different operating system (e.g. a Linux system in your Windows machine) should be sufficient. Regarding VPNs, it might be a general issue of shared IP addresses. The VPN you used was most likely already used by other people to hide their identity in Reddit, e.g. for fraudulent activities, spam, harrassment etc. So if you use a public VPN, the risk is probably pretty high that it’s already burned for use with Reddit, independent of your individual ban.

        Additionally, use a different IP that is not a public proxy. You could for example use cellular network via tethering. Maybe there are easier ways to get there but I can’t see how Reddit could trace that back to you with these two steps. Unless you disclose your old identity obviously.

  • rbn
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    18 days ago

    If you’re primarily looking for ways to circumvent a ban on Reddit, I’m pretty sure there are better places than a community of vegans (no matter if on Lemmy or not). 😉

    Regarding Lemmy in general, I agree that there are far less users here but my impression is that the quality of communication is higher here. I had several deep conversations that went back and forth over weeks. Also people that I didn’t agree with were really respectful and I really appreciated them explaining their point of view. Reddit often felt toxic to me and very few subs had such deeper and open discussions.

    I don’t know what kind of support you are looking for but Lemmy seems to be pretty left leaning to me and also veganism seems to be welcome also in non-100%-vegan communities.

  • Home@lemmy.vg
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    18 days ago

    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 🤗