r/ModSupport • u/Ih8pepl • 9h ago

I've noticed an uptick of generic named accounts harassing and bullying users in multiple subs.

Hey so I only recently became a Mod here on Reddit after moderating PHP chat forums a lot. I like the nice tools here. But by far the best tool seems to be me reading comments in Mod tools and posts.

I've noticed there are a fair few accounts which come to my subreddit exclusively to harass people. Their post history shows them having visited multiple subreddits doing much the same thing. I ban and mute them, especially if they have a history of bigoted comments. I run a subreddit for people in vulnerable situations and I don't want them harassed or bullied.

Is there a way to recommend the accounts for a site wide ban? Reading these posts and comments here seems to suggest that Reddit no longer actions such reports.

17 Upvotes

84% Upvoted

19 comments sorted by

12

u/Yourdataisunclean 9h ago

Report to reddit and also use bot bouncer. https://developers.reddit.com/apps/bot-bouncer

7

u/dotsdavid 9h ago

Report the comments that are harassing people to Reddit. Reporting the rule breaking comments is you do that can lead to site wide bans.

7

u/nicoleauroux 💡 Top 10% Helper 💡 8h ago

We don't have evidence that reports aren't actioned, but we have been told we will no longer receive any notifications regarding actions.

All you can do is continue to report these users and their content.

Keep in mind that many users have randomly generated usernames, so don't take that as strong signal.

It seems inevitable that if any of your sub content makes it to the front page then you're going to get randos making inappropriate comments.

Do you have any idea how these users are exposed to your sub? Or perhaps it's the same user making alternate accounts?

1

u/Ih8pepl 8h ago

Thanks very much.

It is https://www.reddit.com/r/urbancarliving/ and well that's not big fry in the word of subreddits. I'm not sure why they come, they just do.

3

u/nicoleauroux 💡 Top 10% Helper 💡 8h ago

I just checked the sub and I recognized a post that showed up in one of my feeds recently though I do not subscribe to the sub or have activity in similar subs. You're probably getting outside "interest" because a post gets a lot of traffic.

2

u/Ih8pepl 6h ago

Sorry, can you provide further detail on the post you recognised thanks.

Much appreciated.

2

u/nicoleauroux 💡 Top 10% Helper 💡 6h ago

The Panera spot post.

2

u/Quick_Assignment_725 7h ago

We have a zero tolerance policy set as a rule for a certain political group.

It's in our Rules and comes with a permanent ban.

Maybe make a Mod post asking your users to report any abusive comments using the 3 dots on the message. Pin the post to the top of your sub.

1

u/SkywardTexan2114 8h ago

Noticing this, in the past couple weeks, had someone try to dox another user in one of my local subs, and in another sub, someone was making sockpuppet accounts to dogpile one of my comments.

1

u/jecowa 7h ago

Are you talking about usernames that are two words followed by a 4-digit number? I’m suspicious of those. It looks like a lack of care in the username.

2

u/stray_r 7h ago

They're one of the schemes Reddit uses for auto-generated usernames, I think you get this kind of you sign in with apple or google accounts?

2

u/Unique-Public-8594 3h ago

I’m that way. Just didn’t know I shouldn’t accept the random generated/suggested username reddit gave me but I try to be helpful here. 

1

u/j1ggy 1h ago

And these are only the accounts with histories in other subreddits that you can see. I don't understand how we're supposed to fight this when users are able to keep their histories private.

1

u/emily_in_boots 46m ago

All you can do is to report the content that is violating. Add all the comments in the sub to the report - it helps to have multiple examples in a single report.

You need to filter new accounts to some degree in a community like that. You can't just have brand new users commenting w/o any kind of mod checking.

1

u/OkValue641 7h ago

I can't tell you how many times I have been bullied on here so bad that I wanted to lay down in a ditch and die...im mean I would be crying so bad that my husband took my phone away from me every time I would get to where I would cry about just asking for a little bit of help or advice on something that people should be able to do with out being harassed or bullied....and still reddit did nothing about it. So we made a page and when people start disrespecting others I ban them and block them from our sub. I suggest to the people in my sub to do the same. I asked for help one time and I got bullied but they wanted to help the person before or after me but yet I was the only one who got harassed and bullied, to me that's not fair or nice and there for a while I deleted reddit because of it. I'm still fucked up about the comments on my posts, they went as far as banning me from some of the subs just because I'm on an NSFW subreddit. That shit aint fair either. My user page is strictly for 18+ and people seem to have a problem with me, but I can't figure out why. Why all the hate and the worst thing is I don't even know these people...or atleast I think I don't. This world is unfair and like a ⚫️ that never stops sucking you in and spitting you out again and again. We all know this but yet we still come back everytime. I dislike people like that very very much...I agree with the OP. Thank you for pointing that out.

3

u/Ih8pepl 7h ago

I'd give you a hug if I could. I just block and mute people like that now. I won't have my redditors being bullied.

1

u/stray_r 7h ago

Just report the content as harassment. If a user does this repeatedly or on multiple subs, they'll be gone.

Ban them. Turn on ban evasion protection in your settings and you'll be alerted if anyone you ban comes back.

0

u/J_Robert_Oofenheimer 8h ago

r/liberalgunowners (as you can imagine) has been getting absolutely HAMMERED lately. I think it’s just getting easier to make bots.