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December 22, 2025Sergei Solod2 min read

How I Got Banned From Reddit in 15 Minutes

I took the slow, careful approach to joining Reddit and still ended up permanently banned almost immediately.

Social MediaCommunityRedditUXRantJavaScript

🚫 Reddit’s Absurdity: My Account Got Permanently Banned ❌

I tried to join the Reddit developer community this week. The whole thing lasted exactly 15 minutes before my account was permanently banned.

Here’s the short version of my “life” as a Reddit user:

I joined because I wanted to learn and share with other developers. I created an account and, trying to be careful, even asked an AI how to get started safely. It warned me: “Don’t post right away. New accounts look like bots. Wait a few days.”

I listened. For three days, I was a model citizen: just scrolling, reading, and liking posts in programming subreddits. I didn’t write a single word.

By day four, I felt ready. I went into the Learn JavaScript community to help beginners.

  1. I found one question and left a helpful comment. It was published. Success.
  2. I found another question and wrote a simple three-sentence reply.

Boom. Permanently banned.

The reason? Apparently, posting two comments in 15 minutes makes me a dangerous spammer.

The irony is brutal. I followed every “best practice” to prove I wasn’t a bot, and the automated filters still treated me worse than one. I basically got banned for trying to be helpful.

I’ve filed an appeal, and I assume a human will eventually sort it out. But as a first impression? 0/10.

Has anyone else run into this level of aggression from automated spam filters? It feels completely broken.