Two minutes: which one do you have
Plenty of people arrive here sure they are banned when what happened was a filter. Match what you actually saw against this table before you write to anyone.
| What you saw | What it is | Who can lift it | First move |
|---|---|---|---|
| One post gone, no message, others still work | Filter or AutoModerator removal, not a ban | That subreddit's mods | Modmail asking what rule it hit |
| Message saying you were banned from r/something | Subreddit ban | Only that subreddit's mods | Reply to the ban message, once, politely |
| Profile empty in a logged-out window | Shadowban | Reddit admins | reddit.com/appeal |
| Email or banner about a suspended account | Account suspension, temporary or permanent | Reddit admins | reddit.com/appeal, once. The form also works logged out |
The logged-out check takes ten seconds and settles most of it: open reddit.com/user/yourname in a private window. Everything visible means you are not shadowbanned, whatever else is going on. If you want the long version of that one, we wrote it in how to check and fix a shadowban.
What you can fix and what you cannot
A subreddit ban is local. You can keep using the rest of Reddit, and often the same mods will lift it if you ask like a person instead of arguing. A suspension is account-wide and only Reddit lifts it. A shadowban sits in the middle: your account works for you and nobody else sees a thing, which is why people burn weeks posting into a void without noticing.
What none of them respond to is volume. Sending five appeals does not speed anything up, and mods can see all five. Reddit usually answers an appeal in about three to seven business days, longer when they are busy, so give it that before you assume it was ignored.
The appeal that gets read
On the other side of that message is a person with a queue. Whoever reads it can see your history in their subreddit, when you joined, and what got removed. So the appeal that works is short, names the thing you did, and says what you will do instead. Skip the paragraph about how the rule is unfair.
That is the whole thing. No template voice, no legal tone, and one message. If they say no, that is the answer, and pestering them turns a temporary ban into a permanent one.
The first week back
An account that just came back is being watched more closely, not less. Give it a week of behaving like a reader rather than a marketer.
- Comments only. No posts, no links, not even to something helpful that is not yours.
- One or two subreddits. The ones you actually care about, so the history looks like a person with an interest.
- Answer questions. The fastest way back to normal karma is being useful in threads where somebody is stuck.
- Slow down. A handful of comments a day. Ten in an hour after a ban is the same pattern that got you here.
After that, the ramp is the same as any new account, and we have the day by day in the 30-day warm-up.
If you end up starting over
Appeal first, because a lifted ban is worth more than any new account. If the answer is no and you do start again, know what actually links accounts, because that is the part everybody gets wrong.
Reddit does not just look at your IP. It fingerprints the device: operating system, browser and version, screen resolution, installed fonts, hardware details. That signature identifies the machine whatever network it is on. On top of that it weighs behavior: writing style, posting cadence, and whether the new account turns up in the same threads and around the same people as the old one. Several of those lining up is what it treats as evidence, and when it acts, it acts on both accounts.
That is why signing up again from the same laptop on the same home connection gets caught within days, and why a phone on mobile data behaves differently: it is a different device signature, and a carrier IP is shared by hundreds of real people through CGNAT, so it is not a clean signal for anyone to ban. Different device, different network, different behavior. Those are the three that matter.
Two things worth saying plainly. Creating an account to get around a ban is against Reddit's User Agreement, so it is a risk you take with your eyes open, not a loophole. And if your product's name is what keeps showing up in that pattern, the reputation that suffers is your domain's, not just an account's. A new account that behaves the same way ends up in the same place.
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Reddit bans: FAQ
Am I banned or shadowbanned?
Open your profile logged out. Missing there but fine when logged in is a shadowban. A message from a subreddit is a subreddit ban. An email is a suspension. One post gone with no message is a filter, not a ban.
How long do suspensions last?
Temporary ones are usually three or seven days and the email tells you. Permanent ones have no timer and only lift through an appeal.
Do mods see who I am across Reddit?
They see your public history and what you did in their subreddit. That is enough for them to tell whether you are a person who slipped up or an account that only posts links.
Can I just make a new account?
Appeal first. If you do start over, understand that Reddit links accounts by device fingerprint, network and behavior, that doing it to dodge a ban goes against the User Agreement, and that when it finds the link both accounts go.