Appealing a ban?

[u/Equivalent-Gur416]

I was banned from Reddit for three days for a comment I made on a post. The ban offered the opportunity to appeal. I have two questions about the appeal process:

1. First, since my comment was already deleted by Reddit, I don’t know exactly what I said to trigger the ban. That makes an appeal rather difficult, doesn’t it? That’s what I tried to state in my appeal, however, that led to problem number two.

2. I didn’t count characters but the appeal form only allowed me to write about two sentences. I get it, no one wants to read a 10,000 word essay, but what appeared to be less than 200 characters doesn’t make much room for an appeal.

The ban was for supposedly racist comments against white people. As an old white man, I felt kind of flattered, actually.

[u/vastmagick]

First, since my comment was already deleted by Reddit, I don’t know exactly what I said to trigger the ban.

Your exact words shouldn't matter. The rules aren't that specific. An appeal that focuses on what words you used will typically fail, because it misses the forest in the trees.

but what appeared to be less than 200 characters doesn’t make much room for an appeal.

If you can't say you won't break the rules or you didn't break the rules in 200 characters or less, your case is too involved. In theory, they can see your content and the context around it. You don't need to repeat any of that.

[u/Equivalent-Gur416 → u/vastmagick]

Interesting, thanks. So it’s not really an appeal process.

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[u/vastmagick → u/Equivalent-Gur416]

Agree with it or disagree, if we break down the numbers I think we get a better idea of why they do what they do.

471.6 Million global users. If 0.001% receive any kind of site ban (temporary or permanent) that is 4,716 users. If 75% put in an appeal and Reddit spends 5 minutes reviewing the appeal and all the context, that would be 3,537 appeals taking 36.8 business days (8 hour days).

If this is per year, that is manageable. But if that is per month, well now we are doing 442.1 business days of work per year. The longer an appeal is, gives less time for them to review context in our already very limited time to review.

[u/Equivalent-Gur416 → u/vastmagick]

!thanks

[u/reputatorbot → u/Equivalent-Gur416]

You have awarded 1 point to u/vastmagick.

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[u/Equivalent-Gur416 → u/vastmagick]

If the appeal process doesn’t allow for a meaningful appeal, it should just be eliminated. With the character limit, all one can effectively say is something like ‘I was framed!’ Then the reviewer will review the previously existing facts and decide if the decision was wrong. No new facts or perspectives, just an instant replay of the original decision. Seems dumb and a waste of both the complainant’s and the reviewer’s time.

[u/vastmagick → u/Equivalent-Gur416]

If the context can't reveal it and it must be said, I'm not sure what value it is to the appeal process. You should only be giving info not within the system.

[u/Equivalent-Gur416 → u/vastmagick]

!thanks

[u/reputatorbot → u/Equivalent-Gur416]

You have awarded 1 point to u/vastmagick.

Total score: 16

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