The Reddit Jail blog

Reporting and opinion on how Reddit actually moderates itself: bans, mod power, appeals, and the receipts for all of it. Every factual claim links to a real source.

productabout

Why We Built Reddit Jail

Reddit Jail is a place where everyone gets to be heard, hosted entirely off Reddit's infrastructure, so a ban from Reddit doesn't have to be a ban from the conversation.

bansappealsdue process

You Can Always Appeal (You Just Might Not Get an Answer)

Reddit's appeals system exists and is real. It's also, by design, a queue with no visibility, no case tracking, and no guaranteed response: a very different thing from due process.

mod overreachmoderation

60,000 Unpaid Moderators Run Reddit. Who Runs Them?

Reddit's day-to-day moderation is done by roughly 60,000 daily-active volunteers with no salary, no consistent training, and (by their own reporting) plenty of burnout. Here's what that structure actually produces.

bansshadowbanshow reddit works

Shadowbans, Suspensions, and Reddit's Appeals Process, Explained

Reddit stopped shadowbanning real people back in 2015. Here's what replaced it, what Reddit's own help pages say about it, and where the gaps still are.

mod overreachhistorybans

A Brief History of Reddit Banning Its Own Communities

From r/fatpeoplehate in 2015 to the 2,000-subreddit purge of 2020: a timeline of Reddit's biggest ban waves, and what triggered each one.

mod overreachhistoryapi protest

The 2023 Reddit Blackout, and What Happened to the Mods Who Led It

Thousands of subreddits went dark to protest Reddit's API pricing. Here's what Reddit actually did to the moderators who organized it.