Link: https://piunikaweb.com/2026/02/23/user-accuses-reddit-of-holding-organic-posting-hostage-unless-he-buys-ads-shares-email-screenshot/

Mike Hardaker, who has maintained a Reddit account for 20 years, has been shadow-banned on Reddit. He has posted an update on X, stating that Reddit requires an ad spend to restore organic posting. This demand was given to him in writing.

He posted this on xitter. It goes in the trash along with reddit.

I mean, if you want more than three people to see the post...

First mistake: Staying on Reddit. Fuck Spez.

Second mistake: Complaining about Reddit on X. Fuck Musk.

Let's just hope this user stays away from substack next.

So let me get this straight. Some jerk off looking to advertise his site by spamming links on several subs was hoping to AstroTurf COUGH I mean organically post... And Reddit Ad Team saw that and figured they could milk him for some dollars? So this doucher takes to Xhitter to try to get sympathy?

Ahh capitalism at its finest.

If you didn’t leave when the API pricing went up, everything is your fault.

Owners of the means of production will use that leverage to exploit you, every time.

"I got caught trying to advertise for free and they want me to pay for it like everyone else!"

Just one asshole fucking another with a double-headed dildo. That's all I see.

Cancel xitter

...you'll have to buy ad space.

The bigger news here is that Reddit, as a policy, allows bot posting (organic posting) as long as you're buying ads from them.

That's nothing. I was permabanned for inciting violence or whatever they claimed, which broke rule #1. My "violence" was calling AI stupid (more or less) wishing it'd go away. Ironically, the mod bot banned me.

How do I do that on Mastodon, Lemmy, Piefed,...?

^/s^

Here’s my story on Medium about my journey from Reddit, to X, to Substack! Like and subscribe guys!

Like you just did with your comment and OP did with their posting: non paid ad posting

Mine came from simply saying that a drone would probably take care of a Russian solder seen in a video on crutches heading toward the front lines in Ukraine. Literally just that. Not saying it with any joy or approval, just a statement of fact. Phrased pretty damn much like I said it in this comment here.

wut

Unless the article is absolutely lying, it mentioned the subreddits wanted the posts and couldn't overcome the sitewide ban (i.e. manually approving the content). Your comment is a really huge stretch there.

My ~19 year old account was permabanned after three strikes that involved two upvotes of Luigi pictures and then— after seeing a vid of Trump falling asleep— saying he shouldn’t wake up.

Then my alt got a warning for “disparaging communities” after I said one of the two PDX subreddits started so they could talk shit about houseless people, which is a fact.

Three of those were flagged by AI, the last one— the warning— was a person flagging it and couldn’t be contested.

It’s gone to the dogs.

REDDIT is most AI and propaganda posts and bot posting.

REAL humans posting. anything that utilizes bots, AI isnt organic, but reddit often bans the real humans over AI posting.

as you know reddit bans people if it looks for patterns thats repeating itself.

Hardaker is the operator of Mountain Weekly News, and he regularly used to contribute to three or four subreddits

So I am going to stop right there and ignore any conceivably ingenious reply you may come up with to justify and spin what the dude is actually doing. Spend enough time on Reddit like the grownups around here and you'll eventually understand.

The person in the email strikes me as a contradiction. On the one hand, they're posting their pronouns presumably to indicate some sort of support for inclusivity? On the other hand, they're actively strong-arming and bullying a person into paying for normal access...

I'm sure it's fully lost on that person. It feels so discordant to me.

Organically.

A posting made by an organic life form, typically a human.

Listen, kid, I've been on reddit since 2009. I hung out with the admins in IRC back in the day. I was a default mod for a while, and I'm the "father" of /r/nottheonion.

There's plenty I don't know about reddit and life in general, but on this topic, clearly I know a fuck ton more than you.

There was a time on reddit when self-promotion was against the rules. That rule was dropped something like a decade ago.

The simple fact is that - from at least the article's telling - the subreddits wanted the content, and in that case, it is absolutely fine and encouraged for someone to submit.

There's a guy making youtube reviews of restaurants in my local city's subreddit. The content is popular - people like it. So we absolutely are happy to see him post. Is it self-promotion? Yes, technically. It's also relevant to the subreddit and desired by the mods and members of the subreddit.

You're like the people saying "dis a repost" when someone CROSS-posts. Note that reddit has a BUILT IN SYSTEM for cross-posting, but there are redditors who don't know that.

So, little boy, you can take your condescension and /r/confidentlyincorrect along with /r/iamverysmart and fucking LEARN something, or go off and continue to be willfully ignorant.

Disclaimer: If the article's reporting is incorrect and the subreddits considered it spam, well, that's not what the article said, and I don't otherwise have other knowledge of it, nor do I care enough to google for any other possible sources. But that's the informatio you're working off of as well, so there's that.

PS: To add a light-hearted end: I'll go to /r/dontyouknowwhoiam now :) (that name seems too long. Is that the right one/ Well, you probably know what I mean and I'm too lazy to look it up :P )

Typically??

Organic posting = euphemism for spamming

If the support specifically says that you are a spammer, then you're a spammer.

I do not have empathy for spammers

Writing spam posts like "I'm really satisfied using this website, totallynotanad.com" or "try using Company XYZ, their service is really good"

On the internet no one knows youre a dog.

On the internet, no one knows you're made of cups

Once I got banned like a thousand times within the span of 5 minutes because I reported a pro-Trump post as child abuse. I assume it really triggered some admin.

C’mon, is it news? Isn’t that the reason we’re all here?

Fuck you u/spez.

I'm jealous of all y'all who know why you got bans.

I've gotten warning and temp bans, but they never specify why. They never include the content. Just saying promoting this or that is very unclear, like how, when, where? Did I actually?

I always just ignore them and carry on on alts for a while.

Their shit is so stupid. But there's a lot of useful content on Reddit. I still hit up old house and DIY type groups, cause I own an old house, and specific tech groups because of the tech I use, but I don't miss the rest.

I mean there's gut feeling and then there's real actual evidence.

You get yourself to BlueSky

Fuck Reddit

He might not be morally good, but what Reddit is doing here is illegal in many places.

Sound more like you learned the hard way what "abusing the system" mean.

Oh, no, I didn't give a shit, I burned through Reddit accounts like nobody's business. The fact that the admin was so triggered as to sit there, banning and unbanning me, just to spam me with notifications, was the greatest possible reward I could have ever asked for.

First thing I did on the new account was report the exact same post. Didn't get banned.

I pulled a 3-day ban for calling ICE racists. Must have really triggered one of the racist mods.

I’m new to this, is substack not the place to be for writers?

I am on a 7 day ban for the same sort of thing, pointing out how ICE targets brown people. "Inciting hate", how is pointing out hate crimes the same as inciting hate? Fight the power.

It’s strong “people who point out racism are the real racists” energy

I wonder if this admin was named maxwellhill.

an ad spend

When you're off the used car lot, 'spend' is still only a verb, and the word you wanted here is maybe 'purchase' or 'deal'.

'The spend', 'the ask', and other cheese should stay back with the pre-owned Pontiacs.

They found out the hard way that abuse is only tolerated if you have passed a certain wealth threshold.