If your Reddit posts stopped getting seen, one of four different things is happening — a site-wide shadowban, an account suspension, a subreddit ban, or an automated removal by AutoMod or Reddit's spam filter. They look almost identical from your side of the screen, and they need completely different fixes. Almost every guide online conflates them, which is why so many people spend weeks appealing the wrong thing.
This article is the decision tree. Five minutes here will save you a month of guessing.
The four mechanisms, side by side
| Scope | Are you told? | Can you still log in? | Fix | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shadowban | Site-wide | No | Yes — everything looks normal | Appeal at reddit.com/appeals |
| Suspension | Site-wide | Yes — you get a message | Read-only | Appeal; wait out the term if temporary |
| Subreddit ban | One community | Usually — modmail | Yes, everywhere else | Message that subreddit's mods |
| AutoMod / spam filter removal | Per post | No | Yes | Meet the rule you tripped, or modmail |
What each one actually is
Shadowban — invisible, site-wide, and officially deprecated
A shadowban makes your posts and comments invisible to everyone but you. You see your content normally when logged in. Logged out, it does not exist.
Here is the part almost nobody gets right: Reddit officially stopped shadowbanning human users. In a 2015 announcement the company said the shadowban was "great for dealing with bots and spam rings, but woefully inadequate for real human beings," and replaced it with account suspensions; the transition was largely complete by 2017. Reddit's position today is that shadowbans are reserved for spam automation.
And yet people are still shadowbanned, because the anti-spam system that applies them is automated and imperfect. New accounts posting links, accounts sharing an IP with a banned account, and accounts that behave in bot-like patterns still get caught. When someone says "Reddit shadowbanned me in 2026," they are usually right — they were caught by the automated spam system, not sanctioned by a human.
Suspension — visible, site-wide, and dated
A suspension is the modern replacement. You are told. You get a message explaining which policy you violated, and temporary suspensions come with a clear duration — commonly 3, 7, or 30 days. Your account stays visible in read-only mode: you can still browse, delete, and edit past content, but you cannot post, comment, vote, or send messages.
The most common trigger for marketers is vote manipulation — using multiple accounts, coordinating upvotes, or asking others to vote. Reddit treats that as a site-wide offense, not a community one.
Subreddit ban — local, and by far the most likely
A moderator banned you from one community. You will usually get a modmail saying so, though some subreddits ban silently. Everything else on Reddit works fine. If your posts vanish in r/SaaS but do fine in r/startups, this is what happened.
This is, statistically, what has happened to most people who think they are shadowbanned. It is also the easiest to fix: message that subreddit's moderators.
AutoMod and the spam filter — per post, silent, and the real culprit
The most common invisible removal is not a ban at all. AutoMod is a rules engine every subreddit configures itself, and it removes posts that fail a threshold before any human sees them. Typical rules check combined karma, account age, whether you have posted in the community before, and — increasingly in 2026 — Reddit's Contributor Quality Score, which can block you even when your karma and age both clear the bar.
Nothing tells you this happened. Your post appears in your profile. It never appears in the subreddit's new queue.
How to tell them apart in three minutes
- Open one of your recent posts in a private window, logged out. If it is gone, you are shadowbanned or the post was removed. If it is there, your account is fine and the problem is engagement, not moderation.
- Check reddit.com/appeals while logged in. A site-wide shadowban shows a notice at the top of that page. A suspension shows the suspension notice and its duration.
- Post in r/ShadowBan. A bot replies with your account's status. This is the community-standard check and it is free.
- Compare across subreddits. Invisible in one community, fine in another? That is a subreddit ban or an AutoMod rule, not a site-wide action.
- Check the subreddit's new queue. Sort the subreddit by New and look for your post. Missing there but present on your profile is the AutoMod signature.
Our free shadowban checker automates steps one and two — it runs both an authenticated and a public-visibility test on any username and tells you whether the account is shadowbanned, suspended, or in good standing.
Which fix goes with which problem
| Diagnosis | What to do | Realistic timeline |
|---|---|---|
| Shadowban | Appeal at reddit.com/appeals. Be brief and factual; do not argue. | 3–7 days, sometimes longer |
| Temporary suspension | Wait it out. Appeal only if you believe it was an error. | The stated term |
| Permanent suspension | Appeal once. If refused, the account is not coming back. | Days to weeks |
| Subreddit ban | Modmail those moderators. One polite message, no follow-up spam. | Hours to days |
| AutoMod removal | Build the karma or age the rule requires, then repost. | Days to weeks |
Shadowban appeals have a notably good success rate — commonly estimated around 60–70% — precisely because so many are automated mistakes. Suspension appeals for vote manipulation do far worse, because those are usually correct.
The prevention that actually matters
Every one of these mechanisms is triggered by the same underlying pattern: an account that looks more like a promotion machine than a participant. The defenses are unglamorous and they work.
- Age the account before you use it. Two to four weeks of ordinary commenting before any link.
- Never run multiple accounts on the same conversation. This is the one that converts a recoverable problem into a permanent one.
- Read each subreddit's rules before your first post there. Most bans are local and entirely avoidable.
- Vary what you post. Ten copies of the same link across ten subreddits is the textbook spam signature.
- Check your standing periodically, not just when something feels wrong.
For the phased version of this, see our guide to warming up a Reddit account. If you have already been hit, the recovery guide covers the appeal in detail, and this piece covers what actually sets the automated system off — VPNs, new accounts, shared IPs, and the rest.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Reddit still shadowban people in 2026?
Officially, no — Reddit replaced shadowbans with suspensions starting in 2015 and reserves shadowbans for spam automation. In practice the automated anti-spam system still catches real users, especially new accounts posting links, so the effect persists even though the policy changed.
What is the difference between a shadowban and a suspension?
A shadowban is silent — you are never told, and your content is invisible to everyone but you. A suspension is announced, comes with a stated duration, and puts your account in read-only mode where you can browse but not post, comment, or vote.
How do I know if I am shadowbanned or just banned from one subreddit?
Check whether your posts are visible in other communities. If they work everywhere except one subreddit, it is a subreddit ban or an AutoMod rule. If they are invisible site-wide when logged out, it is a shadowban.
Is a Reddit shadowban permanent?
Not usually. Most are automated and are lifted on appeal, with success rates commonly estimated at 60–70%. Appeals typically take 3 to 7 days.