We got banned on Reddit ❌ 🙈

I pushed my team to share the full honest story, 
because I think it needs to be heard.

In June, we published our original Reddit Experiment findings where we told you that we created various subreddit communities:

-> Version A (dormant): Just threads no comments or upvotes
-> Version B (active): Threads + comments and upvotes
-> Version C: Threads + upvotes only. No comments
-> Version D: Threads + comment only. No upvotes


Back then, the active subreddits gained AI citations and quite some traction on AI Search.

But now:

❌ All 4 communities were banned by Reddit both the active ones, and inactive ones.

Reddit removed the community pages completely and, every thread inside it, and every URL that pointed at any of them.

Why?

We tested automated bots posting on some of those subreddits. It was flagged. We knew the risk, but wanted to test it.

𝗠𝘆 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘆𝗼𝘂:

1️⃣ Don't use bots or other automation on reddit. There is not shortcut.

2️⃣ If you care about your visibility on Reddit, do it the right way, the community-first way.

Side note: We conducted this experiment, independent from our own brand. So no impact there.

Here's the impact on AI Citations since the ban.

I think it's quite a clear message for everyone trying to automate or "hack" Reddit communities.