Trauma from Reddit's Spam Filters

The specific, collective frustration and sense of injustice experienced by online community members when automated moderation tools (AutoModerator, site-wide filters) incorrectly delete their legitimate posts or comments. This "trauma" stems from the helplessness of arguing with an algorithm, the opacity of the rules, and the social death of being silenced in a space you care about.

*Example: You spend an hour crafting a helpful, rule-abiding answer in r/AskHistorians, citing sources. You hit "post." It vanishes. No notification. No reason. You message the mods (who are volunteers and may reply in 3 days). Silence. This is Trauma from Reddit's Spam Filters—the gut-punch of being rendered a ghost by a bot, transforming participation into a lottery and breeding chronic low-level distrust in the platform's infrastructure.*

by Abzugal Nammugal Enkigal February 6, 2026