Reddit is nuts. I started using it around 2018 or so. Everything was fine. I was living in Toronto and frequented the r/Toronto subreddit.
Then, COVID happened and threads were getting locked down left and right, the moderators were getting heavy-handed. I was living in downtown Toronto and, thanks to COVID, I wasn't seeing friends and family very much and feeling rather isolated. I like going for walks, especially in parks. I like trees.

The city of Toronto decided to close some of its green spaces during COVID. Yes, they actually closed the parks. They put yellow police tape up and had bylaw officers patrolling the parks to make sure no one used them. I was outraged by this. Grocery stores were open, obviously, so I was routinely standing in a grocery store surrounded by people, but I wasn't allowed to go to a park and walk around in the fresh air?

I said this on Reddit and someone replied that going to the park would kill me or that I would kill someone by just being near them in a park. I replied that this was nonsense and that being in a park was no more dangerous than being in a grocery store. The mods of r/Toronto banned me from the subreddit for "spreading misinformation".

I thought it was ridiculous and deleted my Reddit account.

Well... Reddit, like most social media, is addictive, and it can be useful. After taking a break for many months, I made a new Reddit account. I actually did avoid the r/Toronto subreddit. I know that making a new account and posting on that sub after being banned from it would be breaking the rules as 'ban evasion'.

But, see, here's the thing - I lived in Toronto. r/Toronto showed up on my feed all the time. At first, I made the mental note of avoiding it. Also, at the time, I didn't know you could "mute" a subreddit. After using Reddit for months and months and months, and seeing things pop up in my feed all the time, one day I saw an article that was interesting and made a comment on it. I didn't even think about or realize the fact that it was posted in r/Toronto.

BAM, I got my entire account suspended for 'ban evasion'. Now I couldn't use Reddit at all, in any subreddit. This was in 2021. I think I filed an appeal but didn't hear back from the admins for months, and just eventually deleted my account again.

After that, I was permanently banned from Reddit. I couldn't make another account, if I did, it got instantly banned. They were tracking me by cookies, IP address, and even site habits.

After taking a break for a year or so, I tried once again to use Reddit. But I had to use a VPN, a new browser, and make sure I didn't frequent the same subreddits so that they didn't detect my "ban evasion". All was well, until I slipped up and logged in using my normal browser and, BAM, my account was instantly banned again.

So I took another long break from Reddit. I moved to Japan, I got a new computer, a new life. I had a lot of questions about Japan and every time I googled things, Reddit posts would come up in the search. I decided once again to make a Reddit account because Reddit can be useful for asking advice and finding information about things.

Everything was fine! "ban evasion" successful. I was in a new country, using a new computer, using a new browser, and looking at completely different subreddits. No one detected that I was "evading bans". All was well. Nearly a year went by with no problems.
But then, stupidly, I was on my old Chrome profile and, absent-mindedly logged into Reddit under it.

BAM TOTAL ACCOUNT SUSPENSION

The ban came with a message saying "you've been banned for multiple breaches of Reddit policy", meaning multiple instances of "ban evasion".


This is just so ridiculous. Reddit's policy of permanently banning someone - forever - is so incredibly over the top harsh. My original "ban evasion" wasn't even intentional. r/Toronto is the main subreddit for the city I was living in and it kept showing up in my feed. And while we're on the subject, it's pretty nuts that the moderators can just permanently ban someone from their city's main subreddit on a whim.

I know that I broke the rules. I would have been okay with a reasonable consequence for doing so, but Reddit's response to my actions is just completely disproportionate.
It's easy to look at this and respond "well, just don't use Reddit anymore" and, trust me, I have that thought very often. I have a love/hate relationship with Reddit. But the site is so enormous and so much conversation takes place on it that it's difficult to avoid completely.

Like, I wish I could just pay a small fine or something and just start over again, start fresh. I did try to appeal my account suspension but I just got what seemed to be an automated response saying "no". The whole thing seems rather ridiculous.

Are there any good alternatives to Reddit?