What is this?
Reveddit reveals content removed from Reddit by moderators. It does not show user-deleted content.1
To use it, insert ve or just v into the URL of any page on Reddit, including user pages, subreddits, threads and more.
Where transparency exists through the use of Reveddit, users are more compliant and mods are less abusive. The community plays a more active role, and users are given a chance to either alter behavior or migrate elsewhere.2
Why should I look up my username?
Two reasons,
- In many cases, Reddit sends no message about removals. Messages can optionally be sent by subreddit moderators.
- Reddit shows you your removed comments, and sometimes posts3, as if they are not removed.
Is that true?
Yes, try it! Visit r/CantSayAnything and create any comment or post. It will be removed, you will not receive a message, and it will appear to you as if it is not removed while you are logged in.
You can verify this by opening the link to your content in an incognito window or while logged out. Your comment (or post's body) will not appear.
Moderators may also silently ban users from a subreddit using what Reddit's Automoderator docs once called a "shadowban"4 and now call a "bot ban":
With a bot ban, some users won't realize they've been banned.
Can I be notified of removals?
Yes, Reveddit Real-Time notifies you when any of your content on Reddit has been removed.
How can I switch between sites?
Reveddit Linker adds buttons that let you alternate between Reddit and Reveddit. Alternatively, you can drag the bookmarklet reveddit to your bookmarks bar. Find more add-ons here.
How do people react?
Here are some examples of how people react when they discover the way Reddit handles removals:
- r/dataisbeautiful (archive)
- ...what is the supposed rationale for making you think a removed post is still live and visible?
- 3 years ago
- r/InternetIsBeautiful
- ...So the mods delete comments, but have them still visible to the writer. How sinister.
- 3 years ago
- r/technology
- ...what’s stunning is you get no notification and to you the comment still looks up. Which means mods can set whatever narrative they want without answering to anyone.
- 3 years ago
- r/technology
- ...Wow. Can they remove your comment and it still shows up on your side as if it wasn't removed?
- 4 years, 6 months ago
- r/InternetIsBeautiful
- ...Today I learned that the reason noone ever replies to my posts is because they all get removed.
- 4 years, 6 months ago
- r/mildlyinfuriating
- ...Wow. I’ve been on here 12 years and always thought it was a cool place where people could openly share ideas. Turns out it’s more censored than China. Being removed in 3,2,1…
- 3 years, 9 months ago
- r/InternetIsBeautiful
- ...I've got so many comments deleted and they aren't even controversial. That's bizarre.
- 3 years, 9 months ago
- r/science
- ...Isn't that a no brainer? Feedback makes you better, no feedback discourages you and you don't learn anything.
- 5 years, 6 months ago
- Selected comments: What people say
- 6 years, 3 months ago — present
What is a shadowban?
A shadowban hides all of a user's content from public view without alerting them to the ban. It can be applied within a given subreddit by that group's moderators, or site-wide by Reddit admins.
Reveddit can indicate both subreddit-based and site-wide shadowbans via a user's profile. A subreddit shadowban looks like this, where all content for one subreddit is removed. In some cases it may indicate the user does not meet certain subreddit requirements, such as karma, age, and having a verified email.
In 2020, Reddit's Automoderator documentation was changed to refer to the subreddit shadowban as a "bot ban". For more details, see the history of automoderator and subreddit shadowbans.
Examples of site-wide shadowbanned users may be found in r/ShadowBan. After a period of time, Reddit may suspend shadowbanned accounts. Places where Reddit has addressed the topic include:
- July, 2015: On shadowbans.
- November, 2015: Account suspensions: A transparent alternative to shadowbans
Why should I disable tracking protection in Firefox?
A Firefox partner named disconnect.me maintains a list of domains that it calls trackers. Reddit is on that list, so requests to Reddit are blocked. The only way to fix this right now is to disable the feature. more info
Extensions that block trackers can also disable Reveddit since they sometimes block connections to Reddit.
Why is javascript required?
Javascript is required so the site can operate with minimal costs. See reducing time and money.
Does Reveddit show user-deleted content?
User-deleted content never appears on Reveddit user pages. See this discussion on r/Reveddit and this one on r/removeddit for more info.
An exception was made for titles and links of user-deleted submissions on thread pages. That means someone would need the link to the content in order to see the title and user-submitted URL, and it still would not show the username. User pages never show any user-deleted content. Titles and links provide basic context necessary to review discussions. These are now restored via the archive service because at some point in early 2022 Reddit began overwriting the titles and links of three-month-old user-deleted posts.
Please note,
- Only Reddit's
deletebutton removes content from Reveddit. A moderator can also use theremovebutton on their own content in subs they moderate. In that case the content will still appear on Reveddit. - If a moderator removes a comment, and then later the author deletes the comment, that comment will not appear on Reveddit user pages and may still appear in Reveddit threads. The Reddit API does not have a way to show when authors delete mod-removed comments.
Reddit does not tell me my post is removed. Why does Reveddit say it is?
Reveddit Real-Time always shows post removal notices on both old and new Reddit.
Reddit does not ping authors when their posts (links) are removed. In addition, Reddit does not display the post removal notice on removed posts if:
- Reddit's spam filter removed the post, and the post is less than 24 hours old.
- A subreddit's "spam filter strength" setting may impact how often this occurs. Some subreddits set this to remove all posts up front.
- You can post in r/CantSayAnything to see how this works.
- See here for more info.
- you visit the page using a link to a comment, here for example.
- the post was removed prior to December 2019 when Reddit announced Post removal details. Here is an example of an old removed post on Reddit and on on Reveddit.
- you visit the page using
old.reddit.com. Onlynew.reddit.comshows post removal notices.
How can I find out why something was removed?
You can inquire about a specific post or comment using the message mods button. This prepares a pre-filled message to the subreddit's moderators. A post's removal reason may appear in its flair or in a message on the new Reddit layout.
In addition, some subreddits publish their mod logs through u/modlogs or u/publicmodlogs. Reveddit merges information from these sources when possible. Clicking the [removed] by label on Reveddit may show more details such as the mod's name and a reason.
Using this pre-filled message, you can ask mods to make logs available. u/modlogs lets you fine-tune what is shared. To set it up on a subreddit you moderate,
- for u/publicmodlogs: add this bot as a moderator with no permissions.
- for u/modlogs: add this bot as a moderator, give it wiki permissions, and create a config page such as /r/CantSayAnything/wiki/modlog_config. The bot will not have access to the AutoModerator config as that requires the "Manage Settings" permission.
Why is removed content sometimes not visible?
Viewing removed content for subreddits and threads relies on an archive service called Pushshift which is part of NCRI. Reveddit is unaffiliated. Pushshift can fall behind, fail to archive content, or go offline. If a comment is removed before it is archived then it may not appear on Reveddit. It may be possible to restore comments from a user page. Your /user page will always be up to date since that only relies on data from Reddit.
Pushshift may also completely miss content resulting in data gaps. If a subreddit exposes mod logs, Reveddit may be able to surface removed content that does not exist within Pushshift.
What does the Restore button on removed comments do?
Clicking Restore searches for unarchived comments, adds them if they are found, and updates the URL to save their location so the results can be shared. Comments restored in this manner come from /user pages and are labeled restored via user page.
Note, this works best when the page loads from a link to all comments rather than a specific comment. If a page loads from a direct link to a comment, then some authors may not be visible to the search process.
Restoring comments is useful because sometimes the archive service, called "Pushshift", does not archive data in time. If something is removed before it can be archived then it can only be found on the author's /user page. To find it you need to know the author first. Reveddit can search /user pages of nearby authors, such as the grandparent comment's author, to fill in some of these comments.
Clicking Restore performs this search once for a group of users who have successfully commented in the thread. If there is no result after the first click, clicking more times may yield a result. Clicking author-focus, op-focus, or preserve automatically searches for missing comments from the given author.
Some new comments that can only be found on user pages may appear. This happens when a comment has not yet been archived and it has no replies, since removed comments that have no replies do not appear in Reddit's comment tree API.
See search for unarchived comments and restored via user page for more information.
What does the "unknown removed" label mean?
The mod/auto label (formerly marked as unknown) is applied when Reveddit cannot determine if something was removed manually by a mod or removed automatically by automod, Reddit's spam filter, or another bot. Pushshift, a database that captures Reddit data as it is created, and which Reveddit queries, can fall behind or fail to retrieve data. When that happens, any removed items are marked as [removed] by mod/auto. When Pushshift captures content soon after creation, and the content has already been removed, then it is marked as [removed] automatically. If Pushshift has a record of a removed comment's body then the comment is labeled [removed] by mod. More detail can be found in the source code.
Note, when an account is suspended by Reddit, all the posts and comments for that account may be removed. The Reddit API does not indicate where suspension-related removals occur and so Reveddit cannot see or mark where this happens. You can check if an account has been suspended on its Reddit or Reveddit user page. Temporary suspensions may also remove content created before the suspension.
How can I see replies to me that were removed?
On reddit.com/settings/emails turn on "Replies to your comments" and "Comments on your posts". You may need to first uncheck "Unsubscribe from all emails" at the bottom. Checking "Inbox messages" has no impact on this. That will send an email containing the content and author of every reply. As of September of 2022, this still includes auto-removed content*.
To stop getting notifications for a certain post, uncheck "Send Me Reply Notifications" under the "..." on new Reddit, or hit "disable inbox replies" on old Reddit. That stops both the emails and in-app notifications. Replies that aren't removed will still be recorded in your /message/inbox.
Regarding, Why do reply notifications link to pages that say "That Comment Is Missing" or "there doesn't seem to be anything here"? In such cases, the comment may have been removed before it was viewed, and subscribing to emails for replies may provide some insight.
*Around July-September 2022, some moderators asked Reddit to stop sending emails for auto-removed comments. I shared my opinion about that here and here.
An error appeared. What happened?
Reveddit was unable to connect to Reddit. Possible causes include:
- conflicting extensions, or strict browser privacy settings that block connections (see FAQ: trackers)
- temporary network outage
- the page contains quarantined content that requires Reveddit Real-Time to view accurately.
- if your Reveddit settings contain an API key:
- your key may have a typo. Check it on Reddit.com/prefs/apps
- you hit the API request limit and need to wait 5 minutes to try again.
Any limitations?
I. Untracked content
The following content is unavailable on Reddit user pages and therefore cannot be tracked with Reveddit user pages,
- Content from banned subreddits. The subreddit history page may display some content.
- Reddit live/chat comments
II. Archive overwrites
The archive service on which Reveddit relies changed its comment retention behavior around September 2021. As a result, now comments in threads may not be visible after about 1.5 days. This post explains what is going on. That change does not impact Reveddit Real-Time or user pages on Reveddit.
III. Collapsed comments on user pages
Collapsed comments may or may not be marked on user pages. It seems to work for some accounts and not for others. See here for more info.
Why haven't I heard about this?
See my post, State of Marketing, from 5 years, 10 months ago.
Subreddits such as LifeProTips, todayilearned, and YouShouldKnow rarely approve submissions about Reveddit because of rules against posts related to software, social media, or self-promotion. Other times, a submitter's intuition about what is on-topic may not align with moderators' rules. And, most subreddits forbid posts about Reddit, including AssholeDesign, MildlyInfuriating, and CrappyDesign. A submission about Reveddit may be removed when:
- Moderators remove it
- Reddit's spam filter marks it as spam
Places where Reveddit has been successfully shared are listed here.
How else does Reddit appear differently for me?
As of January 2022, "blocking" allows users to prevent other users from seeing or replying to their content. See the following posts for more information:
- Announcing Blocking Updates
- r/blog 3 years, 3 months ago
- Reddit's new block feature and its effects on spreading misinformation and propaganda.
- r/TheoryOfReddit 3 years, 3 months ago
- We need to talk about people weaponizing the block feature.
- r/ModSupport 3 years, 3 months ago
- This new block feature is nothing but trouble and not just for mods. Users are complaining about being locked out of conversation by bad faith accounts blocking them.
- r/ModSupport 3 years, 2 months ago
- ...a major flaw
- r/bestof 3 years, 3 months ago
- ...it's easily abusable by trolls and misinformation spreaders
- r/Austin 3 years, 3 months ago
- ...it gives trolls and users spreading harmful misinformation an enormous amount of power.
- r/help 3 years, 3 months ago
- ...reddit's new block feature is a nightmare that trolls can use
- r/skeptic 3 years, 3 months ago
- This sub is about to devolve into two echo Chambers
- r/Scotland 3 years, 3 months ago
- ...I think it will destroy Reddit communities
- r/mormon 3 years, 3 months ago
