got the notification to verify my age when trying to access NSFW posts or profiles already for a few weeks now, but as of today my whole account is blocked unless I verify. I guess that’s it then. Based in Austria btw, so there is no specific law in place that forces Reddit to implement this and I will definetly not give my personal information to Persona, a company that belongs to Peter Thiels Palantir group.
no porn for you 🎻
I guess you haven’t read the text under my screenshot - this doesn’t happen on NSFW subs or posts anymore, I cannot access ANYTHING anymore, the complete account is blocked unless I verify.
I will not play games that require tpm and secure boot, and I will not use software that requires any sort of identity verification to use. the internet is simply a tool for entertainment for most of my uses, communication is optional.
That’s what I do when I get a notice like this. Accept that I just move on.
I didn’t think there was anyone left on Reddit but bots
The oldest redditors got shadow banned because their posts were too valuable to the IPO to show up as blocked or deleted user (the story varries, but my friend ended up getting banned for joking about putting a lock on one of those uhauls full of proud boys (back when they were renting uhauls before Uhaul said they couldn’t anymore)
Those of us here originally, are the ones who deleted their accounts, contrary to what reddit believed would happen.
I know at least one of you will read this, and I am here to receive a powerful high five.
I know two people still using it. Thing is, quite a lot of gaming communities are pretty much dead here, while there are still enough flesh and bone users on reddit (plus eight times as many bots, but there will always be someone to respond within a day if you have a question).
Of course it’s not like there are only these two options and nothing else, but where would you go to for decently paced discussion? Honest question: I had left reddit a long time ago, but I won’t find pre-existing answers on Lemmy for a good number of games, and most of the communities here seem to be bone dry.
I assume they only require people to verify, and they let the bots roam freely without any supervision or am I wrong and it will remove bots from Reddit?
no you’re correct. reddit corp does NOT want to do anything about its bot infestation. even the apipocalypse carved out exceptions for the botnets that make their entire platform function.
bot content spew keeps doomscrollers doomscrolling and pumps up the metrics that they’re intentionally manipulating to appear like organic traffic. having their cake and eating it too, even to the very end of everything the platform used to stand for
I was being snarky. I have no idea how the bot accounts on Reddit are organized or managed, I’m just some dude.
I was being snarky as well, and not towards you.
In some circumstances I would actually stand behind user verification on Reddit/Reddit-like forum.
If that meant:
no bots, if you can really be sure that a user is a real person,
real freedom of speech, with real consequences for real people that abuse it (perma ban doesn’t mean much if you can just create a new account).
no flood of low quality AI content.
elimination of troll farms and institutional propaganda accounts…
But knowing current corporations, I am sure, the control applies only to us insignificant people, organized farms will keep on flooding, maybe some of them will have to pay to Reddit (those who didn’t already).
I don’t really have that much of a problem with the age verification as it is - my problem is that the only means to do so is giving my personal information to Persona, a very shady company with a not so good data protection record (they are part of Peter Thiels Palantir group, I guess that says it all).
Why are people still on reddit? Might as well go join Truth Social or X if you care that little about what you’re contributing to.
Not all communities have an equivalent here.
I miss some of the people on Reddit, but I don’t miss Reddit.
In time, they’ll appear here (or in similar places).
I’m never going back.
jan 1 1964, or wherever my scrolling lands me.
Use ublock origin element zapper tool
not able to use that on my company laptop sadly …
Yet you can use reddit?
yeah, I was also surprised but it works. I guess I could also argue that I would need it for research ;)
You need to create an alias and not forget it, so you can use a completely different “person” on these shitty sites. I’ve got a dozen email addresses with names, birthplaces, dates, etc. never know who I am.
Fingerprinting knows
Multiple vpns, paid and free, adblocking and blocking tracking at DNS level, ublock origin, different browsers and operating systems. Good luck. I probably look like some frankenstein user.
And even if you do fingerprint it, you’re fingerprinting a useless alias, so who cares.
IIRC they can fingerprint you based on your writing style and interests.
The more intricate your configuration, the easier you are to fingerprint. Because nobody else has your exact configuration. For it to not matter, you have to have a sufficiently complex unique fingerprint for every instance of being fingerprinted.
Cookies for the masses, fingerprints for everyone else. It is actually quite difficult to truly be anonymous on the internet today.
Well you do you, I’ll do me.
I wasn’t suggesting you do otherwise. Just trying to keep folks informed.
If you’re interested in fingerprinting, check out this site. It will tell you how sites see your exact configuration.
I tried it. Unfortunately it is wrong in several of statements about my machine. Since it cannot detect the specifics of my machine nor its settings, one can conclude that either this website is wrong or my settings for protection work well. Hard to fingerprint someone when their are inaccuracies.
Honestly, a VPN is a good investment in your online safety anyway and would bypass this age verification bullshit. We have it in Australia too. Philippines don’t.
VPN works for me so far, but like I said in another comment: I use reddit mostly on my work laptop and am not allowed to use VPN there …
Can you not install browser extensions? I can on my work laptop (on either Edge or Chrome - they don’t allow other alternatives), but obviously they’re all locked down differently
no, not even browser extensions or even different browsers - it’s pretty restricted
Reddit blocks a shit ton of vpns
Use a VPN exit point in Singapore
VPN works for now, but I am mostly online on my work-laptop (yeah I know 😂) and I am not allowed to run a VPN on that one …
The verification flag might be tied to the account if there’s no specific local law. If that is the case wherever they pop out reddit will try id them.
Australia have a social media under 16 ban in place. It is due to that.
OP said Austria, so maybe not.
Oh, yea. My bad.
