Hacker News: prof_hibschman

New comment by prof_hibschman in "Ask HN: Reddit account banned almost one year ago – unable to create and use new"

prof_hibschman — Tue, 15 Apr 2025 15:09:46 +0000

I worked on a similar large social platform with shadow-bans and more strict auto-bans, we had <10% of accounts with "uncommon" usage patterns from paid-user farms, bots, and power-users. The platform prefers a user who sees ads, has rich tracking data, stays logged in, has clean analytics, has persistent caches. Their view is that if you're technical enough to trigger a bot-ban, you're technical enough overcome a ban and make a new account, after all there are 900 million other "normal"ish users with higher ARPU.

To avoid auto-bans, emulate the preferred "dumb" user:

- Use the default app

- Avoid VPN/Proxy (AWS-hosted VPN exits are blocked on Reddit, appeals ignored)

- Avoid analytics-blockers in adblock/pi-hole/dns

- Avoid chrome plugins that scrape (shopping, reviews, media downloaders)

- Limit incognito usage, keep your new-login count low

- Limit deleting / cache-clearing mobile app

- Limit new logins on many devices/browsers/profiles on the same IP

- Limit cmd+clicking 10+ posts in the background (triggers bot-like flag)

- Start new accounts slowly, don't over-do it the first month

To avoid report-bans / moderator-bans / strikes:

- Avoid posting screenshots / URL embeds unless common for the subreddit

- Always add flare (tags) to new posts, many subs auto-mod no-flare posts

- Be careful what you say on "brand" subs like r/Comcast_Xfinity, r/unitedairlines, r/NFL. They hire "brand managers" to use reddit, and if the brand doesn't like it, they can report your posts towards a ban.

Ask HN: Are your logins lasting on Chrome lately (many sites)?

prof_hibschman — Thu, 10 Oct 2024 13:42:50 +0000

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41798732

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

New comment by prof_hibschman in "macOS Sonoma is available today"

prof_hibschman — Wed, 27 Sep 2023 15:15:14 +0000

cmd+f'd this... I wish we had more of the simple need-to-know in one place like

--------------------

30 min average upgrade time on M1/M2 macs

--------------------

+ New features

- Removed features

--------------------

Fixed:

- Bugs

--------------------

Broke:

- Old feature

--------------------

Third Party Breaking Changes:

- Old software, feedback from dev with ETA

.1 update ETA: 6 weeks

New comment by prof_hibschman in "Google Timer is gone"

prof_hibschman — Mon, 01 Aug 2022 01:13:44 +0000

Can confirm! Not for exams, but for "let's breakout into projects and meet back in 15 minutes".

New comment by prof_hibschman in "Why Google is so unbearable, and how to fix it"

prof_hibschman — Thu, 19 May 2022 03:29:32 +0000

I noticed the my google results are way worse when using fastdns, as compared to google dns. Not sure why.

New comment by prof_hibschman in "I want an iPhone Mini-sized Android phone"

prof_hibschman — Tue, 17 May 2022 17:03:04 +0000

Apple never releases a "pro" mini -- with the same camera/processor as the larger variants. Thinking back, the iPhone 5s was near the perfect size for my pockets.

These days I find myself leaving my phone more and more, only taking it when I probably need a camera.

New comment by prof_hibschman in "Why I Quit Google’s WebAssembly Team, and How It Made Me Sick"

prof_hibschman — Thu, 12 May 2022 18:41:57 +0000

> lost my mid and short term memory

Yep -- after taking on 3+ job contexts (teaching, software startups, and volunteer orgs), I lost all confidence in saying people's names because I started having trouble recalling them... people I knew for years.

For others, I recommend "The End of Burnout" by Jonathan Malesic. It helped me to identify unhealthy work habits and change the priority system I use to manage my time.