How to check if you're shadowbanned on patriots.win or scored.co
On patriots.win and scored.co, a removed comment can still look normal to you while you're logged in. The only way to know what other people see is to look at it the way they do.
The two-minute check
- Go to one of your recent comments and click permalink. Copy the address from your browser's address bar.
- Open a private or incognito window, so you're logged out. In Chrome that's Ctrl+Shift+N (Cmd+Shift+N on a Mac); in Firefox it's Ctrl+Shift+P (Cmd+Shift+P).
- Paste the address. If you see your comment, other people can see it too. If you see a “Comment removed…” message, or the comment isn't there, it's hidden from everyone but you.
- Repeat for a few more comments. Removals often hit some comments and not others.
Shortcut: start with comments sitting at 1 point with no replies. A comment that was hidden the moment you posted it never gets upvotes or replies, so those are the most likely to be removed.
What each message means
These are the exact messages the site shows other people in place of a removed comment:
| What others see | What happened |
|---|---|
| Comment removed by community moderators. | A moderator of that community removed it, or the site's automated risk filter did; both show this message. More |
| Comment removed by community filter. | An automatic filter hid it, usually the moment it was posted. More |
| Comment removed upon the user being banned. | The author was banned, and their comments were removed in bulk (a “nuke”). More |
| Comment removed by spam filter. | The site's spam filter caught it. |
| Comment removed by politics filter in non-political community. | An automatic filter removed political content from a community marked non-political. |
| Comment removed for violating our Content Policy. | Removed under the site-wide content policy rather than one community's rules. |
| …, pending further review. | Held for review, not final. A moderator may still approve it. New accounts see this a lot: here's why. |
| Comment deleted by the user. | The author deleted it. |
| Comment removed. | Removed, with no reason given. |
Posts get the same messages, starting with “Post” instead of “Comment.”
Is that a shadowban?
The site doesn't use the word, but the effect is the same. Your content looks live to you, it's hidden from everyone else, and you aren't told. It can happen to a single comment, or to every comment an account posts.
Checking by hand works, but it's slow, and a removal can happen hours or days after you post. The extension below runs the same check automatically, in the background, whenever your browser is open.