Okay. Well…. I can’t. Even with a VPN. I think they hardware ban.

They hardware ban now. I can’t make an account without it being insta-banned. And I have a VPN.

I had accidentally posted to a sub I was banned from from an alt and now I cannot create a new account anymore. They catch it before I can even read a post.

Reddit blocks a lot of established websites, too, like websites that are pretty basic. It's up to Reddit, but still they wonder why they're always so shocked and flabbergasted by current events. This is why.

I'm with you on all of that

This is why it feels bizarre to me how people are so stuck on the idea of reddit and reddit-like feed aggregation. The internet died due to enshitification and dead internet theory. But there's a third factor. Nobody seems to actually want how the internet used to be. They only nostalgia for and fantasize about the idea of it.

They shake their heads when served up content older style content that isn't bland corporatized slop. They want their familiar posts and handful of approved content sources.

Pretty much every subreddit started the way you described /r/startrek. Self posts and interesting links were the norm. Now most of them have a couple of pre-approved domains and posters.

Of course just about every mod's excuse I've heard is they can't be assed to actually moderate. So they set the automod filter to allow a few domains.

That's my generous take. By now I've seen enough to know for sure that couple of mods of certain subs have been abusing this as cover for their own personal gain. But that's another bunch of rants.

You're describing different situation, where the system did not work for the benefit of the community. It's not about the domain that's linked, it's about the genuine community engagement. Your writers were active community members so I'd want their posts too.

I'm not saying the project isn't valuable. It could be extremely valuable. And I think it's ideal if the author shares rather than someone else, so long as they're a community member in good standing, with a positive contribution history. Real communities are made of people who engage, not just links, even if the links are good.

In this case ban makes sense to me because the account has nothing else to contribute, other than quota-meeting fluff. I never said ban everyone who breaks the rules. Again, I'm only talking about the example in the OP. But yes, warnings and content removals are also good moderation tools.