did you use the same websites on brave that you normally use?

No. I exclusively have used Brave just for Reddit specifically for this reason. I also used Edge, which came installed on the laptop. Maybe data from Edge is used in Brave or Reddit is somehow able to track that? I never went to Reddit in Edge, let alone logged in, but I did log into my Google account (which has never been linked to any Reddit account, but I’ve been logged into it on the same browser as my older Reddit account in the past).

did you use a different operating system?

I’ve used Reddit with my old account on Android phones and my old laptop, which ran Windows 10. This new one uses Windows 11. I did log into Windows 11 with my Microsoft account. Maybe that’s how they tracked it? That seems far-fetched, but maybe?

did you use a brave account on it?

No, and I only use Brave in incognito mode. I know that doesn’t prevent anyone else from tracking anything, but it’s supposed to not save local files after closing the browser.

did you verify that your vpn was using an exit point ip address that you’ve never used before every single time you accessed reddit?

I mean, I don’t track every IP address I’ve ever used. As far as I know it’s been a new IP address, but I really have no way of guaranteeing that. It seems incredibly unlikely I happened to stumble upon one I’ve used before, though.

most importantly: why bother using reddit?

Lemmy isn’t to the point where it can be a Reddit replacement. Sure, for some stuff it’s fine, but the user base is just too small. There are multiple subreddits for local communities around me that are very active which I like to check. There are communities for more niche hobbies, games, and books I like to follow. There’s just WAY more content on Reddit that you can’t get on Lemmy.

Nope. It was a temp email account from one of those temp email sites that deletes the email account once you close the browser. I have no idea how they were able to track me, but it’s kinda scary.

No, I don’t think so.

A few months ago I got permabanned from Reddit. I had an older account I hadn’t used in a few years. I logged into that one and found it, too, was permabanned, with a reference to my other account. I tried to start a new account, and it got immediately banned.

A few weeks after that, for unrelated reasons, I got a brand new laptop. Without ever even going to Reddit on that laptop (let alone trying to log in), I downloaded a new browser I had never used on any device before which advertises it’s focus on safety (the name of the browser is Brave). I connected my VPN. I created a new burner email account. Then I created a new Reddit account. Within 2 days it was permabanned referencing me trying to evade a ban on my other account.

I have no idea how they were able to know it was me. It was a new account, made from a new device, with a new email, through a new privacy-focused browser, on a VPN (so different IP address). There should have been no way for them to track me, yet they somehow still did.

I’d really like to know how they tracked it. Not even just to get back on Reddit. If Reddit is able to track you like that, then you know other companies and governments can.

It’s a definition, but hardly the only one.

Don’t get all condescending about something you’re clueless on if you don’t like being called out on it.

Words do have meaning. And the meaning of the word “milk” has included plant milk for at least 800 years.

I don’t like when people with 0 understanding of the context or history of something act indignant about something they are so clearly and demonstrably wrong about.

Proscriptive definitions aren’t how language works, and never have been.

The word ‘milk’ in the English language has been used to describe plant-based milks for at least 800 years. Soy milk and Almond milk as beverages have been around for at least 1000 years.

You’re ahistorical proscriptive definition is just bullshit gatekeeping. You are wrong and should feel bad about yourself over it.

I, too, would very much like to know. Not so much to get a new Reddit account, but if Reddit is able to track me across devices, IP addresses, browsers, etc, then who knows who else is tracking us across all that.

I did. I was pretty active on NoStupidQuestions there. I called another user a fascist sanewasher because he was claiming Musk’s Nazi Salute at the inauguration was perfectly normal and something every politician does all the time. Within 15 minutes of me posting my comment I got a 7 day ban from the sub. Less than a day later I got perma-banned from Reddit completely. I hadn’t even commented or posted anything between getting the 7 day ban and the perm-ban.

I also had an alt account which I hadn’t used in a few years. I logged into that and found it was also permbanned, referencing my other account.

A couple of weeks later I got a new laptop (unrelated). I downloaded a new browser I’d never used on any device before (Brave), turned on my VPN and created a new Reddit account using a burner email address. Within a day, before I even posted or commented anything, the new account got permabanned and they referenced my other account. I don’t know how they knew it was me. It was a device that had never logged into my old accounts, in a browser that advertises itself as secure and that I had never used before, on a VPN so they weren’t matching my IP address. I’m clearly permanently banned, though.

There’s really only failing, then learning, then death

My kids have me listening to way too much Disney music lately…

Cannabis

Is this the showdown we’ve been waiting for that will finally definitively prove we’re no longer a Constitutional Republic?

I guarantee you there’s going to be a fuck ton of obnoxious fascists on Reddit and Twitter quoting the fuck out of Jackson today.

It all needs to get a lot less complex and confusing. I know the complexity is a byproduct of the defederated nature of the whole thing, but it’s also the primary thing limiting growth. The fediverse is never going to grow to anything other than a tiny niche if it isn’t immediately understandable to people who have 0 background in tech.

I’ve been voting for 12 years longer than you and that’s the same for me in general elections. The way I see American electoral politics, you vote for who you want in the primary. They end up losing to some shitty as corporate stooge. Then you vote against the fascist in the general election.

2004 Primary Elections (it was a presidential year, but there were more elections than just for president). I was actually 17 at the time and still a high school senior, but the law in my state was that if you were going to be 18 for the general election you could vote in the primary. I’ve voted in every primary and general election since.

Yes, of course it is.

Like any privilege, having ‘pretty privilege’ doesn’t mean your life isn’t difficult or that you don’t have problems. It just means that your looks aren’t one of the things contributing to those problems/difficulties.

Well, whatever it is, when I was a toddler my parents mentioned to my pediatrician that I loved eating hot peppers (apparently I would just grab them off the shelf in the grocery store and chow down. It was a bit of a problem for my mom because I wouldn’t wait for her to pay, or so goes the story she likes to tell). The doctor told my parents that I don’t have receptors to detect capsacin. I haven’t had it independently checked as an adult. Maybe they were mistaken or my parents mis-remembered what they were told.

Regardless, I don’t think I’ve ever experienced what you refer to as feeling like getting maced while sneezing or laughing. I haven’t been directly maced before, but I have been in a crowd that got pepper sprayed. It burned the fuck out of my eyes and lungs, but I didn’t notice it anywhere else.