This is largely due to one or more particular, relentless banned seller(s) farming accounts and posting their stupid gifs, posting as a buyer receiving a QC. Like this. I have banned a couple dozen of their accounts in the past few months, yet they still always manage to get a post on the front page, and usually avoid getting even one user report!

Names in question seem to be Samshose, LNSam, CNshoes4u, Wendsy/Wendy, and Markkickz. As far as I know, they’re all rebrands made in order to avoid our ban.

It’s unfortunate that some genuine users are also affected by this new requirement, but the requirements are not unreasonably high. The exact numbers are a secret, so ban evaders can’t just farm karma more aggressively and prepare accounts longer in advance. But if you’ve been on Reddit for a little while and have made a few modest posts, you will surely pass it. I may fine tune it over time (most likely to be less restrictive), but the effect of these settings over the past 24 hours has been satisfactory.

To new users, I recommend simply reading the sub until you naturally accumulate the age/karma to post. There is a lot of knowledge to be gained from the sub that doesn’t require posting privileges. The coincidental side effect of this change may be improved average post quality, since new users will be forced to read and search, rather than ask questions.

Thanks guys. And please remember to report any additional fake QC/banned seller spam you see. This change should throw a monkey wrench into their strategy for now, but I’m sure they’ll adapt.

Again, sorry for any inconvenience this may be for the majority of you who are genuine.