this post was submitted on 25 Sep 2023
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Reddit Migration

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mustardman

Please see this post:

https://www.reddit.com/r/ModSupport/comments/16qek6o/i_desperately_need_someone_from_reddit_to_contact/

Reddit (Automated)

[Bunch of automated bullshit]

mustardman

This is urgent. This is going to be a pretty sensational news story because it involves the inventor of the iPhone's multi-touch technology. I will be happy to tell news organizations that Reddit did nothing to control this violent sociopath.

Reddit Admin (Name Redacted)

Hey there - will you please send links here to what you're referring to? That would be very helpful.

Cheers

mustardman

Thank you for getting back to me. I'm in a very extreme situation where I discovered fraud with a company called Clean Air Kits and put out a well sourced report that starts here. The owner in question is Wayne Westerman, who is a high level profile employee at Apple. For a lack of a better word, he has been torturing me for a year from his account named /u/valpres.

He admitted to circumventing bans back in June and I reported it to Reddit, and all I got back was a notification that no evasion was detected.

I have been getting so many ban evasion alerts from multiple accounts that I have had to shut my subreddit down. I honestly am not joking about any of this, this is an honest to god serious issue. There is a lot more information that I have not made public, [REDACTED]. Because I have received so much harassment, I'm planning on reporting it to local law enforcement to get a restraining order against Wayne.

I'm really struggling with how bad this has been. Please help me.

mustardman

And I honestly think that there is very strange activity going on in my /r/ModSupport thread:

https://www.reddit.com/r/ModSupport/comments/16qnlya/please_help_me_with_a_sociopath_who_is/

Reddit Admin (Name Redacted)

Have you reported the account for ban evasion?

mustardman

I reported the account /u/valpres back in June, which has been his main account for attacking me. I only got an automated email saying no ban evasion detected. You guys let me down with that and could have prevented a lot of psychological pain.

This user has made at least 4 posts from /r/AirQuality attacking me and encouraging brigading, the first of which was back in May/June after I banned him from /r/AirPurifiers.

mustardman

Read these mod logs to understand his psychology:

https://mod.reddit.com/mail/all/1i99jt

Reddit Admin (Name Redacted)

Having taken a quick glance, there aren't any signs of ban evasion going on just as your report response noted.

I recommend using our report forms or the report button to report specific pieces of content that violate sitewide rules.

mustardman

This was an unsettling message chain that occurred after he partially doxxed himself using /u/valpres.

[https://www.reddit.com/r/AirQuality/comments/16o6pk5/statement_on_mustardmans_a_moderator_on_air/k1nzg1x/]

He is a very unstable individual and has been trying to manipulate me into relenting, such as this offer of "peace":

https://mod.reddit.com/mail/all/1pppnd

mustardman

Here is the last thread attacking me as u/valpres, where he doxxes himself to try to make me seem like I'm having paranoid delusions:

https://www.reddit.com/r/AirQuality/comments/16o6pk5/statement_on_mustardmans_a_moderator_on_air/

Honestly, I know what he is doing. He is doing a dark pattern that I read about on Reddit a decade ago where you harass moderators from numerous accounts, have good accounts that are "willing to help", the overwhelmed moderator accepts that help, the accounts say "take a break, we got this", and then they overthrow the moderator. I am horrified to see how it works in practice as a victim of it.

mustardman

| Having taken a quick glance

Take a longer glance:https://www.reddit.com/r/AirPurifiers/comments/13dpyen/measuring_ozone_levels_in_the_home/jjsogl9/

| mustardman24, a moderator, just banned me from the site, so I am posing under another name.

Do something. This is your website and these are insane patterns of abuse.

mustardman

Please tell me that someone is looking into this. I'm really sorry that I pulled you into this on a weekend.

I feel like the same bad actors are involved in /r/ModSupport, look at this comment chain:

https://www.reddit.com/r/ModSupport/comments/16qnlya/please_help_me_with_a_sociopath_who_is/k1zm4n9/

Reddit Admin (Name Redacted)

Hey there - the post has been deleted so, unfortunately, I can't view what was written. If it came from the account u/CleanAirKits the account has been actioned.

I encourage you to report any harassment you're experiencing so our Safety team can investigate.

mustardman

As a software engineer, I find it hard to believe that Reddit does not have the deleted comments still preserved in an internal database. This interaction has been unsatisfactory because I have used Reddit's reporting services many time with no action taken, even when I have concrete evidence of ban evasion done with the intent to harass.

Like I said, I have already contacted federal law enforcement and I'm currently contacting local law enforcement since you can't apply basic protections for your users nor provide assistance during astroturfing campaigns by proven bad actors.

I urge you to do the right thing and stop making me jump through endless hoop for basic protection. I don't get paid to run this site, you do, so please do the right thing.

mustardman

I just met with the local investigator. He is a Redditor himself and poignantly stated that "they won't give a shit until they start losing money", which is true.

The person that is harassing me is Wayne Westerman, most famously known for inventing the multi-touch gestures used in the original iPhone and is currently the Multi-Touch Architect at Apple. I believe there is financial fraud that occured between Mr. Westerman and a major non-profit in IAQ, the Corsi-Rosenthal Foundataion, who are the namesakes behind the Corsi–Rosenthal Box.

I have contacts at the FBI because I have previously worked with them in taking down another form of public corruption in my local City government. This has already been forwarded off a senior financial crimes case manager at the FBI so I'm requesting a preservation of evidence on anything, such as deleted comments, from being removed from databases by your normal order of business (such as data archiving or pruning).

I'm pretty mad at Reddit. You guys let me down back in May when you let a hostile user continue to harass me with impunity and have only allowed the situation to become inflamed by not controlling what has literally turned into criminal behavior.

I really hope that Tim Rathschmidt has improved on his public speaking skills after the API fiasco, because I plan to make this all public as well.

mustardman

Why are there so many sockpuppet accounts in an admin-sponsored subreddit? If you genuinely cannot tell that most of these accounts are sockpuppets, Reddit is not a viable company:

https://www.reddit.com/r/ModSupport/comments/16qnlya/please_help_me_with_a_sociopath_who_is/

mustardman

Also, I find it incredibly odd that for the past few days, I lost access to a small number of moderator functions that are highly specific to this situation. For example, I cannot pin nor unpin announcement posts.

mustardman

I don't think that Reddit messages is the appropriate venue for this any more. Please follow up with on email address of mine that you have on file.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

My dude, you are extremely passionate about this topic. Also, as a mod, you are content arbiter of your sub. Chasing people onto other subs and then claiming they're harassing you is where this fails. It works conversely as well. Many a sub has been started by disgruntled members who left another sub.

Getting someone in trouble for lying on a social media app is going to be harder than you think. News sources get approached by all kinds of people claiming to have news. That avenue is not going to work.

I am not a lawyer, but you should seek out a lawyer to determine if you have a legal leg to stand on here. Does this guy have a lot of money? If so, he may come after you if he has a legal leg to stand on.

My real advice is to protect your sub. Stop there. I couldn't stop neo-Nazis from spreading lies on reddit, and you're not going to be able to control some air purifier salesman. Just keep them away from your sub, and let it go.

By the way, this magazine you're posting on is full of a bunch of people who have left reddit. Coming here to complain about things happening to you on reddit is not going to get you a lot of sympathy.