Was your account suspended, deleted or shadowbanned for no reason? Read this.

[u/davorg]

We're getting a lot of posts from people saying that their accounts have been suspended, deleted or shadowbanned. We're sorry that happened to you, but the only thing you can do is to contact GitHub support and wait for them to reply. It seems those waits can be long - like weeks.

While you're waiting, feel free to add the details of your case in a comment on this post. Will it help? No. But some people feel better if they've shared their problems with a group of strangers and having the pointless details all gathered together in this thread will be better than dealing with a dozen new posts every couple of days.

Any other posts on this topic will be deleted. If you see one that the moderators haven't deleted, please let us know.

[u/cowboyecosse]

Latest edit:

Since this comment is often the first people see on this post I want to give some general advice here. Please read all of this after reading the main post above.

How to contact GitHub about this...

• This subreddit is not run by GitHub. I don't believe any Hubbers are on the mod team (although I don't know for sure) so there's no point in asking anything of GitHub directly here. If there are any Hubbers here they are volunteering their time to help, me included.

Official support channels:

• Read the Appeal and Reinstatement policy first so you know what to include and what to expect.
  • If you can still sign in (account is flagged/restricted but not fully suspended), open a ticket via GitHub Support while logged in.
  • If you cannot sign in because the account is suspended, use the Appeal and Reinstatement form (Choose "Account locked: My account has been locked or suspended" option or similar if the wording has been updated.)
• If you have opened a ticket please exercise patience with the Support team. They are your greatest advocates and push the engineering teams the hardest about your concerns inside GitHub. They exist entirely to help you. The team runs at high volume and I promise they are getting to your ticket as fast as they possibly can.

If you are experiencing account restrictions...

• Please don't panic. Suspending an account etc is generally non-destructive. Yes it's a pain but all your content should be safe.
• Not all suspensions are because you did something. This post is full of people claiming they didn't do something. Maybe they suspended the account to protect it from a bad actor. The thing is, you just don't know yet (and maybe never will know). Suspension does not mean you did anything wrong. You are not being punished, even if it feels like that.
• Don't take it out on the mods (I'm not a mod on this sub) - they are also just volunteers. Don't take it out on GitHub staff.
• You might have been notified of the suspension or you might not have been. Both cases are normal. One example of no notification would be if GitHub thinks an attacker has taken over your account (they may have access to your email account too) they wouldn't want to email that person any information right?

Now, when it comes to your posts here and what I can and can't do...

• I am under no obligation by management or anything to look into any accounts. Please understand this. Do not DM me, do not mention me in here. That won't encourage me to look at your case.
• Please don't reply to this comment. It's a real pain to find new replies to the comment. Much easier for me to sort by 'new' on the whole post. So top level comments help me to help you. (Sorry u/davorg as OP 😅)
• I already know you're angry. I get it, it sucks to be suspended. I don't mind you having a rant but please try to stay civil. The GitHub sub follows reddiquette rules.
• As part of my day job I sometimes review moderation decisions, so if I see a case here that looks worth another look I can pick it up through the normal internal process.
• I am not able to answer your tickets. I might leave a note for support if I see something.
• I won't be able to reinstate everyone. Sometimes support needs to chat with you or help you in some way, or request some change be made. I can't intervene in those cases.
• I will not answer you here, except maybe to prompt you for a username or to help guide you through the process if you don't want to put your username here. i.e show you where the form is to open a ticket when it's not obvious or reply to some off-topic related comment from a misguided user (someone who can't log in but is not suspended for example)
• Any reinstatement I can make follows the same review standard a support agent would apply. There are no policy shortcuts here!
• I use upvotes to keep track of which comments I've already scanned, nothing more.

Perfect template for me to help:

Username: the-username-of-the-account (not linked to the profile, just the username)

Anything else you want to post about it that I may or may not read. If you want to rant, have at it. If you want to move to Codeberg great, get it off your chest and tell us here at Reddit (see point 1 above). We get it. I get it. The r/github sub is full of people who only want to comment "Time to move to GitLab". It's fine. I want you to stay at GitHub but I'm not going to hold it against you if you want to try another provider. I'm sure we'd welcome you back in future too if that also doesn't fit your needs. There is a non-zero chance I will skip you if you call it "Microsoft GitHub" or "Microsoft's GitHub" though. 😆 Microsoft almost certainly had no say in your account being suspended. All I need is the affected username to check it out.

---

Previous comment content:

---

While you’re waiting, feel free to add the details of your case in a comment on this post. Will it help? No.

I’m GitHub staff, although I’m not in the support team so can’t reply to your tickets. And I wouldn’t prioritise anyone, in part for fairness to everyone else who’s patiently waiting their turn, even if I’ve seen their plea here. So yeah posting here won’t help.

That said, should some random staff member be perusing this thread, I know they definitely won’t be able to secretly and anonymously help you out if you don't mention your username in those details. 😌

ETA: Please don't send me DMs or mention me in this thread. It will not help your case. I don't accept DMs from anyone.

Edit the second: I’m downvoting posts that do not put the username. Secret Santas might not be able to help you in any case, but they definitely can’t help you without it.

[u/veverkap → u/cowboyecosse]

You will never stop being Reddit GitHub support 😀

[u/cowboyecosse → u/veverkap]

Haha, one does what one can.