James Franco is one of reddit's most popular users, well known for his knowledge about animals and his sickeningly happy attitude. Before yesterday he was ranked at the second highest comment karma of all time as archived here. On Wednesday, James Franco gets into a slapfight about animal terminology. The argument itself is pretty inane, but revolvs around referring to jackdaws as crows. James Franco is a biologist who specifically researches crows, so this apparently stikes a nerve. This is posted to /r/subredditdrama[1] and he shows up himself in the thread, and everything seems to be all in good fun. A couple of hours later, James Franco is shadowbanned. Nobody knows why, including himself. He sends this message to fellow moderator /u/preggit[2] : Apparently you have been shadowbanned. :( I really hope it was a mistake. Do you have any idea what's going on? from James Franco [M] via /r/babyelephantgifs/[3] sent 6 minutes ago Haha, truly no idea, I sent a message to the admins as I'm a bit confused. Speculations abound, with news of the ban even making its way to /r/conspiracy[4] . There is zero speculation about anything other than "James Franco was a dick" at this point so it's more of a preemptive "this will probably turn out to be jews". Can't hurt to be prepared! SRD Discussion There are two prevailing theories about his banning. SRD thinks that because he was participating in both the crow thread and the SRD thread he was caught by a bot that thought he was brigading. James Franco was posting in both the original crows vs. jackdaws thread and the SRD thread that was started about it. He probably clicked the np link back to the original thread from the SRD thread, switched over to normal participation reddit to say something in the original thread and got in trouble by a bot for it or something. They'll probably reverse the ban when they realize he was already part of the original thread. Yeah, there was a ton of pissing all over that thread. A lot of people probably got justifiably banned and James Franco got caught in the dragnet. I feel like there's gotta be a ban-bot. So many users get Bob'd then re-instated after ~24hrs. Likely he just tripped that and he'll be back in a couple of days. /r/adviceanimals[5] thinks that he was banned for, uh, getting too angry and thinks it's somehow the fault of the teenage girl he was arguing with. So they immediately deploy le reddit armey on her. All of her posts are downvoted below -100 points. A choice quote: She's just a teenage girl. Imagine that you are a bull-headed ignorant teenage girl. If nobody is able to teach you how to reason, won't you just become a bull-headed ignorant woman? That's right folks, the reddit army is here to fight for reason! SRD discussion For anyone concerned about the brigadee's account being ruined, cupcake is on the case to deal with and presumably ban some expert memers. Extra comment chain where she says that while the karma cannot be reset, she'll look into removing the limits on /u/Ecka6[6] 's accounts. Cupcake eventually clocks in and brings an explanation with her. James Franco was Unibanned for blatant, consistent vote manipulation. SRD discussion He was caught using a number of alternate accounts to downvote people he was arguing with, upvote his own submissions and comments, and downvote submissions made around the same time he posted his own so that he got even more of an artificial popularity boost. It was some pretty blatant vote manipulation, which is against our site rules. James Franco finally shows up under a new account to explain himself and admits his wrongdoing: James Franco here! Completely true, mainly used to give my submissions a small boost (I had five "vote alts") when things were in the new list, or to vote on stuff when I guess I got too hot-headed. It was a really stupid move on my part, and I feel pretty bad about it, especially because it's entirely unnecessary. Completely understandable catch on the side of the admins, so good work for them! I've already deleted the accounts and I won't be doing that again, obviously. I always knew I'd go down in a hail of crows, but who knew it'd be on the internet? This comment is linked to, as totes reveals, by worstof and bestof. The bestof discussion is the interesting one, as James Franco X, reddit's darling boy turned pariah, shows up to defend himself. The alts were made well over a year ago, and the only times I'd really use them were to get submissions out of the 'new' queue and to hide comments that were essentially misinformation. His bullshit is called pretty quickly with an admin quote: He was caught using a number of alternate accounts to downvote people he was arguing with, upvote his own submissions and comments, and downvote submissions made around the same time he posted his own so that he got even more of an artificial popularity boost. Interestingly, before the bestof debacle his posts were upvoted. This comment pretty accurately summarizes reddit's sudden reversal in opinion: There's a real lofty feel to his confession: "...to hide comments that were essentially misinformation." Can you smell the 'I did it all for education!'? Reddit celebrity went to his head. It wasn't "pretty dumb," James Franco ... it was more like fucking embarrassing, a grown man pulling this shit. James Franco gives up the ghost: I completely agree with what the admin wrote, in the reply I say that's completely true! It was a shitty thing to do, completely. SRD discussion Meanwhile, back at the ranch, /r/adviceanimals[7] is now simultaneously brigading James Franco 's new account and the lady from the original crow post. SRD discussion James Franco ventures into /r/TIFU[8] to either apologize or continue to whore for attention, depending on if you're James Franco or anyone else. /r/TUFU[9] isn't having it at all, and delivers an amazing smackdown. I assume you picked TIFU because it's a default, but this doesn't belong here at all. This is silly meta-reddit nonsense. Traditionally--as you already knew before you posted this--people make posts like this to /r/self[10] . It has a long standing tradition of being the go to for people that consider themselves so important as to address all of reddit. SRD Disucssion Please tell me if there is anything I missed! There's lots of spin-off drama from /r/adviceanimals[11] that I have a feeling will develop into its own dramawave. Added after the fact: /r/conspiracy[12] mention, cupcake's comments about /u/Ecka6