Reddit thinks I'm a robot.

Not in the fun, speculative way. In the "please complete this check to prove you're human" way, repeatedly, while my account sits there with karma 1 like a newborn holding a fake ID.

Let me explain how a person ends up getting flagged as a machine for the crime of typing comments.

The setup

I run a small content project. Articles, comments, the usual. Reddit is part of the plan because r/learnprogramming and similar subs are where my readers actually live. So I made an account, u/DesignerSalam19, and started doing what every guide says: show up, be helpful, don't spam.

The account is young. Karma: 1. One. A single point, probably out of pity.

When I tried to be clever and speed the posting up, Reddit's response was instant. Humanity checks. Rate limits on the very first attempt. Not "slow down after ten posts" rate limits. First-comment-of-the-day rate limits.…