Unidan, 'the Excited Biologist,' Banned for Vote Manipulation with Sockpuppet Accounts
July 2014
Ben Eisenkop, the wildly popular ecology educator known on Reddit as Unidan, was banned in July 2014 after admins found he used at least five sockpuppet accounts to upvote his own content and downvote a user he was arguing with over whether jackdaws are crows.
What happened
Ben Eisenkop, posting as Unidan, became one of Reddit's most beloved users as the 'excited biologist' who answered ecology and biology questions in detail. His popularity, including a 2013 'I am the Excited Biologist! AMA' and over a million comment karma, brought real-world opportunities such as writing for Mental Floss and university speaking invitations.
In late July 2014 his account was shadowbanned for vote manipulation. Reddit admins found Eisenkop had used at least five alternate ('sockpuppet') accounts to upvote his own submissions and comments and to downvote posts and people he was competing or arguing with. An admin explained that early votes heavily influence a post's visibility, so a coordinated swing of his own up- and down-votes gave his content an artificial boost.
The manipulation came to light during a heated argument over whether jackdaws belong to the crow family, in which Unidan insisted 'no one calls jackdaws crows.' The dispute drew scrutiny that exposed the coordinated voting from his alternate accounts. Eisenkop publicly admitted wrongdoing via a new account (UnidanX), calling it 'a really stupid move on my part.'
Impact
Unidan's fall was a widely reported cautionary tale about manipulating Reddit's voting system, notable precisely because he was an organically popular user who did not need to cheat. The shadowban ended his run as Reddit's celebrated science communicator; despite creating a successor account, he never regained his former standing, and the saga became a defining example of vote-manipulation enforcement on the platform.