Here you will learn how to get out of Shadowban. The POF (Plenty of Fish) team claimed they do not shadow ban POF users. But is this true? According to multiple users’ reports, they experienced something we would call a POF shadowban, not getting any new matches or even answers from their matches.
In this Hack, we are going to explain what a POF shadowban is, and what are the top signs that show that your profile might be in a shadowban.
In the end, we will also explain how you can get out of a POF shadowban easily and how you can avoid getting shadowbanned on POF again.
POF Shadowban is a type of soft ban from POF when you are still able to log in to your profile, swipe other profiles, and check your messages but you don’t get any new POF profiles matching you.
You can do anything, buy POF coins to activate Spotlights, or use POF SuperSwipes on many profiles by liking them by tapping on the yellow hearts, you are still not getting any matches. Zero.
POF Shadowban similar to an explicit permanent block also seems to be a permanent status, so once you get into Shadowban, you won’t get out of it only by waiting a couple of weeks.
POF Shadowblock is actually worse in a way than an explicit block from POF, as a lot of users don’t even know that they have been shadowbanned, sometimes still paying for premium features or for the premium POF subscription.
Difference Between POF Block and Shadowban
There are two main differences between a permanent official ban from POF and shadowbans. These are the following:
You get a message or a pop-up screen when you try to log in that you have been blocked from POF for some kind of policy violation. When you are shadow banned, they don’t communicate with you anything about your status.
When you are permanently blocked from POF you won’t be able to use any features of the app anymore. When you are only shadowbanned, you can use all the features you are just simply not going to get any new matches.
Does POF Really ShadowBan Profiles?
It is actually not 100% clear if shadowban is just an urban legend or a real thing that POF does. On the official company website in a post about POF resets, they deny the existence of shadowbans.
At the same time, you can find many users complaining mostly about the POF subreddit that they experienced something similar to a shadowban.
POF has an official page on their website where they explicitly say that you won’t get shadow banned or in any way penalized for resetting your account.
However, they don’t say that they do not use a technique similar to shadow ban ever. So you might not get shadow banned for simply resetting your account, but they might decide to shadow ban you for other violations of their community guidelines.
POF Users Reporting Shadowbans On Reddit
Confirming the above speculation many users on the POF subreddit reported that they experienced something that could be described as Shadowban.
They were getting a couple of new POF matches consistently then one day the number of new matches simply fell to zero and they got zero matches in a month although they were swiping pretty actively. So although no official confirmation from POF, it seems to be that POF Shadowbans are real.
If you are a paying POF Boost customer they want you to keep playing, so they are rather banning you softly and letting you keep paying than banning you explicitly and then canceling your POF Boost subscription.
How to Know POF Shadowban
Before you try to get out of the Shadowban (see the instructions below), you should also make sure that your account got really shadowbanned by POF.
Sometimes a lot of desperate POF users think that when they don’t get as many POF matches as they used to then they must be shadowbanned by POF.
However, when you live in a small neighborhood or in a country where POF is not that popular yet it is very well possible that you get only a couple of new POF matches per month.
When You Are Not Shadow banned By POF
If you are experiencing decreasing new POF matches, but you are still getting 1-2 matches per week or month, it means that you are not shadowbanned.
Why Could POF Shadowban Your Profile
As there is no official statement regarding POF shadowbans, one can only speculate why POF shadowbans profiles.
The best thing you can do is to read their Community Guidelines which clearly state what behaviors are considered to be violations and might get you banned.
We have a full post on why POF can block your account, but here are the most important violations that might get your account shadow-blocked:
- Auto liking profiles
- Automating other stuff such as messaging
- Using a hacked version of POF to get a free POF Boost
- Offensive messages hate speech.
How to Get Around POF Ban Reddit
Unlike a POF hard ban, where it is clear that you got blocked by POF, with a shadow block there is no clear sign or notification from POF that your account has been blocked.
For the above reason, you can’t contact their Customer Support Team to get your account unlocked as they would say that your account is not banned, so you should just improve your profile.
When your POF account gets a shadowban, your only option is to reset your POF account. We will show you in the next paragraph how you can do this in a way that will work and will get you out of the shadowban.
How to Fix Shadowbanned on POF
We have an in-depth comprehensive article on how you can get your account back by resetting your POF account, so definitely check that out. But we will also give you a summary here, and highlight some important things that you should pay attention to.
So the basic idea behind a POF reset is that you first delete your POF account and then right after you delete it, you recreate a completely new one.
When you have been shadowbanned from POF before, there is a high possibility that your newly created account will get into a shadowban again, so you won’t get a newbie boost.
So in this case, when you sign up for a new POF account you have to make sure that you use new personal information so that they can’t identify you. So make sure to use a new Facebook account if you sign up with Facebook or a new phone number if you sign up for POF without a Facebook account.
To be absolutely on the safe side, it is also recommended to use a completely new phone sim card, make sure that you have a new IP address, and don’t use the same credit card if you have subscribed to POF Boost or purchased POF Coins, etc.
Did POF ShadowBan Me?
When you get zero new POF matches for an extended period of time, then it is possible that you have been shadowbanned
by POF. However, if you are still getting matches but not as many as used to get, then you are not shadowbanned. You might need to improve your profile or move to a neighborhood where POF is more popular so your profile gets shown to more profiles.
How Long Does POF Ban Last
If you really got shadowbanned by POF it is a permanent decision so it lasts forever. To get around Shadowban you can try to reset your account (using completely new login information for your new POF account).
POF Account Banned For No Reason
According to POF, they don’t penalize you with a shadowban or in any other way when you restart your account. However, when you don’t get any matches after you restart your POF account, it is very likely that you might have got shadowbanned.