Blacklisted.

How I got banned on the two largest ultra running subreddits for giving too much free information.

I’m a firm believe that good information should not always be stuck behind a paywall.

In a world full of uneducated voices, AI slop and general idiots, I’ve spent a lot of time putting together content pieces backed by both my education and the experiences I've accumulated over my 20 year coaching career. There is little in the world of endurance sports I have not experienced first hand as either a coach or an athlete. Very few, if any coaches in the space hold the combination of formal education and decades long experience of hands on, in-studio coaching experience, that I have. Bravado aside, I recognize I am unique in this space.

I am also unique in this space because I do not believe in gatekeeping information. Not everything should be pay to play and I am a firm believer that if you are passionate about what you are an expert in, you should be eager to share what you can, when you can, to anyone who will absorb it and become better because of it.

Many of you reading this probably stumbled across my Substack via one of my posts on Reddit. For the last year or so, when time allowed, I would write on a relevant topics in the ultra space I felt could be helpful to the masses and often posted in the /r/ultrarunning and /r/ultramarathon subreddit pages. Each time, I spent 4-5 hours after posting answering questions and DM’s, expanding on ideas people seemed to find interesting and generally provided a nice “coaches corner” that in the span of a year, gathered more than 500,000 views, thousands of follow up questions and comments from readers and surprisingly, helped me establish a genuinely positive reputation in a space typically full of garbage.

Important to note that these posts were not advertisements. I never linked my coaching website to them, I never asked anyone to “DM me for coaching info”, when commenters asked about my services and pricing, I declined to answer and instead insisted I stay on topic. The only mention of what I do professionally was a preface to outline WHERE this information was coming from, along the lines of:

“My name is Kyle Long. I’ve worked full time as a run coach for 20 years. The information that follows is backed by that experience and education base.”

And for the better part of a year, there was nothing but positive comments, big thanks for the free resources I provided and generally a building of a great community.

So it was a surprise to wake up one day to a notification on my page that I had been permanently banned from not one, but both subreddits I frequented with my writing. No explanation, no warnings of any misconduct before, no “hey you need to word your posts a little differently”. Over half a million post reads, endless positive community responses and a vast amount of free resources provided, all shut down overnight with the following autogenerated messages:

I naturally replied back to the moderators asking for clarification and received very little specifics. “Your posting was reported a few times and it could be seen as free advertising” was the closest to a reason I was given. I offered to remove my preface in my messages, not mention that I am a coach and even put fourth that if the free resource posting was an issue, I’d stick to strictly answering questions other members posted. I expressed I just genuinely wanted to contribute the knowledge I have accumulated over 2 decades to a community I care deeply about.

Crickets.

A few interesting observations about the ban before I get into why this is a symptom of a larger issue:

First, there was no rules violation. I responded to the moderators and they could not tell me what community rule I broke, because I did not break one.

Second, the post I was apparently banned for was only posted in one of the two pages, not both, yet somehow led to a ban in both.

Third, there was only at the time, one person who was a moderator for both rooms. One person who decided that they were right and the half a million viewers of the posts who enjoyed the content, were wrong.

And frankly, fuck that.

This is not a piece where I just bitch about how unfair something is and play the woah is me card. I’m taking every piece I wrote for those spaces and will be reposting them here, with a lot more to follow.

What this is, is a sad exhale of realization of how little critical thinking exists in the world and how often those who genuinely want to offer something positive to the world, get a stiff arm by idiots. It should not surprise me when I look around at the current state of affairs in literally every corner of society, but it just never ceases to not leave me shaking my head. How have we become a world that so easily normalizes the ignorance of the obvious? Of ego and hurt feelings and jealousy holding the masses back from information, experience and opportunity?

The reddit BS means nothing. I’ll survive just fine without it and the only “suffering” that will occur will be a few hundred thousand people not getting to read something they’ve previously enjoyed. But at scale, as has been shown repeatedly in our modern time, acting randomly, with little foresight, little critical thinking and with an inability to set ego aside, the masses can truly suffer. People get sick, lose jobs, lose social circles, get hurt and die because of the constant wave after wave of people simply being dumb.

Ironically as I write this, a comment popped up on one of the old posts that are still up (posts I wrote, that I cannot comment on anymore lol). The commenter had asked some questions related to their training on the original post and circled back after a successful outing at the VT100. It is just one of hundreds of comments on my posts in a similar tone: appreciative of good, free, well intentioned information. .

All of this is to say, our issues large and small in our current space of existence will not solve themselves. They will not just go away as long as stupid people make stupid choices and we all allow it to happen. Waiting “till the next guy/girl” and hoping it will be better is not the answer, because if allowed to be, stupid will simply be replaced by a new version of stupid, and we will continue to all spiral to the ground. Each of us needs to take accountability for our own interactions with the world around us and value our own ability to think freely and completely.

My expertise is meaningless in many ways. I am simply, arguably, the best there is at helping other humans move their feet further. There are far more critical domains in which experts and idiots operate in that have far more dire outcomes to society as a whole.

But…

My expertise is not so meaningless in one critical way.

The development of self.

Because, while I am as good as it gets at helping people cover more miles, that is not the ultimate objective in what I do. The miles I help people access are more than just stats collected in Strava…they are a path to a higher existence. They are doors opened to finding deeper meaning of self, to help those who take on big projects become bigger versions of what they are. The fitness built in training allow individuals to line up at events and outings significant enough in size that they can and will break them down to the most basic of levels; survival, movement, introspection and overcoming. The experiences they have “out there” always, without fail, reframe and readjust the participants relationship with daily life, always for the better. When you’re willingly broken down to your core existence, how could you possibly not grow for the better?

That is what I do, why I am here and why it is in fact, deeper than just mileage.

And that is why I say, to those who hold back the few well intentioned, educated, experienced and the truly genuine amongst us who desire to make a positive impact….fuck you.

Whether it’s an ultra running subreddit or the governments leading the world super powers, we cannot allow stupidity to reign if we ever want to become more. And that truly, is all life is about, being…more.

Onward, Always.