Ben Eisenkop, better known by his

Reddit Reddit (; stylized in all lowercase as reddit) is an American social news aggregation, content rating, and discussion website. Registered users (commonly referred to as "Redditors") submit content to the site such as links, text posts, images ...

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...

Unidan, is an American ecologist. He became popular on the

social media Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social medi ...

website

as the "excited biologist" who answered questions and explained concepts related to

biology Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary i ...

and

ecology Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overlaps wi ...

before being banned. He was banned from the website for

vote fraud Electoral fraud, sometimes referred to as election manipulation, voter fraud or vote rigging, involves illegal interference with the process of an election, either by increasing the vote share of a favored candidate, depressing the vote share of ...

– using multiple secret accounts to increase the popularity of his own posts and decrease the popularity of competitors' posts.

Background

Eisenkop earned his bachelor's degrees in biology and

environmental science Environmental science is an interdisciplinary academic field that integrates physics, biology, and geography (including ecology, chemistry, plant science, zoology, mineralogy, oceanography, limnology, soil science, geology and physical geograp ...

from

Binghamton University The State University of New York at Binghamton (Binghamton University or SUNY Binghamton) is a public university, public research university with campuses in Binghamton, New York, Binghamton, Vestal, New York, Vestal, and Johnson City, New Yor ...

Vestal, New York Vestal is a Town (New York), town within Broome County, New York, Broome County in the Southern Tier of New York (state), New York, United States, and lies between the Susquehanna River and the Pennsylvania border. As of the 2020 census, the popu ...

. He was a doctoral student there from 2011 until 2018, but left before completing his doctoral degree. He worked as a graduate instructor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Binghamton University, teaching courses in biology, ecology, and environmental science. He performed doctoral research on

ecosystem ecology Ecosystem ecology is the integrated study of living ( biotic) and non-living (abiotic) components of ecosystems and their interactions within an ecosystem framework. This science examines how ecosystems work and relates this to their components s ...

, studying how communally roosting crows in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

affect the environment.

Career

Eisenkop wrote an article for

Mental Floss ''Mental Floss'' (stylized as ''mental_floss'') is an online magazine and its related American digital, print, and e-commerce media company focused on millennials. It is owned by Minute Media and based in New York City, United States. mentalflos ...

. He has been a graduate instructor for Biology 117: Introduction to Organismal, and Population and Environmental Studies 101: Environment and Man/Women: An Ecological Perspective, and helps instruct an animal behavior course with professor Anne Clark and has been involved in studying communally roosting crows in New York, by tracking them across the state and monitoring their environmental impact. He is also a collaborator on an upcoming book "Great Adaptations," which teaches concepts of evolution to kids. In April 2014, Eisenkop hosted a

TEDx TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "ideas worth spreading". TED was founded by Richard Sau ...

with Binghamton University, "Alternative Futures of Science Funding."

Eisenkop, using the pseudonym Unidan, had been answering biology-related questions on Reddit for several years, when an Ask Me Anything ("AMA", a Q&A style event hosted on Reddit) he did in 2013 made it to the front page of Reddit. Thereafter, his popularity rose and he became one of the most recognizable Reddit users. Eisenkop's popularity and visibility on Reddit garnered him many

science education Science education is the teaching and learning of science to school children, college students, or adults within the general public. The field of science education includes work in science content, science process (the scientific method), some ...

-related job offers, such as with

Vote fraud and site ban

In July 2014, Eisenkop's Unidan account was

banned A ban is a formal or informal prohibition of something. Bans are formed for the prohibition of activities within a certain political territory. Some bans in commerce are referred to as embargoes. ''Ban'' is also used as a verb similar in meaning ...

from Reddit for using alternate (or " sockpuppet") accounts. The accounts were used to upvote his own submissions and downvote submissions made by other users that were posted around the same time and were potentially attracting attention away from his own. He also used them during discussions in which he upvoted his own comments and downvoted comments from users with which he was debating. Reddit community manager Alex Angel (cupcake1713) described Unidan's actions as "pretty blatant vote manipulation, which is against our site rules," and ''

The Daily Dot ''The Daily Dot'' is a digital media company covering the culture of the Internet and the World Wide Web. Founded by Nicholas White in 2011, ''The Daily Dot'' is headquartered in Austin, Texas. The site, conceived as the Internet's "hometown ...

'' wrote that "Unidan's fall adds him to a list of power users who have abused their influence of Reddit's system for their own benefit."

References

External links

UnidanX
on

{{Reddit Living people 1986 births Binghamton University alumni American Internet celebrities Reddit people Systems ecologists Place of birth missing (living people) American ecologists 21st-century American scientists fr:Unidan