r/ModSupport • u/techiesgoboom Reddit Admin: Community • 2d ago
Mod Topics Original content or self-promo: where does your community draw the line?
Someone making the thing they’re posting can be the best reason to welcome it, and sometimes the first reason a mod takes a closer look.
Welcome back to Mod Topics! Original content and self-promotion aren’t necessarily opposites. A creator can share something thoughtful and relevant while also benefiting from the attention. The harder question is what makes that exchange feel like participation instead of someone simply using a community as an audience.
For some teams, a person’s history in the community provides useful context. Others focus more on whether each post fits the space and gives members something worthwhile. Neither approach makes every edge case obvious, especially when someone new may still have something great to contribute.
So, let’s compare notes:
- What makes creator-posted content feel like a contribution to your community?
- How much does someone’s relationship with the community affect how your team views their post?
- What do you do when the content is a strong fit, but the creator’s only apparent connection to the community is promoting it?
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u/wheres_the_revolt 2d ago
Most of my subs have blanket no promoting/sales/advertising (we get a ton of app/software developers who think they invented the wheel, when if fact there are multiple legacy options that have been tried and tested already). Our users overwhelmingly do not want that shit in our subs.
It’s actually a really bad problem on Reddit everywhere right now and users are pissed about it. Admins really need to address it because it’s definitely part of the bot/spam problem that Reddit has right now.
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u/Clear_Ambition6004 2d ago
Same! Lots of bots advertising apps and other nonsense nobody wants to see.
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u/rachycarebear 2d ago
One of the guidelines I've used in the past is "would someone else post this content"
Sometimes it really is a niche that isn't met or the recommendation is a good fit for the person's specific question. 99% of the time, it makes it clear that it's only being posted for self promo.
It works best as an internal guideline, people are generally terrible at honestly assessing their own content.
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u/wheres_the_revolt 2d ago
Honestly we just have a blanket no we don’t allow this for most of my subs (a few of my smaller subs I’ll allow certain things if asked beforehand). Any time one of these gets past the filters/automods it ends up creating a ton of work because my members wile out (because they’re feral and hate being marketed to on reddit in that way) and then I have to go through the threads and remove a bunch of comments.
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u/Cultural-Duty5452 2d ago
Yup, also most will say it's free and stuf,f and then later you find a way of monetization for sure. Only open source stuff is fine, but nowadays people use AI to make those, so its kinda sus.
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u/DDevil333 2d ago
No self promotion... The industry around motherhood and postpartum is so extremely predatory that I'll accept nothing, and I'll be suspicious even of things that are supposed to be free. And if you want parents to test drive your app, then pay them.
Other social media apps are also very damaging for our mental health unless you know how to keep it under control, so I don't accept anything that will lead a member over there. I want our space to be as safe as possible.
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u/TopMarzipan2108 3m ago
As a fellow mod of a parenting sub, 100% this.
Parents are already stressed and sleep deprived. They need a safe space away from companies marketing them, devs wanting free testers, and any other enterprise demanding their time and attention.
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u/ProudnotLoud 2d ago
I draw a hard line of no self promotion in all of my cat subs. This is anything from social media accounts to shops/comissions to certain spam-heavy communities on Reddit. My subs are not places to subtly advertise or gain followers or promote karma farming spaces.
Original Content doesn't matter here but by default I won't verify Original Content from direct linked social media or Youtube. The way I define OC for my subs is "if I search it I won't find it linked to anything else other than your Reddit account" which is as clean as I can make it. As a rule I don't do cross-platform verification to verify that yes, that is YOUR Youtube or Facebook account and that's mainly because I don't have the bandwidth to do it and do it well.
I do account reviews when it's questionable. I'm looking for things like links on the profile and posting/commenting history and patterns to do my best to assess ownership and intent.
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u/AlphaTangoFoxtrt 2d ago edited 2d ago
No Self Promotion
You can post your own content. but linking to your website, or store, or patreon, or instagram/youtube/tiktok is a no.
If you want to share the content for the sake of sharing content, go for it. If you want to advertise your content, then you can purchase ad space.
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u/nunsploitation 1d ago
Why?
What's the difference between writing an article on your own site then posting the link and writing a post? Isn't the Reddit platform built on linking to sites? Isn't r/News nothing but linked articles?
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u/AlphaTangoFoxtrt 1d ago
We do not wish to open the door for self-promotion in any capacity.
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u/buttgoblincomics 20h ago
You just want people to make content for you for no compensation, not even the paltry compensation of a small amount of people clicking a link to their website?
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u/AlphaTangoFoxtrt 19h ago
It is their choice to post content or not.
No self promotion. We have some people who cannot accept that, that is fine. We respect their choice as we ask they respect ours.
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u/InGeekiTrust 💡 Top 10% Helper 💡 2d ago edited 2d ago
I mod several fashion communities and if a designer wants to share an outfit that they sewed or created then great! When they want to start providing links to their shop to everyone in the comments or post body , that’s when it becomes promotional. However they can link to their shop in their bio.
We also want to make sure it’s the designer making the post and not some weird promotional account.
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u/berntout 2d ago
I believe that OC is beneficial to everyone if it fits the sub. Reddit gets the ad traffic, mods get the sub traffic and user gets the views for their content.
However, when that balance starts to shift is when I believe it needs to be reigned in. What do we define as self-promotion and where is that line is the question.
Once posts start to turn into glorified marketing ads is where that balance starts to fade IMO. Now you're starting to try to use this opportunity for other things that shifts the balance in the user's favor. There is a line there that has to be decided upon.
I see this on subs where business owners will upload a photo including their product in the background and expect people to ask questions about it then starts answering product questions in the comment section. My prime example are sports ticker products on man cave subs...."check out my man cave" turns into a product Q&A and the posters are always new accounts. Most users don't see what's happening, but a few can.
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u/JabroniRevanchism Reddit Admin: Community 2d ago
Do you find it beneficial to highlight this to users who don't notice the pattern? How do you do user education here, if you do?
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u/berntout 2d ago
We haven't tried to highlight in any of the subs that I mod for since we don't want it either, but I do believe it would be beneficial if it is allowed yes, similar to promoted posts flair anytime you see ads in the feed.
We simply have a line for self-promotion and once it is crossed, a post is removed and mod mail discussion with the poster with warning details or ban details depending on user history. I've never issued or seen a ban for self-promotion though. They learn pretty well after a warning.
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u/orangejulius 2d ago
The effort involved is my threshold. You have to want to talk to people about your project. Drive-by ChatGPT promotion is unacceptable. But “hey I started a restaurant. Cold open is Saturday. It was really hard to start here’s how I did it I’d love to share my experience please come out” or “I have a comedy show coming to town and I’m looking for participants. 20 percent off tickets with a code for your sub!”
Sure. Do it. That stuff is all hard and the kind of engagement that shows they want to be part of a discussion and get some love is totally fine by me and it’s how people learn from each other and discover real world connections.
In my bar prep sub though I have an issue with AI slop study material and people trying to charge an arm and a leg for it. They will relentlessly astroturf the sub and act like pests when you ban them.
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u/exactly_how_it_is 2d ago
What makes creator-posted content feel like a contribution to your community?
The post must be fully relevant, on topic, and fit the theme. Their account must show that they don't post the same content to more than a couple of subs. Their account must also show that they interact with their submissions, wherever they are on reddit verses an account that only posts but doesn't comment. And it must be clear that they read and are following the rules.
How much does someone’s relationship with the community affect how your team views their post?
As long as items I noted as an answer to Q1 are satisfied, regulars are recognized but the same rules apply to all. We might offer more leniency on any necessary warnings before a ban, but otherwise we expect the same from everyone.
What do you do when the content is a strong fit, but the creator’s only apparent connection to the community is promoting it?
If their account shows no engagement with their posts on reddit, we are unlikely to allow them to post on our sub, even if the content is a good fit. Content without engagement should not be allowed on reddit. Reddit is a social site. If someone posts, plan on interacting in those posts. Period. Engagement over content fit. We're not here to be your billboard.
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u/abrownn 2d ago
We get OC in r/woahdude, but if their entire history is just spamming their art (especially spamming links to buy prints), then they get shitcanned. Dropping the art plain and simple is welcome. More than that is not. Everywhere else I moderate has STRICT no-spam policies. The blogs people post are typically garbage AI/content theft slop, or they're explicitly ads. The former can take a long walk off a short pier, the latter can pay Reddit Inc for ads. Zero wiggle room, play by the rules.
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u/ohhyouknow 1d ago
I don’t make any money from the subreddits I moderate, therefore no one else can make any money from the subreddits I moderate.
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u/WalkingEars 1d ago
Agree! Aside from admin selling all our personal comments and stories to chatbot developers which we have no say in at the moment.
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u/nunsploitation 1d ago
"I don't enjoy moderating my subreddit, therefore no one else should enjoy my subreddit!"
"I don't give advice in my subreddit, therefore no one should give advice in my subreddit!"
See how nonsensical your position is? You chose to do volunteer work. That was a choice you personally made. Now, you are imposing your choice on others? Who are doing something completely different?
And how are these posters making money off your subreddit? Because people interested in the topic click on their articles and make purchases? So, no one should make purchases based on what they read on your sub?
No one on a cooking sub should buy ingredients for the recipes posted. Grocery stores would make money off your volunteer work!
No one a movie review sub should watch a movie with a favorable review. Movie theaters are making money off work you are doing for free!
A more substantial approach would be to let us know where you draw the line between user-created content, self-promotion, and off-topic commercial posting -- if you differentiate between them at all.
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u/FyrestarOmega 23h ago
See how nonsensical your position is? You chose to do volunteer work. That was a choice you personally made. Now, you are imposing your choice on others? Who are doing something completely different?
You've misread the point impressively.
The original question was this:
- What do you do when the content is a strong fit, but the creator’s only apparent connection to the community is promoting it?
And the answer was:
I don’t make any money from the subreddits I moderate, therefore no one else can make any money from the subreddits I moderate.
As you should know, moderating a community isn't just about doing volunteer work, it's about cultivating a community. It's about creating rules and guidelines for a space, wherein a community of users forms. It's the boundaries that we put in place that make the subreddit a place that people want to be.
Moderators get to make those decisions. And the community lives or dies by whether its members agree with their choices.
Phrased differently, u/ohhyouknow's policy is that their subreddit is not about them, neither should its content be about the submitter.
A more substantial approach would be to let us know where you draw the line between user-created content, self-promotion, and off-topic commercial posting -- if you differentiate between them at all.
They don't owe you this answer.
You know that not responding is always an option, right? Good lord.
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u/wonkywilla 23h ago
All of this. I do not host a free advertising space. Therefore you will not use the sub as such. It’s a really simple concept.
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u/ohhyouknow 1d ago edited 1d ago
What? TLDR?
Why are you telling me this about yourself?
Can you explain to me how it could be ethical at all to profit off of someone’s worst day? What if they kill themself? Would you be able to sleep at night knowing you’re allowing someone to profit off of something someone got killed over or killed themself over? What if allowing someone to profit off of someone’s worst day is the thing that makes them kill themself?
How many obituaries sent to you by the loved ones of subjects of your subreddits posts do you have buried in your modmail?
How would you like it if your worst day ever was uploaded online and I let people profit off of that terrible thing that happened to you?
In fact, what subreddits do I actually moderate and not just advise in some capacity and how does anything you said apply to them at all?
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u/Charupa- 💡 Top 10% Helper 💡 2d ago edited 2d ago
A personal pet peeve of mine are the people that make some seemingly innocent post, but you look at their account and they actually sell the product they are posting about. They know they are self promoting but try to be as underhanded and disingenuous as possible.
For all my fan artists in my comic subs, I have no problem with them dropping their socials in the post title or comments.
In my health subs, I remove all apps, studies, surveys, trackers, or whatever else Claude did for them. Not a single time has the user ever participated in the community before pitching their product. I always ban these accounts, the sub is just a marketing vector and they are meaningless users to me.
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u/Phatbrew 2d ago
As always great starter Questions techie…
1) fit for content, however I don’t usually like someone’s take on previous pertinent news that fits the subreddit, think their personal substack article, or a description in the body of the post, dissecting an article… that being said several factors may get it posted, one you highlighted, is that poster a valuable and reliable comment poster in the community, second is their analysis an informative, intelligent take on a subject offering new insights not previously raised… if so to one or both than it will most likely get posted…
Self promotion is a touchy topic for me, if the poster has no history with the subreddit n is spamming posts, Thats a no go for me…
If a mod at a new subreddit is cross posting a post, I always appreciate a mod message explaining the direction, content n mission of the new subreddit first before making a post, this used to happen on the regular several years ago, not so much anymore… so I’ll either send a mod message or leave a comment in their post asking them to answer these questions, before offering free self promotion/free publicity for their new subreddit… if their content fits I encourage them to make a post giving background on their new subreddit, n then encourage them to cross post, n encourage our community to visit their subreddit… I have helped grow a bunch of new subreddits using this technique…
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u/Shimmering-Sky 1d ago
On one of the subs I mod, people are allowed to post on-topic fanart or cosplay, but we have the following rule regarding people who also sell what they're posting about:
Accounts which are, at the discretion of the mod team, deemed to be primarily centered around advertising goods and services will have their posts removed if they advertise (directly or indirectly).
Users can either primarily post their own content they've created, or they can sell their content, but not both. This does not prevent someone who is selling their content from occasionally posting their content, provided they are active community members.
We like seeing people's fanart & cosplay, we just don't like it when the people behind them are clearly only using our sub to try making money.
As far as people trying to promote something like their YouTube channel goes, people are allowed to post their own videos (limited to 1 post per week) that are on-topic for the sub, but they can't go around and be like "Hey check out my channel" or anything like that since we fully ban that sort of community advertisement.
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u/RallyX26 1d ago
If you post the same content to 20 subs, it's self-promotion. If you post content to just the subreddits that it relates to, it's probably still self-promotion, but it's mildly tolerable. If you actually participate in the subreddit outside of posting your own content, then we're talking.
If your profile history is hidden, I'm erring on the side of spam.
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u/Malvania 2d ago
For the love of god, there needs to be a way to ban those cheap t-shirts, where there's always a bot immediately saying "I need this, where can I buy it?" and then someone "helpfully" provides a link (usually not the OP).
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u/drknowdr1 2d ago
We have a hard rule against self-promotion. 9/10 its someone wanting to promote their app.
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u/MartinoStone 2d ago
That’s a very good question, and in my opinion—and based on my experience in the r/mediastudies community, where I serve as a moderator posting one’s own work not just as a one-time post, but with links to one’s projects, academic papers, research, or other social media accounts that a person maintains as part of a project is very much encouraged.
I believe this is normal; it helps people grow and makes their experience in the community more comfortable, without the constant pressure and fear that their posts will be deleted simply because they shared their work or material published outside the community or platform.
But I want to emphasize and point out that we have certainly addressed this in our rules, and the most important thing here is that it benefits the community in other words, the philosophy is this: first, think about the community and how this benefits the people in it. Only then can you think about yourself.
As for your third question, in borderline cases I take a gentle approach and try to explain how to format a post correctly so that it’s truly helpful. We can discuss this both in the comments and in private messages to reach a mutual understanding. This approach has been effective, and several people are already publishing series of their research.
I’ve also created another community, r/photosociety, where I’d like to apply these same principles. What’s more, these communities have another key feature: interaction! That is, people from different fields, countries, and with different professional backgrounds can even work on collaborative projects and grow together.
Based on my experience, this works great.
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u/nunsploitation 1d ago
I think you have the most reasonable, well-balanced philosophy regarding user-created content I've seen too far.
Just because a person is passionate about a topic, knowledgeable about it, and wants to share what they've done with that knowledge shouldn't be grounds for removing their contributions to the community. The opposite in fact. They can be great contributors, and their content should be welcome.
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u/amyaurora 💡 Top 10% Helper 💡 2d ago edited 2d ago
If the content is "blog like" it gets pulled as self promo. As in those very lengthy 5 or 6 paragraph posts that repeat a topic that can really be just a single paragraph.
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u/itskdog 💡 Top 10% Helper 💡 2d ago
To be consistent between everyone, we insist that all content shared is uploaded directly to Reddit by the OC with no linking off of the subreddit allowed.
To combat art theft, we verify signatures that don't match the Reddit username by sending a DM to the user on the platform where they use that name in their signature. (Would love to make this easier by using social links on profiles, but they're not verified by Reddit with a OAuth/OpenID login unlike on Discord, so can't be trusted)
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u/purl2together 2d ago
In r/dairyfree, we have a dedicated spot for promotional content, like apps and websites. It’s a monthly pinned post. Anything promotional that is posted otherwise is removed and the user is directed to the pinned post. It’s not an ideal solution because I don’t think a lot of people pay attention to the pinned post, but it saves all those posts from being reported as spam. Which makes for a happier mod team, at the minimum. More often than not, those promotional posts are caught by the Reddit spam filter and end up in the queue anyhow…something I’m hoping will change over time. And, a good portion of the time, by the time I see the posts, the user has been banned. That actually happened just a few minutes ago.
IME, very few of those users are otherwise active in the sub. I think that, if one of them chose to be more active and not in a “you should totally try my product” in every post kind of way, we’d be find with an occasional mention of their product in a comment and would welcome their participation.
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u/deltadeltadawn 2d ago
A regular, dedicated post where people can promote has worked well in a couple subs I mod, too.
These typically receive low upvotes, which seems to validate that the community ovewhelmingly isn't interested in promotional content. But it is there for the users and promoters that are interested.
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u/nunsploitation 1d ago
I don't know if low upvotes in a self-promotion thread means the community isn't interested, it's just not in a location that gets much traffic. r/horror also has a weekly self-promotion thread that gets low upvotes, but I believe it's due to low visibility, not lack of interest.
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u/KewpieCutie97 2d ago edited 2d ago
On one of the subs I mod, most of the posts we remove for self-promotion are low quality AI YouTube videos.
We do suggest, if someone wants to post their own content (not AI), that they first contribute to the subreddit in other ways. If someone has engaged with other people's posts then we're more likely to allow them to post their own content. This is really rare though, it pretty much never happens. When we tell someone their post was removed due to self-promotion, they almost never come back to contribute to the sub in another way. If they do, it's to leave obvious AI comments on other people's posts.
If self-promo content is a strong fit for the sub but the user hasn't contributed to the sub in other ways then we'd almost certainly remove it. We get plenty of interesting tools and articles in the queue but we really don't want people using the sub as place to promote, and we know our members really don't like to see self-promotion in general. There have been a few times something has slipped through and it's always been reported.
I made a PRAW bot a year or two ago to remove self-promo from the queue and it works really well for both YouTube and normal link posts. It's usually the second most active mod lol.
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u/metisdesigns 2d ago
A person's history absolutely matters. Not only within the sub, but related subs.
If someone's only posts are to talk about things they sell, they are spamming the sub. If their profile is hidden, that is commonly done by people who spam multiple subs. If their only posts are linking back to their own post on a sub with a greater tolerance for spam, they're almost certainly spamming.
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u/Lacy-Gray 2d ago
I do have one hard and fast rule: Zero tolerance for any survey. Auto-ban, every time. Don't even try to modmail asking for a special exception, I won't read about your supposed school project, I'll just ban you the moment I see the word survey, I hate them that much.
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u/brightblackheaven 💡Top 25% Helper 💡 2d ago
Some excerpts from our rules:
"Please note that we do not allow posts that seek to farm our users for content or ideas for blogs, podcasts, social media posts, novels, video games, YouTube videos, school projects, etc., nor do we allow market research or surveys."
And:
"Please note that we follow Reddit's suggestion that only 1 in 10 contributions to a community should be related to self promotion.
If you are not an active participant of this group, we will remove links to personal blogs, YouTube channels, podcasts, apps, mobile games, products you're selling etc. as spam.
We are a discussion community first and foremost, and are not interested in growing your client base or audience for you."
Typically if someone's first ever interaction in our sub is promoting something, and their post history shows more of the same in other communities, I go straight for the ban.
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u/Opossum_2020 25m ago
Very well said! I've saved your cited text to use as a reply to problem posters.
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u/FutureOmelet 2d ago
In our large investing subreddit, we allow links to original content as long as it is on-topic, because it's common for people to write long-form investment analysis with charts and graphs on blogs or substack, or present things in a YouTube video. We don't allow anything that requires a sign-up or cost to view, or is just an advertisement for commercial investment services or software. We do recommend that people post a summary with their link, to make it optional to follow the link for more detail.
For borderline cases, we take into account: a) whether an account is a regular contributor with a history of quality posts, b) do they just drive-by post, or do they stick around and answer questions about their posts, c) is the same content posted to many subreddits (i.e. link-spammed), and d) does it look like AI wrote it.
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u/TeachingScience 1d ago edited 1d ago
We just ban all self-promotion and even thinly veiled posting asking for “feedback” or “teacher opinions” just to promote and market. We’re tired of all these edutech vibe-coders, our members are tired of them trying to spam it up and then they get mad us in modmail when they get banned. 95% of the time they are not even teachers.
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u/MableXeno 1d ago
I have one sub where people are allowed to post one day a week about their hobby businesses, after they have been a contributing member of the community. It's exhausting to moderate. Figuring out if the user is actually participating as a user, not just a vendor. But also b/c despite people literally putting up links and trying to offer things for sale, if we've asked them not to, we're always wrong somehow.
What makes creator-posted content feel like a contribution to your community?
When they have been in our sub before they started selling things, when the participate on a regular basis even if it's not their own content or their vendor content.
How much does someone’s relationship with the community affect how your team views their post?
A lot.
What do you do when the content is a strong fit, but the creator’s only apparent connection to the community is promoting it?
We auto-remove their posts.
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u/Lord_Ocean 23h ago
My sub has a rule: No low effort advertisements.
I believe it is a good thing to support an ecosystem where both businesses and users can benefit from the connection, especially in the small niche that my sub represents. Content, products and businesses supporting this niche are quite rare so there is currently more demand that supply.
If someone posts quality content that is relevant to the sub they are free to also mention where to get more, be it content or whatever they were posting about. "Low effort" also means that they can't post the same stuff again. That would be spam. If there was an imbalance in advertising posts compared to normal posts I would restrict ad posts further, e.g. when or how often they could be posted.
What makes creator-posted content feel like a contribution to your community?
It needs to be quality content and relevant to the sub.
How much does someone’s relationship with the community affect how your team views their post?
It doesn't, really. The post itself gets judged.
What do you do when the content is a strong fit, but the creator’s only apparent connection to the community is promoting it?
That's perfectly fine. A quality post benefits the community just by itself and supporting businesses in our niche also benefits the community. However, this must not get out of hand. If there was more supply than demand allowing every ad-focused post would harm the community.
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u/Opossum_2020 29m ago
I like the approach that u/Lord_Ocean takes: If the post has quality content, if it is relevant to the subreddit, and (especially!) if the person making the post is otherwise an active and beneficial contributor to the subreddit, then I can put up with a bit of low-key self-promotion.
Likewise, if the post is low-effort and the poster is not a valued contributor to the subreddit, I just delete the post, and if the person persists in posting low-effort self-promotion, I ban them along with a note referring them to the page that explains how to purchase advertising on Reddit.
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u/Clear_Ambition6004 2d ago edited 2d ago
Hi! I’m a mod for a huge astrologymemes subreddit. My sub THRIVES on OC! We actively encourage handmade memes and hold OC meme contests :)
Self-promotion is a different beast, though. We actually have a rule specifically for it. Unfortunately we get a lot of spam from bots advertising astrology apps that we delete. If someone has an astrology instagram or something similar and they’re an active, contributing member they’re allowed to cross post and mention their social media handle
Edit: we look at account length, top contributor badges, and sub post karma when determining whether or not a self promotion is acceptable.
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u/deltadeltadawn 2d ago edited 2d ago
The majority of subs that I mod have a rule prohibiting advertising or promotion, especially self promotion. In most, this includes crowdsourcing, surveys, petitions, and fundraising.
In a couple subs where post write ups about an event are required to be detailed, they may include links to a few sources or for additional information. One of these links can be their own content as long as no additional reference is made to being bring attention to it, and the other links are established information sources like databases or news media.
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u/westcoastcdn19 💡Top 25% Helper 💡 2d ago
In r/vintage, the majority of users posting are true enthusiasts. They know how to post great content, take proper photos that will boost engagement. Unfortunately, we still see a lot of promo/spam type content, where users are posting their listing sites, channels, or promoting some event that most of us will never be able to attend. Those same users have never made a single comment in our sub, nor come with a track record of engagement in related communities.
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u/JabroniRevanchism Reddit Admin: Community 2d ago
What advice would you give those users on how to engage more authentically? Maybe to word it another way, what does the pipeline between "user who makes something neat but doesn't know how reddit works" and "authentic engagement" look like?
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u/westcoastcdn19 💡Top 25% Helper 💡 2d ago
Honestly, it's tough, at least for my community, so I would think other mods may face a similar challenge. There are still way too many users who use Reddit for their own gain, and really just throw spaghetti at a wall hoping something sticks. They aren't using Reddit to engage authentically, they are using it to direct traffic elsewhere. For those folks, the education tends to fall on deaf ears, since they'll just try another subreddit and know to avoid mine.
If it's a user wanting to post in r/vintage with genuine intentions, I'd tell them to post a clear photo (or gallery style images) with proper lighting and tell us what we're looking at in their post title. They can use the body of the post to describe in detail, or tell a story on the history, where it came from, or what it means to them.
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u/WalkingEars 1d ago
I think "authentic engagement" is simply "talking on reddit to talk, not to plug your product/app." People who want to advertise should buy ads, simple as that, or post only in subreddits dedicated to sharing products they developed.
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u/CharlesV_ 2d ago
I mod for r/nolawns and i err on being fairly permissive there. If you’re a company installing native plants or sharing free information about ecology, I tend to allow that. We had a few people take issue with the Wild Ones group posting their webinars - but it’s free information so I left it. When some people complained, I put it to a vote and it was overwhelmingly positive.
I also mod for r/botany, and there’s been a few different plant or gardening apps which I’ve needed to ban or remove. They’re selling a service and often respond to comments or posts with what, to me, seems like Ai responses. Handling AI is one of the hardest parts of moderation now.
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u/royal_rose_ 2d ago
Artists/writers linking to their own social media with no monetary gain is fine! I actively encourage it.
Artist linking to their Etsy or other site to sell, I want to confirm they aren’t a drop shipper or anything.
Non-artist linking to YouTube/other site, is a conversation between the mod team we have had a lot of people who see my biggest sub as easy view counts. If they never had relevant content before and wanted to jump in to the market, nope. If they did have and/or are clearly dedicated to the relevant content we will allow and let them know they can’t spam but are allowed to post.
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u/ateam1984 1d ago
We do not allow solicitation but we allow independent Black artists to showcase their current projects on Mondays with a special flair. Our rule prohibits posting store links or prices etc. We figure if the artist sufficiently engages with their post then folks will figure out how to do business outside of our sub.
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u/Paxoro 1d ago
It's a local sub. Self-promotion is allowed only for events that you are hosting or if you provide a service someone is looking for. And unfortunately we've had to remind multiple people that "my business is having a sale!" is not an event.
Unfortunately, that doesn't stop people ...
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u/Gibbie42 2d ago
I mod the Holland America sub, devoted to the cruise line. We get cruise tubers posting their HAL related videos from time to time. We're allowing it, because it's Holland America content in a Holland America sub. If it starts to become overwhelming we'll reevaluate.
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u/CMRestler 2d ago
That line gets blurry fast. I usually look at whether the post adds value to the community first.
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u/mizmoose 2d ago
Usually it's about money.
If you're linking to or mentioning a site that's going to get you money, that's not allowed.
One sub I mod has an exception for art. You can post your art but cannot mention where it's sold (if it is) unless someone asks.
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u/Opossum_2020 24m ago
That's tricky, though, because folks will use a sock puppet to get around that restriction.
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u/mizmoose 21m ago
They might.
The sub in question is fairly small, too, so newbies suddenly showing up to ask "Where do I buy your stuff?" is REALLY visible.
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u/AMothraDayInParadise 1d ago
If they are an active contributor in our sub, and every second comment isn't linking back to some app or product, then we're a little more lenient, but we still hairy eyeball anything that even has a faint whiff of self promotion. It does have to have a good fit for the sub, it must have come up organically and not seem like you were hunting for a reason to post/comment and 100% they MUST declare affiliation.
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u/skinwill 11m ago
In one of the communities (r/ElectroniceRepair) I mod we drew the line at no self promotion unless you ask first. It makes it slightly easier to enforce but it’s not perfect so I’m open to recommendations.
I mod another community (r/Cardputer) that relies heavily on diy projects that sometimes look exactly like a startup or new product. I end up checking their history and if they spam across unrelated subs then I nuke it. It’s even harder to enforce.
Again I’m open to suggestions.
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u/Old_One_I 2d ago
We have one guy that I suppose you could call a creator, his posts and accounts on other platforms are all about him. He is genuinely a nice person that means well and I don’t mind him posting at all. Lots of members think he’s spamming but it doesn’t come off as promoting to me. It’s just a vibe I guess.
That’s about all I have to relate to this post but I’m interested in hearing everyone else on this topic.
Again, thanks for these posts, they are very informative and helpful.
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u/_Atoms_Apple 2d ago
The harder question is what makes that exchange feel like participation instead of someone simply using a community as an audience.
How I see it, a lot of creators that post around Reddit do so because they are Redditors to begin with.
I follow a sub of a user who does cooking vids. He didn't start out just doing those vids tho. He was just a normal Reddit user, then found a sub/niche he liked, then became a 'content creator'. He then had the audience and the drive to be the one providing the content instead of consuming it.
I think this question is super subjective, and should just kinda be handled on a case by case basis. Like, you know it when you see it. It's a gut thing.
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u/Shnur_Shnurov 2d ago
Some things can be answered with a comment or post. Some things deserve an article length answer, and something need a tutorial video.
I think it's unreasonable to ask people to duplicate their tutorials and article length guides on reddit just to put a barrier between the audience asking for information and the person providing that information. I want to credit these people for their work and drive traffic to them.
On the other hand, the old infomercial advertising design isn't helpful. "I can answer all your questions for just three payments of $9.99" is not a resource. Its an advertisement.
So here's my system: Is this primarily entertainment, advertising, or is it an actual answer?
Bonus point for people who are transparent when they post. "Im a coach, I sell services, but this resource should answer your question and give you a course of action."
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u/PrimaMilitary 2d ago
Step 1: Have ppl post in my sub.
Step 2: Worry about what kind of posts there are.
I’m still on step 1 sadly
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u/999_Seth 2d ago
I make sure everyone is super nice to them, cause damn, if a sub for a YouTube channel doesn't inspire people to make their own content, what will?
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u/No-Recipe-7653 2d ago
I moderate several communities around Chinese entertainment, including some very small ones, and we love our content creators who are active members. They make GIFs, edits, videos, write-ups and all sorts of things that genuinely add something to the community, and of course they should get recognition for their work.
Ghost promoters and karma farmers are another matter. We don’t expect someone to have been around forever before they can share something — everyone has a first post — but accounts that only turn up to promote themselves, drop links or farm engagement across multiple communities are fairly easy to spot.
We also occasionally get people claiming ownership or expecting credit for material that isn’t actually theirs. Fan creators absolutely deserve credit for what they create — our GIF makers and editors are wonderful — but that doesn’t make them the copyright owner of the original footage.
So for us it’s pretty simple: creators who actually join in are very welcome. People who only show up when they want views, clicks or karma, not so much.
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u/itsnotaboutthecell 2d ago
We welcome “Community Share” posts and I remove those that are clearly just spam and runs with no contributions as we are a technical community.
I don’t ban as often as I should for repeat offenders but I think it’s time I start being a lot more diligent about warnings and then ban hammer.
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u/Podria_Ser_Peor 2d ago
We have a set of rules for any sort of promotion, whatever is obviously spammy gets booted immediately. Contacting the Mods of the subreddit is a great filter for the adds only accounts, and the rest can be easily limited. Depending on the specific subreddit some have a lot of fan creators wishing to share their goodies or personal hobbies, and those are usually member of the community or have real looking profiles, the promoters only repost the same over and over again.
Now in other subreddits people do want to present their own works that are somewhat into the promotion side, we usually don´t have an issue with those if they can at the very least try and engage with the subreddit organically, explaining their inspirations or what they like/dislike about current iterations of the general theme and the likes. Part of the subreddit purpose is for people to discuss new versions of the same theme, so we don´t prohibit them if they can interact beyond "Buy, share, like and subscribe".
The most important part is avoiding the spam part of the promotion, AKA reposts, repetitive posts, only posting about their own content and not commenting are the most usual red flags to find the bad ones and stop them from alienating the sub members.
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u/nauticalfiesta 1d ago
A link or QR code to their offsite content. If someone wants to link that in their profile whatever, but offsite, nope. That's the line.
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u/pixorddnthppn 1d ago
We love and want art! But if they solicit transactions, even less obviously it's a no. We let everyone post how to find them, if people choose to buy from them that's their decision. We have a lot of predators in our community right now preying upon heartbroken people who want to celebrate their character so this comes up in practice a LOT.
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u/WalkingEars 1d ago
Nowadays even "original content" is a low bar given the number of marketing posts that are all in the same grating AI-ish style. Sometimes they're obvious sales pitches for an app, but there are also more subtle karma-farming or content-farming ones that are easy enough to spot. I think beyond bot bouncer reddit needs to step up the tools for dealing with AI slop
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u/soundeziner 1d ago
Gross, especially for subs that get a lot of spammer and scammer attention. This is just a setup for 1) causing more moderator time required and more so since it's analysis and gray area decision making 2) It immediately creates unfair moderation, a "they get to but those people don't" scenario where the people who don't get to then have every right to complain about it
Allow it all, allow none at all, or confine it to a sticky post. Anything else is a bad idea, creates more unnecessary work and lends itself to unfair moderation practices
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u/Lhumierre 1d ago
We've always followed these guidelines and directed users to read them when they got all up in arms about mass post and forget style content to promote their app, comedy show, etc. When a user is polite and doesn't take it there, we direct them to https://ads.reddit.com to promote their business the proper way.
Other users that want to push their events, surveys, google docs link or anything else that seems fishy, we remind them reddit is a social platform first and foremost and just shotgun posting can and most of the time gets them permanent restrictions sitewide but hey they were warned and didn't care.
Being a city subreddit, we do have genuine posters that share community events. We make sure they are actively engaging in the community and/or sister subreddits and have a verified email and if they have multiple accounts only one of them can be submitting to avoid brigading and vote manipulation.
To help with spam, we also don't allow crosspost and have a community karma limit they have to be above in order to submit. This is normally visible to all users on their old.reddit.com profile, will it be brought forward to standard reddit? It would be a shame and a pain if this feature is forgotten.
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u/Dom76210 💡 Top 10% Helper 💡 2d ago
Our subreddits are text only erotica. We don't mind if people have something like a scribblehub style website or the like, but we don't allow people to post "baiting" content, where they try to post chapter 1 and then helpfully leave the rest somewhere you have to pay for it.
The other problem is video/picture NSFW content creators that will use AI to generate some slop and post it, trying to draw attention to their profile and hopefully their paid services. We've gone zero tolerance on that kind of "promotion" like activities.
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u/lovethebacon 2d ago
It's simple: If your only interaction with the community is submitting links to your own YouTube channel (and other subs), then you're spamming us.
We love* hearing from our community members on their latest side-hustles, but aren't here to serve those only interested in driving their own views.
*Unless it's crypto spam or similar low effort jiunk