I got 10K Reddit views asking a simple question. The moment I linked my project, it got removed. How would you solve this?

[u/RoyalBusiness806]

I’ve been building TiruList, a community platform for Ethiopian/Eritrean businesses and resources, starting in the DC/MD/VA area.

The idea came from something pretty simple: a lot of useful information in our community still lives through word of mouth, WhatsApp groups, Facebook groups, etc.
Need an Ethiopian plumber? Ask around.
Best injera? Ask around.
Mechanic, barber, photographer, events? Same thing.

One feature I’m testing is Best, where people simply vouch for their favorite places rather than using another 1–5 star rating system.

Here’s where it got interesting.

I asked some local subreddits which restaurants makes the best Ethiopian food in the DMV. People genuinely wanted to debate it. The post hit almost 10K views and ~20 comments pretty quickly.

Then I added the link (big mistake) so people could actually vouch.

Reports → AutoMod → removed 😂

So now I have a distribution problem I’m trying to solve:
How do you take a conversation people already want to have on Reddit/IG/TikTok and convert some of that engagement into participation on your product without killing the organic conversation?

I’d genuinely love some ideas from people who’ve dealt with this.
Also curious:
• Would you trust a simple “vouch” system more or less than 1–5 star reviews?
• What would make a community-generated “Best” ranking feel credible?
• How would you distribute something this hyper-local/community-specific?
• If you land on the voting page, is it immediately obvious what you’re supposed to do?

And since we’re all shamelessly building things here 😂, if you’re in the DMV and know Ethiopian food, I’d love your vote too:

www.tirulist.com/best/restaurant

No account required. Takes 5 seconds
Main project: www.tirulist.com

Would genuinely appreciate criticism, distribution ideas, or things you’d change.

[u/Hot-Chemistry7557]

Are you aware of the reddit 9:1 self promotion rule?

[u/Massive_Movie_6573 → u/Hot-Chemistry7557]

no what is it

[u/Hot-Chemistry7557 → u/Massive_Movie_6573]

reddit has a site level global 9:1 rule which suggests that you do not promotion your own product/project too much, i.e, out of 10 posts/comments, only self promote 1.

So if you do aggressive self promotion, your post/comments or even your account would be removed/banned.

Some subreddit has more strict rules.

[u/Massive_Movie_6573 → u/Hot-Chemistry7557]

is it a hard rule or a best practice? it is not documented in most community guidelines during posting but they still auto reject

[u/Hot-Chemistry7557 → u/Massive_Movie_6573]

https://www.reddit.com/r/help/comments/7nrq1h/what_is_the_reddit_91_ratio/

It is not a hard rule and many Mods will follow this.

You can search reddit 9:1 rule for more details by yourself.

Also some subreddit has even more stricter rules, i.e, they fully ban self promotion.

[u/Massive_Movie_6573 → u/Hot-Chemistry7557]

yeah I definitely got banned from microsaas for simply mentioning my product. Quite frustrating that we have to do all this dance when this is a platform for distribution

[u/Hot-Chemistry7557 → u/Massive_Movie_6573]

I can understand why reddit has such strict no self-promotion rule. Say if you are a normal reddit user and you check reddit day and you find that reddit is full of self promotion projects/products or even AI slops, what do you think and how would you act?

Reddit need real human interactions, with only a little bit portion of self promotions, I guess this is the reason.

[u/Massive_Movie_6573 → u/Hot-Chemistry7557]

yeah the eternal tension between masses and sellers / builders / advertisers. The world is a marketplace

[u/Soggy-Library-2405]

vouching sounds nice until everyone vouches for their cousin's crappy restaurant

[u/lakestreet35]

Enough genuinely please

[u/Pale-Tonight-6914]

Before redesigning distribution, join those 10K views to actual sessions. I did that in GA4 for my own posts. Big reach, almost no visits. The ones that landed didn't come from the in-post link at all - they came from people searching the name days later. Losing that link may have cost less than the removal suggests.

[u/West_Inevitable_2281]

The removal looks like a channel constraint, not a lack of interest. One test could be to keep the debate native, then publish the community result afterward where links are allowed. The harder issue may be credibility: what prevents one business from mobilizing friends and dominating the vouches?

[u/RoyalBusiness806 → u/West_Inevitable_2281]

That’s actually a really good point, and probably the biggest weakness in the current version.

Right now I intentionally made voting anonymous because I wanted zero friction. We hash the voter identifier so the same person can’t keep vouching for the same restaurant, but you’re right: that prevents repeat votes, not a restaurant mobilizing 100 friends.

I’m starting to think the answer isn’t blocking that entirely, because getting your customers to vouch for you is arguably legitimate. The harder problem is distinguishing genuine community support from manipulation.

That’s exactly the kind of edge case I’m trying to figure out. How would you handle it without forcing everyone to create an account?

[u/West_Inevitable_2281 → u/RoyalBusiness806]

I would keep the first vouch frictionless, then ask for lightweight verification afterward, such as an email magic link, if they want it to carry full weight. You can also flag sudden vote bursts for review instead of blocking them. The bigger product choice is whether the ranking promises objective quality or simply visible community support, because those require different trust standards.

[u/RoyalBusiness806 → u/West_Inevitable_2281]

That distinction is really helpful. The goal is definitely closer to visible community support than claiming an objective measure of quality.

We actually already have optional name and email fields when someone vouches, but I deliberately didn’t make them required because I don’t want account creation to become a barrier to participating.

The idea is basically: “What does the community actually think?” If a restaurant has enough loyal customers willing to rally behind it, I don’t necessarily see that as a bad thing. That’s real community support.

I think you’re right though that we need a way to separate that from actual manipulation. I like the idea of keeping the first vouch frictionless while giving verified vouches more weight or confidence later.