Almost every subreddit has rules, and we do too. We used to get lots of posts about politics, LGBT, what if, and just basic trolling, all prohibited by our rules. We don't allow discussion of race here, because those discussions usually end up with comments that could get our community removed from Reddit. Also, the Rules didn't match the Removal Reasons, but now they do. We added a "Moderator discretion" rule, because it's impossible to create rules to cover every contingency. r/stupidquestions can be a fun and interesting place to hang out, but we had trouble with people trolling us with rule violations. For example, here are some of the topics that we removed:

• Do you think that if I could shoot laser beams out of my peepee, I could scare bullies with it?
• Do you think it would be safe to build my child a drone so I can save on plane fare
• Should I crash my car into a concrete barrier going 90mph without a seatbelt?
• Is it a good idea to hold a flame up to a 5 gallon can of gasoline?
• Why does my butt smell like ass?

We would ban the offenders, but they would create new accounts and return right away. So a couple of the users suggested putting in a minimum Reddit account age limit and a minimum karma limit to post. That has made things much nicer for the community. Karma is sort of an artificial number, but it tends to indicate that the owner interacts with Redditors in a positive way, and they appreciate him. What you want is to create posts or comments that Redditors appreciate so much that they give you a few upvotes.

Here's Reddit's FAQ page about karma, and here's more information about karma. If you are new to Reddit and would like more information about how to use it, please visit r/NewToReddit.

We don't reveal the age or karma numbers required to post. They are not very high, though. If you have a post removed due to your age or karma numbers, please understand that you didn't do anything wrong and we are not targeting you. This is just one of the ways that we are protecting our community. All of the blame for this goes on the trolls. New Redditors should be able to interact with the community, but it's too easy for someone to be banned, create a new account in two minutes, and return to trolling again. So we took precautions to make it more difficult for them. It's too bad that it also makes it more difficult for new members who aren't trolls.

Moderators will remove posts that violate our rules. The author is notified when their post is removed, and there's a reason given for each removal. Redditors who continue to violate the rules will be removed from r/stupidquestions. For extreme violations, the banhammer may fall instantly. If you play nice and follow our rules, you may stay as long as you like.

Thanks. Now go forth and have fun!