Reddit self-promotion rules that actually matter

The 90/10 rule, and where it came from

The guideline is simple: if more than one in ten of your contributions is about your own project, you are a spammer. It originated in Reddit's old self-promotion help page and in reddiquette, where the advice was that self-promotion should be a side effect of participating rather than the reason you are there.

Reddit later retired that page and folded the idea into a broader policy against spam and manipulation. Two things follow from that, and most people get both wrong.

• Nothing counts the ratio for you. There is no counter, no warning at 11 percent, no sitewide enforcement of a specific number.
• Moderators kept it anyway. It survives because it matches what a mod sees when they open your profile. Nine useful comments and one product mention reads as a member. Ten posts about your tool reads as a campaign, regardless of quality.

Subreddit rules are the rulebook that binds you

Sitewide policy is the floor. Each subreddit sets its own rules on top, and those are the ones that get you removed. Two communities of identical size in the same industry can have opposite policies, one running a weekly showcase thread and the other banning any account that has ever linked to a commercial domain.

Where to find them

• The sidebar or About page. On mobile, tap the subreddit name, then See more. Rules are numbered and short.
• The community wiki. Larger subreddits keep the detailed version here, including exactly what counts as promotion.
• Pinned posts. Promo threads, read this first posts, and recent mod announcements about spam waves.
• The removal reasons on other posts. Sort by new and look for posts marked removed. This tells you what is enforced in practice, which is not always what is written.

How to read them in sixty seconds

Scan for four words: promotion, self, link, and blog. Then check whether a promo thread exists and when it runs. If the rules mention karma or account age, you are dealing with an automated gate, and getting karma on Reddit is the prerequisite before anything else you plan will work.

Common rule patterns and what they mean

The wording varies endlessly, the underlying patterns do not. If you can recognize these seven, you can read any subreddit's rules quickly.

One warning about this table and every other list like it. Subreddit rules change without notice, usually right after a spam wave, and a community that welcomed product posts last quarter may ban them today. Read the sidebar on the day you post. Nothing you read here or anywhere else substitutes for that.

Post types that get removed most often

• The launch announcement. A link to your product with a paragraph of positioning copy. Removed almost everywhere outside dedicated showcase subreddits.
• The fake question. Asking what tool people use for X when you sell X. Experienced communities spot this instantly and it damages trust more than a straightforward post would.
• The blog post drop. A link to your content marketing with no commentary. Many subreddits blocklist domains that show up this way.
• The survey request. Asking a community to fill in your form. Almost universally banned because it takes and gives nothing.
• The recommendation comment that names only you. Answering a tool question with a single product, your own, and no disclosure.

How moderators actually detect promotion

There is no mystery here, and understanding it removes the temptation to be clever. Detection happens in three passes.

1. Automoderator, instantly. Rules written in configuration text: karma below a threshold, account younger than N days, a domain on the blocklist, certain phrases in the title. Removal is silent in many subreddits, which is why your post can vanish with no message at all.
2. User reports, within minutes. Regulars in small subreddits are better at spotting promotion than any filter, and a report puts you in the mod queue with a reason attached.
3. A human clicking your username. The decisive step. A mod reads your recent comments looking for one thing: does the same domain, product name, or pitch keep appearing. If it does, the decision takes seconds, and it usually applies to everything you have posted there.

This is why account hygiene beats tactics. A profile with six months of useful comments across several subreddits survives scrutiny. A profile created three weeks ago whose every comment mentions the same tool does not, no matter how well written each comment is.

What a good promotional comment looks like

Same thread, same product, two outcomes. The difference is whether the comment stands on its own if you delete the mention.

Three habits carry most of the weight: answer in full before mentioning anything, disclose ownership in plain words, and name an alternative when one exists. Mods rarely remove a comment that does all three, because removing it would make the thread worse.

How to ask moderators for permission

Underused, and it works. Moderators spend their day removing things, so a message asking before posting stands out. Send modmail to the subreddit, not a direct message to an individual mod, and keep it to five sentences.

Three outcomes: yes with conditions, which is common. Use the promo thread, which is fine. Or no, which saves you a ban. Any of those beats guessing. If you get no reply after a week, treat it as a no.

What happens when you get banned

There are two separate things people call a ban, and the difference matters a great deal.

• A subreddit ban is issued by volunteer mods and applies to that community only. It may be temporary or permanent, and it arrives as a message that usually names the rule. You can appeal it through modmail to that subreddit.
• A sitewide suspension comes from Reddit admins for policy violations such as vote manipulation, spam at scale, or ban evasion. It affects the whole account and is appealed through Reddit's own appeal process, not through mods.

A subreddit ban appeal that works is short: acknowledge the specific rule, say what you will do differently, ask to be let back in, and stop there. Arguing, quoting other users who broke the same rule, or messaging repeatedly turns a temporary ban permanent. If the ban message says mute, do not reply until the mute expires.