To share your side project on Reddit without getting banned, treat each subreddit as its own room with its own rules: post from your real account after you have taken part for a while, pick a few niche subreddits where your users already talk about the problem, read each sidebar and pinned thread before posting, write a post that is useful even without the link, say plainly that you built it, stay for the first two hours to reply, and never ask anyone to upvote. If a post is removed, read the reason, message the mods once, and fix the next post instead of reposting.
This is for people with a day job who want real users for a side project, not a viral moment. Reddit's rules and help pages linked here were checked in October 2026, and subreddit rules change often, so check the sidebar on the day you post. The worked example near the end is made up and labelled.
Why do side project posts get removed on Reddit?
Most removals are not a grudge against builders. They come from one of a few predictable places:
The subreddit's own rules. Many communities ban self-promotion, or allow it only in a pinned thread or on one day a week.
Automatic filters. AutoModerator rules on account age, karma and verified email can filter a new account before a human sees the post.
Reddit's sitewide spam rules. Mass-posting the same thing for exposure is spam, whether a bot or a person does it.
Vote manipulation. Asking friends or a group chat to upvote is against the rules.
Duplicate cross-posting. The same text and link dropped in five communities on one afternoon looks like a campaign.
Posts that read like an ad. A link, a tagline and "check it out" gets reported even where self-promotion is allowed.
The first two are local to each community. Spam and vote manipulation are Reddit-wide and can follow your account everywhere.
What do Reddit's self-promotion rules actually say in 2026?
Rule 2 of the Reddit Rules asks you to abide by community rules, participate authentically in communities where you have a personal interest, and not spam or engage in content manipulation. Community rules are enforced by moderators; the platform-wide rules by Reddit's admins.
Reddit's help page on spam is the closest thing to official self-promotion guidance. It defines spam as repeated or unsolicited actions, automated or manual, that negatively affect users or communities. If your contributions are mainly links to a business you run or benefit from, it asks you to be thoughtful about how often you post, and it says moderators decide what counts as spammy in their own communities.
And the famous 9:1 rule? As of October 2026:
The Reddiquette page still says "a widely used rule of thumb is the 9:1 ratio", meaning one in ten of your submissions should be your own content. But the same page calls Reddiquette an informal expression of values written by users.
In 2017 Reddit's admins announced in a post on r/modnews that they would stop sitewide enforcement of the "1 in 10" rule, and said communities can still choose to enforce it themselves.
In plain words: 9:1 is folklore sitewide and a real rule wherever a subreddit's moderators say so. Treat it as a sensible habit, not a magic number.
Is your Reddit account ready to promote a side project?
Post from the account you actually use. A fresh launch-day account has no history, which is exactly what filters and moderators look for. Reddit's Poster Eligibility Guide confirms that communities can block posts based on account age, karma and whether your email is verified, and that the exact thresholds are not disclosed. Its "can't post yet" message tells you which criteria you miss.
Before your first project post:
Verify your email. Some communities require it.
Spend two weeks commenting in the communities you plan to post in. Answer questions you actually know about. No links.
Look like a person. A moderator clicking your profile should see someone who helps and asks, not a row of links to one domain.
Pick a disclosure line: "I built this, so I'm biased." Use it every time you mention the project.
The comment-first habit is the part most builders skip. It is slow, but it teaches you what a community actually wants before you ask it for anything.
Which subreddits should you share a side project in?
Start where your users already talk about the problem. A tool for gardeners belongs in gardening communities first. Builder subreddits give useful feedback, but makers are rarely your customers.
A few builder-friendly communities and what I could confirm in October 2026:
r/webdev: its posted rules, as widely quoted in 2025 and 2026, limit project and portfolio show-off posts to Showoff Saturday, with the right flair, and do not allow commercial promotion on any day. Think project, not product.
r/startups: points founders to its pinned Share your startup thread, which was quarterly when I checked and asks you to reply using a template.
r/indiehackers: its moderators' posting guidelines ask you to use the Self Promotion flair when promoting a product, ban fake Q&A posts, state zero tolerance for vote manipulation, and say new accounts should ask questions through modmail.
r/SideProject, r/IMadeThis and r/alphaandbetausers exist for sharing things people made or finding testers, but read their current rules yourself. I could not load their rule pages directly.
For each candidate, read the sidebar rules and wiki, look for a pinned or weekly "share your project" thread, and scroll two weeks of posts to see which project posts did well and which vanished. Then write it down.
Column | What to write |
|---|---|
Subreddit | Name and a one-line description of who is there |
Self-promo rule | Banned, thread only, one day a week, flair required, or allowed with conditions |
Where to post | Main feed, pinned thread, or weekly thread, with the day |
Account limits | Any karma, age or email requirement you hit or saw mentioned |
Link placement | In the post, in the first comment, or no links at all |
What did well | Two recent project posts that got real replies, and why |
My history there | Number of useful comments you have made in the last two weeks |
Posted / result | Date, link, replies, signups |
Three to five rows is plenty. If Reddit becomes your main channel, show up every week, the approach in picking one weekly distribution habit for a side project.
How do you write a Reddit post that doesn't read like an ad?
Write the post you would want to read as a member who has never heard of your project:
Lead with the problem or the story. What annoyed you, what you tried, what you learned. The project comes second.
Show it. A screenshot or short GIF answers "what is this" faster than any tagline. If your images are weak, making product screenshots that get clicks walks through picking the right moments.
Put the link where the rules say: in the post, in the first comment, or nowhere. Your sheet has the answer.
Ask one specific question. "Is the setup step confusing?" gets replies. "Thoughts?" gets silence.
Disclose. "I built this" in the first lines. People find out anyway, and hiding it turns interest into a pile-on.
Write a title that sounds like a person. Reddiquette asks for factual titles and warns against all caps, sensational titles and link shorteners. "I made a watering rota for our allotment because the group chat kept failing" beats "Introducing the ultimate garden management platform".
A useful test: delete the link from your draft. If the post is still worth reading, it is ready.
What separates a weak post from a better one?
Weak | Better |
|---|---|
Brand-new account, first post is the launch | Your real account with two weeks of useful comments in that community |
Title: "Introducing X, the all-in-one solution for Y" | Title: what you made and why, in the words a member would use |
Link and tagline only | Short story, screenshot or GIF, then the link where the rules allow it |
Same text in five subreddits on one day | One community at a time, rewritten for each audience |
"Would love your thoughts!" | One specific question you actually want answered |
No mention that you built it | "I built this" in the first lines |
Post and leave for the day | Stay for two hours and reply to everyone |
Should you cross-post the same thing to several subreddits?
Not on the same day, and not with the same text. Reddit's spam page lists mass-posting repetitive content for exposure or financial gain as a violation. Reddiquette says cross-posting is fine when content fits, so the line is fit and volume.
Post in your best-fit community first, learn from the replies, then write a different post for the next community days later. Gardeners care about the watering problem; developers care about how you built the scheduling. Same project, two different posts.
What should you do in the first two hours after posting?
Post when you can stay. Most questions arrive early, and an author who answers well is the best signal a post can send.
Reply to every real comment, including harsh ones. Thank people for criticism and say what you will change.
Never ask anyone to upvote. Reddit's rules on disrupting communities prohibit vote manipulation, including coordinated voting with an organized group of people. Reddiquette says sending messages asking people to vote for your submission will result in a ban from the admins. That includes your newsletter and group chat.
Do not DM everyone who commented. Sending large amounts of unsolicited messages is on the spam list. Reply in the thread, where everyone can see it.
Do not delete and repost if it starts slowly. It looks like gaming the feed. Write a better post next time.
What do you do if your Reddit post gets removed?
Look for a removal comment or inbox message, and re-read the rule it cites.
If the reason is unclear, send one short, polite message through mod mail, which Reddit recommends over messaging a moderator directly. Ask which rule it broke and whether there is a right place for it. Then accept the answer. Do not argue, and never repost from a second account: Reddit treats using another account to get around a community ban as ban evasion.
Removal reason | What it usually means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
No self-promotion | The community does not want project posts in the main feed | Look for a weekly or pinned thread; if none, comment helpfully instead |
Wrong day or missing flair | Project posts are allowed, but only on a set day or with a flair | Repost on the right day with the right flair, once |
Account too new or low karma | An automatic filter caught the post | Keep commenting usefully; check the eligibility message to see what you are missing |
Low effort or link only | The post read like an ad | Rewrite with the story, a screenshot and a specific question |
Spam or reposting | Too many similar posts, here or elsewhere | Stop posting the project for a while; space out and rewrite future posts |
No reason given | Unclear; could be a filter | One polite mod mail asking which rule applied |
How can you tell if you are shadowbanned on Reddit?
"Shadowban" gets used for several things, so check which one you have:
Removed in one community: your post is visible on your profile but missing from the subreddit when you are logged out. That is a community removal, not a sitewide action.
Possibly hidden sitewide: open your profile in a private window while logged out. If it shows "page not found" while it looks normal to you, your account may be restricted. Some people also post in r/ShadowBan, an unofficial community used for this check.
Banned from Reddit: you will see a message about your status, and Reddit says you will usually get an inbox notification with the reason.
Reddit's 2017 r/modnews post said shadow bans were aimed at bots and not intentionally used to punish humans. For sitewide actions, Reddit's page on enforcement and appeals says you can appeal within six months of the notification. If the ban was for spam, inauthentic activity or ban evasion, use the appeal form on Reddit's spam ban help page. Do not create a new account while you wait.
How do you measure whether Reddit worked?
Upvotes do not pay for hosting. Tag the link so your analytics can separate Reddit visitors, for example ?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=gardening, and keep the values lowercase and consistent. Writing UTM tags in a sheet instead of by hand keeps them clean.
Then track signups or first real uses per post, and replies that taught you something. A post that brings five people who stay beats one with hundreds of upvotes and no signups.
If you want reach without the self-promotion question at all, Reddit's spam page itself points heavy self-promoters to Reddit Ads, its self-serve ad platform. Check current pricing yourself.
A made-up example: Ysolde and Barrowshift
This example is invented. The person and product are not real.
Ysolde teaches chemistry and keeps a plot at a community allotment. Her side project, Barrowshift, is a shared watering and chores rota for allotment groups, built because the group chat kept losing track of who was watering during heatwaves.
She posted from her old Reddit account, which she mostly used for reading. For two weeks she answered watering questions in two gardening communities, without links. Her shortlist sheet showed one allowed project posts only in a weekly thread, another needed a "made this" flair, and r/webdev allowed a technical post on Showoff Saturday.
Her first post went in the gardening weekly thread: the heatwave story, a screenshot of the rota, "I built this," and one question: "Would your group use a rota, or does that feel like too much admin?" She stayed for two hours. One reply said their group would never install an app, so she changed the landing page to show email reminders. The tagged link brought a handful of signups, including one allotment secretary who set it up for a whole site.
A week later she wrote a different, technical post for Showoff Saturday. Her one mistake: she forgot the flair in the other community, the post was removed, she sent one mod mail, got "repost with the flair," and did.
A 14-day plan to post on Reddit without getting banned
Days | Do this | Done when |
|---|---|---|
1 | Verify your email; pick 5 communities where users discuss the problem | List of 5 names |
2 | Read each sidebar, wiki and pinned post; fill in the shortlist sheet | Sheet has rules, where to post and link placement |
3-9 | Comment usefully in your top 3 communities a few times a day, with no links | Around 15-20 genuine comments |
8 | Prepare a screenshot or short GIF and a tagged link | Assets saved, link tested |
9 | Draft the first post: story, screenshot, disclosure, one question; do the delete-the-link test | Draft still useful without the link |
10 | Post in your best-fit community at a time you can stay for 2 hours | Every real comment answered |
11 | Log replies, signups and objections; fix the obvious issue raised | One change shipped |
12-13 | Write a different post for the second community, with an angle for that audience | Posted on the right day with the right flair |
14 | Compare signups per post, not upvotes | One community chosen for next month |
Timings are suggestions. With real history in those communities already, compress the first week.
FAQ
Can I post my side project on Reddit with a new account?
You can try, but many communities filter new or low-karma accounts automatically, and Reddit does not disclose the thresholds. Comment for a couple of weeks and verify your email first.
Is the 9:1 rule still a Reddit rule?
Not sitewide. Reddit stopped enforcing the "1 in 10" rule across the site in 2017, though Reddiquette still mentions 9:1 as a rule of thumb and individual subreddits can enforce it. Reddit's current spam guidance asks you to be thoughtful about how often you post links to something you benefit from.
Can I ask friends to upvote my Reddit post?
No. Coordinated voting is vote manipulation under Reddit's rules, and Reddiquette says asking people to vote for your submission will result in a ban from the admins.
Show up as a person, then show what you built
Reddit still sends real users to side projects. It rewards people who join a community before asking it for anything. Pick a few rooms, learn their rules, and stay for the replies. And if you want another place to post a side project where self-promotion is the whole point, SideHunt welcomes it.