Reddit facts, with sources
Checked 2026-10-12. Official = Reddit's own policy, help or blog pages. Secondary = news, third-party guides or
community posts; treat as a hint and verify before relying on it.
Rules and spam
| Fact |
Source |
Type |
| Rule 2: participate authentically, no spam, no vote or content manipulation. Rule 5: don't mislead about who you are |
Reddit Rules |
Official |
| Promotion isn't spam by itself; spam is repeated, unsolicited or automated posting, mass DMs, bots/AI posting for you, masked links |
Reddit Help: Spam |
Official |
| Each community sets its own promotion rules; some use a 10% self-promotion ratio |
Reddit Help: keeping spam out of a community |
Official |
| Reddit replaced sitewide shadowbans with account suspensions in 2015 |
TechCrunch, 2015 |
Secondary |
| Moderators can still hide a user's posts in their subreddit through AutoModerator |
Wikipedia: Shadow banning |
Secondary |
Ranking
| Fact |
Source |
Type |
| The archived "hot" sort: log10 of the vote score plus the post's age term (seconds / 45,000). So votes count on a log scale and age pushes posts down on a fixed clock. Current ranking isn't published |
reddit-archive/reddit (r2/r2/lib/db/_sorts.pyx) · explained in socialboostdigital, 2026 |
Code (archived) |
Karma
| Fact |
Source |
Type |
| Karma comes from votes on posts and comments (and awards), but Reddit doesn't publish the formula; it isn't one point per vote |
Android Authority |
Secondary |
| Many subreddits set karma or account-age minimums to post |
subreddit rules pages · docs/subreddits |
Per subreddit |
Profile
| Fact |
Source |
Type |
| Up to 5 social links on a profile, shown as buttons under the name, not counted in the bio |
2021 r/changelog announcement (read via a mirror) · Adweek how-to |
Secondary |
Search and discovery
| Fact |
Source |
Type |
| Reddit and Google expanded their partnership in 2024 (Reddit content in Google products, Reddit using Vertex AI) |
Reddit blog, 2024 |
Official |
| Reddit Pro is a free set of business tools; its Trends tab tracks keyword volume, communities and conversations |
TechCrunch, Jan 2025 · Search Engine Land |
Secondary (launch coverage) |
| F5Bot sends free email alerts for keywords on Reddit and Hacker News |
f5bot.com |
Tool's own page |
| On r/macapps, comparison / "alternative to" posts had the highest average score in an analysis of 496 top posts |
upvote.net, 2026 |
Secondary |
Ads
| Fact |
Source |
Type |
| Self-serve minimum is about $5 per day per campaign; lifetime minimums are reported differently by different guides |
WordStream · Stackmatix, 2026 |
Secondary — check Ads Manager |
Not verified (don't rely on)
- Exact karma thresholds of subreddits you haven't read yourself.
- "Best time to post" charts: each subreddit differs; look at its new queue.
- Any claim that a specific number of upvotes in the first hour guarantees the front page.