How Reddit removals actually happen
Almost nothing is removed by a human reading your post and disagreeing with it. Removals come from three places, in this order:
- Automod rules that check account age, karma and link count before a human ever sees the post.
- Sitewide spam filters that look at your posting history across subreddits — the same link posted in five places is the classic trigger.
- Moderators, usually prompted by a report from a user who found the post self-serving.
This checker scores against all three: the content of the post, the state of your account, and your contribution history in that community.
The 9:1 rule
Reddit's own guidance is that no more than one in ten of your submissions should be about your own thing. It is enforced socially even in subreddits that do not automate it. An account whose entire history is product mentions gets recognised quickly, and the cost is not one removed post — it is the account.
Why this matters more in 2026
Reddit is now the fastest-growing advertising channel in the US, and roughly 24% of Perplexity's citations on commercial-intent queries come from Reddit threads. The subreddits you build a genuine presence in shape what AI assistants say about your category. Getting banned costs you the ad channel and the AI-visibility channel at the same time.
Questions
Will one bad post get me banned?
Usually not sitewide. It will get the post removed, and in a strict subreddit it can earn a subreddit ban. Sitewide shadowbans come from repeated patterns, and they are very hard to appeal.
Is a link in the comments really safer?
Yes, meaningfully. Link posts are filtered more aggressively than text posts, and a link added after the post has genuine engagement is treated very differently from one in the body.
How do I build karma without spamming?
Answer questions in your area of expertise for two weeks with no mention of your product. Fifty comment karma takes a handful of genuinely useful replies.
Does the risk score guarantee anything?
No. Every subreddit has its own automod configuration and its own culture. This scores against the patterns that cause removals most often — treat it as a pre-flight check, not a permission slip.