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Troubleshooting

What to do when your Reddit post is removed

· 4 min read

You post something. You come back an hour later and there are no comments, no votes, nothing. Or you get a message that says your post was removed.

It feels bad. But it’s very common, and it’s usually fixable. Here’s how to work out what happened and what to do next.

First, check if it’s really gone

Sometimes a post is removed without any clear message, and you only see it on your own profile. There’s a simple test.

Open your post in a private or incognito window, where you’re not logged in. If you can’t see it, other people can’t either.

Or look at your own post while logged in. Often it will say it was removed by the moderators, or it just looks normal to you but not to anyone else. In that case a filter may be hiding it.

The usual reasons

There are a handful of causes behind most removals.

1. You broke a rule you didn’t know about. Maybe the community doesn’t allow links, questions of a certain type or any promotion. This is the biggest cause by far.

2. An automatic rule caught it. Most communities use a bot called AutoModerator. It can remove posts from new accounts, accounts with low karma, or posts that contain certain words or links. These are often removed in seconds. You can read more in our glossary entry on AutoModerator.

3. It was seen as self-promotion. If most of what your account does is about your own product, moderators will notice.

4. It was a repeat. Many communities have a question that gets asked every day. They remove duplicates.

5. A spam filter caught it. Reddit also has sitewide filters. If your account is new, or you posted links to the same site a lot, it may be held for review.

6. The wrong flair or format. Some communities require a flair, a certain title format or a specific type of post.

Step 1: Read the rules again

Open the community’s rules, the pinned posts and the wiki if there is one. Look for anything that matches what you posted. Often the reason is sitting right there.

Step 2: Check your own account

Look at your profile as if you were a stranger.

  • Is it brand new?
  • Is almost everything about one product or website?
  • Have you posted the same thing in several places?

If yes, that’s a likely cause, and the fix is to change how you use the account, not to find a clever way round the rule.

Step 3: Ask the moderators, politely

If you still don’t know why, write to the moderators through modmail. Here’s a short message that works:

Hi, my post “[title]” was removed and I’m not sure which rule it broke. I read the rules and couldn’t tell. Could you let me know so I can fix it or avoid it next time? Thanks for your help.

Keep these things in mind:

  • Be short and calm.
  • Don’t accuse them of anything.
  • Don’t paste a huge explanation of why your post is great.
  • Wait a day or two. Moderators are volunteers.

If they say it was a rule, thank them and move on. If they say you can repost with a change, make the change exactly as they said.

Step 4: Don’t try to get round it

This is where people make things worse.

  • Don’t repost the same thing straight away. It looks like spam.
  • Don’t make a new account. That’s ban evasion, and it’s against Reddit’s rules. It can get everything you’ve built banned.
  • Don’t argue in public. It never helps, and other users are watching.
  • Don’t message every moderator one by one. Use modmail once.

Step 5: Learn from it

Every removal teaches you something about the community. Write down what you learned. Next time, read before you post.

A good habit is to keep a small note for each community: what’s allowed, what’s not, who the active moderators are and what gets upvoted. It takes ten minutes and saves a lot of trouble.

When it keeps happening

If several posts in a row get removed, stop and look at the pattern.

  • Are you posting in the wrong communities for what you share?
  • Is your account too new for the places you picked?
  • Are your posts too close to promotion?

The answer is almost never “post more”. It’s usually “post less, be more useful and pick better places”. Our guide on building a credible Reddit account covers how to do that.

What if the whole account is banned or suspended?

That’s different from a single removal. If Reddit itself has suspended your account, the message will say so and give a way to appeal. Follow the steps in the message. Don’t create another account to carry on. If a single community banned you, you can politely ask the moderators about it, and then accept their answer.

The short version

A removal isn’t the end. Check it, read the rules, ask politely if you need to, learn from it, and don’t try to dodge the system. The people who last on Reddit are the ones who treat removals as feedback.

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