r/ask

Be civil

• Treat others with basic respect.
• Do not insult, harass, or deliberately antagonize users.
• Hate speech, slurs, or bigoted language are not allowed.

Question requirements

• Posts must be questions.
• Titles should be phrased as a question and end with a question mark.
• Questions must be sincere attempts to seek information or advice, not statements, rants, or soapboxing.
• Posts that are rhetorical, misleading, or asked in bad faith may be removed.
• All posts must comply with Reddit's Content Policy.
• For examples of acceptable formatting and common mistakes, see our post format guide: https://www.reddit.com/r/ask/wiki/guides/post_format/

Quality and authenticity

• Posts and comments must be written by you, not generated by AI.
• Questions that have been asked frequently or are easily searchable may be removed.
• Do not post low-effort or repetitive questions intended primarily to farm karma or engagement.
• Content that exists mainly to provoke reactions or inflate metrics may be removed.

No polls, surveys, or opinion-based hypotheticals

• This subreddit is for factual, answerable questions. Polls, surveys, and prompts that mainly solicit opinions, preferences, or anecdotes are not allowed.
• Questions that invite broad subjective responses belong elsewhere. Prompts like "What would you do?" or "Which do you prefer?" are treated as surveys unless clearly seeking specific advice.

See our wiki for examples: https://www.reddit.com/r/ask/wiki/guides/polls_and_surveys/

No AMAs, DAEs, or similar formats

• "Ask Me Anything," "Does Anyone Else," and similar post formats are not allowed.
• These formats do not seek specific, answerable questions and tend to generate broad or repetitive responses.
• Posts primarily intended to solicit shared experiences rather than answers may be removed.

No chat or conversation-seeking posts

• Posts intended to start casual conversation, social interaction, or open-ended chatting are not allowed.
• This includes prompts such as "Anyone want to talk?", "Let’s have a random conversation," or similar requests.

No advertising or calls to action

• This subreddit is for asking and answering questions, not advertising, promotion, or mobilization.
• Advertising or promoting websites, services, products, or causes is not allowed, including self-promotion, fundraising, or requests for money.
• Do not call users to action, such as directing votes, brigades, reports, or coordinated activity on other subreddits or platforms. Moderators may remove promotional or mobilizing content.

No political content

• To keep discussions focused and accessible, political content is not allowed.
• This includes questions or commentary about political parties, politicians, government agencies, public policy, elections, or current political events.
• Posts that attempt to disguise political topics as neutral or hypothetical questions may be removed.
• For political discussion, please use r/AskPolitics.

No religious content

• Questions and comments about religion are not allowed.
• This includes questions about religious beliefs, practices, texts, institutions, or religious groups, regardless of intent or neutrality.
• Posts attempting to frame religious topics as hypothetical, comparative, or academic questions may be removed.
• For religious discussion, please use r/AskReligion.

No divisive topics

• Questions or comments primarily focused on highly divisive or culture-war topics are not allowed.
• This includes topics that consistently lead to hostility, agenda-posting, or entrenched arguments, even when framed neutrally or asked in good faith.
• Moderators may remove posts that are likely to derail discussion or attract conflict disproportionate to their informational value.

No medical or legal advice

• Questions or comments seeking medical or legal advice are not allowed.
• Do not ask for or provide diagnoses, treatment recommendations, or legal advice.
• For medical questions, please use r/AskDocs.
• For legal questions, please use r/AskLegal.

No NSFW content

• Explicit sexual content, pornography, gore, or overly graphic descriptions are not allowed.
• Posts discussing sexual topics in a factual, non-graphic manner may be permitted at moderator discretion.
• Moderators reserve the right to remove content that is not appropriate for this community.
• For NSFW questions, please use r/NSFWThoughts.

No identity-based generalizations

• Questions that single out or generalize about people based on race, gender, sexuality, religion, or other protected characteristics are not allowed.
• This includes stereotyping, framing an identity group as a problem, or inviting judgment of a demographic.
• Exceptions may be made for neutrally worded factual, historical, or academic questions. Moderators may remove posts that disguise stereotypes as neutral questions.

No Circumventing Moderation or Automoderator

Attempts to bypass subreddit moderation systems, including Automoderator filters or other automated or manual safeguards, are prohibited.

This includes deliberately altering content to evade filters, reposting removed content without approval, or using formatting or obfuscation intended to avoid detection.

Content found to be intentionally bypassing moderation may be removed, and users may be banned at moderator discretion.

Suicidal or self-harm content

• Posts asking for instructions, methods, or encouragement related to suicide or self-harm are not allowed.
• Do not reply to these posts, even with good intentions. Please report them so moderators and Reddit Safety can respond quickly.

If you are struggling or thinking about harming yourself, please seek immediate help:

• U.S.: Call or text 988
• Elsewhere: https://findahelpline.com You are not alone, and help is available.