Reddit account protection
Understand weighted action limits, account-aware risk, and how Rankhog protects each Reddit identity.
Rankhog applies one protection policy to each Reddit account. The policy follows that identity across every product and organization that can use it.
Why account protection exists
Reddit identities build trust over time. Sudden, repetitive, or unnatural activity can put that trust at risk, even when each individual action looks harmless.
Protection gives the account owner clear ceilings for visible actions. It does not replace good judgment, subreddit rules, or useful writing.
Reddit is not a numbers game
Protection points are ceilings, not credits to spend or daily goals to complete.
- One relevant, useful contribution is worth more than a high volume of weak activity.
- Rankhog may recommend or execute nothing when there is no worthwhile opportunity.
- More posts, comments, or karma do not automatically create authority.
- High karma and account age provide context. They are not permission to spam or ignore community rules.
Why actions have different weights
| Action | Points | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Post | 4 | A post creates new top-level content and attracts broader moderation attention. |
| Comment or reply | 2 | Quality depends heavily on relevance, context, and writing. |
| Upvote, subreddit join, or reading | 0 | They never count toward a limit and never delay a post, comment, or reply. |
A post weighs twice a comment or reply. Action quality and community fit still matter more than point cost.
How rolling budgets work
Balanced protection starts with:
10 points per rolling 24 hours
6 points per rolling hour
30 minutes between visible actionsAt 10 daily points, the ceiling is two posts, five comments or replies, or a mixed combination. For example:
1 post (4) + 3 comments (6) = 10 pointsThe hourly and daily budgets apply together. Two posts use 8 points, so the 6-point hourly default prevents them from happening within the same rolling hour even though they fit under the daily ceiling.
Rankhog includes the pending action before checking a budget. When a limit is reached, it calculates when enough weighted history will leave each rolling window and schedules one recheck at the latest eligibility time. Minimum spacing is evaluated at the same time.
If an enabled budget is lower than an action's cost, that action is not allowed. Rankhog returns action_not_allowed_by_budget instead of scheduling a retry that can never succeed.
Each daily, hourly, or spacing limit can be removed independently. Removing a limit increases advisory risk; it does not remove approvals, billing checks, account-health blocks, browser readiness, warm-up rules, or subreddit rules.
How risk is calculated
The risk score combines configured pace with the latest known account context.
Pace exposure
- Daily exposure is 0 at 6 points or fewer and 100 at 18 points or more.
- Hourly exposure is 0 at 4 points or fewer and 100 at 12 points or more.
- Spacing exposure is 0 at 45 minutes or more and 100 at 5 minutes or fewer.
- A removed limit has 100 exposure for that setting.
Rankhog combines those inputs as 40% daily, 35% hourly, and 25% spacing. The balanced 10/6/30 defaults have about 31/100 Moderate pace exposure before account context is added.
Account vulnerability
Rankhog reuses the account health score, including:
- Effective account age.
- Total and comment karma.
- Known Reddit health.
Age advances from the latest snapshot date. Karma stays at its last observed value. Missing data is handled conservatively, and snapshots older than the normal daily capture interval are marked stale.
The combined score is:
pace exposure + (100 - pace exposure) × account vulnerability × 0.5Account vulnerability is 100 - account health score. Strong account history can never reduce the underlying pace exposure.
| Score | Label |
|---|---|
| 0–19 | Low |
| 20–39 | Moderate |
| 40–69 | High |
| 70–100 | Very high |
The score is advisory. It is not a guarantee against Reddit moderation or enforcement.
How to choose settings
Open the organization settings, find the Reddit account, and select Protection settings. The dialog has two tabs: Limits for the budgets and spacing, and Risk for the advisory score and the account context behind it. Only a manager in the account's owner organization can save changes. Organizations with granted access can review the global policy but cannot modify it.
| Approach | Configuration principle | Use it when |
|---|---|---|
| Safer | Lower point ceilings and longer spacing | The account is new, low-karma, recovering, or its health is uncertain. |
| Balanced | Keep the 10/6/30 defaults | You want a moderate starting ceiling while Rankhog remains selective. |
| Aggressive | Raise ceilings or shorten spacing | You understand the added exposure and still want more execution flexibility. |
| Disabled protection | Remove one or more limits | You accept maximum exposure for each removed control. Very high configurations require acknowledgement. |
Do not choose a setting because you want Rankhog to “use” the capacity. Choose the maximum activity the account may safely consider when worthwhile opportunities exist.
Reading and votes
During a warm-up, Rankhog also uses the account the way a regular Reddit user does: it opens a community, reads a few threads, and sometimes votes on one before it comments. Reading and votes never count toward the limits above and never delay a post, comment, or reply. Rankhog accounts do not vote on each other's posts or comments.
What protection cannot guarantee
Protection does not override:
- Subreddit rules and moderator decisions.
- Content relevance, quality, or transparency.
- Reddit's platform-wide enforcement systems.
- Human approval and Rankhog's other execution safeguards.
A contribution can still be removed or sanctioned at a low pace. A high limit does not make poor participation safe.
Agent behavior
REST, MCP, and CLI executions respect the selected Reddit account's protection policy. They can encounter a protection delay or an action blocked by budget, but they cannot raise or remove the limits.
Protection changes remain in the human-authenticated organization settings flow. Organization API keys, OAuth apps, MCP tools, REST clients, and the CLI cannot modify them.
Next: return to Use Rankhog, or review execution safeguards in the API guide, MCP guide, and CLI guide.