A source-backed Rankhog guide to r/AskNetsec: public rules, community context, posting fit, and startup-promotion risk before you publish.
Checked October 22, 2026 from the community's public Reddit pages:
By Anthony Riera, founder and operator of Rankhog.
Subreddit guides combine public Reddit source URLs, captured rules, visible verification dates, and Rankhog's account-safety workflow.
r/AskNetsec is a community dedicated to people who are passionate about security. The people posting here ask technical questions about information security, and the rules say those questions should sit in an enterprise, large organization, or SOHO context. So think security professionals and serious practitioners trading specific, answerable questions, not people looking for general advice. The rules draw a hard line around what belongs here and what does not, which tells you this is a room that takes its focus seriously. It is a question and answer community at heart, and every submission has to be framed as a question.
The rule that shapes everything here is “All submissions must be in the form of a question”, because every post must be a specific, relevant, and answerable question about infosec, and vague asks for guidance, feedback, or thoughts do not count. “All submissions must be relevant to information security” keeps the topics tied to enterprise, large organization, or SOHO contexts and pushes homework, surveys, and beginner questions out. “No low effort questions” and “No low effort posts” both demand that you bring full technical detail, including previous troubleshooting, operating systems, and application patch levels, if you want people to spend time answering you. “Don't spam or excessively showcase your own content. No referral or affiliate links” is the one that governs any marketing angle, since repeated posting, low quality blogs and videos, and undisclosed self-promotion all count as spam. That same rule does open one narrow door, because a direct representative of an organization may answer a question about that organization's product or service as long as they clearly identify themselves as such. “Questions about possible or confirmed incidents must contain sanitized technical evidence” and “No posts asking about being hacked” rule out the personal incident story angle entirely. “No questions about password managers” and “No questions about Career Advice, homework, or beginner questions.” remove two whole categories of tempting post. Finally, “Do not ask for assistance in committing a crime, encourage crime, or offer criminal services” allows pen-testing, CTFs, and red-team scenarios but bans anything with criminal intent, and breaking it intentionally means an immediate ban.
A good post here is a specific, answerable question about information security in an enterprise, large organization, or SOHO context. Before you post, imagine a security professional reading it and asking you for more detail. Include your operating systems, application patch levels, everything you already tried, and anything else that could possibly matter. If your question touches an incident, strip out anything identifying and include the sanitized technical evidence. If you happen to be the right person to answer a question about your own product because someone asked about it directly, you can step in, but say clearly that you represent that organization. If you are unsure whether your post has enough detail, the rules point you to message the mods and they will help you figure out what information is missing.
Do not post anything that is not a question, and do not post vague questions asking for guidance, feedback, or thoughts, because those get removed. Do not post about your own computer or phone acting weird, suspicious links or emails, or anything that smells like being hacked, because that is explicitly off topic here. Skip password manager questions, career advice, certifications, school work, and how to get started questions, since those belong elsewhere. Do not post surveys, homework, or beginner questions. Do not drop referral or affiliate links, do not repeatedly post content from the same source, and do not promote your blog, vlog, or YouTube channel, because all of that counts as spam. Never post anything that could be read as asking for help committing a crime, because an intentional breach of that rule means an immediate ban.
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Only in one narrow case. If someone asks a question about your specific product, service, or organization, and you are a direct representative, you may answer so long as you clearly identify yourself as such. Everything else counts as spam under the rules.
No. The rules say posting low-quality content, blogs, vlogs, or YouTube videos is considered spam, and referral or affiliate links are not allowed either.
Not really. Every submission must be a specific, answerable question relevant to infosec, and soliciting feedback or thoughts without an answerable question is explicitly not sufficient.
Only if you include sanitized technical evidence, and only if it is a network, server, or information security question. Questions about your home computer or phone being hacked, suspicious links, or cyber stalking are banned outright.
No. The rules send career advice, certifications, school work, and how to get started questions to other subreddits, and beginner questions are called out as most likely not relevant.
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