r/Calgary rules, stats, and what to post

This is the official subreddit for the city of Calgary in Alberta, Canada. People here talk about life in the city, local news, city services, and everyday questions from people who live in or around Calgary. The rules make it clear this is a general city community, not a place to sell things or promote events. The rules also show the moderators care about posts having a net benefit to the sub, meaning a post should give something useful back to the people reading it.

The rule that decides most marketing questions here is “Rule 11 - Spam”. It bans business promotion, advertising, social media links, blog posts, surveys, and trade shows, and it points people to r/CalgaryEvents instead. The only exceptions are free tickets, which you must remove once claimed, and registered non-profit or charitable events, which need case-by-case approval from the mod team. “Rule 2 - Low content/low info/easily Googled” removes vague posts, “looking for” posts that lack a location and what you already checked, and review requests for services or businesses. “Rule 5 - Submissions should be directly related to or impact Calgary in some way” requires every post to have a direct link to the city and warns that posting the same thing to multiple subreddits at once can be flagged as spam. “Rule 3 - Editorialized/Inaccurate/Vague Title” removes posts with vague or deceptive titles. “Rule 8 - Repetitive/Duplicate posts” tells you to search before posting, because best, hidden gems, and advice posts get removed when they are low effort or already common. “Rule 1 - Insults/Trolling” sets the tone for how you talk to people in comments.

A good post here is detailed, clearly about Calgary, and useful to people who live there. If you ask a question, include the location and what you have already checked, because the rules say vague “looking for” posts get removed and detailed posts get better answers. If you share news, keep the title accurate to the headline and save your opinion for the comments. If you have something genuinely useful for Calgary residents, like a free resource or an answer to a question people keep asking, write it as a detailed self post that helps first and mentions your connection to it second. If you want to share an event, know that promotion is only allowed in r/CalgaryEvents, with narrow exceptions for free tickets and approved non-profit events. Before you post anything, use the search function, because repetitive posts get removed.

The fastest way to get removed is promotion. “Rule 11 - Spam” covers business promotion, advertising, buy and sell posts, surveys, blog posts, social media links, and events of the pop-up or market variety. The exception is narrow, so do not assume your thing qualifies. Vague or low effort posts get removed under “Rule 2 - Low content/low info/easily Googled”, especially “looking for” posts that skip the location and what you already checked, and review requests for services or businesses. “Rule 3 - Editorialized/Inaccurate/Vague Title” removes posts with vague or deceptive titles, so say plainly what is inside. “Rule 5 - Submissions should be directly related to or impact Calgary in some way” removes anything without a direct Calgary connection, and it warns against posting identical content to multiple subreddits at once because that can be flagged as spam. “Rule 8 - Repetitive/Duplicate posts” removes low effort posts that get asked often, so search first. In comments, “Rule 1 - Insults/Trolling” bans name calling and harassment, and “Rule 9 - Hate comments” bans discriminatory speech. “Rule 4 - Personal Information” bans posting personal details, so never share someone’s name, phone number, or address.

What stands out to me is how much of this rulebook is about effort. “Rule 2 - Low content/low info/easily Googled” and “Rule 8 - Repetitive/Duplicate posts” both basically say the same thing, that a lazy post gets removed and a detailed one helps everyone. If you treat that as your bar for anything you write here, you are already ahead of most marketers.