r/de rules, stats, and what to post

This is the big gathering place for German speakers, and the description says it is mainly in German with some English mixed in. It covers Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, and the two German speaking parts of Belgium. People post news, discuss current topics, and talk about life in the German speaking countries. The long rule list shows this is a serious discussion community, not a place for jokes, memes, or casual link drops.

The rule that decides everything for a founder is “Keine Selbstwerbung”, which bans advertising for any product, service, website, or channel, and only allows rare exceptions after you talk to the mod team first. “Keine Low-Quality-Einreichungen” removes screenshots, memes, posts with little own effort, photos of everyday curiosities, and anything made with AI. “Keine veränderten Linktitel” says you must use the original title when posting a news article, and a subtitle sentence is allowed if it helps understanding. “Keine Reposts” forbids submitting the same topic again unless there is a significant new development. “Kein Soapboxing” removes self posts that only exist to push your own agenda. “Kein Flaming”, “Kein Flamebait”, “Kein Derailing”, and “Kein Dog Whistling” all punish hostile or manipulative arguing, and “Keine persönlichen Angriffe auf andere Nutzer” bans insulting or harassing other users.

For a founder, the honest answer is that direct marketing has almost no path here, because “Keine Selbstwerbung” bans it and exceptions need a prior agreement with the mod team. What can work is being a useful participant first. If you share a news article, use the original headline exactly, or a subtitle sentence when it helps understanding. Write text posts with real own effort, since low effort submissions get removed. Join discussions in German where you can, stay factual, and never push your product into threads, because that reads as derailing or soapboxing. If you truly believe your project deserves an exception, ask the mod team first instead of posting and hoping.

Do not promote your product, service, website, or channel, because “Keine Selbstwerbung” bans that, and the rare exceptions only exist after an agreement with the mod team. Do not post memes, screenshots, low effort content, or anything AI generated, because “Keine Low-Quality-Einreichungen” removes them. Do not change a news headline when you share an article, because “Keine veränderten Linktitel” requires the original title. Do not repost the same topic, because “Keine Reposts” forbids it without a significant new development. Do not write self posts that are just you on a soapbox, because “Kein Soapboxing” removes them. Do not insult people, flame, bait, derail threads, or use coded language, because “Keine persönlichen Angriffe auf andere Nutzer”, “Kein Flaming”, “Kein Flamebait”, “Kein Derailing”, and “Kein Dog Whistling” all cover that.

What stands out to me is how much of the rule list is about keeping discussions honest, with “Kein Flamebait”, “Kein Derailing”, and “Kein Dog Whistling” all aimed at people who argue in bad faith. That tells me the regulars here have seen every trick and have little patience for anyone who shows up with an angle. The self promotion rule does leave a door open through the mod team, which is rare, but I would only knock on that door after being a genuinely useful member for a while. And if you ever share a news link, keep the original headline, because this community clearly cares about that.