r/Futurology rules, stats, and what to post

This is a community for future(s) studies and evidence-based speculation about how humanity, technology, and civilization develop. The people here want serious discussion about what comes next, not product pitches. Every submission has to be future focused, and every poster has to leave a submission statement comment that explains the topic and suggests how it might be discussed in relation to the future. There is also a strong quality bar on comments, so the discussion itself is meant to stay on topic and substantive.

Start with “Rule 4 - No Spam, Petitions, Polls, or Fundraising”, because it bans promoting any content in which you have any kind of financial or non-financial stake, and that covers most things a founder would want to post. “Rule 2 - Future Focus” decides whether your post even belongs here, since submissions must be future focused and need a submission statement comment, and AI-focused posts are only allowed on the weekend. “Rule 5 - Any Bots & AI Content Require Mod Approval” means any automated tools, bots, AI agents, or AI-generated or AI-assisted content needs prior moderator approval. “Rule 12 - Original Sources” pushes you toward original sources and away from rehost blogs, and says AI generated text does not qualify as an original source. “Rule 7 - Account age” and “Rule 8 - Negative Karma” are the gatekeepers, since you need an account older than 5 days to submit and positive karma or your posts get removed. “Rule 11 - Title Quality” and “Rule 6 - Comment Quality” decide whether your title and comments are good enough to stay up.

Honestly, this is not a place to market anything, because the rules ban promoting content where you have any stake. What you can do is take part as a person. If you want to post, share an original source about a real development in technology or civilization, then write a proper submission statement comment that explains the future-focused angle and opens a line of discussion. Keep your title accurate and truthful. If AI is your topic, save it for the weekend and get moderator approval first. Make sure your account is at least 5 days old with positive karma before you submit anything.

Do not post anything you have a financial or non-financial stake in, because that falls under the spam rule and the policy brief says promotion is banned. Do not skip the submission statement, since the moderator one-liner says posts that miss one get removed. Do not post AI-focused content on a weekday, and do not use AI-generated or AI-assisted content anywhere without prior moderator approval. Do not post memes, reaction gifs, or other low effort content. Do not post duplicates of content from the last 7 days, do not use a title that misrepresents the content, and do not comment with short dismissive takes that dismiss well-established science without evidence.

The submission statement rule is my favorite thing in this evidence. It forces every poster to argue why their topic matters for the future, which is exactly the kind of effort bar that keeps a big community readable. I also respect how blunt “Rule 4 - No Spam, Petitions, Polls, or Fundraising” is about stakes, because it removes all the guessing about whether self promotion is allowed. It is not, and honestly a community this clear about it is easier to work with than one that leaves you hoping.