r/isthisAI rules, stats, and what to post

r/isthisAI is a place where people ask whether a picture, a video, or anything else they came across is AI generated. The people posting are usually ordinary users who got an image from a friend on Discord or saw something online and cannot tell if it is real. The people answering are commenters who explain their reasoning for why something is or is not AI, because the rules actually require top level comments to give that reasoning too. This is a help desk community, not a debate hall, and not a place to show off generated images you already understand.

The rule that decides everything here is “Explain why you think it's AI.”. Your post body needs at least 100 letters explaining why you believe the content is AI generated, and the rule says posts below that are removed automatically. Padding the title or body just to hit the number gets a warning, so write real reasoning. “No advertisements.” matters most for anyone with a product to sell, because advert videos and photos are simply not allowed. “AI detectors are banned.” is the one people trip over most, since you cannot use an AI detector as evidence that something is or is not AI, although SynthID is explicitly allowed because it is a watermark check. “Don't post content that you already know is AI.” kills the classic marketing trick of posting your own generated image and fishing for reactions, because if you already know the answer you should not post it. “No personal information sharing.” means you can only post faces or info that is publicly available online, never paywalled content, and directing harassment at someone means a ban. “No pro-AI or anti-AI spam.” keeps the room focused on identification rather than debating the pros and cons of AI generation. Finally, “Search for provenance before posting” asks you to reverse image search and check SynthID before you post, and to share high quality imagery.

For a founder, the honest answer is that this is not a promotion channel, so the goal is to participate like a helpful human. A good post is a real image you genuinely cannot verify, posted with a body of at least 100 letters explaining your own reasoning, after you have already done a reverse image search and a SynthID check as “Search for provenance before posting” asks. If your product touches image verification or AI detection, you can still learn a lot by reading what reasoning people trust here, and you can answer questions in comments with genuine visual analysis, which builds quiet credibility. Keep every post safe for work, leave politics out or flair it as “Politics”, and if you reference an artist or share a video link, make sure it is publicly available and credit them.

Do not post ads, advert videos, or advert photos, because “No advertisements.” removes them and the moderator one liner confirms ads get removed. Do not post with a short body, because “Explain why you think it's AI.” deletes anything under 100 letters of explanation, and padding to fake the count earns a warning. Do not cite AI detector results, because “AI detectors are banned.” makes that evidence inadmissible. Do not post images you already know are AI, because “Don't post content that you already know is AI.” forbids exactly that. Do not share private pictures or private information without permission, and never direct harassment at anyone, because “No personal information sharing.” makes that a ban. Do not post things a friend sent you without sending proof through modmail first, because “Share context on the image.” no longer allows “someone I knew drew this” posts at all. Do not turn threads into pro AI or anti AI arguments, because “No pro-AI or anti-AI spam.” removes that. Do not skip the reverse image search or SynthID check, because “Search for provenance before posting” expects you to try solving it yourself first. Do not insult real artists or belittle their work, because “No harassing or disparaging artists.” protects them. And if your post touches politics, flair it correctly, because “Political posts MUST be flaired appropriately.” removes unflaired political posts.

Rule 10, which bans AI detectors as evidence, tells me this is a community that has been burned by tools and now trusts human eyes and reverse searches instead. Rule 3's automatic removal under 100 letters is unusual, but it makes sense once you realize vague posts leave commenters guessing. I also respect that rule 6 stops people farming engagement with images they already know are fake. If you build in this space, that last rule is a good mirror for your own marketing: do not post things you already know the answer to.