r/londonontario rules, stats, and what to post

This is the local subreddit for London, Ontario, which people call the Forest City. The description says all local content is welcome, and it lists local news, photos of the city, informative posts, favourite venues, hangouts, restaurants, cafes, shops, art galleries, and anything else related to London, Ontario. The people posting here are residents who care about their city and talk about daily life in it. The community also runs a weekly thread for personal events, buying and selling, lost and found items, giveaways, and petitions, so those topics have a designated home instead of the main feed. The rules make it clear this is a community first and not a marketplace, because the user base is described as not a pool for marketing a business.

The rule that decides everything for a founder here is “Self-Promotion/Advertising”. It says commercial and business advertisements will be removed with warning, and if your post history shows prolific advertising across reddit, you will likely get banned for advertising on this subreddit. The next one is “Surveys, Research/Market Requests, etc”, which bans all surveys and market research posts no matter who you work for, and tells you not to even bother asking the mods. “Help Wanted / Job Search / Volunteer posts” sends every job related post to a different subreddit, so hiring posts do not survive here. “WEEKLY THREAD” limits buying, selling, fundraisers, free stuff, lost and found, and petitions to the weekly thread or the official Discord. “Duplicate and Redundant Posts” and “Redundant / Repetitive Post” remove anything already covered in the last 30 days, plus low-effort everyday topics. “RELEVANCE” requires posts to be specific to London, Ontario, with a clear title. “News Links/Articles - edited headlines” requires news to be link posts with the original headline untouched. Finally, “Kindness | Civility | Respect” and “Ad Hominem | Spam/Trolling | Doxxing” set the tone bar, and clickbait links or vague headers count as spam there.

A good post here is genuinely useful to people who live in London, Ontario, and it is not an ad. If you have real local knowledge, share it, like an informative post about something in the city. If you are sharing news, post it as a link with the original headline exactly as written. If you want to run a local event, the description says the community supports local festivals and events, but the rules say event promo belongs in the weekly thread and the event must be based in the City of London, ON. Before you post anything, search the subreddit to make sure it has not come up in the last 30 days. The safest long term play is to be an active member first, comment helpfully on local threads, and build a history that shows you live in or care about this city. If your business comes up naturally in a comment where you are being helpful, that is very different from posting an ad.

The fastest way out is advertising. Commercial and business advertisements get removed with warning, and a post history full of promotion across reddit can get you banned here. Surveys and research requests are banned outright, no exceptions for universities, media, or government, and asking the mods will not change that. Job posts, internship posts, and volunteer posts belong in the jobs subreddit, not here. Buying, selling, fundraisers, free stuff, lost and found, and petitions must go in the weekly thread or the Discord. Do not repost something covered in the last 30 days, and do not post minor accidents, bad drivers, police sightings, mystery noises, power outages, or where should I live questions. Do not post speed trap locations, red light cameras, or RIDE program spots, that is an immediate ban. Do not cross-post or link to other subreddits, do not alter news headlines, and do not post anything unrelated to London, Ontario. Keep titles clear, because vague topic headers get removed. And stay civil, because toxic or aggressive language can mean a ban without warning.

What stands out to me is how directly the rules talk to marketers, especially the line about not even bothering to ask the mods about surveys. That tells me this community has been worn down by pitches and has stopped giving second chances. My honest read is that the only way in here is to be a genuine Londoner first and let any business connection surface naturally in your history.