r/skilledtrades rules, stats, and what to post

This is a home for people who work with their hands. The description names electricians and welders, then opens the door to a hundred other skilled trades. People here talk shop about their trade, ask about how the work is regulated where they live, and help newcomers figure out how to get started. The rules make it clear the sub exists to promote the trades as a real career path, so apprentices and people thinking about joining are welcome, not mocked. Location matters a lot here, because the same trade can be regulated or trained differently from one place to the next.

The rule that decides almost everything for a founder is “No business posts/research/surveys/apps/job”, which says there are no exceptions and that you will be banned for asking. “No job postings” kills any recruiting or hiring angle. “Apprenticeship/Getting into the trades” sends every entry question to the stickied thread, and posts outside it get deleted. “Indicate your location” matters because posts without a location miss the point of the sub. “Generic Which Trade Pays The Most” bans generic pay questions outright. “Paragraphs for longer posts.” gets walls of text deleted. “Attack the point not the person.” keeps arguments civil. “Spam.” is the catch all that lets moderators remove whatever they decide is not permitted.

Be honest with you, this is one of the hardest rooms for any kind of marketing, and the rules say so out loud. If you are a founder who actually works in a trade, your safest play is to post as a tradesperson, not as a founder. Share a specific lesson from your own work, like how you handled a job in your state or province, and say where you are in the post. If you want to learn how tradespeople think for research, you cannot run a survey here, so read and comment instead. If your question is about entering a trade, it goes in the stickied thread with your location, nowhere else. Keep any longer post broken into short paragraphs so it does not get deleted.

Do not post anything about your business, your app, your research, or your survey, because rule 3 says there are no exceptions and you will be banned. Do not post job openings, even helpful ones, because rule 4 bans all of them. Do not make a standalone post about how to get into the trades or find an apprenticeship, because rule 6 says those belong in the stickied thread and anything outside it gets deleted. Do not ask a generic question about which trade pays the most, because rule 7 says that earns a ban. Do not post a wall of text, because rule 8 says long posts need paragraphs or they get deleted. Do not skip your location, because rule 1 asks for it and rule 6 requires your state or province in the stickied thread. Do not insult people over politics or anything else, because rule 5 says attack the point, not the person.

Rule 3 is the harshest I have seen in a while, because it bans business posts with no exceptions and tells you not to even ask. That tells me the people here have been burned by recruiters and app builders, so the only way in is to show up as a tradesperson, not a marketer. I also like that the rules protect apprentices, which says this room sees itself as a career community first. If you work in the trades, that is the door that opens here.