r/videography rules, stats, and what to post

This is a community for people working in video, cinema, and television production, and it is open to both amateurs and professionals. People come here to talk about the craft of making videos, ask for help with technical problems, discuss gear and workflows, and post hiring or job listings under the community's own rules. The rules make it clear this is a working community, not a marketplace. It is a place to share knowledge and get answers, not a place to sell things.

The big one for anyone marketing is “No Self Promotion, Sales, or Advertising”. It bans advertising your commercial product, selling your video services, content marketing, market research, giveaways, crowdfunding, and private sales. If you are associated with a commercial product related to videography and want to participate officially, you must message the mods for approval first. Free and open source software is exempt from this rule. “Hiring / ISO / Job Listing post policy” matters if you ever post a job or look for contractors, because every hiring post must state the budget, any relevant dates, and the country you are based in, and work for free offers are banned, including exposure pay or ad revenue sharing. “Descriptive titles are required for posts asking for help/support” decides whether a help post survives, since the title has to summarize the question. “Camera and Equipment recommendations” sends all camera buying advice to the monthly megathreads. “No Piracy or Suggestion of Piracy” bans sharing or trading licensed content or subscriptions. Finally, “Moderator Discretion Applies!” means moderators can remove posts even when the listed rules do not clearly cover them, so staying on topic and spam free is on you.

Post real questions about video production with a title that summarizes the question, like naming the actual problem and the gear involved. Share what you learned from a project you worked on, framed as your own experience rather than a pitch. If you build a free and open source tool for video work, you can talk about it, because the rules exempt FOSS from the promotion ban. If you want to participate officially for a commercial product, message the mods first and get approval before posting. If you are hiring, include the budget, the dates, and your country in the post. Keep camera buying questions in the monthly megathread and be specific about your requirements for other equipment questions.

Do not promote your commercial product, sell your services, run giveaways or crowdfunding, or do content marketing or market research here, because “No Self Promotion, Sales, or Advertising” covers all of that. Do not message the community pretending to be a regular user if you are tied to a commercial product, use the mod approval route instead. Never post or suggest piracy, including trading licensed content or subscriptions. Never post a hiring or job listing without the budget, dates, and country, and never offer exposure or hypothetical future income as payment. Do not post help questions with vague titles, and do not post camera buying advice outside the monthly megathread. Remember that moderators have discretion to act on posts even when the rules do not clearly cover them.

The thing that stands out to me is the FOSS exemption in the promotion rule. It tells me the moderators here are not anti software, they are anti being sold to, and they left a deliberate door open for tools that are genuinely free. I also like that they wrote out good and bad title examples, because it shows they care more about helping people find answers than about policing tone. If your product is not open source, my honest read is that this community wants you as a participant, not a promoter.