Tech & product

Best time to post in r/programming

The best and worst hours to post, the rules that get posts removed, and a check of your draft against both.

Posts in r/programming are most often removed for self-promotion issues. It is a public subreddit that allows only link posts and does not require post flair. In our latest sample of 174 recent posts, an estimated 93% were still up about a day later.

Computer Programming

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r/programmingChecked against this sub's rules

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The best and worst hours to post in r/programming

In our sample of 596 recent and top r/programming posts, activity and scores peak around Saturday 10am UTC, and are weakest around Saturday 2pm UTC. Based on posts sampled through Sep 5, 2026. Times in this sentence are UTC; the grid below converts to your local timezone. Timing helps a clean post get seen. It does not save a post that breaks a rule.

Times in your timezoneUTC · GMT+0

Window 1
Sat around 10am
avg score 1987.3 · 4 posts sampled
Window 2
Thu around 9pm
avg score 1034 · 4 posts sampled
Window 3
Mon around 2pm
avg score 642.4 · 7 posts sampled

Your timezone: UTC (GMT+0). Darker cells mean more posts in our sample.

Compare r/programming against every tracked community on the best time to post on Reddit tool.

Estimated survival rate

93%

of 174 recent r/programming posts we sampled were still publicly visible about a day later.

How this is measured

Estimate. We sample recent public posts and check again about 18 hours later to count how many are still publicly visible. Posts removed at the moment of submission never become publicly visible at all, so the true removal rate is at least this high. Last sampled Sep 5, 2026.

Strictness: ModeratePublic subLink posts onlyFlair optionalSelf-promo bannedAI content banned

r/programming rules: what actually gets removed

Each rule below is paired with the way it is most likely enforced. Where the rules state a number, we quote it. Where they do not, we say so instead of guessing.

1.No LLM-Written Content
Removed by moderators
If you don't want to write it, we don't want to read it. This includes the use of LLMs for translation or summarisation. Moderators reserve discretion in ambiguous cases.
2.AI-related posts must comply with the AI Policy
Enforcement varies
Content about LLMs and AI is generally considered off-topic unless they are *deeply technical*. Refer to our [wiki](/r/programming/wiki/ai-policy/) for more details.
3.No Political Posts or Personal/Social Drama/Gossip
Enforcement varies
r/programming is not a place to share content with a primary focus on politics, personal drama, social gossip, or such. Examples of inappropriate topics would include: Please vote for net neutrality. Big Tech is being sued in Europe for blahdeblah. Grace Hopper Conference is now 60% male. Postgres is turning the freaking frogs gay. Linus Torvalds was a poopy-head on a mailing list. The People's Rust Foundation is arguing with the Rust Foundation For The People.
4.No Non-Programming/Generic LLM/Diffusion Content
Enforcement varies
r/programming is not a place to share AI content that has nothing to do with programming or is overly generic. Examples of inappropriate topics would include: Claude spent all my money at Vegas. Sam Altman created a bot that's gonna replace yer mum. Roiters in Barcelona were pacified by a soliloquy written by an AI.
5.No Product Promotion/"I Made This" Project Demo Posts
Enforcement varies
r/programming is not the place to post a project to get feedback, ask for help, or otherwise promote it. Technical write-ups on what makes a project technically challenging, interesting, or educational are allowed and encouraged, but just a link to a GitHub page or a list of features is not. The technical write-up must be the focus of the post, not just a tickbox-checking exercise to get us to allow it. This is a technical subreddit. We don't care what you built, we care how you build it.
6.No Content Aggregators
Enforcement varies
No newsletters, listicles, or anything similar that aggregates content. If you found 15 open source projects that will blow my mind, post those 15 projects instead and we'll be the judge of that.
7.No Surveys Or Job Postings
Enforcement varies
If it seeks to extract value from the sub without contributing anything, it isn't welcome. Check out /r/samplesize as an alternative place to submit surveys. Exceptions are made for high quality surveys hosted by established members of the software development community (really just the annual SO Developer Survey).
8.No Support Questions or AskReddit-Type Questions
Enforcement varies
/r/programming is not a support forum. If you have a question, check out /r/learnprogramming, /r/cscareerquestions, or [Stack Overflow](https://stackoverflow.com/). Similarly, if you'd see it on a programming-focused version of AskReddit, it doesn't belong here. Examples of inappropriate topics would include: What's your favourite programming language? Tabs or spaces? Does anyone else hate it when your CSS gets in your ASM and you recursion all over your Senior Developer?
9.No Meta Posts
Enforcement varies
Examples of inappropriate topics would include: DAE think r/programming sucks? DAE think r/programming rocks? Why did you remove my post? Why did you ban this user that is totes not me I swear I'm just asking questions.
10.No Images, Memes, Or Other Low Effort Posts
Enforcement varies
There's better subs for them, and if we allowed them they'd just flood the sub.
11.No Blogspam
Enforcement varies
Don't post actual blogspam: blogposts that do nothing more than linking to a primary source. We may leave these up if they are the first post to get traction about a news event and they're the best discussion going on about the news event.
12.No Extreme Beginner Content
Enforcement varies
Examples of inappropriate topics would include: What is a variable. What is a for loop. Making an HTTP request using curl. We may leave these up if they've generated a lot of healthy discussion.
13.Comments: No Bots
Enforcement varies
Actual humans only, please and thank you.
14.Comments: No Incivility
Enforcement varies
If you're unable to say something without calling someone names, don't say it at all.

r/programming does not publish karma or account-age minimums in its rules. Subreddits often enforce unpublished filters on top of what they write down, which is why posts from new accounts can vanish without a message here.

Can you self-promote in r/programming?

No. r/programming bans self-promotion outright: product links, launch posts, and thinly framed feedback posts get removed. The sub's own wording: "No Product Promotion/"I Made This" Project Demo Posts: r/programming is not the place to post a project to get feedback, ask for help, or ot". If you want eyes on your project, contribute first and look for communities with a promo lane.

r/programming by the numbers

Members: 6.9M
Active right now: Not public
Posts / day: 7; 196 comments / day
Community age: 20 years; since Feb 28, 2006

What a successful r/programming post looks like · 196 top posts from the last month
Median title length	Posts with a link	Posts with flair	Dominant format
50 characters	100%	0%	link posts

What gets removed in r/programming

Self-promotion
r/programming bans self-promo outright. Product links, launch posts, and thinly framed "feedback" posts are removed.
Low karma or a new account
r/programming publishes no karma or age minimum, but unpublished account filters are common at this size. New accounts should comment before posting.
AI-generated content
r/programming removes content it judges to be AI-generated. Obvious AI phrasing in a draft raises removal risk even when a human wrote most of it.
Reddit's sitewide spam filter
A separate layer before the subreddit ever sees your post. New accounts posting links, URL shorteners, and repeated domains are its favorite targets. Removals are instant and silent.
A shadowbanned account
If the account itself is shadowbanned, every post looks live to you and invisible to everyone else, in any subreddit.

Wondering about a post that already disappeared? Start with why Reddit posts get removed or run the free shadowban check.

Subreddits like r/programming

Posting somewhere adjacent? Each of these has its own rules and its own removal pattern. Check the one you actually plan to post in.

See all subreddits like r/programming →

r/programming posting questions

Can I post links in r/programming?

Yes. r/programming accepts link posts. The usual sitewide traps still apply: URL shorteners, affiliate parameters, and brand-new domains get filtered fast, and promotional links are judged against the sub's self-promo rules. One clean link to the original source is the safe pattern.

Does r/programming require karma to post?

r/programming does not publish a karma minimum. That does not mean there is none: many subreddits enforce unpublished karma and account-age filters that remove posts silently. If your account is new or has little karma, that is the first thing to rule out when a post disappears.

Can you self-promote in r/programming?

Is r/programming strict?

Moderate, by our estimate (33/100 on our strictness scale, from its measured removal rate, 14 rules, and its stated gates). About 7% of recent posts disappeared within a day in our sample. Strictness is about enforcement, not hostility: a strict sub is predictable if you follow its rules.

Does r/programming allow AI-generated content?

No. r/programming removes content it judges to be AI-generated. That includes obviously AI-phrased text even when a human edited it, so rewrite drafts in your own voice before posting here.

What is the best time to post in r/programming?

Based on our sample of recent and top posts, activity and scores peak around Saturday 10am UTC and Thursday 9pm UTC. Treat this as a starting point, not a guarantee: a post that breaks a rule gets removed at any hour. The heatmap on this page converts these windows to your local time.

Why do posts get removed in r/programming?

The most common reasons are self-promotion violations, plus the layers every subreddit has: Reddit's sitewide spam filter, unpublished AutoMod rules, and account-level gates like karma and age. In our recent sample, roughly 7% of r/programming posts disappeared within about a day of going up. Many removals are silent, so checking your draft first beats finding out after.

Rules last checked Sep 2, 2026

Go deeper: how AutoMod removals work, the shadowban explainer, or earning karma the allowed way.

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