I don't understand why Hacker News and Reddit block self promotion.
"Hey, look at a thing I made!" is a lot more interesting than a lot of the other drivel that gets posted.
"Hey, look at a thing I made!" is a lot more interesting than a lot of the other drivel that gets posted.
A lot of forums and chat servers have similar rules for the same reason.
Unfortunately, this doesn't work very well on Reddit, since the smarter advertisers and astro turfers have figured out how to manipulate the system well enough that people don't suspect they're advertising.
Add this to how certain types of low effort content get a ton of upvotes anyway, and how popular creators don't need to care since their fans will promote them anyway, and well, the end result is less "participate in the community" and more "don't be unpopular or bad at pretending to be someone else"
Of course spam is unwelcome everywhere. Don't overdo it and don't be deceptive about it, and you'll be fine.
These posts are almost always of low quality and designed to hook gullible people, and much of it driven either by influencers or sellers of snake oil. It's not just legit promotional posts, either; there's plenty of astroturfing trying to post recommendations for products etc. Even so I bet a lot goes under my radar.
In a very few cases I have allowed a promotional post when I have been convinced that it was for a good purpose. I support genuine entrepreneurs who look like they're building something of value. But those are extremely rare on Reddit. All of Reddit is rather bleak in that regard. So much content stealing, influencing, astroturfing, link farming, and outright spam.
But reddit something else entirely. It so clear that all of the major subs are constantly being manipulated by firms working PR for large companies, but the second someone posts "I made this!" people get up-in-arms.
Of course who really knows how much of reddit is even real people anymore.