Reddit AutoMod Simulator

What is the Reddit AutoMod Simulator?

The Reddit AutoMod Simulator is a free tool that runs a post or comment through AutoModerator rules and shows which ones would act on it. Paste a subreddit's AutoMod YAML or start from common rules, enter the title, body or link and your account's age and karma, and see each check pass or fail.

How to use the Reddit AutoMod Simulator

1. Paste AutoMod rules into AutoMod rules, or keep the starter rules, which cover account age, karma, link shorteners, self-promotion and short titles.
2. Choose Text post, Link post or Comment, then fill in the title, the body or the link.
3. Enter the account's age in days and its post and comment karma.
4. Read the verdict at the top, then each rule's card to see which check matched and what AutoMod would reply.
5. Change the post or the rules and watch the result update until the post gets through.

How Reddit AutoMod works

AutoModerator is a bot built into Reddit that every subreddit can switch on. Its moderators write rules in YAML on a wiki page, and AutoMod checks every new post and comment against them within seconds of submission. Each rule is a set of checks, such as words in the title, the domain of a link, or the author's account age and karma, plus an action to take when all the checks match.

Several rules can apply to one post. A rule matches only when every one of its checks matches; inside a single check, any one of a list of values is enough. Rules are separated by three dashes, ---, which is how you paste several into the simulator at once.

Because AutoMod acts before any moderator sees the post, it is behind most removals that happen straight away.

Why was my Reddit post removed straight away?

A post that vanishes within seconds of submitting was almost always removed by AutoMod, not a person. The usual causes are an account below the subreddit's age or karma minimum, a link to a domain the subreddit blocks, a title that matches a banned phrase or is too short, and wording that looks like self-promotion.

The removal is often silent: the post still shows on your profile, so it looks live to you, but nobody else sees it in the subreddit. If a post gets no votes or comments at all in its first hour, open the subreddit while logged out and check whether it is there.

Running the post through the simulator first shows which kind of rule it would trip, so you can change the title, wait until the account qualifies, or message the mods before posting.

Can you see a subreddit's AutoMod rules?

Not usually. The AutoMod configuration is a wiki page that only the subreddit's moderators can read. What you can see is the posted rules in the sidebar and the wiki, the removal reasons in any AutoMod reply you have had, and the minimum account age and karma that many subreddits state openly.

That is why the simulator starts from the rules most subreddits run in some form. Change the thresholds to match what a subreddit states, add any words its rules forbid, or paste the real rules if you moderate it. If you are a moderator, this is also a quick way to test a new rule before you save it, since a typo in a regex can otherwise remove posts nobody meant to remove.

How to lower the risk of an AutoMod removal

Build a little history first. A new account with almost no karma trips more AutoMod rules than anything else, and karma from helpful comments in the subreddit you want to post in counts twice: it clears the threshold and shows the moderators you take part. Read the rules, including any required title format or flair, and follow them exactly.

Keep links out of your first posts in a subreddit, and never use a link shortener, since many subreddits treat shorteners as spam. Avoid sales words in titles: discount, promo code, sign up, free trial. If your post is removed and you think it was a mistake, message the moderators politely and ask, rather than posting it again, which can look like spam and make things worse.