How many members does r/opensource have?

r/opensource has about 370.7K members (as of July 2026).

How active is r/opensource?

r/opensource gets roughly 7 new posts per day (measured July 2026).

Allowed with conditions

Promoting on r/opensource: Rules and What Gets Removed

r/opensource is a public subreddit for everything open source related, aimed at people interested in open source projects, discussion, news, and community activity.

370.7K

members

posts / day

2008

created

community rules

Can you promote your product in r/opensource?

Yes, but only conditionally. Rule 2, "No Spam or Excessive Self-Promotion," says they encourage you to promote your work "to a degree," but not use the subreddit as "a link farm to promote their project/website/YouTube channel." Rule 8 also says to use the `Promotional` flair when sharing a project, yours or otherwise, and Rule 6 warns that drive-by posts from accounts with no intention of engaging "may be removed."

The rules that cover promotion

Rule 2: No Spam or Excessive Self-Promotion

"We encourage you to be proud of/promote your work to a degree, but we also don't want users using this sub as a link farm to promote their project/website/YouTube channel."

Rule 2: No Spam or Excessive Self-Promotion

"Reddit recommends that <10% of your posts promote your content. We're a little more forgiving, but don't take advantage of it."

Rule 2: No Spam or Excessive Self-Promotion

""It's perfectly fine to be a redditor with a website, it's not okay to be a website with a reddit account.""

Rule 8: Use Correct Flairs

"`Promotional` is when you are sharing a project, yours or otherwise."

Quoted from the subreddit's own rules, snapshot from July 2026. Read all 8 rules on Reddit

What gets removed

Spam or excessive self-promotion, especially using the sub as a link farm
Drive-by posts with no intention of engaging in discussion, may be removed
Off-topic posts, will be removed
Posts linking code or repositories without a LICENSE file using an OSI listed Open Source license

Safer ways to show up

Use the `Promotional` flair when sharing a project, including your own
Keep self-promotion limited, the rules cite Reddit's <10% guideline and say not to take advantage
Engage in the discussion after posting, avoid drive-by posting
Make sure your post is directly relevant to open source, and linked code or repositories have an OSI listed open source LICENSE file

Whatever the written rules say, the pattern that gets promo removed everywhere is the same: batches of similar comments, reused wording, and necro-posting on old threads. A promotional mention only has value if it survives, so pace matters more than volume. We measured this the expensive way: 70% of bought pool comments were removed within two weeks. See also how to find customers on Reddit without getting banned.