A Reddit ban forced a solo app maker to rethink distribution
A Mac app for was first promoted with no , no ad budget, and Reddit as the main channel. The best-performing community then issued a 100-day ban because there had not been enough ordinary participation before promotional posts. The problem was not the product itself.
The experience showed that common advice can be too simple when it says to pick one channel and scale it. Each community has unwritten rules, and a channel that works today can disappear overnight for reasons outside the product. The better approach afterward was joining existing conversations where the problem was already being discussed, instead of starting more new posts.
Helpful comments worked better than frequent posting, and a few real conversations beat many generic launch posts. LinkedIn, without an existing , and reposting the same message across many places did not work.
Key points
- A -focused Mac app first got traction through Reddit.
- The strongest community channel was lost after a 100-day ban.
- The ban came from lack of non-promotional activity, not from the product itself.
- High-quality comments in existing discussions worked better than frequent new posts.
- LinkedIn, without an , and reposting the same message did not work.