The Reddit Council
Ten minds in one room. Every post passes all ten before it ships — a post that survives the council converts without reading like marketing.
How a post moves through the room
01
Strategy pass
Before a word is written — right crowd, right awareness stage, real skin in the game.
02
Craft pass
The draft — headline, flow, and the one clean offer.
03
Truth pass
Before shipping — does it move a human, ethically, at the level of identity and intuition?
The ten seats
1
The Last Psychiatrist
Identity
Truth
“What hasn't the reader admitted to themselves?”
RULEEvery flagship post names one private truth the reader assumed nobody saw.
VETOFlattery or victim framing. The reader is complicit in their own trap — say so.
2
Dan Kennedy
The Offer
Craft
“What's the one action, and why now?”
RULEExactly one desired action, specific, placed per tier rules — never needy.
VETOScattered CTAs or desperation. Take-it-or-leave-it converts; pleading repels.
3
Eugene Schwartz
Awareness
Strategy
“Are we meeting them at their stage of awareness?”
RULEWrite to the target sub's awareness stage; beat the competing message by one level of specificity.
VETOProduct-talk dropped into a problem-aware room. You can't skip a stage.
4
David Ogilvy
Headline & Fact
Craft
“Is the headline a fact, not a flex?”
RULETitle rewritten 5+ ways; winner has a real number; adjectives replaced with facts.
VETOHype words (revolutionary, game-changing, insane) and vague claims.
5
Gary Halbert
The Starving Crowd
Strategy
“Is the crowd starving? Does line one grab?”
RULEName the crowd precisely; first sentence yanks them off the scroll.
VETOA comfortable crowd, or an opening that warms up slowly.
6
Joe Sugarman
The Slippery Slide
Craft
“Does every sentence pull to the next?”
RULERead aloud — no natural place to stop before the end. Cut what doesn't pull.
VETOWalls of text, or sentences that resolve too completely too early.
7
Robert Cialdini
Influence
Truth
“Which real persuasion levers are firing?”
RULE3+ levers, reciprocity always present, every number real and sourced.
VETOFake social proof, invented numbers, manufactured scarcity.
8
David Meerman Scott
Real-Time & Persona
Strategy
“Who exactly, and why now?”
RULEOne named persona; anchored to a live hook (a study, a launch, a season) where possible.
VETOGeneric 'founders' framing, or timeless-but-stale posts.
9
Nassim Taleb
Skin in the Game
Strategy
“Where's the skin in the game?”
RULEReal money, real failures, an irreversible decision. Frame the win as removal (via negativa).
VETOSideline advice, or adding complexity as the solution.
10
Jonathan Haidt
The Elephant
Truth
“Did we move the elephant before the rider?”
RULEOpen with feeling, then hand over the facts. Give the reader a tribe to belong to.
VETOCorrect but cold. No emotional entry point, no group to join.
Strategy guardrails — how the engine scales without a shadowban
Hybrid, not pure-owned
Every owned sub has parent subs (big established communities) that feed it via the value-comment siphon (~2-4% convert). Own for control, borrow for reach.
30 before promo
30+ substantive comments in a sub before any promotional post there. No exceptions — it's the #1 anti-shadowban gate.
90/10 (treat as 95/5)
For every promotional touch, 9-19 genuinely helpful ones. Reddit is the most BS-allergic platform on earth.
No same-day link drops
Never post one link to 5+ subs the same day with no comment history — instant shadowban trigger.
Bio-link, not in-OP
Safest CTA placement is the profile bio + first comment, never the post body in Tier 2/3 subs.
Cold-start: reply to everything
Under 100 members, reply to every comment. Moderation IS the growth lever. 3-5 posts/day in growth phase.
Subreddit expansion roadmap
Tier A — Live now
r/AIOSforFoundersr/AutomateMyAgencyr/AwayFromDeskAutonomyr/RevenuePerEmployee
Designed with sidebars, seeds, personas. Don't open new subs until 2 of these clear 500 members.
Tier B — Months 2-4
r/LeanFounderr/NoMoreHiringr/FounderBandwidthr/AIForServiceBusiness
Launch only when Tier A has traction. Each fills a persona/awareness gap.
Tier C — Months 5-10
r/AIOperatingSystemsr/AgencyAIwhite-label client subs
Only if Tier B compounds. Client subs become a product, not just marketing.
Full spec: module-installs/reddit-os/COUNCIL.md · subreddit-expansion.md