Community launch playbook: per-subreddit rules, sequence and prohibited tactics

[ucguy4u]

Problem

The communities that are the highest-yield distribution channels for Airo all have posting rules that will remove a launch post, and cultural norms that will bury one. Two of Airo's four target subreddits have rules that a first-time poster would break by default.

This issue records the rules and the sequence, so nobody burns a launch on a removal.

Evidence

r/AndroidTV Rule 8 — 10:1 self-promotion ratio, actively enforced. ChannelDeck's launch (https://reddit.com/comments/1v6lc9v) was removed:

"Your post violates Rule 8: We follow Reddit's 10:1 ratio on self-promotion. In other words, you must be a participant in the community to promote your content/work."

r/androidapps no longer accepts launch posts. Showcases were moved to r/droidappshowcase (https://reddit.com/comments/1q4m6ha, https://reddit.com/comments/1rrkvcp):

"All 'check out my app' posts, updates, release announcements, and promos should now be posted in r/droidappshowcase."

"Vibe coded" is an active dismissal. From the ChannelDeck thread:

"Why would anyone use this vibe coded app with just a few of the features that Tivimate has had for a long time."

"Stop lieing. You vibe coded this."

And from https://reddit.com/comments/1v2h4fl: "Whatever it is, it has to work. Vibe coded apps do not translate well to android tv development."

Contrast with what worked. Sidstuga (https://reddit.com/comments/1tmctlg) posted concrete engineering detail — surface-recovery for a known Realtek/TCL frozen-surface bug detected via 30 dropped frames in a 2s window, a first-frame/stall/freeze watchdog ladder with URL fallback, FTS4 EPG search — and drew no accusations. StreamVault (https://reddit.com/comments/1sf5mhi, 204 upvotes) led with open source, free, no IAP, GitHub link, and BYO-playlist only.

Proposal

A short internal playbook, kept in docs/, covering:

Per-community rules

Community	Rule	Consequence
r/AndroidTV	10:1 participation ratio before self-promotion	Removal
r/androidapps	No launches; use r/droidappshowcase	Removal
r/LocalLLaMA	Engineering depth over product pitch (cultural, not codified)	Buried
r/IPTV_Help_Desk	Support community, not a launch venue	Off-topic
r/ynab	Participation only; it is a competitor's community	Hostile

Note: r/IPTV returns not_found and appears private or banned. r/IPTV_Help_Desk is the live support community.

Sequence

1. Satisfy the participation ratio before posting anything promotional. This is weeks, not days.
2. Lead with specifics and constraints, never a feature bullet list.
3. State plainly: BYO playlist, no bundled content, no content recommendations. Every successful post in this category does this explicitly — it is also the store-safety position the platform constitution already requires.
4. State the free/paid boundary in the post itself. Hiding it is what turned ChannelDeck's thread hostile.
5. Link the public repo. It is the strongest available answer to both "vibe coded" and to the abandonment fear ("the developers have vanished and the app was last updated 3 years ago" — https://reddit.com/comments/1utjowd).
6. Answer every reply, including hostile ones, with specifics.

Prohibited

• No fabricated engagement, no sockpuppets, no fake reviews, no undisclosed affiliation.
• No claiming open source beyond what is actually open (see the airo-pro transparency issue).
• No benchmark numbers that were not measured.

Acceptance criteria

1. Playbook committed under docs/.
2. Participation-ratio status tracked per community before any launch post is scheduled.
3. Launch posts reviewed against the prohibited list before publishing.
4. Outcomes recorded — what was posted, where, and what happened — so this stays evidence-based rather than folklore.

Source: tasks/reddit-distribution-retention-research.md