Welcome to the /r/IAmA FAQ

Moderators can be contacted using the Message the Mods link in the sidebar or by email at mods@askmeanythi.ng

What is IAmA?

The IAmA (as in I am a _____, Ask Me Anything) Community is a place on Reddit where a new kind of crowdsourced interview can happen, which we call an Ask Me Anything.

The interviewee begins the process by starting a post, describing who they are and what they do. Then commenters from across the internet leave questions and can vote on other questions according to which they would like to see answered.

The interviewee can go through and reply to the questions they find interesting and easily see those questions the internet is dying to have the answer to.

Because the internet is asking the questions, they're going to be a mix of serious and lighthearted, and you'll find yourself sharing all kinds of things you won't find in a normal interview.

What Topics Are Allowed?

Anyone can do an Ask Me Anything. The topic of the AMA must meet the rules below, and you must provide proof of the claims you are making.

Ask Me Anything topics fall into two categories:

Something uncommon that plays a central role in your life.

The prime example of this is a person's job; posts about someone's occupation are almost always allowed. This rule exists because we want a person's topic to be something that they know thoroughly and is important to them; this gives them more to discuss and a more thorough background in the field.

A truly interesting and unique event.

The quintessential example used for this is "I just climbed Mount Everest." It's an activity that doesn't play a central role in someone's life but is so uncommon that the users would not have experiences of their own to relate to it.

AMAs should NOT be about:

• Common topics. This includes: Your day, your girlfriend, being bored or drunk, weight loss, your opinion on something, your gender identity, your religion, or your psychiatric disorders, needing sympathy or support, etc.

• Unprovable topics. Stories about fetishes, abuse, addiction, relationships, sexual behaviors, and sexuality are usually unprovable.

• Your experiences on the internet. These are only allowed if it can be objectively determined that the activity is a significant portion of your life, using factors such as income received, time devoted to it, uniqueness and level of creativity, and outside attention it gets. Also consider /r/InternetAMA. Being the face of a meme or famous on Reddit doesn't qualify you for an AMA unless you've made it your job.

• Crowd Funding - AMA submitters that include crowdfunding campaign links must be eligible for an AMA without the campaign for it to be allowed. Additionally, the focus of the AMA must not be the campaign, and the campaign must be fully funded. If the campaign has not reached its goal, it is deemed an advertisement and will be removed. The final decision on eligibility rests with the moderators. IAmA is not your advertising platform.

• Where you live. If you want to post about where you live, your post should go in /r/ILiveIn. However, if your location makes you witness to specific current events that you can discuss (for example: I live in Kabul and have witnessed the war in Afghanistan firsthand), then it will be an acceptable topic, but please make sure to include that in your title.

• Something you plan to do. AMAs should be about something you have already done. Something you plan to do, a product you plan to release, and similar topics will be an acceptable AMA after you have done them/

• Posts about suicide. Discussion about suicide will be removed and directed to /r/suicidewatch. This isn't meant to be hurtful, it's a well-researched fact that open discussion of this type has a measurable impact on increasing suicide rates when it's not regulated. /r/suicidewatch is a community that can better handle this.

• Being related to someone: If you're related to someone famous, by all means, encourage your family member to do an AMA and help them. But it's not a sufficient AMA topic to be simply related to someone famous.

Other Restrictions:

• Please don't submit a post just to "see if there's interest." There will be, you should do the AMA.

• Please limit yourself to one AMA per user, per topic, per 3 month period. If you are repeatedly submitting the same AMA every three months to promote your business, moderators reserve the right to remove the AMA. This is not your advertising platform.

• Giveaways are not permitted on IAmA. Contests and giveaways already running on a third party site prior to the AMA are acceptable

• NSFW or Adult industry AMA's require confidential proof verification. If your topic falls under this category you will need to supply moderators with sufficient proof your AMA is "A unique experience", or your "Full time occupation" . Confidential proof submissions need to use our proof website, not email or private messages.

How do I do an Ask Me Anything?

Step 1:

Go to the IAmA subreddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/

Step 2:

In order to post your thread, you must “submit a link”. On the top right of the IAmA page, you can see three buttons, one of which is a blue button titled “Submit an AMA”. Or you can click here: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/submit

Step 3:

Now you’ll need to fill out your thread.

TITLE: “Hi, I’m XXX. Ask me anything!” Feel free to elaborate and/or personalize.

TEXT: This is the additional content/information that redditors will see once they enter the thread. Include promotional information, more details about who you are, etc. This is also a good place to put your proof (please include a link to a Twitter page, an image with a sign saying “Hi” to reddit, an Imgur link etc.) More information on proof here.

Please don't use link shorteners here, the Reddit spam filter will remove your post.

Hit Submit, and you are ready to go!

The moderators suggest that you Submit your AMA no more than 15-30 minutes prior to your scheduled AMA time. This is more than enough time for redditors to start populating the thread with questions. Then, when you’re ready to start, you can jump right into answering questions.

Step 4:

Go back to the new queue of the main IAmA subreddit page to see that your thread is live: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/new

Step 5:

Click your live link thread when you’re ready to start answering questions. Hopefully, there will be questions waiting for you.

When you see a question in the thread look directly below it and hit “reply”. That will allow you to answer that person’s question directly and your answer will fall directly below it.

Continue this process throughout the thread. You can answer whichever questions you’d like and you can ignore any that you don’t want to respond to.

Step 6:

Once you have completed the AMA, you can hit the "edit" button (underneath the body text of your original post) and leave a sign off message. This isn't required, but it's appropriate to let the users know that you have finished answering questions.

Of course, you may also return to your post later and participate further. You might enjoy commenting in other parts of Reddit, as well!

In some cases, users wish to lock their posts to completely close the thread. If you are certain you want to do this, then you can include the keyword !lock (note the exclamation point) when you edit your post and sign off. This will completely prevent any further comments, so it should be done sparingly. (There is no harm in simply leaving comments unanswered).

How do I schedule an Ask Me Anything on the calendar?

If you have an existing fanbase, are a celebrity, or are an otherwise particularly notable or interesting person, you may be eligible for a spot on the IAmA sidebar calendar. If you're interested in applying for a spot, please pick a date and time for the AMA and be prepared to provide proof. Then navigate to the following link and fill out the application form:

https://askmeanythi.ng

Does /r/IAmA allow crossposts from other subreddits?

Sure. People often want to conduct an IAmA in a small specialized subreddit where they can interact with their fans. That's no problem. You're free to raise awareness of it by posting in /r/IAmA, but you have to do it in a specific way so that people know that the questions will be answered elsewhere. Your headline should indicate who the person is and where the AMA will be taking place.

All cross-posts must contain [Crosspost] or [xpost] in the title. Crossposts will be automatically locked by AutoMod to ensure questions are asked in the correct AMA thread.

Furthermore, cross-posts of AMAs that would not be allowed in /r/IAmA in the first place are not allowed, so make sure the AMA meets our standards of acceptable topics.

Can I do an AMA about my Startup, blockchain business, or crowdfunding campaign?

Our most important rule to consider when looking to do an AMA about your new project is that your project must be complete, funded, and have a finished product.

What does this mean for my:

Startup?

Does your startup have a product that you have launched and are selling to real customers? Are you funded? Do you have an income? If the answer to these questions is yes, you can do an AMA. If the answer is no, please come back when this is the case.

Blockchain-based business?

Do you have existing funding in a fiat currency? Is your product not only prototyped but actually in use in a real-world situation? Do you have an income with value in fiat currency? If you can't answer yes to all of these questions, you're not ready for an AMA yet. A Whitepaper and a good idea are not enough to do an AMA. If you're still raising money via an ICO or similar mechanism, you're probably not ready to do an AMA.

Absolutely no AMAs promoting NFTs or NFT-like products for any reason. No exceptions.

Kickstarter or other crowdfunded project?

If the crowdfunding campaign is still happening, you're probably not ready. Your product needs to be complete and being sold to customers before you're ready to do an AMA. That said, if you have previous products or are an existing brand and you'd like to do an AMA about those experiences, we will permit limited promotion of your new crowdfunding campaign so long as it is not the focus of the AMA.

If you have any questions about these rules or want to double-check your eligibility, please email us at mods@askmeanythi.ng

Can you share our social media posts?

Sure, just tweet at us @reddit_ama or tag our Reddit IAMA Facebook or Instagram pages and we'd be happy to share.

What Constitutes Proof?

Only you know what you have available to prove who you are. Our users want to be sure that you are actually telling the truth, so whatever you have that will convince the readers is great. We prefer that the proof is posted publicly whenever possible so that the users can decide how credible it is.

There are two proof standards:

a) Public proof is proof a reasonable person would believe validates your claim.

b) Private verification with the moderators requires unequivocal proof your claim is true. The Moderators of IAMA have informally partnered with TruePic to help verify submitted proof pictures and videos.

NOTE: Under NO circumstances should you use our confidential proof submission systems to submit illegal, classified, or otherwise legally problematic material. We don't want it, and are obligated to report criminal activity.

We will not accept any links to Google Drive, LinkedIn, or Facebook as proof regardless of the type. These links will not be reviewed for acceptability. Use an approved image host such as https://imgur.com or https://postimages.org

What is Moderator Verification?

If your proof must remain confidential, you may submit it for confidential moderator verification. Please be prepared to send tangible documentation sufficient to meet an unequivocal proof standard.

Moderators may ask for more proof if they deem it necessary. Note that simply linking to a normal Facebook, LinkedIn, or other social media profile page is not sufficient.

We will not accept any links to Google Drive, LinkedIn, or Facebook as proof regardless of the type. These links will not be reviewed for acceptability. Use an approved image host such as https://imgur.com or https://postimages.org

You can submit private proof to moderators using our website.

This will require you to authenticate with your reddit account to keep account information associated with the proof.

NOTE: Under NO circumstances should you use our confidential proof submission systems to submit illegal, classified, or otherwise legally problematic material. We don't want it, and are obligated to report criminal activity.

What is IAmA's policy on comment removals?

Comments will be removed under a few circumstances:

Abusive or harassing comments

Comments responding to verification that are unrelated to verification.

Requests for personal favors from the OP (For example, "OP, can you send me a signed autograph").

In AMA posts only, top-level comments must ask a question. This includes "OMG I love you..." and "No questions, just thanks!"

Comments where there would be no possibility of a real answer, especially where it is deliberately creepy or offensive.

"I bet OP won't answer this"-type responses, which usually come after the OP has finished responding to questions.

"Fluff," non-contributing responses from users, responding to all of the OP's comments for karma/attention.

Repeatedly asking the same question, which violates Reddit's site-wide rules.

Users attempting to bypass the rules by adding a ? to a nonquestion will be permanently banned from the subreddit.

A subreddit or other website organizing and voting for a group comment/question is considered to be vote cheating and is subject to removal. It is a violation of the rules of reddit and risks a sitewide ban.

Questions must be directed toward the individual(s) doing the IAMA.

Under our policies, astroturfing is the practice of an individual or group of individuals who plant questions in an IAmA post for a particular purpose. This kind of behavior will result in a permanent ban from /r/IAmA.

How should I vote on Ask Me Anything posts?

You should vote on AMA posts based on: Whether the OP has interesting information or experiences, regardless of your personal opinion of that person or their experiences. The Westboro Baptist Church is a good example; even if you vehemently disagree with their viewpoint, they still have a very uncommon perspective to share. Downvoting the OP because you disagree with them will only result in an undesirable atmosphere and will likely end up with OP ending the AMA early, or not put effort into answering questions. Rather than downvoting, which just hides the comment from being seen by anyone, offer a reply with your reasoned thoughts. This way, you can open a dialogue with OP and potentially debate the differing points of view.

Upvote for providing proof in the post. If there is no proof, ask for it! If the OP ignores requests for proof, or just dismisses it, then report it to the mods.

Once it has started, how they are responding to questions overall. If you feel that they are only here to plug a product and didn’t take the time to interact with the community, then feel free to downvote it.

How should I vote on responses?

You should vote on an OP’s comments based on: A response that addresses the question(s) being asked: The OP’s answer is pretty much always relevant to the discussion (it is their topic, after all) and it should rarely be downvoted, even if you disagree with what they say. A thorough and detailed answer: If the OP is just using one-word answers or giving flippant responses, then feel free to downvote them. The answers in Woody Harrelson’s AMA are a great example of this: if the OP doesn’t answer a question well, then feel free to downvote it Good humor and playing along with friendly banter

If you disagree with the OP’s opinion, offer a reply with your reasoned thoughts. This way, you can open a dialogue with op and potentially debate the differing points of view. This is much better than downvoting, which just hides the comment from being seen by anyone and makes the AMA harder to navigate.

How should I vote on Requests?

Note that requests belong in /r/IAmARequests, not /r/IAmA.

You should vote on requests based on: Whether it would be a good AMA if it were fulfilled. See above for those qualities

Whether the OP could provide proof if it were fulfilled. Often requests are posted for things that would be impossible to verify. You can also make more specific requests: for example, instead of “AMA request, a murderer” you could request “AMA, someone who has been convicted of murder,” because then they would have court documents as proof.

How likely it is that an AMA would happen. Generally, requesting one specific person is difficult, but you can improve your chances by providing a way to contact that person, like their twitter account. Requests are more likely to be fulfilled if you’re requesting a group of people rather than just one in particular

Upvote requests which have included at least 5 questions that are relevant to the person being requested. If these are not present, please report the post and message the mods!

How do I submit an AMA Request?

To submit a request, simply preface your title with [AMA Request] so that it will show up in green on the page. Make sure you spell "request" correctly. Then, type out who you would like to see do an AMA.

In the text of the post, please include 5 or more specific questions for the person you would like to have an AMA from. Requests without the 5 questions will be removed by a bot (so please use question marks). This is to ensure that there really is enough interest in the person that there would be something to talk about.

Additionally, any request for a public figure that has some means of public contact must have it included in the post. Their twitter page, their an official social media page, the contact sheet from their website, whatever. Any way that our users can tell this person that we want an AMA from them. Requests that do not comply with this requirement will be removed. This does not apply to requests for non-public figures (example, "AMA request: Joe Schmoe, lead designer of New Video Game), or requests for no one in particular (example, "AMA request: a farmer"). It only applies to requests for public figures.

Requests should be for someone who would qualify for an AMA. This means requests should meet our topic restrictions and be provable. The best requests are ones that you think have a good chance to succeed.

Finally, please search first to ensure the individual or individuals you are requesting have not already been requested within the last 2 weeks, and that they have not already done an AMA recently. Each duplicate request within a 2-week period will be removed.

What branding or logo should I use?

See here

Affiliate Topic-Specific Subreddits

If you have an interest in a particular AMA category or topic, subscribe to the relevant subreddit(s) here so you don’t miss out: r/IamA_Academic, r/IamA_Actor, r/IamA_Adult, r/IamA_Art, r/IamA_Athlete, r/IamA_Author, r/IamA_Business, r/IamA_Crime, r/IamA_CustomerService, r/IamA_Director, r/IamA_Gaming, r/IamA_Health, r/IamA_Journalist, r/IamA_Medical, r/IamA_Military, r/IamA_Municipal, r/IamA_Music, r/IamA_Nonprofit, r/IamA_Politics, r/IamA_Restaurant, r/IamA_Retail, r/IamA_Science, r/IamA_Specialized, r/IamA_Tech, and r/IamA_Tourism.