Full Rules & Guidelines

Discussion

1.1: All posts should be directly book related, informative, and discussion focused. Joke comment threads and off topic discussion are subject to removal. Please see rule three for a more extensive list of things prohibited.

1.2: Posts cannot be inherently political. This is a book forum, not a political platform: everything must fit within the context of book discussion. We are fully aware that art can be political and politicians can create artistic works, however, there are plenty of other places on reddit for you to discuss party politics and it is rarely relevant to /r/books. Discussion of a book written by a politician should be focused on the book, not your opinion of their policies, track record, or supporters. Similarly, discussion of a book with political themes should draw on the contents of the book; if you think a particular character is a stand-in for a particular person or party you need to demonstrate that you have done the literary analysis to back this up. Discussions of book-related actions with a political motive, e.g. book banning, the discussion needs to stay relevant to the actual incident in question. In cases where a high proportion of new comments appear to be politically motivated, the mods reserve the right to lock and/or remove the thread.

Personal conduct

2.1: Civil behaviour is a requirement of participation in the subreddit. Incivility will be met with a warning or ban, depending on the number and severity of uncivil comments. Uncivil behaviour following a warning will always result in a permanent ban.

2.2: No inflammatory posts or comments. This subreddit is a place for discussion, so the quality of the subreddit depends on the quality of the discussion. Inflammatory comments detract from the quality of the discussion and therefore the quality of the subreddit. /r/books strives to be an inclusive subreddit, regardless of any individual's race, nationality, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, disability, level of education, occupation, or any other aspect of their personal identity.

2.3: Please conduct yourself as though in a family-friendly environment. Do not direct obscenities, slurs, or gender-charged insults at other groups or individuals.

Prohibited

3.1: Promotional posts, comments and/or flairs of any type not allowed except in a small number of very specific circumstances; please see the wiki for more details. This includes surveys and market research. Any posts, comments and/or flairs breaking the spirit of the rules, if not the letter of the rules, are subject to removal and the associated account(s) may be banned. See here if you are interested in an AMA or author spotlight.

3.2: No memes, image-macros, image-only, or video-only posts. Images and videos may be included as part of a self/text-post and in comments alongside other stimulus for discussion. The image or video should supplement what you have written and not be the whole post.

3.3: Requests for personalized recommendations or suggestions are not allowed. This includes asking users to list their favorite/the best book of a genre, style, time period, etc, where to start with a particular author or genre, whether you should read or finish a particular book, what you should know before you read a particular book, and all other similar questions unless there is significant further stimulus for discussion. Post instead to our Weekly Recommendation Thread (accessible from any /r/books page, new threads on Fridays), /r/suggestmeabook or /r/whattoreadwhen. Also try /r/booklists or our Suggested Reading wiki page.

3.4: "What's that book called?" posts are not allowed. Post instead to /r/whatsthatbook or /r/tipofmytongue.

3.5: No direct sales links. Please link to Wiki, Worldcat, Goodreads, Librarything - not Amazon. Author and publisher information pages are fine but any page with an 'add to cart/basket' button is not. For price comparisons please provide a screenshot. There are deceptive possibilities for direct-sales links so AutoMod removes them automatically. Posting affiliate links may result in a ban.

3.6: No distribution or solicitation for pirated material. Piracy is an important topic for discussion in general terms, but we do not allow anyone to share links or info on where to find pirated copies. This includes audiobooks and films uploaded to YouTube or similar sites. If piracy is suspected, the onus is on the poster to prove the link or site is legitimate. This rule comes from no personal opinion of the mods' regarding piracy, but because /r/books is an open, community-driven forum and it is important for us to abide the wishes of the publishing industry. Knowingly posting pirated content will result in a permanent ban.

3.7: No plagiarism. Use original sources. Links to sites that routinely plagiarise content without contributing further or giving credit to the source will be removed. Attempting to pass off somebody else's content as your own will result in a ban.

3.8: No low quality book lists. To maintain quality, the list must encourage discussion. For linked lists the list itself must have descriptive paragraphs for each book. Users are also encouraged to submit their own unique lists as a self/text-post. Original lists should have at least a paragraph explaining the reason for the list and include some further thoughts on at least a few of the books. The poster must have actually read each book. Alternatively, there is /r/booklists.

3.9: If you do not mark your post or comment as having spoilers, no matter how old the book or other piece of media is, it will be removed. Deliberately posting spoilers will result in a ban. See our wiki for more details. If you are having trouble with the technical aspect of spoiler tags after reading the wiki page please message the mods for help.

3.10: Sensationalist headlines and comments that aim to start arguments instead of discussion will be removed.

3.11: Novelty accounts will be banned. The only bots allowed are those essential to the running of the subreddit, such as AutoModerator. RemindMeBot is banned from /r/books but can still be activated by PM, see /r/RemindMeBot for the most up to date instructions.

3.12: Obvious requests for homework help where the OP has done little/no work will be removed. Tell us what you have so far, what your best guess at the answer is, and any other observations you have about the book. People are more likely to help if your post is interesting! There is also /r/homeworkhelp, read their rules before posting. If you have a survey to do for academic purposes see our page on self-promotion for criteria or post in /r/samplesize.

3.13: Low effort content, including quotes, are strongly discouraged. Those without extensive further stimulus for discussion are subject to removal. Consider /r/quotes or /r/bookquotes as a more suitable place for your post.

3.14: No DAE, TIL, or Unpopular Opinion type threads. The answer to any question beginning with the words 'does anybody else...' is literally always yes, and the answer to any question beginning with 'am I the only one...' is literally always no. You are far from the only reader to have come up with this idea/habit/thought and we are not here to provide you with praise or validation. These threads should be rephrased to provide significant content for discussion and use less clickbait titles, or posted in their respective dedicated subreddits. You may also find what you are looking for in our FAQ.

3.15: No news articles/blog posts over a year old.

3.16: No posting commenting in /r/books after following a link from a meta-subreddit such as /r/bookscirclejerk or /r/subredditdrama. No posting or commenting in /r/books and then linking your own post or comment in meta-subreddits. This will result in a lengthy ban without warning which is unlikely to be reversed. We will also ban you if we think your posting history indicates you are trying to circumvent this rule, and remove posts or comments if we think the purpose of them is to provoke other users. You may also be breaking the rules of the meta-subreddit you are participating in, and even reddit site-wide rules. Absolutely no pissing in the popcorn.

Encouraged

Thoughts, discussion questions, and epiphanies about authors and their work.

4.1: If you post a link to a news article, a thoughtful response might be to talk about your favourite quotes from the article, or pose a question about the issue being written about. If you use a self/text-post, express some of your own opinion so it generates discussion.

4.2: When a book takes you by surprise sometimes it's hard to find the right words. Take a moment before posting so you can give us more than just 'wow'. You can usually find pre-written discussion questions at sites like shmoop and sparknotes, but why not write your own list of questions? Ask yourself about the who, what, when, where, why, and how. Your answers to these questions gives others something to respond to.

4.3: Sometimes you see strange connections: between authors and other authors, between two completely different pieces of work, across different times and places: share your excitement and insight.

4.4: Feel free to add flair to your username. We've included tags to help indicate the book you're currently reading, just finished reading or the book you're re-reading. Or you could add your favourite book or author. You can also add flair that is non-book related but please: no websites or promotions! Alternatively, you might like to sign up to our Points for Participation star flair.

Please remember that all other rules of reddit apply here too. Please report posts or comments which do not follow either set of rules. Learn them, live them, love them.. Ultimately, mods have the final say. This doesn't apply to most /r/books subscribers; this policy is reserved primarily for persistent trolls and aggressively ideological zealots.

In summary, this forum encourages thoughtful discussion in a civil manner. As a subreddit devoted to everything books related we have our own great discussions but we are also a hub to lead you to other niche book forums, so please check out the related subreddits and multireddits.

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