r/cosmeticsurgery: rules, karma requirements and posting culture

Who posts here

Nearly every post is from a patient or someone thinking about becoming one, asking in plain language whether swelling is normal, what a procedure is called or what would fix a feature they dislike. Procedure names come up, but nobody is expected to know the clinical detail. A first-time question is the standard post here, not an exception.

• People considering a first procedure and asking what would suit their face or body.
• Patients in recovery checking whether swelling, lumps or asymmetry are normal.
• People looking for a surgeon in a named city or country, including those weighing surgery abroad.
• Patients unhappy with a result and asking about revision or what went wrong.
• Clinics, practitioners and suppliers posting cases or asking for feedback, plus the occasional surgeon answering in the comments.

Karma and account requirements

What it takes to get a post through in r/cosmeticsurgery.

What you can post

What happens to a new post

Where the most recent posts ended up. Sample size: 400.

• Stayed up94%
• Removed by Reddit's filters4%
• Deleted by the author2%

Reddit counts a removal by the subreddit's own AutoModerator rules as a moderator removal, so that share is not all human. Held by AutoModerator means the post is waiting in the mod queue.

The culture

r/cosmeticsurgery has about 38,000 members and has more than doubled in two years. It sees around 44 posts a day, but most of them get little attention: the median post has one comment, and the best performing posts in our sample had single digit scores. Think of it as a question board, not a discussion forum.

The standard post is a photo and a short ask. What procedure would fix this, is this filler lump normal, how long until the swelling goes down, who is good for this operation in my city. Alongside those are recovery updates, regret posts and warnings about a bad experience, sometimes naming the clinic and often involving surgery abroad.

We found no rules, no flair and no AutoModerator messages for this subreddit, and no moderator removals in our sample. Clinic marketing sits in the feed next to patient questions: before and after cases written up by the clinic, a talk about a device, a supplier asking practitioners for opinions. So treat what follows as a description of what happens here, not of a written policy.

What lands

• A clear photo with one specific question. These are the posts that get answered.
• A recovery question with the timeline stated: what was done, how many days ago, what you are seeing now.
• An honest account of a result, good or bad, with enough detail that someone considering the same procedure can use it.
• A request for surgeon recommendations that names the procedure and the location.

What gets removed or ignored

• Very little. About 94% of posts in our sample stayed up and we saw no moderator removals.
• Reddit's own filters removed about 4%. With no rules or AutoModerator messages published, we cannot say what triggers them here.
• There are no written rules in the material we have, so there is no published list of banned content to quote.

The unwritten rules

• Replies are kind. Harsh or joking comments about someone's looks do appear, but they are the minority and read badly next to the rest.
• Expect to be told you look fine. Commenters regularly talk people out of procedures.
• Peers answer from their own recovery, not from training. When someone says they are a surgeon they state it, and it carries weight.
• Comments are short, about 24 words, and almost none carry a link. A link in a reply looks like an ad.
• Most posts get one reply or none. Posting the same question again is common but does not seem to help.

Self-promotion

No self-promotion rule is published, and promotional posts from clinics and suppliers were still up in our sample. They got close to no engagement. This is a room of anxious patients asking personal questions, and a marketing post lands badly in that setting even when nobody removes it. A practitioner who answers questions in the comments, says who they are and does not steer people to a booking page is the only version of promotion that fits what the audience is here for.

How people write here

Typical post length

67 words

Typical title length

6 words

Titles phrased as a question

37%

Typical comment length

24 words

Comments that include a link

0%

The regulars

The accounts that showed up most in our sample. Worth reading before you post: they set the tone, and they are usually the first to reply.

Top keywords

The words and phrases that show up far more often here than in other communities, from recent posts in r/cosmeticsurgery.

• filler 77 posts
• surgery 88 posts
• rhinoplasty 39 posts
• lip filler 36 posts
• lip 47 posts
• chin 40 posts
• surgeon 33 posts
• swelling 31 posts
• lipo 22 posts
• face 59 posts
• fat 44 posts
• lift 39 posts
• nose 36 posts
• plastic surgery 18 posts
• lips 26 posts
• procedures 29 posts
• asymmetry 18 posts
• facelift 16 posts
• procedure 26 posts
• jaw 21 posts
• plastic 27 posts
• implants 17 posts
• facial 25 posts
• botox 20 posts
• breast 26 posts
• upper 26 posts
• eyelid 16 posts
• surgeons 13 posts
• neck lift 12 posts
• lower 36 posts
• look 64 posts
• implant 16 posts
• chin filler 11 posts
• augmentation 13 posts
• incision 9 posts
• eyelid surgery 9 posts
• skin 34 posts
• bleph 10 posts
• cosmetic 16 posts
• post-op 11 posts

Recurring topics: lip, face, filler, surgery, looking, lip filler, chin, facelift, brow lift, rhinoplasty.

Growth

1. 20205.8k
2. 20217.5k
3. 202210k
4. 202314k
5. 202418k
6. 202526k
7. 202638k

Related subreddits

• r/PlasticSurgery
• r/KoreaSeoulBeauty
• r/45PlusSkincare
• r/BotoxSupportCommunity
• r/MakeupAddiction
• r/beauty
• r/IndianBeautyTalks
• r/SurgeryTalks
• r/40PlusSkinCare

Common questions