r/shopify: rules, karma requirements and posting culture
The main Shopify help forum: 380,000 merchants and developers swapping fixes and complaints. Text only, karma gated, and closed to app pitches and research posts.
Shopify · Open on Reddit
- Members
- 380k
- Created
- 2011
- New posts a day
- 22.7
- Comments on a typical post
- 10
- New posts removed
- 40%
The short answer
r/shopify has real, stated thresholds. AutoModerator removes posts and comments from accounts under 30 days old, with post karma below 10, or with comment karma below 20, and it checks the two karma numbers separately. Every post is a text post with a flair, and about 60% of posts in our sample stayed up, with moderators and AutoModerator removing around 31%. Bring a specific question about the Shopify platform. Store reviews, app validation, dropshipping talk and anything promotional are against the rules.
Who posts here
The same day brings a teenager asking how to get paid from a first store, a merchant stuck at a five-figure month asking how to scale ads, and a developer complaining about reviewing AI-generated theme code. Basic how-do-I questions are answered directly, usually with the setting or workaround. There is no penalty for a simple question as long as it is about Shopify itself.
- Store owners running their own shop, from first month to ten years in.
- Freelancers and agency staff who manage stores for clients.
- Shopify developers and theme builders.
- Shoppers trying to work out what to do about an order from a Shopify-hosted store.
- App makers and service sellers, who the rules are written to keep out.
Karma and account requirements
What it takes to get a post through in r/shopify.
| Karma | At least 10 post karma and at least 20 comment karma. They are counted separately and you need both. This applies to comments as well as posts.Mods' wording: “your post and comment karma are separate numbers and must both meet their minimum requirement” |
|---|---|
| Account age | At least 30 days old, for both posting and commenting.Mods' wording: “accounts must be at least 30 days old” |
| Topic | Must be about the Shopify platform directly. Product sourcing, dropshipping and print on demand posts are removed.Mods' wording: “All posts must be directly related to the Shopify Platform in some way.” |
| Post type | Text posts only. Link, image and video posts are switched off, and 99.6% of posts in our sample were text. |
| Post flair | Every post in our sample had one. Shopify General Discussion covers about 62%, then Marketing, Apps, Orders, Products and Shipping. |
| Links | You can link an example of your problem. Affiliate links, Shopify signup links and links to apps or courses are not allowed.Mods' wording: “Please avoid links for signup for Shopify as well as for apps and external courses.” |
What AutoModerator says
The moderators' bot leaves these messages on posts. They are the closest thing to an official statement of the thresholds.
Your comment in /r/shopify was automatically removed as your 'post' karma is below 10 (we do not consider your total karma; your post and comment karma are separate numbers and must both meet their minimum requirement). You can increase your post karma by posting in other areas of Reddit to earn upvotes. The higher quality the content, the higher your karma will become.
Your comment in /r/shopify was automatically removed as your account is too new (accounts must be at least 30 days old). Try again a little later.
Your comment in /r/shopify was automatically removed as your 'comment' karma is below 20 (we do not consider your total karma; your post and comment karma are separate numbers and must both meet their minimum requirement). You can increase your comment karma by posting in other areas of Reddit to earn upvotes. The higher quality the content, the higher your karma will become.
Your submission in /r/shopify was automatically removed as your 'comment' karma is below 20 (we do not consider your total karma; your post and comment karma are separate numbers and must both meet their minimum requirement). You can increase your comment karma by posting in other areas of Reddit to earn upvotes. The higher quality the content, the higher your karma will become.
Your submission in /r/shopify was automatically removed as your 'post' karma is below 10 (we do not consider your total karma; your post and comment karma are separate numbers and must both meet their minimum requirement). You can increase your post karma by posting in other areas of Reddit to earn upvotes. The higher quality the content, the higher your karma will become.
What you can post
| Post type | Subreddit setting | Share of recent posts |
|---|---|---|
| Text | Allowed | 100% |
| Link | Not allowed | 0% |
| Image | Not allowed | <1% |
| Video | Not allowed | 0% |
| Poll | Allowed | 0% |
Post flairs in use
- Shopify General Discussion 62%
- Marketing 10%
- Apps 7%
- Orders 5%
- Products 5%
- Shipping 4%
- Point of Sale 3%
- Checkout 2%
- Theme 2%
- Account 1%
What happens to a new post
Where the most recent posts ended up. Sample size: 400.
- Stayed up60%
- Removed by Reddit's filters9%
- Removed by moderators31%
- Deleted by the author<1%
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.
What happened when we posted here
We have posted here ourselves. This is how our own posts and comments fared.
- Stayed up
- 94%
- Removed by Reddit's filters
- 0%
- Removed by moderators
- 6%
- Period
- September 2025 to July 2026
The rules, in the mods' words
- 1
All Posts must be related to Shopify directly.
All posts must be directly related to the Shopify Platform in some way. This means posts discussing finding products, dropshipping, print on demand, and other topics will be removed automatically. Dropship-related posts should be made to relevant groups like r/dropship or r/dropshipping.
- 2
No Store Reviews / Feedback
All store reviews must be posted to r/reviewmyshopify unless part of an AMA / approved review thread.
- 3
All Shopify Developers
Soliciting third party or private services via private messages is not allowed. Please report all instances, and users found submitting posts will be banned.
- 4
Guru's / Success Stories / Guides / How-To / Blogspam
No unsolicited AMA (ask me anything) posts, expert guides, blogs, 'top' lists. Success stories require the user to provide evidence to the moderation team otherwise the post will be removed, and will only be considered from established group users. Longform posts that are clear blogspam or reported as such will be removed.
- 5
Soliciting, Self-Promotion, or Direct Soliciting via DM
This should be self-evident. This is a place to exchange helpful information freely, as posts that stay up will help others in the future. This is not the place to promote yourself to the members here. Violations and attempts to circumvent this rule by "recommending someone" inviting private solicitation via DM or request for DM will result in a ban.
- 6
Store, Course, or Illegal Theme Resale
If you attempt to resell or freely offer paid themes or courses that you didn't create or have resale rights, you will be issued an instant and permanent ban. You will not be warned, you will not be told to stop, you will be banned instantly. If you're a theme/course author wishing to offer your theme on this sub, please contact the mod team first to confirm the theme/course belongs to you. Store sales are also not permitted to due to our inability to protect buyers from scams.
- 7
No spamming or links to referral content.
The sharing of any affiliate links, be it in a YouTube description or otherwise is not allowed. Content marketing will only be allowed via Blog articles if posts are not considered "spammy" by the community and mods. Please avoid links for signup for Shopify as well as for apps and external courses.
- 8
We are all grown ups
So, don't be a dick.
- 9
Racist or Offensive.
Abuse and racism is not accepted. Please report any posts or comments. Please do not use this if you simply disagree with the poster.
- 10
No 'Dev Research' posts
Posts looking for 'pain points' of store owners, beta testing, app reviews, app validation ideas, or other posts that are looking for ideas or feedback on apps or app / software ideas are not allowed.
- 11
No 3PL Recommendation Posts
Posts asking for 3PL recommendations will not be allowed, as this almost always results in direct solicitation and spam / scam responses.
These are the rules as archived in January 2025. Rules change. Check the sidebar before you post.
The culture
r/shopify is a support forum run by its users. It has about 380,000 members and around 23 posts a day, and the typical post gets 10 comments. Posts are short, around 80 words, and more than half of titles are questions: how to switch between store accounts, why a label will not print properly, what a newly enabled payment method means.
The mood toward Shopify itself is sour right now. The top post in our sample is a sarcastic dig at the platform, and the next is a complaint about unannounced updates. Threads asking how to turn off the built-in AI assistant keep appearing. Merchants here use the product every day and say so when it lets them down, sometimes in one angry line.
Underneath that is a tight set of rules built to keep sellers of services away from sellers of goods. No store reviews, no guides or success stories without proof, no developer research, no requests for 3PL recommendations because of the spam they attract. Moderators and AutoModerator remove about 31% of posts, and a good part of that is the karma and account age filter catching ordinary questions from new accounts.
What lands
- A precise admin or settings problem: what you are trying to do, what you see, what you tried.
- Is anyone else seeing this posts when something in Shopify breaks or changes without warning.
- Operating questions with real figures, like monthly revenue, average order value, conversion rate and ad spend.
- How do you handle it questions about running a store: unsold inventory, chargebacks, customer email volume.
- Blunt criticism of Shopify. It gets more upvotes than anything else.
What gets removed or ignored
- Posts from accounts under 30 days old or below the karma minimums, whatever the content. A plain question about variants was removed this way in our sample.
- Merchant research posts that ask store owners for their frustrations or pain points. The rules ban them by name.
- Dropshipping, product research and trend-hunting questions, which belong in other subreddits.
- Guides, how-to workflows and tool walkthroughs that read as content marketing.
- Requests for store feedback, and anything inviting DMs or offering a product to store owners.
The unwritten rules
- Check your own karma before you post. The filter looks at post karma and comment karma separately, and it applies to comments too.
- Comments are short, around 34 words, and none in our sample carried a link. Offering to send something privately gets noticed and breaks the rule on DMs.
- A question that ends by asking which tool people use often reads as a setup for a pitch. Several such posts were removed.
- If you are not a merchant, say what you are. A commenter who said they were the store's tech person and described what they built was fine.
- Expect cynicism about AI features and about Shopify support. Defending either will get argument.
Self-promotion
The sidebar and submit text say no spamming, content marketing, advertising, promotions or soliciting of any kind, and that unapproved links can get you banned. The rules add that recommending someone as a way to invite DMs counts as circumvention and results in a ban, and that posts seeking app feedback, beta testers or pain points are not allowed. In practice a few thinly veiled posts from vendors do stay up, but the removal rate is high and the rules give moderators grounds to ban without warning. The only safe way in is answering questions with no link and no invitation to message you.
How people write here
- Typical post length
- 79 words
- Typical title length
- 9 words
- Titles phrased as a question
- 55%
- Typical comment length
- 34 words
- Comments that include a link
- 0%
- Posts that carry a flair
- 100%
When people post
- 0:00 UTC, 9
- 1:00 UTC, 13
- 2:00 UTC, 6
- 3:00 UTC, 7
- 4:00 UTC, 9
- 5:00 UTC, 21
- 6:00 UTC, 17
- 7:00 UTC, 11
- 8:00 UTC, 19
- 9:00 UTC, 17
- 10:00 UTC, 18
- 11:00 UTC, 17
- 12:00 UTC, 18
- 13:00 UTC, 28
- 14:00 UTC, 15
- 15:00 UTC, 28
- 16:00 UTC, 22
- 17:00 UTC, 21
- 18:00 UTC, 23
- 19:00 UTC, 20
- 20:00 UTC, 17
- 21:00 UTC, 26
- 22:00 UTC, 8
- 23:00 UTC, 10
New posts by hour of day, UTC.
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.
Most active posters
- u/Channelbay10 posts
- u/Bloom-Analytics7 posts
- u/Huge_Kaleidoscope_407 posts
- u/rajeshj35 posts
- u/Various_Key_35854 posts
Most active commenters
- u/colehello8 comments
- u/ExistingAmount6 comments
- u/Urmanda064 comments
- u/informacione4 comments
- u/HolyLiaison3 comments
Top keywords
The words and phrases that show up far more often here than in other communities, from recent posts in r/shopify.
- shopify 190 posts
- store 88 posts
- shopify store 31 posts
- products 52 posts
- orders 36 posts
- stores 35 posts
- product 65 posts
- shopify stores 18 posts
- customer 44 posts
- sales 44 posts
- checkout 24 posts
- order 37 posts
- inventory 24 posts
- shipping 26 posts
- page 35 posts
- conversion 21 posts
- checkouts 10 posts
- ads 26 posts
- meta 17 posts
- cart 13 posts
- sidekick 6 posts
- product page 9 posts
- abandoned 10 posts
- shop 17 posts
- carts 9 posts
- showing 18 posts
- customers 24 posts
- updating 11 posts
- apps 21 posts
- abandoned carts 6 posts
- site 23 posts
- skus 8 posts
- google shopping 5 posts
- product photos 6 posts
- margin 9 posts
- klaviyo 6 posts
- theme 10 posts
- traffic 17 posts
- admin 13 posts
- items 14 posts
Recurring topics: shop, shopify, app, store, product, order, custom, ecommerce, inventory.
Posts that did well
- Congratulations Slopify!!331 upvotes · 160 comments · Shopify General Discussion
- Random updates.61 upvotes · 43 comments · Shopify General Discussion
- Stuck at 40k19 upvotes · 61 comments · Shopify General Discussion
- How do I disable Sidekick completely?11 upvotes · 12 comments · Theme
Growth
- 20127
- 201355
- 2014393
- 20151.3k
- 20163.4k
- 20178k
- 201818k
- 201948k
- 2020102k
- 2021146k
- 2023207k
- 2024266k
- 2025328k
- 2026380k
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- r/Chennai
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- r/entertainment
- r/SanJose
- r/askSingapore
- r/restaurant
- r/AssassinsCreedOdyssey
- r/cats
- r/musicproduction
- r/binance
Common questions
How much karma do you need to post in r/shopify?
At least 10 post karma and at least 20 comment karma, and your account must be at least 30 days old. AutoModerator states that it does not look at total karma: the two numbers are separate and both must meet the minimum. The same limits apply to comments.
Can I promote my Shopify app or service in r/shopify?
No. The rules ban advertising, promotion and soliciting of any kind, including asking people to DM you. Posts looking for app feedback, beta testers, validation or merchant pain points are also banned as dev research. Theme and course authors are told to contact the mod team first.
Why was my r/shopify post removed?
The most common cause for a new poster is the account filter: under 30 days old, under 10 post karma or under 20 comment karma. After that it is topic. Dropshipping, store reviews, guides, 3PL recommendation requests and research posts are all removed under the rules. About 31% of posts in our sample were removed by moderators or AutoModerator.
Where can I get feedback on my Shopify store?
Not in r/shopify. The rules say all store reviews must go to r/reviewmyshopify unless they are part of an approved review thread. A post asking people to look at your store will be removed.
Data as of October 4, 2026. Numbers come from public Reddit data (the Arctic Shift archive and GummySearch) sampled on this date. Removal share counts posts taken down by moderators, AutoModerator or Reddit's own filters. Banner and icon belong to the community. Moderators change rules without notice, so treat the sidebar as the final word.
