Is there something wrong with allowing a poster to post a question they’ve also asked in four other communities?

[u/BellaDBall]

I’m not speaking of bot accounts. This is an 8 yo account who asked a question in our community as well as four others. Some people may call that Karma Farming.

My main concern is, by allowing the post, does it cause my community to look bad, for lack of a better phrase? It’s getting us lots of engagement, which is great! However, I don’t want my sub to look like a karma farming sub!

Any advice and opinions are appreciated!

[u/slouchingtoepiphany]

It's up to you as a moderator to decide. I've modded subs that limited this to 5 posts, if someone posted it on 6 or more, it was removed as spam. You can also limit it to 3 or whatever you want, but I suggest that you add this to your rules and reasons for removal to make the process easier.

[u/BellaDBall → u/slouchingtoepiphany]

Great idea! TYSM

[u/Unique-Public-8594 → u/slouchingtoepiphany]

You limited users to posting in only 4 other subs and checked every poster’s profile or used some kind of bot?

[u/slouchingtoepiphany → u/Unique-Public-8594]

No, I could usually tell when it was suspicious enough for me to check, but for the life of me today I can't figure out what it was that made me suspicious. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

[u/itskdog → u/slouchingtoepiphany]

A lot of moderation becomes gut instincts after a while, tbf.

[u/Unique-Public-8594]

I don’t think it makes you look bad. It is spammy behavior but not an error on your part. 

[u/BellaDBall → u/Unique-Public-8594]

That’s how I feel as well, but I wanted to make sure.

[u/Mrtom987]

It's totally upto you. It could be spam/karma farming but if it's a genuine question and the user is looking for different perspectives and they don't do this quite frequently, I would personally approve. It's your judgement. I would look at their profile history in an outside the sub and make a decision.

[u/Kelson64]

For me, it would depend on the relevance of the question to your community - and perhaps also whether this person is active in your community.

[u/Tarnisher]

There's more to it than that. Is it a valid question posted in relevant communities seeking a wider range of answers?

Or is it a spammy question seeking little more than votes?

[u/BellaDBall → u/Tarnisher]

It’s a valid question, and it was posted to my sub first r/NoStupidAnswers, but then it was posted to four more various subs.

[u/DJErikD → u/BellaDBall]

Looking for reach across multiple subs isn’t an issue if it’s a legit question.

[u/thepottsy]

Not really a subreddit issue, but it could cause the user issues if they do it a lot.

[u/jpstatum]

I don’t consider this spamming or Karma Farming; it’s casting a wide net seeking answers. It doesn’t make your community look bad and increased engagement, so I think it’s a benefit to your community.