Reddit, Hacker News and F5Bot
Set up watch keywords, subreddits and F5Bot alerts, read keyword health, and check subreddit self-promotion rules before you reply.
Reddit and Hacker News are where a lot of "what should I use for…" questions get asked. They're also where self-promotion is judged most harshly. This page covers how Larvabot watches them, and the tools that keep you on the right side of the rules.
#How Larvabot reads Reddit
Reddit limits API access for new apps and blocks many requests from cloud servers, so Larvabot tries several routes and uses whichever works:
- F5Bot email alerts, read from your inbox in real time. F5Bot setup
- A Reddit API app, only if you already have an approved one
- Reddit's public JSON and RSS feeds, when they aren't blocked
- Web search with
site:reddit.com, using your search keys
Hacker News is simpler: its search API (run by Algolia) is free and open, so stories from the last 30 days are searched directly.
Reddit tool page · Hacker News tool page
#Watch keywords
Watch keywords are exact phrases matched in Reddit and Hacker News post titles about every two hours. Edit them on the Profile tab under Communities → Watch keywords (it's the same list as your community watch campaign's queries).
Good watch keywords sound like a person asking:
| Weak | Better |
|---|---|
invoice software | invoicing app for freelancers |
browser game | games to play at work |
CompetitorName | alternative to CompetitorName |
#Keyword health
Under the list, Keyword health shows each phrase with how many matching posts it had in the past year (Reddit caps this at 25, shown as 25+) and how many are new in the last 30 days. Phrases with no posts in a year are highlighted in yellow: nobody writes like that, so swap them for something people actually say.
#Subreddits
List subreddits on the Profile tab under Subreddits, one per line, without the r/. Larvabot scans their newest posts for people asking, whether or not a watch keyword matches.
#F5Bot keywords
F5Bot emails you within minutes when a keyword appears in a new Reddit, Hacker News or Lobsters post or comment. Larvabot reads those emails from your inbox and files each alert under the project that owns the matching keyword.
F5Bot's free plan watches 5 keywords per account, shared across all your projects, so each project keeps a separate F5Bot list on its Profile tab, ordered by priority, as keyword | flags | why:
alternative to trello | whole only-reddit no-comments | people leaving Trello
kanban for freelancers | whole | exact audienceThe panel next to it has Copy the first 5. On f5bot.com, add each keyword and paste its flags into Raw flags.
Keep both lists in sync
Alerts only reach a project when their keyword is on that project's F5Bot list. If you add a keyword on f5bot.com but not in Larvabot (or the other way round), those alerts are ignored. The Conversations tab shows the routed keywords under F5Bot keywords routed to….
#Subreddit rules
Most Reddit bans come from promoting in subreddits that don't allow it. Once a week per subreddit, Larvabot finds the subreddit's rules (through search, since Reddit blocks its rules pages to servers) and has the AI summarise its self-promotion policy:
| Policy | Meaning |
|---|---|
| banned | No self-promotion at all. Don't link your project. |
| restricted | Allowed in limited ways, like a weekly thread or a 9:1 ratio. The summary says how. |
| allowed | Self-promotion is fine within the usual rules. |
| unknown | No rules found. Read the sidebar yourself before posting. |
The policy and a one-line summary appear next to each Reddit thread on the Conversations tab, with a link to where the rule was found.
"Allowed" isn't a free pass
Even where self-promotion is allowed, a new account that only posts about its own product gets flagged. Take part normally too, and keep to the suggested pace.