There is this concept that in order to be a successful YouTube creator you need to master every form of social media. Countless “How To” articles proclaim the importance of promoting on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram and even the slowly fading Google+.

Basically, these articles state that if you want people to start caring about your YouTube videos, get out there and talk to people about them. However, if this mass engagement method works on the premise that every social media platform is a tool to get your work out there, why is Reddit such a YouTube creator ghost town?

Currently, several YouTube partner-themed subreddits exist, but only two of them are active. The most thriving of the subreddits, /r/PartneredYoutube is active but nowhere near the creator Mecca it could be. Reddit, with its 37 billion annual page views, has the potential to be an incredible resource for YouTubers looking to share their work and get feedback. So what’s the problem then?

Reddit, by all accounts, is a terrible digital landscape for advice-seeking-turned-self-promotion, a faux pas many YouTubers tend to inadvertently commit. Across the internet on every YouTube board, creators are seeking advice in posts that typically begin with “My channel….”. Instantly, one can easily see where these posts could be seen as self-promotion masked as pleas for help, which across subreddits everywhere is seen as a cardinal sin.

The idea that social media is a tool for promotion and engagement hits a brick wall at the steps of Reddit because the Reddit community is generally appalled at the idea of their site being used as a “tool.”

Countless moderators and legions of downvoters on Reddit are making damn sure that the site is free of any type of shilling. While some exceptions are made (AMAs specifically), one of Reddit’s biggest challenges has been avoiding becoming a pit of promotion in the same vein as the once proud Twitter. You remember those days, right? When Twitter wasn’t just a place to promote the latest …. whatever.

Twitter let in corporations, they let in McDonald’s and Nike and Pepsi. Twitter gave these companies promoted posts and featured accounts. Advertising became priority number one for the microblogging site, and from there, the backslide began. Reddit, if it is to keep its community-driven-fuck-all-marketing attitude, can’t afford to let even a sliver of promotional content in. This is why YouTube creators can’t get a foothold among no less than five creator-themed subreddits.

Unfortunately, it seems that YouTube creators looking for advice/promotion and Reddit will always be at odds. Maybe it’s for the best though. Creators already have a plethora of promotional methods at their disposal. I’d hate to see Reddit become anything less than the utterly bizarre wild west we all know it as.