I got banned from SoloLearn for trying to help beginners. Here's what happened.
I got banned from SoloLearn for trying to help beginners. Here's what happened. Yesterday, I was on a mission. I'm Harun, a 12-year-old solo dev who built KODA , an AI coding mentor, entirely on my Android phone. I noticed hundreds of beginners on SoloLearn asking: "How do I start?" , "Help me with loops!" , "I'm stuck!" So I did what any helpful founder would do: I answered their questions, gave them code solutions, and added a small P.S.: "P.S. I built a free tool called KODA to help with this. Try it here: [Link]." I thought I was being helpful. SoloLearn's algorithm thought I was spamming. Within hours, my account was blocked. 🚫 The Moment of Panic When I saw "Your account is blocked," my first thought was: "Oh no, I messed up. My marketing is over." But then, my CEO brain kicked in. I realized: If an automated bot thought my helpful comments were "spam," maybe I was doing something right. Maybe I was being too effective. The Lesson: Marketing vs. Helping Here is what I learned in 24 hours: Algorithms hate links. Even helpful ones. If you paste a URL 10 times, the bot doesn't care about your intent; it sees a pattern. Trust takes time. You can't force users; you have to earn them. The Story > The Link. People don't click links because they are forced to. They click because they connect with the story . The Pivot So, am I quitting? No. I'm pivoting. I'm turning this ban into this article. I'm going to focus on Dev.to , where the community values "Build in Public" stories. I'm going to ask my friends (Renuka, Dharaneesh) to be my first real users, face-to-face. And maybe, one day, I'll go back to SoloLearn with a smarter strategy: No links in comments. Just value in the bio. To Other Founders If you get blocked, rejected, or told "no" today: Don't stop. Turn that hurdle into content. Turn that rejection into a lesson. Turn that "Blocked" screen into your next viral post. Because while others see a wall, I see a story. And stories build empires. Try KODA anyway (no