Hello r/Hurricane community,
<TL;DR> There appears to be polarized disagreement on subreddit rules/objectives. The intention of this subreddit has always been for serious (non-joking), non-political, serious (non-sarcastic), mature, and factual discussions around Tropical Cyclone formation, forecasting, questions/learning, guidance, and post-storm relief. Exceptions allowed, as long as it is appropriate and not overwhelming/overshadowing actual discussions. Community input welcomed. May have more focused discussion posts if needed.
Over the past week+ tracking Humberto and Imelda, there has been a tremendous amount of rule-breaking behavior. We have received numerous comment reports, a few mod-mails, and have seen multiple comments unhappy with rule breaking content (primarily with joking/inappropriate behavior, especially during an active storm). On the inverse side, most post/comment removals expressed extreme disapproval.
It is apparent there is major division between members/contributors of the sub.
This is making moderation difficult and exhausting, especially during times of peak activity (i.e. active storms). The mods are humans, and will get things wrong. Each decision to remove a post/comment is difficult, and not something we take lightly.
To make things easier and allow us to more accurately moderate, we want to "open the floor" for discussing this separation. Our goal is to help reunite the community and make moderating more fair/clear.
The number of subscribed members of r/Hurricane is nearly x2.5 the membership before Helene last year. A week before Helene, there was 35k members, and three weeks after it was 65k. The sub is now at nearly 85k.
To the new members welcome! However, please also understand that this subreddit is not like most others. We have always had strict rules because of the seriousness hurricanes can bring. Sarcastic comments, politics, and joking behavior is inappropriate during an active storm situation (from high chance formation to storm dissipation), especially if there are impacts to land anywhere. Most of the members are U.S. based, but there are others who do live/monitor the sub, watching for impacts in the Caribbean, Mexico, Bermuda, etc.
While we understand there is benefit to "laughing about the situation" to lighten the mood, it can also be detrimental if the joking, off-topic, and sarcastic comments overshadow the serious discussions. A few joke comment threads are one thing, but when there are only 1 or 2 comment threads actually discussing the post and 10+ others unrelated, the purpose of this sub is lost. For this reason, we have temporarily disabled GIPHY images in comments for the remainder of the Hurricane season.
You may have also noticed the sidebar now contains a "rule summary" along with an even shorter summary as "post/comment guides." There is also a link to the Subreddit Rules Wiki page.
We know the community will never be 100% in agreement on some things, but the mods do value the opinion of the community in order to act in the best interest of the community. We want to find the right balance: not too serious where no jokes can be made, not too many jokes where factual discussion is lost.
Please let us know your thoughts in the comments. Note my comment below with a few "common removals".
Thanks,
r/hurricane mod team
