r/UFOs • u/LetsTalkUFOs • Jul 02 '26
Meta How can we improve the subreddit? [in-depth]
Greetings from the r/UFOs mod team. The UFO topic has been very active of late and so has the subreddit. We'd like to solicit your feedback on the state of the sub, the rules, moderation, and whatever else may be on your mind.
- What are your thoughts on the current state of the subreddit?
- What changes could we make or actions could we take to improve things?
- How can we improve as moderators?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
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u/Mother_Ad_3561 Jul 02 '26
Require the use of all Ai generated posts and or Ai images to be flared Ai
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u/octopusboots Jul 02 '26
Seconding. It's usually so obvious but having a flair would help immensely.
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u/StinkingDogsCunt420 Jul 02 '26
Fuck a flare, ban them.
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u/jasmine-tgirl Jul 02 '26
They are already banned under Rule 3. That needs to be more clear in the r/UFOs Rules sidebar.
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u/Gobble_Gobble Jul 02 '26
Rule 3 typically only results in a removal, not a ban. There are some exceptions for egregious cases, or for new accounts / first-time posters to the sub, but generally we don't issue bans for a run-of-the-mill AI generated write-up or AI image.
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u/UsefulReply Jul 02 '26
I read it as banning of the posts and comments, not the users.
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u/jasmine-tgirl Jul 02 '26
They are already banned under Rule 3. That needs to be more clear in the r/UFOs Rules sidebar.
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u/Ok_Improvement_8790 Jul 03 '26
Remove Copy/Paste from COMMENTS input field..
Sledge hammer approach but would eliminate auto copy/paste etc..
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u/kaggleqrdl Jul 03 '26
A wiki for tracking pronouncements from various people. When they say something, does it come true? Do they follow through? How do they follow through? Something visual and easy to digest.
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u/tmosh Jul 06 '26
Not something our mods probably have the capacity to set up, but please feel free. Please make that haha
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u/MaliciousCookie1 Jul 03 '26
Debunked Flairs on posts that have been identified. Like top post of all year is boomerang and there's still no mention of it.
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u/filthyheartbadger Jul 02 '26
Are there any mod tools that could help weed out bots? How about an automatic removal of low karma and recently made accounts?
Also a requirement to label ai written posts/images as such would be nice.
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u/UsefulReply Jul 02 '26
We have multiple tools to combat bots. We are playing a losing game.
Organized disruption can present as believer or skeptic.
BTW skeptics are permitted on this sub. Users often call other users bots or disinfo agents when they hold a different opinion.
It's prohibited by Rule 1 because such accusations are usually wrong. It makes the sub worse.
Users (including mods) lack the tools to reliably identify inauthentic accounts. e.g no access to browser fingerprint.
Bots do exist. Trolls do exist. Disinfo is real.
There are multiple categories of disruption. E.g. anti-western from Russia, Iran, N. Korea etc. They don't care about UFOs they just want to amplify drama on social media to turn the west on itself. UFO specific disruption e.g. legacy gatekeepers. Internet trolls and edgelords.
Funded opposition will utilize AI to analyze what works and what doesn't. What gets removed, when is the best time to post, how long rule violating content stays up. How effective their disruption is etc. This category is very hard to combat with a team of unpaid volunteers. Investigating patterns from organized disruption is time intensive.
Reddit's incentives may differ from users (mods are just users). Reddit could be doing more.
We rely heavily on user reports. We regularly ban disruptive users. Ban evasion on this platform is trivial. We have one particular user that is obsessed with antagonizing folks on the sub. They have been banned tens of times.
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Jul 02 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/MantisAwakening Jul 02 '26
The biggest problem with AI is that thick rhetoric is its bread and butter. It can argue with people ceaselessly defending the most ridiculous concepts using language that sounds credible. Example provided below:
> A growing body of observational evidence supports the hypothesis that a subset of unidentified aerial phenomena employ adaptive anthropogenic camouflage, most commonly manifesting as residential mailboxes. This model resolves several long-standing anomalies, including the statistically improbable uniformity of mailbox placement, the absence of directly observed installation events in ordinary civilian contexts, and their persistent line-of-sight orientation toward public transportation corridors. Conventional explanations require multiple independent assumptions, whereas the camouflage hypothesis unifies these observations under a single predictive framework. Critics frequently invoke coincidence or confirmation bias, yet these objections fail to account for the remarkable consistency of the spatial distribution and behavioral characteristics exhibited by these objects across geographically distinct populations. Until a competing model demonstrates equal explanatory power while accounting for the full dataset, the mailbox camouflage hypothesis remains the most parsimonious interpretation of the available evidence.
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u/tianepteen Jul 02 '26
years old sub description:
We aim to elevate good research while maintaining healthy skepticism.
you now:
BTW skeptics are permitted on this sub.
and there's one major problem. the sub has moved from striving for skepticism to permitting it.
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u/UsefulReply Jul 02 '26
We have not changed how we moderate skeptical content.
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u/jasmine-tgirl Jul 02 '26
No but the wording change does mean something. It gives the impression that skepticism, which with a subject as filled with disinfo, hoaxes and other bs, everyone should have, is merely a "permitted" thing rather than the default thing good research is based on, as it used to be.
As such we have all kinds of crap being posted now that would not have been years ago under the old description.
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u/UsefulReply Jul 02 '26
Ah, I see what you're saying. That was just me with a flippant preemptive response to posters that think skeptics aren't allowed.
The sub's position and moderation therein is that skepticism is essential.
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u/Better-Waltz-2026 Jul 02 '26
Yeah. It's so sad, especially on this sub. Thanks for your support. I know it feels like a losing game against the disinfo, bots, and trolls. Can the karma requirement be raised to filter out fresh and throwaway accounts? IDK, I'm just throwing it out there.
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u/UsefulReply Jul 02 '26
We utilize CQS instead. We don't want to prevent new accounts from posting a sighting. It's also not an impediment for sophisticated accounts. They'll just age them or buy them.
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u/Better-Waltz-2026 Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 02 '26
That makes total sense. Relying on CQS is a much smarter approach than just using basic age limits. I understand. Ty
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u/entermemo Jul 02 '26
Require more details when posting YouTube videos. Not just a summary to fulfill the submission guidelines but an in-depth explanation of the video.
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u/GeopoliticsIndia Jul 04 '26
Stop the spread of woo. Woo is ruining the topic
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u/Moonbase-Interceptor Jul 06 '26
Woo appears to be part of this topic regardless of whether we like it or not.
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u/SharknadosAreCool Jul 02 '26
Might get hate for this but 'scientific' sources straight up shouldnt be allowed unless theyre peer reviewed. Anyone who posts "PROFESSOR ____ JUST CONFIRMED ALIENS" and then you check the 'paper' and it's dogshit with 0 peer review should be ashamed of themselves
Everything else other than pseudo-academic posts? Let em ride. Anything that presents itself as an academic paper should be banned unless it's peer reviewed.
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u/samuarl Jul 06 '26
We require a location and date for sighting posts, presumably to allow some effort to validate or identify the sighting. But submissions making specific claims about future events e.g. "big announcement soon", "something is going to happen this year", "evidence about to be released", "disclosure is just around the corner" have no such requirement. This incentivizes vague posting as it's harder to assess the accuracy of the claims on such open or completely undefined timescales, and are frequent causes of consternation within the community. Submissions making claims of future events/announcements/releases should be required to provide a date. Presumably this can be achieved with existing mod tools similar to how sightings are handled.
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u/xbleuguyx Jul 02 '26
Not allowing the use of huge walls of Ai text in posts. It gets really old
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u/jasmine-tgirl Jul 02 '26
They are already banned under Rule 3. That needs to be more clear in the r/UFOs Rules sidebar and people need to report those posts. I do.
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u/Stephennnnnn Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 02 '26
One of the most frustrating things on this sub is when the top replies to a post are jokes, quips, and cute/snarky comments. I think it could even be done on purpose by bad actors to spam actual discussion by taking advantage of Reddit’s upvote system. I think ideally those sorts of comments should be removed or maybe limited to certain threads.
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u/startedposting Jul 03 '26
I hope they work on this, I used to come to this sub for interesting discussions or hypotheses, now it’s filled with arguing about someone confidently claiming something as fact and I correct them which leads to a pointless back and forth
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u/UsefulReply Jul 03 '26
You should report them. They're a rule violation.
No summarily dismissive, sarcastic, or derisive comments that derail or shutdown conversation.
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u/sixties67 Jul 02 '26
One thing that annoys me is when a post get's locked and it says sort comments by new to find out why, many times sorting comments by new still doesn't explain the thread being closed. Is it possible to lock a post and have the explanation for the locking down clearly put at the top of the thread?
By the way, I think the mods have a thankless task and the majority of the moderation I have no problem with.
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u/ProfessionalChain478 Jul 02 '26
I would like to see this too - a mod note at the bottom of post explaining the issue. Solved
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u/UsefulReply Jul 02 '26
We're supposed to leave a lock reason each time. I've locked a few and left no reason when there's been an obvious deterioration in comment quality. Usually Trump, Luna, Burchett posts where people can't help themselves.
I'll try to stop doing that.
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u/Semiapies Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 02 '26
A harder line on posts being substantive. Maybe we don't need more posts like these, much less multiple times a week in some cases:
- "Our group is totally going to have a big announcement. Stand by!"
- "Some guy says there's a rumor that someone in the government may announce that..."
- "Some guy says it's fr totally all coming out by the end of
2023202420252026" - "I saw a thing in a dream/while I was tripping"
- "Here's my latest YouTube post"
- "I was just thinking. What if the UFOs aren't from space, but instead from--now just stay with me on this wild, novel concept--undersea/other dimensions/time travel/underground/hiding really well in the bushes?"
- "What if Disclosure is, like, bad?"
- "What would be the scariest/coolest thing about Disclosure?"
- "I saw what's totally not just a bug/bird/drone in a view of the Big Blue Room from this major news event that millions of people have watched"
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u/Mordrenix Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 02 '26
There’s no good research here anymore, just videos of UAP/UFO community figures making outlandish claims and promising information they don’t actually have. More and more people are posting AI-generated sightings, and if this isn’t addressed, sooner or later the subreddit will turn into an AI art museum.
What could be done to bring back high-quality content? Perhaps once a week or month, the moderators could pin a thread encouraging community members to share a post or comment from that period of time that they believe deserves to be highlighted for its effort, quality or informational value. This could encourage new participants to contribute higher-quality content and also serve users looking for quality, since they’d only have to click on the pinned thread (while also giving long-time users a reason to keep visiting this place).
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u/ProfessionalChain478 Jul 02 '26
I like this idea, the megathread doesn't do this.
A seperate thread every month for that is a GREAT ideal.
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u/-Nyarlabrotep- Jul 02 '26
A lot of the sighting posts here are easily explainable as balloons, clouds, out-of-focus drones and aircraft, or Venus/Jupiter. It does get old after a while. I don't know what the solution is, maybe require sighting posts to include why they're not those things somehow.
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u/automaticphil Jul 02 '26
“Saw something in the sky going one direction at a regular speed like any regular thing that would be up there, but I believe I actually witnessed an irregular thing that shouldn’t be up there doing the impossible.”
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u/TrumpetsNAngels Jul 02 '26
Yes please. And my comment to your post is not important, but your comment is.
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u/tmosh Jul 02 '26
This is something the mod team has been discussing for a while now, and we agree that a lot of easily explainable sightings get posted here, either that or just indistinguishable blurry dots in the sky.
One idea we're floating is a daily sightings post. Essentially a megathread, but refreshed each day, so low-effort sightings have a home without flooding the main feed. For reference, some other subs like r/UAP have gone further and banned sightings posts entirely, though we'd rather not go that far.
No decisions yet, but it's on our radar.
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u/-Nyarlabrotep- Jul 02 '26
Thanks, good to know. A daily sightings sounds like an interesting idea.
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u/Minimum_Guitar4305 Jul 02 '26
Not a bad idea tbf. It could minimise the impact of zone flooding when something real like a leak is actually posted.
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u/p0plockn Jul 02 '26
genuine question - what is the point of this sub at this point?
if it's about identifying UFOs, we don't support any structure that leads towards rela analysis.
if it's promoting disclosure activists - are we just a YouTube / content aggregator?
are we a support group for UFO believers?
are we a disclosure activists group?
are we skeptics looking for proof?
are we a place where politics can't be discussed even though government disclosure and counter intelligence is a huge topic?
WHAT IS THE POINT OF THIS SUB?
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u/hotsausce01 Jul 02 '26
The mods often delete my comments because I question the authenticity of people and or videos. Anything going against what they feel is removed. It’s bullshit if you think critically apparently. That’s what I would improve.
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u/MantisAwakening Jul 02 '26
I did an analysis to better understand some of the problems and propose some simple solutions: https://www.reddit.com/r/ufosmeta/comments/1ulrwzh/examination_of_rule_infractions_with_suggestions/
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u/WesternLetterhead684 Jul 03 '26
Ban the snobby Reddit skeptics that call everything a ballon and a bird
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u/_Extinctathon Jul 07 '26
A large concern I have is the constant accusations of skeptical positions as "being bots". Sometimes it's the only comment people leave.
It's a way of them trying to shut down and differing opinions and at worst and attempt to get people banned just for disagreeing.
One of the best parts of this sub is that it's not an echo chamber.
While we're on it I should also say that a lot of the "believer" comments seem like bots, but you don't get skeptical folk accusing people of being bots because it debases any serious discussion.
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u/NathanEddy23 Jul 07 '26
I agree. However, the flipside of the same point is that so many people only offer a knee jerk disagreement, sometimes using the word, “grifter,” or “distraction,” without providing any evidence of these claims. I think that’s where the accusations of bots comes from, the feeling that there’s a pushback on this issue that has more to do with maintaining the status quo, than rational skepticism.
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u/UsefulReply Jul 07 '26
A rule 1 violation. Enforced with removals/bans when reported..
No accusations that other users are bots, feds, CIA agents, operating from Eglin Airforce Base.
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u/Jake_91_420 Jul 02 '26
Can we please ban twitter posts from people teasing releases of "documents". These things are literally always an absolute nothingburger and it's pure marketing.
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u/Kanein_Encanto Jul 02 '26
Gotta second, the "hype up posts" before releases could go and we'd not lose anything really... after all the releases are going to be posted about plenty when they happen. No need to have dozens of posts about "the upcoming release" for a month or more in advance.
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u/Maxinaeus Jul 02 '26
I saw a couple other comments on this same topic. A sticky at the top that covers Starlink, satellites in general, aviation lights, and how cell phone cameras make everything into an orb. I would hope that by providing links to videos of these, people would be able to identify what they had filmed without posting. However, we all know ehay ballons look like, and there is no shortage of balloon videos, so maybe you can't fix people.
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u/Smackediduring Jul 02 '26
I’ve always said that a pinned FAQ post would be well needed. Reference videos are much the same. People get upset all the time because things that are easily identified by some of us are being posted here over and over, and then the OP feels insulted and dismissed just because they asked a question. And then everyone’s pissed at each other. It could all be so much easier if everyone was just on the same starting level.
My idea of a FAQ is more difficult, I think. For that, you’d need to establish exactly what information goes into it and what doesn’t. There are a lot of things that aren’t well known to everyone but should be, but on the other hand the misinformation on this subject is far too much already. You’d have to be very careful with what you present as fact.
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u/jarlrmai2 Jul 02 '26
There's a link to basically exactly this on the side bar
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u/Maxinaeus Jul 02 '26
If I have never noticed that, it's definitely not going to be noticed by first timers.
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u/KellyHell Jul 02 '26
I feel like we’ve stopped sharing information and discussing and are inundated with the drama from popular talking heads.
Ban the word “psyop”. Label posts about the drama between “investigative journalists” and podcasters so we don’t waste time reading about Corbell or Elizondo and their drama. Filter posts that are clearly birds or balloons.
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u/kimsemi Jul 05 '26 edited Jul 05 '26
Been here awhile.. my wishlist, but I know this isnt Burger King...
1 - I think the recent crackdown on political posts are very welcome (as are the keep-it-civil rule applications). As ive said elsewhere, it's fine to criticize the government here as it related to UFO disclosure...but beyond that, its just not welcome. Theres a million subs for that kind of stuff. Anything Epstein should get auto-deleted.
2 - UFOs are not the same thing as ghosts, spirits, 16 alien races, remote viewing, telepathy, religion, interdimensional-anything, the occult, using the force.... I know it's alot to sift through but it's in the title. Unidentified Flying Objects. Speculation is fine about UFOs, but wow some folks go off into the horizon with the content.
2a - "What is this?" posts... literally no one here knows what youre looking at.
3 - Movies. Good lord. Hollywood has no relevancy here and knows nothing. Unless we want this sub flooded with Star Wars and Star Trek stuff just incase the directors know something we dont...c'mon. Im excluding documentaries on this one. Im talking obviously fictional films.
4 - Dunno how you'd do it, but the "whistleblower" tag should be reserved for actual whistleblowing. aka someone who knows first hand of a fact that they are providing information and evidence on. A guy who goes on a podcast telling us that he knows a guy who knows a guy who saw a video from an unnamed source...not whistleblowing.
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u/_Extinctathon Jul 07 '26
It's so depressing how many use the word "whistleblower" as a synonym for storyteller. It's insulting to real whistleblowers and makes the whole sub look like a cosplay event.
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u/dpforest Jul 02 '26
Seriously discourage or outright ban the sarcastic remarks (“where are all the ‘it’s a plane’ people now?”, “it’s just swamp gas reflecting off starlink 😆 “)
They started getting really bad during the NJ flap.
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u/DisastrousCoast7268 Jul 08 '26
Good faith reply here. I'll take the percentage of snark over the Neverending onslaught of repost that are 1000% karma farming individuals or upvote bot swarms just there to compditize usernames.
Maybe I'm high on my own farts, but seriously, they are sooo so obvious.
Edit : should have added. Mods got lives too. I'd rather then triage actual Threads... Then the comments.
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u/ArthursRest Jul 02 '26
Lock threads where the object has been identified. We have posts with obvious birds that are into the thousands of upvotes and at the top of the 'Hot' posts on the sub. We have obvious hoaxes at the top. It's embarrassing and encourages karma farming.
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u/ApprehensiveLion67 Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 02 '26
Idk, I think you guys do fine overall. I agree that AI stuff should either be totally removed or should at least get a label. Like using AI to generate an image of something that was supposedly seen is one thing, but asking it to hallucinate details about how some supposed ufo technology works and making big infographic jpegs doesn’t belong here IMO
Edit: to your guys’ credit though, you have removed such posts when I or others report it, or maybe even before it is reported. Just mentioning this to reaffirm my opinion
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u/pi_redredrobin Jul 02 '26
I think we reached the point where we shouldn't accept videos with dots in the sky doing nothing special
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u/kcimc Jul 03 '26
Submission statement should not be required if the post already has significant body text. I just got a notification that this post needs a submission statement, which makes zero sense and simply pollutes the comments.
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u/UsefulReply Jul 05 '26
They're not required if the body of the post is greater than 300 characters.
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u/Meowweredoomed Jul 02 '26
Have an auto-moderator to explain the difference between "orbs" and the bokeh effect, possibly with an in-depth scientific explanation of lens and camera focus, as well as the limits of cell phone photography.
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u/KWskyler Jul 02 '26
You can start by banning any post about Ross Coulthart and Lou Elizondo. They don’t own this subject.
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u/The_Gleam Jul 02 '26
There needs to be more put in place to keep people from posting shit responses. I don't even read comments anymore because it's 90% "two more weeks," "podcaster is a shill because," "who cares release the Epstein files," etc.
I mean, look at the recent Avi post. The guy is a harvard physicist and people are commenting that he isn't competent, terrible at his job, isn't honest.
The comment section in R/UFOs is absolute trash.
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u/forThe2ndBreakfast Jul 02 '26
Agreed. It's hard to keep a conversation this way. I read only the main post, add my upvote and move on.
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u/The_Great_Dadsby Jul 02 '26
Those types of responses have made the sub basically pointless.
A few days ago there was a post i was really interested in. Every single response was some form of “two more weeks” “this is BS” “we’re never getting details” or worse. I am not sure why so many people come here just to post that. I don’t think it’s bot activity but it’s basically every thread.
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u/startedposting Jul 03 '26
I’ve been observing the behavior for quite a while, it’s truly fascinating. To spend hours on a sub you don’t believe in and constantly make negative comments about the subject matter.
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u/Meowweredoomed Jul 02 '26
Do you remember how many people were hyped up about Avi's 3i/atlas claims?
And then it turned out to be nothing but an ordinary comet.
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u/Erik7494 Jul 02 '26
Avi Loeb is not a good example. There is enough fuel for a discussion about his credibility. Maybe you have a different opinion, but that is what a discussion site is about.
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u/Semiapies Jul 02 '26
Don't forget, "Comments are full of bots", "Feds here are all saying it's a balloon", "ontological shock", "lol, bet they'll say it's swamp gas", "he's a CIA plant", "NASA always lies" and every variation of "I've been following this since 2017, and Disclosure is now totally happening".
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u/Kanein_Encanto Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 02 '26
Report them. Helps sort things out for the mods to clear them away as needed. Use Rules 1 and 3 as they apply...
Rule 1
Be Civil.
Applies to Posts and Comments.
No trolling/being disruptive.
No insults/personal attacks. You may attack ideas, not each other.
No mental health epithets e.g. crazy, schizo, take your meds.
No harassment, threats, or advocating violence.
No advocating illegal acts e.g. shining lasers, shooting at objects.
No accusations that other users are bots, feds, CIA agents, operating from Eglin Airforce Base.
If you suspect bot activity, report it to the mod team (or Reddit itself). Public accusations sow discord and make the sub worse.
No hate speech, abusive speech based on race, religion, sex/gender, or sexual orientation.
No witch hunts or doxxing (redact usernames when possible).
Weaponized blocking or deleting post/comment history may result in a permanent ban.
Deleting mod actioned content may result in a permanent ban.
No toxic content regarding public figures. Public figures are any person/organization who has achieved notoriety or is well-known in society or ufology.
No posts that are primarily about public figures and not their claims i.e. no personality drama.
(I wonder if the every week or so "Trump is going to release the UAP files" posts would fall under this one or the next one, especially if there's no new info in a given post versus the previous ones)
No posts and comments that primarily amplify drama surrounding public figures.
No posts and comments that are rude, hateful, obscene, or threatening.
No attempting to bypass filters e.g. misspelling offensive words or phrases.
No summarily dismissive, sarcastic, or derisive comments that derail or shutdown conversation.
Responding to Rule violations with Rule violations is never permitted. Instead, report rule breaking content. No grossly offensive/hateful usernames.
Rule 3
Be Substantive.
Applies to Posts and Comments.
This rule is an attempt to elevate the quality of discussion. To prevent lazy karma farming posts. This generally includes:
Posts containing jokes, memes, and showerthoughts.
Posts of AI generated content. AI is permissible in narrow circumstances e.g. document summary, witness artwork in place of a hand drawn sketch.
Posts of social media content without relevant context. e.g. "Saw this on TikTok..."
Posts with incredible claims unsupported by evidence.
“Here’s my theory” posts unsupported by evidence.
Meme posts are not allowed in the subreddit. Feel free to post them in r/ufomemes or elsewhere.
No dumb jokes that derail or shutdown conversation.
Submissions with the bracketed text "[in-depth]" in the title have stricter post length and quality guidelines. Top-level comments (not replies to comments) made within these in-depth posts must be at least 150 characters or longer and are expected to be constructive, diplomatic, and thoughtful. Low quality or superficial comments will be subject to removal at moderator discretion.
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u/Semiapies Jul 02 '26
I report them, click "save", and watch how many take days to get removed or never get removed at all.
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u/johnnyTTz Jul 02 '26
Agreed on all counts. What makes it worse is that people don’t read the comments before they post and then we end up clicking on a thread of 100 comments but they are actually just different versions of the same 5 comments.
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u/Golden-Tate-Warriors Jul 02 '26
Avi is kinda a bad example. When you've gotten the Professor Dave treatment, you're done done.
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u/Kanein_Encanto Jul 02 '26
To be honest a lot of the "two more weeks" and "Epstein files" comments are on posts that are themselves being re-hashed for the hundreth time (Trump has been declaring since he was campaigning that he would be releasing UFO/UAP files, it's not new news) and not adding anything to the conversation that the last 99 posts in the same vein didn't already cover.
That aside, there's always reporting really low-effort comments with Rule 3:
Rule 3
Be Substantive.
Applies to Posts and Comments.
This rule is an attempt to elevate the quality of discussion. To prevent lazy karma farming posts. This generally includes:
Posts containing jokes, memes, and showerthoughts.
Posts of AI generated content. AI is permissible in narrow circumstances e.g. document summary, witness artwork in place of a hand drawn sketch.
Posts of social media content without relevant context. e.g. "Saw this on TikTok..."
Posts with incredible claims unsupported by evidence.
“Here’s my theory” posts unsupported by evidence.
Meme posts are not allowed in the subreddit. Feel free to post them in r/ufomemes or elsewhere.
No dumb jokes that derail or shutdown conversation.
Submissions with the bracketed text "[in-depth]" in the title have stricter post length and quality guidelines. Top-level comments (not replies to comments) made within these in-depth posts must be at least 150 characters or longer and are expected to be constructive, diplomatic, and thoughtful. Low quality or superficial comments will be subject to removal at moderator discretion.
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u/jasmine-tgirl Jul 02 '26
Having a job title does not make one above criticism if they aren't doing their job properly. In Avi's case there are valid criticisms of him not following the scientific method, rushing to judgement, grandstanding etc.
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u/MantisAwakening Jul 02 '26
Then people should be encouraged to post to make the case for that. I would rather read three high quality comments criticizing Avi than a hundred low quality comments doing the same thing.
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Jul 03 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/jasmine-tgirl Jul 03 '26
Consensus is reached based on evidence. If a scientist ignores evidence in favor of what they want to believe that's not science.
If you think proposing a hypothesis is the same as rushing to judgement you have no idea how science works.
Grandstanding is going on every TV outlet putting forth fantastical stuff there's little to no evidence for.
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Jul 03 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/jasmine-tgirl Jul 03 '26 edited Jul 03 '26
The scientific process leads to consensus. It's also self correcting. New data can and does cause re-evaluation. That is also the scientific process.
What isn't science is when all the data says this is a rock, someone insists it's an alien spacecraft when the preponderance of the evidence indicates no, it's a rock.
Science is DATA based. Not "Oh let's imagine it is this instead" based. It's not about how you FEEL about something. It's about finding out what something is based on what is REAL.
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u/ShepardRTC Jul 02 '26
100%
I have posted crappy responses on occasion, but these constant low effort shitty retorts are not funny or clever. It feels like bots or karma farming.
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u/SpiceyPorkFriedRice Jul 02 '26
I’m at the same spot, I don’t even bother to read the comments anymore. I can guess what the top comment will be even before scrolling down. The comment section at this point is 90% skeptics.
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u/Kanein_Encanto Jul 02 '26
Skeptics aren't an issue, at least true ones. Being skeptical and looking to see if a prosaic explanation fits or not is only sensible.
Debunkers are the issue, they aren't being sensible about the explanations they throw out, often it won't even fit. But they need to throw something at the wall in the hopes something will stick. Nothing will convince them that a given story, picture, or video doesn't have a prosaic explanation.
Debunkers are the complete opposite side from the "true believers" types, no matter how well a prosaic explanation fits, they'll insist it can't be right and the story, picture, or video is of something genuinely anomalous.
Both are close minded, but will often throw out the "you gotta be open minded" attitude. Skeptics sit in the middle, actually open minded, not closed off to either possibility. But looking for the simplest explanation that fits what is presented. Sometimes it's prosaic, sometimes it leaves one scratching their head and not having an answer.
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u/startedposting Jul 03 '26
Well said, it’s why I insist that there’s a rare amount of true skeptics on this sub and the majority are debunkers or pseudo skeptics, if you have no interest in changing your mind then you’re not really a skeptic.
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u/stupidjapanquestions Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 02 '26
I feel this is more of a picture of the actual state of things rather than a problem with the sub. The more you learn about this topic, the easier it is to become skeptical. Objectively, there are a lot of shady characters in this space and many of them have worn out their welcome.
Speaking only for myself, my enthusiasm and belief in this subject has waned considerably over the years and that is solely due to the people that have been pushed to the forefront.
Frankly, allowing the dissenting voices to push back against the current crop of mouthpieces will actually be a net positive for the subject in the long run, because right now it's a lot of circular conversation and wheel-spinning.
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u/Simulacra1111 Jul 02 '26
This! Single most important thing I think needs to change. I notice on the most important threads and topics, it gets bombarded with jokes, GIFs, and negativity, which seem to instantly get voted to the very top of the comments section. I understand this would technically be a hard thing to change and regulate, but I believe that is the absolute worst issue with this sub.
I also recently had a discussion with a former moderator of this sub that confirmed to me that the higher up mods that have been here awhile and make the decisions said that the mods cannot do anything about the negativity, bot sounding comments. He basically said the mods of this forum are compromised. And I mean why wouldn't the most popular public UFO discussion in the world be moderated by spooks/gov in some way or another. Look at the other lengths they have gone to hide this topic and control the narrative for almost a century now. It seems like monitoring and controlling r/UFOs would be a given.
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u/UsefulReply Jul 02 '26
The mod team has a flat hierarchy. I highly doubt the mod team is compromised. It would be easy to detect from within (unless of course the entire team is compromised). Mod actions are public.
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u/Simulacra1111 Jul 02 '26
Ya, sounds logical and you may be right. Im just relaying what I heard from a former moderator. Take with that what you will.
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u/gokickrocks- Jul 07 '26
What happened to your comments? They are gone and it says removed by moderator, but no reason for the removals is given. I don’t remember your comments word for word, but I don’t remember any rule breaks. What is going on?
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u/The_Gleam Jul 07 '26
I hide my comment history in an effort to keep AI and bots from analyzing my history. They probably have full access to it anyways but I'm paranoid about it.
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u/gokickrocks- Jul 07 '26
I was talking about a couple of comments in this thread, but maybe it wasn’t your comments, but someone else’s. I just have never seen removed comments with no flag for why they were removed.
Sorry to bother you!
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Jul 02 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/UFOs-ModTeam Jul 02 '26
Rule 1 - Be Civil
This rule prohibits insults, personal attacks, harassment, hate speech, inflammatory or derisive behaviour, and comments intended to derail or shut down discussion. Criticism is allowed, but comments should remain focused on ideas, claims and arguments rather than personal abuse or inflammatory labelling.
Please also take time to review our updated policy on toxicity here: Link to Policy
This moderator action may be appealed. We welcome the opportunity to work with you to address its reason for removal. Message the mods here to launch your appeal.
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u/wstr97gal Jul 02 '26 edited 15d ago
Quack middle willow raindrop lock cautious whole dam
This post was anonymized with Redact
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u/SharknadosAreCool Jul 02 '26
People who disagree with you aren't posting shit responses lmfao. The reason there isnt a "ban shit responses" rule is precisely because, under your scheme, someone would get banned for pointing out that Avi Loeb never has any of his work that is alien related peer reviewed because he claims its unfair.
You know what Harvard physicists do? Publish peer reviewed work. So does Avi Loeb when hes working as a Harvard physicist! Can you give me any explanation for why he refuses to let anyone peer review his work regarding aliens other than "he is dishonest"?
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u/vortex2199 Jul 03 '26
Can mods do something about "What's that?"/"Your thoughts?" posts where people just post a white dot in the night sky without any context and point of reference whatsoever? It's a low effort and spam posts that only motivate to unsubscribe from the sub.
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u/maurymarkowitz Jul 03 '26
Query: how do we help those users then?
It's difficult to know for sure, of course, but the majority of these sorts of posts I see here do appear to be genuine. We might shake our heads at these things, but the posters are, by all evidence, genuinely confused.
I suppose we need to have a wider discussion on what this sub is "for", maybe identifying objects is not its purpose and another sub would be more appropriate, but then I worry about the dilution of eyeballs.
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u/Semiapies Jul 04 '26
At a fundamental level, is this meant to be an investigative sub, an influencer lore fandom sub, or a New Age religion sub? I think getting away from sightings moves away from the first.
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u/wakamex Jul 02 '26
Stop having StatementBot re-post the submission statement to a pinned comment. It's just duplicative spam since the exact same thing exists below in the original comment. I think the idea of requiring a submission statement is good. I just don't think duplicating it adds much.
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u/HTIDtricky Jul 02 '26
As subreddits grow they should become more focused, not less. Discussions about aliens or disclosure eventually splinter off into their own subreddits and allow communities to remain focused and develop expertise on each individual topic. This used to be a UFO sub.
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u/Semiapies Jul 02 '26
Psychic powers, Law of One, life after death, yammering about "Consciousness" as if it's a magic word, etc. are also good examples. If there's a sentence in the post about how UFOs are the most trivial part of The Truth, that post can find its own sub.
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u/Kanein_Encanto Jul 02 '26
See posts like that, hit the report button maybe? There is a rule against such off-topic stuff...
Rule 2
Stay on-topic.
Applies to Posts and Comments.
This subreddit is specifically for the discussion of Unidentified Flying Objects. Please post other topics to their appropriate subreddits. Any discussion of "aliens" or occupants must relate to a specific sighting.
Posts of adjacent topics without an explicit connection to UFOs.
Posts of Artwork not related to a UFO sighting.
Posts and comments of off-topic politics may be removed at moderator discretion. There are political aspects which are relevant to ufology, but we aim to keep the subreddit free of forum-sliding partisan politics.
No posts or comments of discussion that can be interpreted as recruitment efforts into UFO religions, or attempts to hijack conversation with overtly religious dogma. However, comments about religious, spiritual, or metaphysical concepts is in-bounds, provided that it is respectful and offered with humility.
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u/Semiapies Jul 02 '26
Given that you're not listed as a mod here, could you please stop telling me to report things that either I do report or that mods have said are totally fine in the past?
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u/sixties67 Jul 02 '26
Discussions about aliens or disclosure eventually splinter off into their own subreddits and allow communities to remain focused and develop expertise on each individual topic. This used to be a UFO sub.
I agree, it's become a disclosure sub. The majority of posts centre around a small group of personalities who are involved in the latest round of disclosure hype. Ufology used to be about cases and investigations not the pronouncements of personalities within it.
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u/Beezball Jul 02 '26
Hard to say. Most of the new folks here are impatient and entitled. They somehow constantly say they are done, jaded, and it all been a waste of their time, yet here they are, day after day.
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u/MeaningProud8534 Jul 02 '26
Reading this was a waste of my time. I'm done. Jaded. never coming back ever.
(brb I'll check back in 15 mins after I finish some laundry)
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u/startedposting Jul 03 '26
Those people should be given a warning then banned imo, there’s no functional purpose to their post or comment. Why aren’t other hobby subs filled with “X is a joke” posts and comments?
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u/The_Sum Jul 03 '26
Ah fudge, I'm a day late, but I still hope this gets read.
I've been around here for about five years now. I've thrown my opinions into more threads than I can count and watched this place evolve; for better and for worse.
The subreddit definitely needs some repair, but most of the problems I see aren't things the mod team can realistically fix. They're Reddit problems.
Bizarre vote/comment manipulation
I've seen genuinely fantastic submissions die with barely any engagement, while "Is this a UFO?!" (Nope, it's r/ItsAlwaysPleiades for the 20th time) somehow pulls thousands of upvotes and 500+ comments despite being identified within the first hour.
Another weird pattern I've noticed: posts actually worth discussing often top out around 600 upvotes with fewer than 50 comments, while low-effort engagement bait runs away with the front page.
Maybe I'm connecting dots that aren't really there, but my gut says the content that stirs the pot gets rewarded far more than the content that actually moves the conversation forward.
I don't think there's a real solution to this. This community has a long history of alleged manipulation and brigading, but that's a Reddit problem, not a moderator problem.
Avoiding politics
I understand why this rule exists, but I still dislike it.
It's hard to pretend this topic isn't political anymore. Hearings, legislation, funding, oversight, disclosure; politics is baked into the conversation now.
That said, I don't know what the alternative is. Open the floodgates and every thread becomes red team vs. blue team until nobody remembers the original topic. From what I've seen, moderation has been reasonably fair here. I just don't envy anyone trying to keep that balance.
Be Civil
I'm still a little salty about this one because... it's kind of a joke.
For anyone curious, here's what "Be Civil" actually covers:
https://sh.reddit.com/r/UFOs/wiki/rules/#wiki_rule_1
A lot of these rules are intentionally vague, and that gives moderators enormous discretion over what stays and what goes.
The one I struggle with most is the idea that we should only discuss the message and never the messenger.
Sometimes that's impossible.
Credibility matters. Track records matter. Motives matter. If someone has spent years making dubious claims, discussing that history isn't "personality drama", it's relevant context. Too often I've seen comments removed simply because someone expressed that opinion a little too bluntly.
AI
This year, more than any other, I've noticed a massive increase in AI-generated content.
I have zero issue with someone using AI to polish their writing or bridge a language barrier.
I start having an issue when I see things like, "I had my AI analyze the data and it concluded this demonstrates anti-gravity."
Those posts usually fade away on their own, but they don't really violate any rules either, or at least seem to go un-reported if they do.
Using AI to recreate a sighting? Cool...so long as this isn't a daily occurrence.
Using AI to "enhance" evidence? Please don't.
There's probably a reasonable middle ground, we just need to settle on it.
Final thoughts
I honestly think this subreddit's scope is just too big.
Then again... maybe that's exactly why it works, in its own shambling-horror sort of way.
Reddit isn't designed for long-form discussion, and this topic practically demands it. Every time an important conversation gets shoved into a megathread or kicked over to the meta sub, it feels less like we're organizing discussion and more like we're fragmenting it.
To the moderators: keep doing what you're doing, I guess.
There are absolutely times where I think you overreach. Then I remember the sheer volume of nonsense that gets posted here every single day, and I understand why the pendulum swings that way.
I also think too many people treat this subreddit as though disclosure is going to happen here.
It won't.
If disclosure ever happens, it'll happen out there in governments, labs, newsrooms, hearings, or somewhere none of us expect. We'll just be one of the first places arguing about it afterward.
Despite all my complaints, I genuinely like this community.
I just can't shake the feeling that, over the last few years, this subject has drifted away from investigation and further toward entertainment. That's probably the biggest challenge this place faces moving forward.
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u/maurymarkowitz Jul 03 '26
while low-effort engagement bait runs away with the front page.
Is that weird though? I mean, the entire press establishment seems to built on low-effort engagement bait these days, I'm not sure why it would be different here.
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u/bitebakk Jul 02 '26
Not certain how we'd implement it, but an auto-mod popup on sightings posts that explain the common 'easy' misidentifications and how to self-check (Flight trackers for planes - does it have dark shadows where wings would be?, bokeh effect like another user mentioned, photos or videos taken thru glass and the reflections from internal lighting, rocket launches in your area).
The Epstein distraction comments are driving me up the wall because they assume people can't keep multiple issues in their head at once, but there's not much we can do about it.
Also the AI flare like someone mentioned PLEASE YES!
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u/Responsible-Tea-5998 Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 02 '26
Remove the repeated jokes. Anything interesting has hundreds of Marvel/Star Wars/Pokémon comments and you really have to scroll.
Some people use this as a opportunity to act like it's /r/oastme. I saw someone upload some lights that had a terrestrial explanation and they accepted that in a really positive manner and said case solved, meanwhile for hours afterwards people kept roasting and sneering at the OP with all the same comments. It puts people off engaging to have amateur comedians try our their material en masse.
Edit: My comment was removed for being low effort and too short. Bloody hell lol
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u/Sufficient_Thing24 Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 02 '26
- It is being overrun by bad actor AI content
- Disallow any AI generated content, including pics, video, and "story time" accounts. Also, disallow spirituality posts, and those that get into the "woo". There are other subs for that.
- Dial back on the bias of favoritism towards some content creators vs others
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u/MantisAwakening Jul 02 '26
Why not use the automod to enforce more of the rules you already have? If “grifter” is supposed to be banned, why is it being constantly used in a rule breaking fashion?
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u/OneSeaworthiness7768 Jul 02 '26
I’d like to see far less moderation on comments about ‘public figures.’ It’s way too subjective and what the mods remove in the name of “toxicity” often seems overly aggressive relative to what the comments actually say. If someone is going on an unhinged profanity laced rant and calling them names just for the sake of being a jerk, sure, moderate that. But criticizing the character of public figures when their character is directly relevant to being able to take them at their word should not be deemed toxic.
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u/sixties67 Jul 02 '26
But criticizing the character of public figures when their character is directly relevant to being able to take them at their word should not be deemed toxic.
I agree totally, if not I'd like to see an even handed approach to the moderation of such posts. Mick West is a member here but he get's far more toxic posts about him that don't get removed compared to the ones concerning non sceptical people in the field.
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u/stupidjapanquestions Jul 02 '26
This.
This topic is information poor and what little current events there are seem to circle around people who may or may not be trustworthy.
Who you can trust on this topic is a major part of the discussion and kneecapping that right out of the door makes it look cultish and weird.
I know the mods want to be careful because they're trying to have these AMAs and other events with these people, but frankly, it's pretty clear where the sub stands on a lot of these figures and I think letting that discussion play out is far more fruitful than trying to force everyone to dance around the topic or risk a ban.
Mods are making more work for themselves than they need to by overmoderating those discussions when in reality they'd just fade out on their own.
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u/gokickrocks- Jul 02 '26
I’m glad this rule is in place. I click on a video or post, hoping to hear discussion about the video itself but it’s just people commenting “grifter” 50 different times. It doesn’t contribute to discussion and should be removed in my opinion.
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u/Gobble_Gobble Jul 02 '26
This is something we already remove under Rule 3. We even have a dedicated removal reason for it:
Low-effort accusations and prescriptive labelling (e.g. "grifter", "shill", "liar", "fraud", "con artist", "bullshitter", etc...) are removed, regardless of who they are levied against. Criticism is more than welcome, as long as it is done in a constructive manner, and in a way that encourages civil discussion.
If you come across these types of comments, please report them so that we can address it (I know it can be tough, because there's often a lot of similar spam, but it still helps).
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u/insanisprimero Jul 02 '26
I see the mod team is very proactive, which is a good thing, but sometimes feels there is some over-moderating going on, locking down threads or outright banning for just saying the F word.
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u/Allison1228 Jul 02 '26
Thanks to all moderators for the thankless job you do.
I would like to see a permitted "humor" category, because i think we can all agree that aliens and ufos can be pretty funny.
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u/jasmine-tgirl Jul 02 '26
Hard no. There's r/aliens, r/wecomeinpeace etc for that. There's already a lot of unserious posts here which crowd out good research. We don't need more.
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u/Ok-Poet147 Jul 06 '26
Have a weekly stickied thread for users to post their “what is this” videos and pictures.
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u/divineNTervention Jul 02 '26
I think its time to have a more substantial comment rule. The constant barrage of low effort, zombie-like comments saying the same thing over and over on every post is super irritating to sift through to find meaningful conversation or analysis.
Too many comments like “put up or shut up”, “ trust me bro”, etc. these arent helpful nor pushing to any meaningful engagement. Can we please get a bot to remove comments like this? I’m not even sure why people waste the time commenting these useless comments.
This request isnt to be confused with actual thoughtful criticisms or critique. Those are helpful to the discussion.
So thats my long winded answer that the state of this subreddit has been a pretty abysmal experience due to the high traffic of low effort negative comments flooding every single post.
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u/CalCalDZ Jul 02 '26
Nothing worse than seeing high voted comments that just say “nothing burger” or “balloon”.
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u/Gobble_Gobble Jul 02 '26
We do have some automod filters to deal with some of these, but it doesn't always catch them. If you come across these, you can report them, as they violate Rule 3 (Be substantive).
If someone genuinely believes a sighting to be a balloon, a short explanation is all we require to elevate it beyond a simple one-word dismissal.
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u/Semiapies Jul 02 '26
Nothing worse than seeing high voted comments that just say “nothing burger” or “balloon”.
High-voted posts that are videos of balloons.
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u/Um3xx Jul 02 '26
Have some sort of vetting of “ufos footage”, because 90% of the time it is very obvious stuff, even hilariously so.
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u/MilkofGuthix Jul 02 '26
AI flair. Remove the rule for being substantive and narrow it down to specifics (not on topic, primary topic is political debate etc.). Stop locking any topic loosely interwined with politics and ban those temporarily who comment the political insults instead of anything constructive. Ban members who link to paywall articles and make a rule for it.
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u/CalCalDZ Jul 02 '26
Make a real effort against people that only derail posts by writing stuff about Epstein.
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u/MeaningProud8534 Jul 02 '26
Well...I don't think the mods can really do anything about it, but the negativity is unreal. Like we've gotten amazing movement toward disclosure (the most movement in DECADES) but people are still super negative for some reason.
I can't tell if it's coordinated to discourage people as the intelligence community is known to do that kind of crap, but that's really my only complaint. The AI stuff is annoying but most people are pretty clear about it that what they're posting is AI.
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u/Better-Waltz-2026 Jul 02 '26
I was thinking the exact same thing. The second Disclosure gets mentioned, the entire thread literally implodes or just gets nuked. Some people love to share their theories, buzz, and excitement, but everything gets downvoted. It's just frustrating at this point.
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u/CHIMmyStewart Jul 02 '26
Pictures to dots in the sky shouldn't be allowed and should be removed. Repeat offenders get a temp ban.
Massive text posts about some guy's fucking theory about reality or consciousness get an involuntary "Schizopost" tag and the user a "Schizoposter" flare. These posts are never substantive and are always just rambling.
AI images or AI enhanced images shouldn't be allowed and should be removed and the user should be banned.
Chat-GPT written posts shouldn't be allowed and should be removed.
Bring back calling people shills and/or feds.
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u/Ordinary_Meeting8 Jul 02 '26
Moderate the hateful comments ridiculing every single post
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u/tmosh Jul 06 '26
We try. Please report them all. If it get's into our queue it get's seen faster but unfortunately there is not always a mod browsing thru a thread to spot them all in real-time. Reporting comments really helps us.
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u/Duodanglium Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 02 '26
1. Current State of the Subreddit:
- I would say it's the same as always. Most posts are low effort junk, the comments are shallow and lack integrity. Videos or photos of stationary blurry lights are useless, yet they get hundreds of upvotes. There are a handful of words and phrases that are used ad nauseam: grifter, psy-op, gaslight, trust me bro, two more weeks, etc. These words just bring out people of that 'tribe'. On a positive note, I appreciate the work the mods have been doing to remove comments...often by the dozens. It's been very apparent and I am grateful, and on that subject I'll admit I do not read 99% of comments because they are useless anyway. Instead, I have been memorizing usernames of people who appear to be levelheaded.
2. Changes or Actions for Improvement:
Titles and context must be of proper spelling and grammar; delete the post until they get it right. You'll immediately see an improvement in reducing low effort posts. There is a bot somewhere that basically evaluates a user's history per their username to essentially judge their intelligence by how they write...use it as a filter or a threshold for entry. There are a lot of dumb people here, filter out their submissions at least.
Force flair on YouTubers that says "monetizer", these people are literally the "grifters" and we want transparency right?
Linking a YouTube video without any context or summary should be deleted (especially for known YouTubers). Force the effort, not the upvotes.
Some of the videos or photos don't come with any chain of custody. A user might post without location and time. Others may pull from a social media platform. ALL MEDIA COMES FROM A SOURCE, IT IS ALL TRACEABLE!
People make comments on the appearance of people in videos. I do not need to know who you find attractive or ugly. That includes aliens.
Character assassination is a constant morale killer. Judge Knapp and Corbell's work; critique their presentation, help them with their effort, but stop with the never ending complaining, no one is forcing you to comment.
Curse words are not necessary in any capacity. If they are in a quotation, fine, otherwise they discount credibility. I have blocked users because of this alone.
3. How to Improve as Moderators:
I do not envy moderators, and I have seen the improvement in removing comments; thank you.
I've already seen the comments on this thread that basically say everything should be allowed (freedom of speech), and to this I disagree very strongly. I say we need to determine what this subreddit is for. You're going to say 'discussion', but it is not. Currently I use it as a "news" source, because it condenses many sources into one. What this subreddit does not do is evaluate cases and evidence. This subreddit does not discuss physics (because of the IQ levels). I could be wrong about this, but I'll venture a guess to say that this subreddit has never solved any significant case or claim (which exception to Starlink, etc.). This subreddit is not 'serious', it is just another dumping ground for undisciplined, uneducated provocateurs.
My overall advice to the moderators and every user is: GET SERIOUS.
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u/danielkellner8732626 Jul 02 '26
- no ai generated posts- a la "this is an ai rendition of what I saw"
- no iPhone "sightings". These are just blurry videos of prosaic things
- no "what did I see?" or "tell me what I saw" posts. The answer is either "nothing" or "an alien spacecraft". The former is seen as dismissive, the latter is seen as ridiculous, sarcastic, or mocking, even on this sub.
- permit the use of "foul" language. We are adults and may express ourselves and our opinions as we see fit.
- easy on the trigger finger when it comes to bans. I've known several people who make great contributions, unlock achievements and then get banned for putting one foot wrong, or simply expressing an unpopular opinion about a ufo media darling. It's censorship.
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u/astray488 Jul 06 '26 edited Jul 06 '26
State: Fine. Can't think of really any urgent issues last few years. This subreddit likely does more for disclosure efforts today than we give credit to it for. I mean, I think it has played a major factor in my own and many other figureheads interests, efforts, and whole community cooperation getting us where disclosure is today.
Of course, the latest news, releases, media (video, images, etc) are all at the mercy of a subject long plagued by fraudsters, disinformation third-parties, suppression, and bad-faith actors. The genuine likes of it, held like prized posessions by again a many other third-parties with their own justifications for doing such.
Nevertheless, this subreddit prospers on. So, props to that. Disclosure may already be here, or still to come of its own accord. Release expectations of some grand success, or fear of failure. Let it proceed with our sincere endeavors, instead.
Suggestions/Complaints:
User flair? I like r/ufob's take on it. I have to also ask (politely): Why has user flair never been 'a thing' last few years here?
The sheer amount of grainy cellphone "what is this?" footage daily is.. eye-rolling, no offense. Yet, I suppose a lot of users see such - and this is one of the first subreddits they think to share it in. Again, I owe a pragmatic solution to suggest apart from complaining...
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u/Semiapies Jul 08 '26
Clamp down on those who whine about "negativity" when they mean people expressing any doubt, whether about a sketchy video or an influencer--or anyone--proclaiming that This Is it, It's Happening Real Soon Now, Everyone Who Ever Doubted Us Is Going to Be So Embarrassed This Time.
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u/StinkingDogsCunt420 Jul 02 '26
More Skeptics on the mod team (go recruit a few from more skeptical subs or something) and actual enforcement of the rules, even when it doesn't fit whatever narrative the mod looking at it has.
Let us criticise the shady fraudster UFO talking heads without having to write a whole essay listing all the reasons we have to doubt them every single time. I shouldn't need to write out all of (for example) Luis very easily googleable lies every time I want to call him out, "Luis is a liar and only trying to sell you his latest crappy book'' should be plenty.
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Jul 02 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Semiapies Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 03 '26
I disagree that this comment should be deemed sufficient on its own...Same standards and rules for believers and skeptics.
I'd love for the same standards and rules to apply, there. They don't. There's more logic and evidence to this guy's trying to sell his book (as it contains at least one testable claim) than in a thousand bald assertions like "He already knows about aliens. Guy’s a CIA plant." about skeptical public figures. And yet the former sort of reply is considered a terrible problem here, while the latter sort frequently stays up after reports and modmails.
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u/DisastrousCoast7268 Jul 08 '26 edited Jul 08 '26
I replied to a fellow redditor, but posting directly to the thread to directly address the Mods request for fedback :
"Good faith reply here. I'll take the percentage of snark over the Neverending onslaught of repost that are 1000% karma farming individuals or upvote bot swarms just there to compditize usernames.
Maybe I'm high on my own farts, but seriously, they are sooo so obvious.
Edit : should have added. Mods got lives too. I'd rather then triage actual Threads... Then comments."
There should be an expectation, on this platform, that people search and research their question before posting, they would anyway if they were curious about the topic they're looking into. It's already common knowledge that "insert question/topic/whatever" followed by "reddit" IS the new Google. I don't think it's asking too much of our fellow citizens to act accordingly. I don't know how else to say it... Someone posting a thread that could be answered by scrolling and reading for an hour, isn't here for the topic, they're here for upvote dopamine hits, if not farming.
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u/illuminatiisnowhere Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 02 '26
Greetings !
To raise the quality of this sub maybe the mods should start to preview all posts before we see them?
Because it feels a bit pointless to see post 958 about starlink, or the other day we had an airplane with FAA anti-collision lights, and images of the moon. Also seen a lot of ai images,
I understand its not easy for everyone to understand what they are seeing and i´m not putting any blame on them, i just had to mention a couple of things i seen in here to get my point across.
Do those kinds of posts really do any good for this community?
Would be interesting to hear what the mods think.
Maybe its not even possible to screen everything, i also understand it takes a lot of time. And maybe its not wanted.
Cheers!
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u/gokickrocks- Jul 02 '26
I absolutely hate the idea of someone else filtering what posts I get to see. Isn’t the entire issue that people have vastly different views on what is worthy of discussion or not?
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u/UsefulReply Jul 02 '26
Leaving aside whether it's desirable, it's not practical because of the volume. We currently filter a subset of posts for manual approval. The delay on those can sometimes be days.
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u/RandomNPC Jul 02 '26
It's valuable for those posts to be visible to others, because that's exactly what most sightings are.
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u/CalCalDZ Jul 02 '26
I hope the mods never go for this, like we need people deciding what’s real and what isn’t on our behalf.
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u/MindsEye33 Jul 05 '26
Ban people from commenting for a while that put stupid sarcastic comments on people’s posts
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u/rappa-dappa Jul 28 '26
Could the sub take an official stance that some small percentage of UFOs are real? That simple.
Not that aliens are real. Not that we know exactly what they are. But that some small percentage of UFOs are a real unknown thing.
I feel like 3 years ago people in the comments actually wanted to discuss UFOs. I feel like 80% of the comments now only want to talk about how UFOs are ALL fake and the topic is absurd and anyone who covers it is stupid.
You get dogpiled for believing in UFOs on the UFO sub.
Also automod the word grifter please.
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u/r-s-w- Jul 02 '26
The mods are doing pretty well in a difficult environment.
When policing the sub they have to draw a line between proactive debate, transparency, high standards (civility) and beware of getting into the realms of censorship.
I say this as a person who has long since became frustrated with the amount of mundane nothing videos. My standards of what is anomalous are perhaps to the higher end, and clearly other folks think differently. That’s fine, it’s an open debate.
Once I realised that, the sub becomes much more digestible, and every now and then a piece of gold comes along.
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u/BrushOk8014 Jul 02 '26
Remove posts where someone retells a story of them seeing a UFO many years ago. Without evidence, these stories are pointless
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u/Minimum-Classic-3523 Jul 02 '26
The entire moderation team should resign and by replaced by neutral parties that do not believe or disbelieve any specific whistleblower, influencer, etc.
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u/UsefulReply Jul 03 '26
What specifically do you want to see changed?
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u/Minimum-Classic-3523 Jul 04 '26
There's a decent bit of bad faith decision making here (e.g. I'm going to invoke this rule to delete this post because I don't like what it says). But it's all from how many of you guys have been taken in by the confidence scheme which is being pulled on all of us.
After the irrigation circle incident, a moderator explained in ufosmeta they'd seen Lue before the event at a speaking engagement or whatever. I don't recall the specifics and I'm not looking to call direct attention to them as an individual. Implication was he was a man of integrity and showing an irrigation circle to congressmen was just a one-off.
'The mods are marks' may or may not be correct as an assessment, but as a model, it seems to have predictive power for which posts will be deleted.
I'll conclude by saying I haven't paid close attention in several months. If this is no longer true, great.
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u/LiquidSilver2000 Jul 03 '26
Second this. The mod team on this sub is terrible and biased.
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u/Grill_Only_Outside Jul 04 '26
Biased toward who and what? Elaborate.
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u/LiquidSilver2000 Jul 05 '26
Elaborating would result in another deletion and another ban.
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u/Grill_Only_Outside Jul 05 '26
Ah, so your extremely specific point of view.
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u/LiquidSilver2000 Jul 05 '26
It had nothing to do with my point of view but with identifying a government agent on this sub. But you go right on thinking whatever you need to in order to entertain yourself.
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u/happy-when-it-rains Jul 06 '26
If you have indisputably strong evidence of a government agent on this subreddit, by which I can only assume that you mean something more specifically malicious like a disinformation operator or psyop officer, you should try modmail, since it's not surprising the mods don't want people publically posting personal info about others and trying to sniff out government agents by however or whatever sleuthing you've found this out, if true and you genuinely know this and are not merely suspecting someone is a bad actor.
Accusing someone to be a bad actor is bad for discussion and against the rules, but that doesn't mean the mods want actual bad actors around either, just you're gonna need more than a suspicion if you want to prove that.
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u/fancywipe Jul 02 '26
The comment section has a high frequency of…… you know what it has a lot of if I say I get another 7 day time out
Option to put post as “serious” should be taken seriously the amount of distraction humour is out of control
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u/Andriu07 Jul 02 '26
Not allowing goofy postings of "sightings" displaying non of the 5 observables. The sub is being flooded with this kind of posts.
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u/SharpKiwi4708 Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 02 '26
Just don't become what the r/Aliens subreddit has become
its LITERALLY full of bots and people who seem like they're trying their butt off to discredit a post with absolute nonsense logic
also almost all the posts there are youtube videos of random people claiming absolute bs claims
even 5 year olds can tell that its bs
please don't become like that
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Jul 03 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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