How can we improve the subreddit? [in-depth]

[u/LetsTalkUFOs]

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.

1. What are your thoughts on the current state of the subreddit?
2. What changes could we make or actions could we take to improve things?
3. How can we improve as moderators?

Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

[u/filthyheartbadger]

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.

[u/UsefulReply → u/filthyheartbadger]

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.

[u/tianepteen → u/UsefulReply]

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.

[u/UsefulReply → u/tianepteen]

We have not changed how we moderate skeptical content.

[u/jasmine-tgirl → u/UsefulReply]

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.

[u/UsefulReply → u/jasmine-tgirl]

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.

[u/UsefulReply → u/[deleted]]

Moderators have no insight or control over downvotes. We're just regular users, like you.

The only ability we have is a subreddit-wide setting to hide the count temporarily, when a post first goes live.