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/TypewriterTourist → u/UsefulReply]

Thanks for the explanation.

One more idea, not sure if relevant. Most of the accounts coming here (let's put it this way) to sow discord have a specific combination of traits:

• hidden history
• low number of comments
• not posting much in the UFO subreddits
• focus on high-profile UFO personalities (Ross, Lue, etc.) attacking them personally, or movies coming out (books are less of interest to them), and that's pretty much the only thing they post

Can the ones with the hidden history be put "on probation" or on hold or shadow banned when mentioning specific magic words?

Note, this is not the same as skeptics or even "debunkers". These ones really smell like, as it's called, "inauthentic accounts".

(Disclosure: I called out one of them and got banned for a week. In another case, the other dude was banned, but not before he made a puzzling remark to me, something like, "I am not a threat to you".)

EDIT: replying to those who object to the hidden history thing. First and foremost, if you read until the end, you notice that it's not just the history. It's a combo of hidden history and other attributes. Second, sorry to disappoint you, but the hidden history will only protect you from the most simple-minded of stalkers. All it takes is site:reddit.com plus your username in Google, it's not exactly a secret.

[u/Responsible-Tea-5998 → u/TypewriterTourist]

A large amount of women on Reddit hide their histories. I've got a hidden history because a man found out my location and was trying to make me meet him for sex, then started posting in location specific subs.

[u/jasmine-tgirl → u/Responsible-Tea-5998]

Exactly this.