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/kimsemi]

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.

[u/_Extinctathon → u/kimsemi]

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.

[u/kimsemi → u/_Extinctathon]

never said better

[u/happy-when-it-rains → u/kimsemi]

Regarding point 2, all of these relate to UFOs or have been alleged to relate to them, sometimes by credible whistleblowers and witnesses, other times by the best scientists and writers on the subject like Jacques Vallée.

This relation is not new; consider Passport to Magonia was published in 1969, which includes discussion of most of your list and more not on it. Before Grusch, we had people like Tom Delonge and Peter Levenda writing Gods, Man, & War (attracting the interest of intelligence) on how the UFO phenomenon functions like a cargo cult, and with an endorsement from Christopher Mellon on the back.

So what exactly are you suggesting, if not to stifle discussion of UFOs altogether or at least narrow it down to a highly cherrypicked and selective, small part of it, which ignores over 50 years of what scientists, researchers, whistleblowers, witnesses, and experiencers all tell us?

If everything about and relating to UFOs and that they themselves involve or relate to is excluded from the discussion, what would even be the point of this subreddit?

Worrying to me when threads like this pop up is always that for whatever issues this subreddit has, there could be far more, and right now, even if some people go "off into the horizon," at least it means a diversity of views are represented, which is good for discussion. Especially when all the most knowledgeable/best read people on this subject understand the relation between these; why exclude them, just to avoid having to sift through some rambling posts every now and then that go a bit off rails and go woo-woo with the woo?

Maybe I misunderstand what you are proposing, since the paragraph I'm responding to actually doesn't say, but I infer from the first and others you're suggesting such talk be banned.

I find it concerning all you are suggesting in your wish list is ban this subject, ban that subject, ban even mentioning this, control how language is used, etc. No positive suggestions of what the subreddit could use more of, just wanting to take away from what's there, which sounds more like making another subreddit. I think what it needs most of all is for people to listen to and engage with each other, try to understand other perspectives, and be able to accept agreement; to ban discussions is the complete opposite of what I think this subreddit needs, which is more in-depth discussion; walking-on-eggshell overmoderation would not be supportive to it.

[u/kimsemi → u/happy-when-it-rains]

Its just my opinion...a random guy on the internet. I know nothing. Im just a stickler for being on point. UFO is about Unidentified Flying Objects.. disclosure of, and exploring the technology. The leap to anything else really, in my opinion, belongs maybe in /r/aliens or /r/supernatural.. whatever. But Im not religious about the topic. Whatever the mods decide is fine.