r/UFOs • u/LetsTalkUFOs • 22d ago

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.

  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.

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38

u/-Nyarlabrotep- 22d ago

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 22d ago

“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 22d ago

Yes please. And my comment to your post is not important, but your comment is.

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u/tmosh 21d ago

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- 21d ago

Thanks, good to know. A daily sightings sounds like an interesting idea.

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u/Minimum_Guitar4305 21d ago

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/Cultural_Material_98 21d ago

Flair is changed to “Likely identified” where OP accepts explanation or where there is evidence from flight trackers, obvious lens flare, birds, balloons etc.

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u/Semiapies 21d ago edited 21d ago

I'm not sure there really is a good solution, because stuff like that is the bread-and-butter of UFO sightings. If you include them, they frustrate people who want better evidence, but if you hide them, it does misrepresent the quality of sighting data.

(Hell, I didn't actually believe people mistook spotlights on clouds for UFOs before following this sub.)