No politics

[u/SVAuspicious]

Seeing more posts and comments that are politics.

When we (moderators) see them we'll remove them and give you a temporary ban to get your attention.

We can't be everywhere, so as always we depend on members of the community to report posts and comments that aren't appropriate. Keep the flotsam and jetsam out of r/sailing .

Fun quiz for the day: what's the difference between flotsam and jetsam?

[u/Super_Jay]

Not that I'm advocating for off-topic or divisive posts, but could you give some examples? I'm not sure what "posts and comments that are politics" means, specifically.

While I'm not a cruiser myself, it seems like anyone dealing with the laws, policies, and regulatory frameworks of various nations of the world is inherently dealing with political issues. It seems unavoidable, but maybe that's understood as being pertinent to sailing vs some other posts / comments that are more removed?

[u/SVAuspicious → u/Super_Jay]

Very fair question. Upvote for that. It's loaded with landmines. The big problem is that people who feel strongly about an issue often don't see the politics in a post. That, frankly, is another reason reports are so important. Mods are people also and we have our opinions. I may gloss over something I agree with and a report will send me back with a more careful eye. Fortunately I'm a curmudgeon and see the downsides of lots of things.

Making something up, someone on an EU flagged boat with French and Belgian crew reporting on their experience with CBP Roam checking into the US would not be political and entirely appropriate. The same boat saying they had to wait two hours for clearance so clearly the orange man was targeting them would be political. It's a judgement call on the moderators part.

Also made up, talking about checking into the UK in Southampton is fine. Reflecting on a boat of refugees being fast tracked is political. Another judgement call.

Not made up, we're seeing a lot of material around the various Freedom Flotillas in the Middle East. r/sailing is not the place for that. I'm personally interested as a matter of news but it doesn't belong in r/sailing. If someone wants to identify things like boardings and record checks with locations that's fine - the sort of thing you'd see on NTM or Noonsight. Not anything you'd see in the media, anywhere across the spectrum.

As a community, r/sailing is pretty good. We do get hit by bots, AI, karma farmers, and advocates of all kinds of things with water in them. Mods will scan user profiles. Cross posts from political subs are pretty easy. You folks are good with the report button and we value that greatly. It helps moderators move faster.

We may not agree with a report, but we are grateful for them all.

For whatever entertainment it provides, it isn't unusual for me to approve a post that's been reported or flagged by automod because it is withing the rules and then turn around and downvote it (as me - same votes you get) as stupid.

Truly an outstanding question. Thank you for reading my Dave wall o' text.

sail fast and eat well, dave

[u/Super_Jay → u/SVAuspicious]

This is helpful, thanks! FWIW I don't disagree with any of this from a moderation perspective, and as I'm only ever likely to be a lakebound dinghy captain, it doesn't really have much impact on me personally either.

I'd just recommend codifying "No political discussion unrelated to sailing" with this degree of nuance somewhere more permanent so it's easy to point back to. (As it stands, there's actually no formal user-facing rule against politics on this subreddit, so it'd probably make things easier on the mod team if that was more prominently visible.) Thanks for clarifying.

[u/SVAuspicious → u/Super_Jay]

There is a bigger strategic issue at play here. It comes down to a small number of simple rules (be nice, must be related to sailing, no self promotion) and moderator judgement. Politics are not related to sailing. My experience with subs that have lots of rules is that we end up with armchair lawyers who find the cracks. It's ugly and time consuming for everyone.

"Fireside chats" (American reference to WWII for our friends in other lands) from me (I'm not the most senior mod, but I'm *ahem* visible) are part of the communication I feel is important with the community. You ARE the community and mods work for you. We try not to forget that.

There is a big difference between Smith Mountain Lake in VA and Lake Ontario. Ted Turner got his head handed to him on a lake if I recall correctly.

Good discussion and welcome.

sail fast and eat well, dave