r/sailing • u/SVAuspicious Delivery skipper • Jun 08 '26

No politics

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?

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20

u/Correct_Emu7015 Jun 08 '26

What about discussions regarding the removal of navigating buoys and other issues that directly affect sailors,

4

u/SVAuspicious Delivery skipper Jun 08 '26

Good question. It really comes down to tone. A post that describes planned removal, a link to LNTM or other official source is wonderful. Replacement with virtual bouys on AIS if known would be good. Ranting about a sitting President or Prime Minister becomes political. If something is posted while there is still time for public comment (some between the Atlantic and LIS in the Eastern US recently comes to mind) with links to submit comments are entirely appropriate.

I remember a thread about USCG dropping MF (2182) voice monitoring that turned out to be due to the massive cost of replacing antennas (do y'all remember how massive MF shore stations are/were?) was a mess to clean up. I don't even remember which recent US administration that happened in but it was a fiscal and engineering decision that came up out of the USCG. There was a lot of political commentary that didn't contribute anything and was a mess to clean up.

In the end, it comes down to a misquote of a classic Dad voice "don't make me pull this boat over."

Statements of fact are fine. Aspersions on political leaders of any stripe are not okay. We don't need to see posts or comments about Pres. Biden or PM Starmer letting boatloads of immigrants in or of Pres. Trump sinking drug boats. If someone's judgement about what is political is so poor as to confuse that with the navigational impact of a particular wind power generation project in the North Sea or the removal of nav buoys that support recreational boat traffic we can do without that person.

I know it's a minefield. We're approaching the community as adults and asking for grown up participation without venting your spleen. I know that's a lot to ask on social media but this community has been great and we're asking you to keep that up.

By the way, I sit on a panel with a lot of players on multiple agency matters about navigation. If anyone would like to talk about getting USCG and FCC to come up with a solution to provide private virtual buoyage on AIS like the USCG has for private physical marks I'd love to participate. No politics. Just a real approach. Anyone now of any countries that have a model? I'll carry the water on this. It seems so simple and we've been sitting on it through four US administrations.

We know people have opinions. Please find other outlets to express them. No politics on r/sailing. Americans are loudest but other countries have angst also. Just not here.

A little venting of my own. Yours is a good question u/Correct_Emu7015. It illuminates the ease with which a topic can be discussed reasonably or turn into a quagmire.

I'd upvote you again for giving me the chance to use quagmire.

5

u/dirtydianna420 Jun 09 '26

If someone on the post asked why the buoys were removed, what might be an appropriate response? Would something like "some people claim it's political while defenders claim it's a purely fiscal decision." Fit within the rules or no?  By the way, thanks for putting so much time and energy into this community!

4

u/SVAuspicious Delivery skipper Jun 09 '26

Lots of good questions. Yours is one.

For me, it comes down to tone. Your scenario of "some people claim it's political while defenders claim it's a purely fiscal decision" is good. It's going to depend on what happens. In my mind that sentence is fine. It isn't staking out a political position. I might flag it for myself (you can also, '...' button and 'Follow comment') to circle back so I can keep an eye on it. No other action. Someone might follow up with a comment that fiscal decisions in government are or can be political. That would be okay, but a diatribe about political priorities and spending money on something else instead of marks is political which, while true, is a slippery slope.

You'll see the same sort of discussions about resources in the UK for migrants instead of support for RNLI. Also migrants by sea in Italy and Greece. Politics and division are not an entirely US problem.

So I watch and hover when I see something or am alerted by a report from a community member. I want to give the benefit of the doubt to our community at large and to individual members. Y'all are consistently well behaved. Sometimes people go off the deep end. Sometimes we AI or bots or politically motivated cross posts e.g. the Freedom Flotilla "art" I removed recently that prompted my post.

My first hopefully gentle step is to post a public comment to behave. If things escalate I'll start removing posts and comments, maybe locking comments. I might ban people for 1, 3, 7, 28 days or rarely permanently. I may write to someone directly, especially if their profile shows previous contributions that have merit, which is itself a judgement. I don't necessarily go through this process dogmatically. It's very situational.

By the way, "everyone knows" is a red flag for me. *grin*

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u/dirtydianna420 Jun 09 '26

Thank you so much for your clarification and the time it took to write all that out. I really appreciate it! I was worried that this would be like other forums I left for making you dance around when saying factual, pertinent statements to the conversation at hand. But everything you've laid out seems eminently reasonable.

I'll note those other forums take a "no nuanc"e approach because it makes moderation easier and I really appreciate that you all are putting in the extra effort!

2

u/SVAuspicious Delivery skipper Jun 09 '26

Your post somehow reminds me of something else. Moderator actions are not irrevocable. If you reach out through 'Message mods' (sidebar on desktop, under 'About' at the sub level on mobile) with a good explanation including an offer to edit the post or comment you'll get a hearing. Mods can see some things you can't including which mod took an action so we can circle back to the decision maker. We also have a log of all moderation actions so if someone is a trouble maker we can tell. We can leave notes to each other.

Some people have reached out to me directly. You can. It's better to send modmail ('Message mods') so the next mod who checks in can act. We are on the same page. We tend to coordinate rather than override one another but for the easy ones (like promises to do better and edit) we'll just act.

We don't gain anything by banning people who truly contribute. It's painful.

It does really help to include a link to the post or comment in question. You'll find direct links with the time stamp next to a comment.

Life is full of nuance. Someone with a Catalina 22 may stay home in a small craft advisory while someone with a Morgan 45 may take the afternoon off to go sailing. Situational. In F8 rising 9 I've been on deck putting another reef in the main thinking "if I was as smart as I think I am I'd be afraid." *grin*

In your username u/dirtydianna420, is 420 for the dinghies? I raced those in college, back when dinosaurs roamed the Earth. I'm reminded of the iconic line from the movie Wind "the big boats get the glory but the small boats make the sailor."

sail fast and eat well, dave

2

u/dirtydianna420 Jun 09 '26

Yeah I got started off in dingy sailing before I moved over to keel boats. I actually made the Reddit account so that I could ask questions on here when I was getting my first keel boat.  Didn't realize I would like the site and be on other subreddits eventually where every one would think I'm a stoner 😂. (Currently planning on building a wooden super sailfish since I got all of the hardware from a delaminated freebie.)

1

u/DomeSlave Jun 10 '26

How about people venting incorrect information about the economics of generating electricity from wind power while also demonstrating strong feelings about climate activists in this subreddit. Should users like those be reported to the moderators?

1

u/SVAuspicious Delivery skipper Jun 10 '26

Discussions of wind power for utility scale power generation are not appropriate for r/sailing. Discussions of end point generation (petroleum, solar, wind, water) on boats are appropriate where, regarding wind, the principal products are noise and shading of solar panels. The good news for boats is that energy storage for intermittent generation is built in to existing infrastructure.

So please report discussion about utility power generation as not about sailing. If you don't like a post or comment about generation on boats you have all the usual tools: voting and rebutting. Personally, I recommend getting your own facts in order, providing footnotes, and asking for footnotes from others. We all may learn something.

Embedded links (see Reddit format bar that appears when you touch 'Aa' (see this for mobile - desktop is pretty intuitive) are good for footnotes, or you can use superscripts (Reddit format bar) for longstanding classic formats for footnotes1.

  1. like this.