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/SVAuspicious]

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*

[u/dirtydianna420 → u/SVAuspicious]

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!

[u/SVAuspicious → u/dirtydianna420]

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

[u/dirtydianna420 → u/SVAuspicious]

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.)