We're looking to run our first verified AMA this weekend and we want the community to decide the topic.

We don't want to make the AMAs too broad. Rather than simply doing an "Army AMA", we'd like to focus on specific roles, courses and experiences.

Please vote for what you'd most like to see this weekend:

The poll winner will be the topic of our first AMA.

Anyone hosting an AMA will be privately verified by the Mod Team beforehand.

If you're currently serving or previously served and have experience in a particular role, course, Corps, trade or deployment that you'd be willing to do an AMA about in the future, please get in touch with the Mod Team. We'd love to hear from you.

View Poll

Hi everyone,

The mod team has been discussing a few changes we'd like to make to the subreddit, based both on feedback we've received and on how the community has grown over the last while.

Before we make any major changes, we'd like to hear your thoughts.

Recruitment Posts

First off, we genuinely appreciate the level of interest people have in joining the Defence Forces. It's great to see so many people interested in serving.

However, recruitment has gradually become the dominant topic on the subreddit. Recruitment was always intended to be an important part of this community, rather than its main purpose.

We're also seeing the same questions being asked repeatedly:

• How long will vetting take?
• Has anyone heard back yet?
• When will I get a medical?
• What happens at the fitness test?
• Has anyone from X competition heard anything?
• When is the next recruit class starting?

We completely understand why people ask these questions. The recruitment process can be extremely long and frustrating. Some applicants are waiting a year or more to progress through the system.

The Defence Forces now recruit year-round, interest is extremely high, and the volume of applicants appears to have created a significant bottleneck.

However, it's important to remember that this is an unofficial, community-run subreddit.

The moderators and almost definitely the members have no involvement with Defence Forces Recruitment, J1, HR, Garda vetting or any other official DF department. We cannot check an application, find out why someone's vetting is taking so long, or tell someone when they will receive their next appointment.

Recruitment Megathread & Weekly Recruitment Posts

To try to improve this, we're considering introducing a Recruitment Megathread.

This would become the main place for general recruitment questions, allowing information and previous answers to be much easier to find instead of having dozens of separate posts asking similar questions.

We would also have a weekly recruitment questions thread, giving applicants somewhere fresh to ask questions that weren't answered in the main megathread or FAQ.

This doesn't mean recruitment discussion is being banned. Far from it. We're simply trying to organise it better and make room for other parts of the Defence Forces discussion as well.

New FAQ & Recruitment Guide

We're also planning to completely overhaul the subreddit FAQ and put together a proper Recruitment Guide.

This is something where we'd really appreciate the community's help.

It doesn't matter whether you're:

• currently serving in the PDF or RDF;
• previously served;
• currently going through recruitment;
• recently completed recruitment; or
• simply knowledgeable about a particular area.

If there's something you think should be included, please contribute.

We'll initially post the FAQ/guide as a Mod Post where everyone can suggest questions, answers, corrections, and additional information. Once we've gathered enough feedback, we'll turn it into a permanent resource for the subreddit.

The more knowledge we can pool together, the more useful it will be for future applicants.

Recruitment Dates & Sensitive Information

One area we are intending to become stricter on is the posting of specific recruit course/intake start dates and similar non-public information.

Please do not post specific dates you've been given for upcoming recruit courses or intakes unless that information has been officially released publicly by the Defence Forces.

As anyone who eventually joins will quickly learn, OPSEC and information security matter.

Something might seem completely harmless in isolation, but that doesn't necessarily mean it should be published on a public subreddit where anyone can view it.

We know that most people posting this information are simply excited about joining and trying to find others who may be starting alongside them. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that enthusiasm.

We're simply asking people to think carefully about what information they're putting into the public domain.

Posts or comments containing information we believe should not be publicly shared may therefore be removed.

Reporting Posts & Comments

We also need your help with moderation.

We're a small volunteer mod team. We simply cannot read every single post and every comment made on the subreddit in depth.

If you see something that you think:

• contains sensitive information;
• breaks one of the subreddit rules;
• contains personal information;
• is abusive or inappropriate;
• looks suspicious;
• or simply deserves a moderator's attention;

please report it.

Even if you're unsure, report it and let us have a look.

To report something on Reddit, click/tap the three dots (...) beside the post or comment, select Report, and choose the reason that best fits.

Reports are incredibly useful because they bring things directly to our attention. The more the community helps us identify problems, the quicker we're able to deal with them.

Should Posts Require Mod Approval?

One option we're considering, although we have not decided to introduce this, is requiring new posts to be approved by a moderator before appearing on the subreddit.

Our preference is to keep r/IrishDefenceForces as an open community where people can post and discuss things freely without waiting for moderator approval.

However, as the subreddit continues to grow, we may eventually have to consider some level of post approval if spam, repetitive posts or sensitive information become difficult to manage.

If we were to do that, we would need more active moderators.

So if you're a regular member of the subreddit and would be interested in helping moderate the community, please let us know.

You don't need to spend your life on Reddit. Even having a few additional people who can occasionally review reports and posts would make a massive difference.

The moderation team would appreciate your feedback on the subreddit.

Are there any changes, features, flairs, rules, pinned posts, or general improvements you would like to see?

Equally, if there’s anything you feel is working well, or anything we could do better, we’d be glad to hear that too.

All constructive feedback is welcome.

Please feel free to leave suggestions below, or reach out to us directly via mod mail

The Department of Defence has announced the introduction of Supplemental Military Service (SMS), allowing RDF personnel to voluntarily support the PDF across a wider range of paid duties both at home and overseas. The initiative is intended to better utilise reservists' skills and strengthen integration between the RDF and PDF.

-Article link-

(For any PDF personnel who haven't heard about this, this is largely an administrative change to how Reserve service is managed and recorded, as well as potentially providing a framework for reservists to undertake a wider range of duties.)

Just wondering what the experience has been around the country so far.

Has any reservist actually been able to undertake any SMS activity since it was introduced?

In my unit, activities (that now fall under SMS) have been cancelled due to the introduction of SMS.

It seems to be a bit of a mess at the moment unfortunately, although I suspect we'll all be glad of it once the teething problems are ironed out and the system is up and running properly.

Interested to hear how things are progressing in other units.

OPSEC reminder: Mind operational security lads. Please don't post or comment anything that hasn't already been publicly released or contained in the article.