Hello users of Hexbear, there have been many changes and some drama the past few months.
The recent changes we've been making have been an attempt to create a more safe and welcoming environment for many demographics that have been overlooked in the past.
For any of our comrades that have been unintentionally hurt in this process, we apologise and hope to find a solution that accommodates as many people as possible while still meeting the needs of the marginalised groups who need a space like this the most.
The intent of this post is to provide a space for all users to air grievances with regard to the site. As well as provide suggestions for specific things that could be changed to address your grievance. Comments insulting the mod team or those without a specific means to address your problem may be removed. No commenter will be sitebanned, unless it clearly breaks the code of conduct.
EDIT/UPDATE: It's clear that this is a lost cause, so I'm out.
Oh boy, so much to say
There's still an unresolved contradiction between "this is just a shitposting site" and "this is a place where comrades are serious and feel safe, etc." The worst part is that both these statements are used almost arbitrarily in a weaponized way. What I mean is, if someone raises a concern (but that concern doesn't really strike the mods/power posters as important), then they'll be dismissed with the "tHiS iS jUsT a ShItPoStInG obscure internet forum, dID YoU rEaLlY eXPecT a SeRIOuS DiSCUssION hurrrr durrrr." But on the other hand, if it's a topic that the mods/power posters are personally interested in dealing with, then all of a sudden it becomes "all hands on deck! this is Defcon 9000! We need to make sure we have a huge struggle session!" It's a weird Motte and Bailey that's used to basically gaslight people to only care about certain concerns over others. Very harmful.
Which is sort of tied with the next thing:
There are soooo many low-effort posts that it is ACTUALLY HARMFUL TO COMRADES. What do I mean by this? I mean that there are so many posts that it drowns out actual mutual aid posts for comrades either in the West and sadly, those who ask for help in Gaza. It also drowns out good discussions and insteads puts another "BIT IDEA: what if I stick a pineapple up my ass and then shit it out? Would I get a chocolate bloody mary pina colada?!? BEANIS BEANIS BEANIS" at the top of the feed. I'd be willing to bet that most people aren't logged in when they browse the site. I'm certainly not gonna log in from my phone if I'm away from a computer (for obvious op-sec reasons) so no, I can't just "disable those communities."
Which is connected to my next point:
You know who I'm talking about, the KochHandLieutenants, DustVultures, etc. The power posters that sometimes post MULTIPLE THREADS PER DAY. And honestly, most of them are the low effort types of topics I posted about above in #2. I can't help but think that they are suffering from some kind of social media "like" dopamine hit addiction and every time they post and get responses the cycle continues. And often these posts are super low effort beanis posts or posts about literal shit/farts. Or sometimes they are weird nostalgia-bait posts that are super specific: elder-millenials that are in a mid-life crisis and are looking for somebody to commiserate with. E.g. "Hey remember 2D Sonic from the 90s? GEX GEX GEX! (member berries, member berries, member berries) I'm living in the past as a way to cope and I'm using the hexbear community as my own personal therapy session!!" I get it, therapy is expensive, but this is not a place to get your dopamine hits and drown out mutual aid posts (which I have noticed an uptick of recently, indicating that people are really suffering out there). Also think about how this looks and reflects on us. There was a recent influx of BlueSky people and others. Do we really want to tell them "hey this is a great community, just ignore all those posts about farting in a car and how hot-boxing it is a great bit idea!" I think I've said enough about this particular topic.
For now that's what I got off the top of my head. Others have already hit on things like arbitrary moderation so I won't repeat it. If there's anything else that comes to mind I'll post it below.
I nor the mod team are at the place of giving up on trying to resolve the contradiction without ceding to one side or the other as i would encourage anyone who doesn't like the shitposting side to make a lemmygrad account.
We have in the code of conduct that we are not a mental health service, but I think that a safe space to open up about the silly, non-serious sides of ourselves is a healthy thing, besides if you don't like it you can block the community or use the subscribed view this allows people to see what hexbear is about at first look and then curate to their tastes if need be.
I'm not going to chastise people for posting too much, as with the community block you have the ability to engage with the users you want to, as for what new users see i mean it says on the tin we are: "A leftist social platform centred around community building through discussion, shitposting memes, and sharing content."
badposting and power-posters are a part of the site culture and I personally would rather keep that than give that up for the sake of more people, lemmy.ml and lemmygrad.ml are excellent instances that offer a more serious / less shitposty vibe while still being a member of the tankie triad.
I would say based on the popularity of badposting that most people on the site would disagree but I'm open to being wrong.
So I already explained what should be done (make those comms invisible by default, i.e. make them op-in) and I explained why this must be done: because it causes direct harm to comrades looking for mutual aid by drowning out their posts. AND THE MUTUAL AID COMM IS ON HEXBEAR, NOT LEMMYGRAD FFS. If the mods can take certain stances on certain topics, for ex luigi lionizing, then they can certainly take a stand on dumb shit like these low effort comms.
Again I explained that many, possibly most, people who browse the site are not logged in and thus are forced to see this shit (sometimes posts about literal shit). Did you actually read what I wrote?
Also the whole "actually iF YoU reAD the COde of ConDUCT" thing reminds me of how libs would defend Biden/Kamala by saying "actually if you read the policy proposal on the web site you would see that they are very committed to XYZ." In other words, please don't insult us with this cop out "if you read the manual" answer. Who reads that? Please think about this seriously and don't use the lib "read the fine print" shit. It's insulting.
And if this site culture actually does harm? As I explained before? I surely can't think of other times the "culture" of a place hasn't harmed ppl (/s). You literally posted this thread as a meta to air grievances, and when I pointed out that some of them are basically hand-waved away, you then proceeded to do exactly that. SMH.
Yeah I mean McDonald's, right wing podcasts, and a whole slew of toxic shit is "popular" so it disappoints me to see this being used as a justification. And I know for a fact that the mods will shut down "popular" discussion if it goes against what they believe in (again look at the luigi struggle session)
I must say I'm disappointed by your response. It seems like the mods and power posters are indeed one big clique and if you're not in it, then you're an outsider who has to justify their grievances (only to be shit on). Sad indeed.
Federation mostly covers that problem though
Badposting is not comparable to fit and fresh lmao