“Imperialism leaves behind germs of rot which we must clinically detect and uproot from our land but from our minds as well.” - Frantz Fanon
Hello users of Hexbear, the intent of this announcement is two-fold the first is that we would like to do another community moderator drive, if you have a community idea or want to help an existing one then please send an application either through hexbear or matrix direct message.
The call for new mods is crucial to our efforts to reduce racism and misogyny on the site, we need users to report and enough mods to be able to quickly act on the reports throughout the day and night. Also, CW or content warnings are essential to the safe browsing of Hexbear.
In addition, comments or posts removed for racist or misogyny will also be accompanied by escalating temporary bans. Upvotes will not be the single reason for a ban, however they may be used in conjunction with other posts/comments/upvotes. Consider this post the warning, however, mods are encouraged to reach out to hexbear users before a long duration ban.
The second is to increase transparency with regard to the site while not repeating the mistakes of previous attempts that were ultimately counterproductive, in part due to wreckers.
Previous attempts to increase site transparency and user participation were targeted by wreckers through increasing the intensity and frequency of struggle session drama.
Using matrix’s increased level of user permissions as an anti-wrecking measure while having an increased barrier to sending messages with a clear process to gaining the ability to send messages, we hope to mitigate wrecking attempts.
Leading to the creation of the Hexbear Proposals chapo.chat matrix room.
This will be a place for site proposals and discussion before implementation on the site.
Every proposal will also be mirrored into a pinned post on the hexbear community. Any other ideas for helping to integrate the two spaces are welcome to be commented here or messaged to me directly.
Within Hexbear Proposals you can see the history of all site proposals and react to them, indicating a vote for or against a proposal.
Sending messages will be restricted to verified and active hexbear accounts older than 1 month with their matrix id in their hexbear user profile.
All top level messages within the channel must be a Proposals (idea for changing the site), Feedback (regarding non-technical aspects of the site, for technical please use https://hexbear.net/c/feedback), or Appeals (regarding admin/moderator actions).
Discussion regarding these will be within nested threads under the post.
To gain matrix verification, all you need to do is navigate to my hexbear userprofile and click the send a secure private message including your hexbear username.
In closing, I want to state that this site would not exist without the volunteer labor of the moderators, who I am deeply grateful for.
I would also like to take this moment to remind people that lemmy direct messages are not encrypted, and finally please use this post to discuss these changes, share community ideas, or express interest in moderation.
Application
What is your Hexbear username?
Do you have any preferred pronouns?
What are your thoughts on capitalism?
What are your thoughts on imperialism?
What are your thoughts on trans rights?
What are your thoughts on racial justice?
What do think about current and previous protests around the world?
What are your thoughts on Veganism and Animal Liberation?
Do you have any experience with other leftist online communities?
What did those experiences teach you?
What is your approach to moderation, and how do you work with teams?
How do you deal with online drama and people who try to start things for the sake of it?
What current comms would you be interested in moderating?
Do you have any ideas for community engagement?
What is your general time availability? (Time zone, amounts, common browsing times, etc)
Element information
Element is a messaging app that lets you talk to people over the Matrix protocol.
To get started, check out this link, where you can choose to either download Element for your platform or, if on a computer, open it in a browser.
The instructions that follow are for the desktop application and the web application, but the process is similar on all apps:
Press “Create Account”
We host our own Matrix server, so if you want you can change matrix.org to chapo.chat.
This is completely optional; users who sign up with a matrix.org username can still talk to people with chapo.chat username.
(Note: It is chapo.chat, not hexbear.net. Also, registrations aren’t always open on chapo.chat; if they’re not, just create an account on matrix.org)
Fill in a username and password
Hit register, and you’re done!
so, I have an extreme anxiety disorder and would like to know something in particular. can mods see a time stamp of an upvote? because, it is possible to upvote a comment which is later edited to take a position that could be read as reactionary; it is also possible a seeming well meaning question can be hashed out in replies that make it clear such an innocuous post is in fact a brainworm of the poster and I am seemingly agreeing with the thread when I simply upvoted the earlier parts in a thread before later comments came.
honestly all of this seems so labour intensive and subjective in the sheer lack of context seemingly provided by a name in a list next to a comment, that I have to wonder the rationale at all in using upvotes as a form of moderation. just because it can be done doesn’t mean you have to do it. the most consistent form of moderation will always be looking at what people actually post, and it is easy to just call it there. keep it shrimple 🦐
nope, here’s what we see
all you get is a name that’s a hyperlink to that user’s account
thank you Alaskaball, it’s as bad as I thought lmao. you can now be judged based on versions of an edited comment you upvoted and never saw the change. I appreciate the transparency you consistently provide, it helps a lot!
This is actually a really good point
I’d personally like to be as open about these kinds of things as much as I’m reasonably allowed to. Demystify the mechanical process’ that happens behind the scenes helps give all parties a more wholistic understanding of the bigger picture without any parts of it being distorted by misinformation or misunderstandings.
TIL wholistic is a word separate from holistic.
Damn, that’s another thing I haven’t thought about. And it’s one of the oldest trolling tricks in the book.
No timestamp and it will be used in combination with all the other info we have available not just the upvote
Mods actually cannot see vote audits, just the admins. Having said that, no, we do not have timestamps or a context view to determine any additional info.
I think there are some places where vote audits could be a helpful tool for moderation, like finding spambots upvoting each other’s terrible ads or identifying vote manipulation alts.
I don’t think it’s currently something that can do what was attempted here. I will do everything I can to ensure it isn’t used this way again. Why did it happen this time? I won’t lie, I was asleep when it happened. How will I ensure that it doesn’t happen again? (No, I’m not stealing Elon’s tweeting Amphetamines.) We’re slowing down and instituting a review period for mod and admin actions. These things need to be fully discussed and analyzed before they happen, not done hastily or without a consensus.
Lyudmila, I really appreciated the mop up you provided in the last struggle session it felt more productive than the 8 previous threads that weekend, and you do seem to always want to help listen to concerns. but, I can’t say “yeah trust me, it’s not gonna be as bad as it could be” fills me with confidence. a lot of users are wary of admins decisions rn I hope you appreciate, but as I said I respect a lot of the community engagement you show in these situations in particular. I hope it goes well whatever you guys hash out