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.
Won’t rehash what other people said, but yeah moderation needs to be impartial and consistent. I know coming up with procedure’s just encourages trolls to “game the system”, but purely vibes-based mod action without pointing out what was done wrong in detail or recourse to appeal isn’t working out (arguably it’s giving an opening to wrecker’s to take advantage of, because they can impersonate user’s/mod voices and exacerbate any perception of preferential treatment which in turn sours sentiment further… which is what I suspect happened)
I think trying to replicate the success of the zero-tolerance policy wrt transphobia with misogyny and racism might have been a mistake- our community was much better equipped to combat that particular -ism, probably due to its make-up. Differentiating micro-aggressions from outright bigotry seems important but was overlooked, and giving zero room for rehabilitation and education just seems to have cooled discourse and created a cycle that encourages weaponizing our identities to bludgeon other people with. I’m glad that right now we’re encouraging giving the benefit of the doubt to each other.
Just an observation, but maybe we have to shed the dirtbag leftist irony poisoning that characterized r/Chapo, cos most of you seem half my age now and are waaaaaaay too sincere and make me feel really really old
Personally, I had come to the conclusion a while ago that material conditions would dictate how the website is used, so I wasn’t ever really worried about whether the website was serious business or silly fun, because quite frankly that question is immaterial. However, I do think that we’re gonna have to decide what we want to prioritize as a community and start building out the infrastructure for what comes next; if we’re the posting vanguard we’re gonna need better outreach tools and agitprop, if we’re the life boat at the end of the world and the last safe space we’re going to need better mod tools and basic stuff like wiki’s, and procedure’s to ensure the safety of people using mutual aid, etc. Or maybe we decide to be something else entirely. But we can have that conversation a little later, I think.
Edit: Oh one point I kinda forgot about- the mega-threadification of hexbear means that we can’t really assume a uniform site culture anymore. I know we’ve done this to give more people safe spaces but imo it’s gotten kinda cliquey and I kinda feel like we’re 2 shitposts from (completely arbitrary and made up example) the News Mega launching a civil war against Badposting or something. Idk if it’s actually a problem or not tho
it is imo and i don’t really care to participate in them, even the ones explicitly formed around my identities. for me they become difficult to follow and, as you point out, cliquish in a way that i don’t personally love. megathreadification and the consequent reduction in discrete threads on this or that thing makes the site harder for me to engage with and imo encourages the internal perception that the site is down to beanisposting and slopposting or whatever (i don’t have a problem with either tbc). that’s just my take on it - i agree with your whole comment, that part just jumped out for me in particular.