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.
The whole "badposting and fake news actively harms comrades" posting is exactly what I think people need to stop. "I don't understand this or don't want to participate in this" is a far cry from "this is systemically harmful or reactionary." You have the tools to hide the content so hide it. Just because you don't like it doesn't mean it's actively harmful and trying to conflate the two just minimizes the impact of actually harmful content. Just because you personally don't understand it or don't want to participate in it doesn't make it bad content any more than any other content folks don't want to participate in. Would you say the same about games, or movies, or furry, or vegan, or anything else you may or may not participate in? Of course not. The community can be for many things and folks can subscribe to things they like and block things they don't. That's how communities like this work.
I personally have blocked fake news. It doesn't harm me by existing I just don't like it so I don't participate in it. It's that simple
I feel like this needs to be emphasized more. We have the tools to curate our experience on the site now. You can hide posts, you can block comms, you can block users. I also blocked the fakenews comm, but I'm not demanding it be hidden or banned because after a certain point, I think it becomes selfish of me to demand the site cater to my experience and preferences.
GOOD post
Actually I think it's more like "I don't understand how someone could see this as harmful because I CERTAINLY DON'T so let's keep the harmful stuff." That's what you sound like tbh. You fail to see how it is harmful and you're projecting that on others and essentially gaslighting them by telling them that their concerns aren't valid. Actually kinda toxic tbh.
Okay, so let's take it seriously. How is shit posting reactionary and actively harmful to comrades in the same way an ism or a phobia would be? Explain. I'm willing to be wrong.
I didn't say it's reactionary, for one. But anyways, I literally explained it, it drowns out serious things like mutual aid. It will also discourage anyone from posting about mutual aid because they might have been drowned out by these posts in the past. They will see how their mutual aid request gets barely any traction while a "hey pooop shit fart beanis" post gets proportionally way more likes/upvotes/traffic. They might wonder if this really is a good place to seek help. Any potential comrades might be dissuaded by the literal shit in this posts. And on and on.
Is that different from any other type of content, like gaming content, or food content, or movie content?
Yeah because they like that content
A counterpoint is that people come to the site because it makes them laugh. If those posts didn’t exist the site overall would have far less traffic, the posts from people needing help would have far less eyes on them, and the people making them would get less help.
I found Lemmygrad first, then moved over to Hexbear because it was more casual and fun. I felt like I'm not versed enough in theory to really engage in Lemmygrad and feel intimidated to engage in discussion. I engaged in debate with someone over there a while ago and I absolutely got my ASS handed to me. The person got very, very angry and I still feel weird and bad about it. It also made me feel very outcast and stupid. I definitely could have tried to engage with the person differently but I also think my autism gets me into trouble. Here, I feel like there is a bit more grace and I love the balance of BOTH shitposting, jokes, dunking, emotional support AND serious discourse. I learn a lot and don't feel afraid to ask questions and get excellent recommendations for reading/watching/listening to learn history and theory.
Sorry for the long tangential reply lol I got carried away
❤️
We’re very glad to have you here.
aww thanks civility! It's really been a nice reprieve from doomscrolling on instagram all of the time
You literally didn't, at least not sufficiently, which is why you were asked more about it. "Serious things" like mutual aid (the only serious thing on this site, everything else is pure posting) only function because the site gets enough traffic to support it. People go here because it brings them some sort of positive emotion, and a big part of that is building a community, which requires the ability to be casual. Seeing as how you're very serious, I can assume you do some sort of political organising, so you should be aware of this. Demanding everything to be serious all the time only makes things less effective.