Hello users of Hexbear, we wanted to inform you that we are going to be locking the_dunk_tank and dredge_tank communities. We have created two new communities /c/gossip and /c/counterpropaganda to serve a similar but clearly distinct purpose than the dunk/dredge tanks.
Not only is the dunk tank a term that has racist origins, but also many posts there were almost no effort and often times requiring later edits to show how they weren't reactionary, not useful with regard to developing rhetoric and furthering dialectical analysis of that which we dunk upon.
To that end, we wish posts of reactionaries to be placed in !counterpropaganda@hexbear.net along with an accompanying explanation (as simple or complex as desired) with the intent of countering the reactionary propaganda in the post body, as of now comments are not subject to the same rhetorical rigor rule.
For the posts that are not "low-hanging fruit' of notable people we ask that you use !gossip@hexbear.net .
These changes are mainly part of a continued effort to remove the racist and misogynistic elements from our community and grow.
Any moderators of the dunk tank or dredge tank that want to be a mod in the new communities let me know.
Any users with questions or comments please use this post, this change was made at the behest of the entire Hexbear mod and admin team. We will be looking for more moderators in an organized volunteer drive shortly, if you wish to submit an application you may send it to me via hexbear or matrix direct messages.
Use this post as a place for discussion to these changes. We will keep things as they are for 2 weeks and then reflect on the feedback, including this post: https://hexbear.net/post/3858346
As a personal addendum I am sorry if the closing of the tanks these changes removes a beloved space on the site and if you want to suggest a community to replace them you may do so at !commrequest@hexbear.net or submit a mod application to take a more active role in shaping the site.
Sitewide or community changes come from proposals put forth from the mod team, discussed, and voted on by the mod team.
Any users wanting to suggest a community to replace the tanks, may do so at !commrequest@hexbear.net current discussion is here https://hexbear.net/post/3858346 or submit a mod application to take a more active role in shaping the site.
You may also consider using !shitreactionariessay@lemmygrad.ml as a substitute for dunk/dredge tank posts as well
The mod statement can be found here: https://hexbear.net/comment/5613033
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)
Okay, what is this thing with the name supposedly being racist? I thought a dunk tank is a thing at a fair where someone sits in a trap chair over a some water so you try to throw a ball at a target that will trigger the chair and dunk them in the water.
until the 50's it was exclusively black people in the contraption and it had a more colorful name. CW slurs https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunk_tank#Origin
Oh, I had no idea.
if they weren't even called dunk tanks back when they were racist how does that make the name bad now
Like if 70 years ago they took the racism out of the games and gave them a new name, how does the new name being used for a random subforum wordplay name do damage to anything / anyone?
America used to be (and still is) very racist, is wordplay off the table for them too?
There's a difference between accidentally naming after something racist and specifically doing it (even if it was unintentional, as it was with the pun)
See: Ricer strugglesessions
do i even want to ask? actually yes i do
I don't know if we're still federated with whoever it was that wouldn't accept it was a racist term, but basically:
Ricer is a term for a street car that has been souped up. The term comes from back in the 90's when americans would buy cheap japanese cars and then make them go fast. A japanese car that was made to go fast was a ricer because japanese people eat a lot of rice hahaha very funny observation mayoman.
This term then became a more general descriptor for cheap stuff made to run fast. Cue pc nerds using it to describe cheap pcs subsequently modified to be better. Cue the same nerds being mad when hexbearistas pointed this out and wouldn't let them continue calling it ricers, because "it wasn't racist anymore, since it now just means a ricer it doesn't even have anything to do with japan"
I'm not really here to argue, i was just sharing something i learned earlier today. but i will point out that the entire concept of dunk tanks was racist in origin, not just the old name(s). It's original form was just trying to throw balls at black people's faces, and it developed from there.
i thought it was a play on the drunk tank??
oh that's clever, I hadn't even though of that angle. Sadly i think the consensus is it was based off of dunk tanks
The consensus is that it's based off of "dunking on" someone (basketball) and that we then decided to make a play on words when we made a comm for it. It was now a "dunk tank" - referencing the carneval game, while being a tank full of dunks (basketball term).
So it's nuanced, you know? Like the Washington removed or the [local city] Braves or the cheer team doing the tomahawk chant. Super nuanced like that.
(Tone clarifier for the last bit: Joking. It's good we change the name. The "nuance" is that it both is a direct reference to the game, but that we ended up there by way of the basketball thing. It's not nuanced, just like how those other things aren't nuanced either.)
I hadn't even heard of "dunk tanks" but I knew about the term "drunk tank" from various american tv shows.
I'd bet the term is based on "dunk tank" however...
There was a big post recently where we uh, looked at the wikipedia article for the history of dunk tanks and surprise surprise a staple of small town american culture has deeply racist roots.
Yup, it makes perfect sense to change the name of the com then. But calling it "gossip" is just...wha? Like, dunk tank posts are not "gossip."
Call it the_hog_pen or something like that
I personally like point_and_laugh
nest_full_of_hornets
Defederate so we can change the name every day
Let the dredge tank consume all
I'm still pushing for the_dunk_court
We can even have fun with puns around court being both a basketball court and a court of law
People are telling me the origin is pretty bad and i agree