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)
Something I haven't seen mentioned. Roasting assholes can be a great entrance to leftist thought. Imagine I'm a vaguely left individual. I think Dems suck. I hate Republicans. Ive never read even the most basic of theory. I probably don't know theory exists. I see a wacky Twitter Nazi getting roasted in a dredge thread. Awesome. Then you follow that and see more etc etc. eventually you may actually start engaging in leftist ideas more seriously because the roasts do often hint at or explicitly call out actual theory.
If instead the only option is some 5 paragraph effort post dissecting said Nazi via a Marxist lens... Well probably ain't reading that shit.
Honestly glib roasts seem like they'd be more useful or atleast as useful as more complex posts in having offline impact. Which is kinda what the mods seem to think hexbear oughta do.
The edits do seem to indicate that perhaps not all posts to these new coms need huge effort but as is the other major complaint... It's not actually clear. At all.
Anyway I shouldn't even be online right now so I should stop reading this thread and just see what happens.
Yeah, this is what got me into Marxism via the original r/CTH.
the genesis of this entire site and the reason the vast majority of the userbase are here lmao
They should make a podcast about that
Many people have stated similar sentiments or variations. To my knowledge all have been ignored and their comments have not been acknowledged.
Your observation that people simply won't read effort posts if they're not in the mood for it is very salient.
I don't think "dunking" on people is a healthy way of attracting users. Because you're just attracting people who love drama.
The thing that attracted me to chapotraphouse was discussion of current events (and maybe dunking also idk).
It's sooooooooo much more interesting to talk about the world with people online instead of talking about some random fucking youtuber drama bullshit or some twitter user or some boring media personality.
The chapotraphouse and citations needed podcasts are even becoming less interesting because they spend so much time on random media personalities who I don't care a single bit about.
Like this stuff is such American-media middle-class little-Eichmann style content.
I want to hear about global politics or some evil thing the US is doing right now.
Not people in media complaining about other people in media. ad infinitum.