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)
To me, this comes across as inventing a user to get mad at, then punishing them.
I don't like the dunk tank very much so I support this. It's unhealthy as hell to spend so much time looking at drama aimed at random twitter people and such. Especially when people just post stuff to get mad at. It really looks no better than right-wing getting-mad-at-stuff media. People love to criticize social media for being negative and playing with people's mental state and so on, but it's the same exact thing here. I think closing communities that are designed for low quality content can actually have a really positive impact on lots of people's mental health.
And I think it actually IS on the admins and moderators to make those decisions, to maintain a healthy online space.
Some of the backlash to the change I think is also just reaction to any kind of change. But all online communities change. And they need to change in order to stay fresh. I think now is also a good time for that kind of change because so so so so many of the posts on here lately have been insanely low quality. My subjective impression is that the amount of interesting discussions happening on here has continued to decrease.
Why is it your role to assess a healthy amount of time spent on a social website? Why are you responsible for the health and wellbeing of other users?
This is a naked insult. The content of the dunk tank is not based on hatred of the inherent characteristics of other people. When there are exceptions they should be subject to moderation. Overwhelmingly the dunk tank content is mocking choices made by human beings with agency who decided to conduct themselves as monsters.