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)
this was very clearly planned before the election, c/gossip and c/counterpropaganda were made on November 4th. c/selfcrit was also made then, i assume that is the next step (if this whole blowup doesnt stop the whole plan in its tracks, I guess)
edit: honestly thinking about something else I was just talking about later in the thread, there was a host of admin activity right after the misogony crackdown thread, and in that thread I also remember the vibe being that some people wanted the site to be more serious and there were suggestions of a c/selfcrit being thrown around then, maybe that thread is where this originated from?
Are we gonna start doing actual struggle session?
the idea back when it was suggested in the thread was that if you got temp banned the admins would make you make a post in there to get unbanned so yeah i guess lol
We used to have a comm like that, and all it brought was drama lmao
not too unsurprising. what kind of drama? people refusing and then getting permabanned and then other users getting mad at it?
If you were banned (permabanned, we didn't have tempbans back then) you could make an alt and request an unban. Often they'd just be ignored but if the ban was controversial - if the user was a big name, or if the mod decision was particularly bizarre - the threads would just explode and the userbase would just argue about it.
ah i think this would be a little different then, this would only be for temp bans was my understanding so maybe it would be a little less controversial?
The Chernobyl, if they didn't do anything about it when the reactor exploded, of toxicity (possibly,
the comm, which actually does exist rn, is lockedthe reactor is still under construction)Idk, maybe it is a good idea to do actual struggle seshes cuz this site can be rly white or brainwormed sometimes, but I wasn't around during the era of /c/userunion or /c/theonecommwhereyoucouldpostwithanaltandgetunbannedpossibly lol
At least the tank comms had rules about posting other Hexbears in there lol
Entering my Red Guard era rn
, WE MUST PURGE THE 4 OLDS FROM HEXBEAR
deleted by creator
to clear, this all 100% speculation
in my mind it goes: misogyny thread goes up -> few days in, admins have scoured the thread and get the vibe that there is a not insignificant chunk of people who want the site to be more serious in some way. they have discussions about how to do that for a couple weeks, and then that thread about the dunk tank name being racist gets brought up, which makes them include it in this plan of making the site more serious? something like this anyways, this is just speculation like i said we don't really know if the removal of the dunking comms has anything to do with that thread nor how long they've been planning this other than i think it's been at least 5 days
Isn't that what Lemmygrad is for?
technically, although they too have plenty of shitposting. biggest issue is that they arent leftist unity, and also not as loudly queer friendly. if you like those aspects of hexbear but want it to be more serious you cant really just go to grad
Right? Sometimes I just want a space where I can start a shitpost claiming that Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin counts as reading theory. That won't fly over on the 'grad.
Lemmygrad doesn't work for anarchists.
deleted by creator
i mean you can check it out yourself someone posted the public chat it was in. anything in dms i doubt they release themselves, they have seemed to take offense to dm leaking in the past so i doubt they do it themselves