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)
if the intention behind this was to create a more serious and disciplined image for hexbear then that has obviously failed, that's not something you can just impose on a community overnight. The way this change has been carried out and communicated is actually kind of humiliating, for me included for posting here.
If the intention is to purge an undesirable culture on this website, well that culture is also the most active one. I think further intensification of this policy will more likely just lead to a significant decrease in activity overall. I do hope the administrative and moderation team will cease this course, and revise their plans to instead encourage the higher effort posts they want to see rather than trying to limit lower effort posts.
Furthermore, some of the reasons given for the change are quite odd and inflammatory. I understand how shitposting is not constructive, I think that's the strongest argument. The problem is I'm not usually coming on here to do work believe it or not. I'm usually here when i am trying to avoid my actual work. That and the news megathread, which is actually where the action is. I have the same objection to arguments like it "promotes misanthropy" and "mutual self harm". Come on, are you my mother now? Or my boss? Put on a smile and get to work effort posting? My actual mother gives me less shit over my smoking and she thinks my humor is witty. You can't expect too much discipline from anonymous form users, and honestly this place already has pretty well disciplined users when it comes to supporting each other but being ruthless to the libs and reactionaries. As for the too many white cis male communist "vibes" problem, this is a English speaking website spun off a American social media corporation, there's gonna be white men here. The ones here seem pretty well behaved to me and those who aren't got policed, and there's been a lot of past efforts to insure inclusivity for minorities of all sorts. The unsupported accusations of the shitposters just being stinky misogynists ironically reeks of the reputation r/CTH got branded with among liberal reddit around 2016. First as a tragedy then a farce eyy?