hey there hexbear nd gang! it's that time of year for the first time ever!

here we are once again approaching the end of the year according to the roman imperial calendar that we all have to use for some reason. it's the winter holiday season in the global north, a time of great symbolic significance to many people.

and so, i want to solicit your thoughts about this community, what it means to you, how you'd like to see it evolve, changes in moderation policy, suggestions for thumbnail and banner images, or anything else related to the comm or neurodiversity in general.

or just come hang out!

i also want to invite applications for new moderators for this comm. what would you like to do as a moderator for c/neurodiversity?

personally i've largely been a placeholder, but i do love this community and i want to see it grow as a shared and safe space for our neurodivergent comrades to talk about ourselves and with each other. i also want to do better and want your input about what that means.

c/nd has a well behaved user base so we don't need extra mod help for enforcement or anything like that. what i'm mainly looking for is fresh perspectives on community engagement and growth.

there is absolutely no requirement to disclose any personal information about yourself, just to make that clear. but if you're interested in moderating this community, please contact @CARCOSA@hexbear.net, myself, and/or the other nd mods with an application.

if deadlines help motivate you, you have 3 days from the time you read this.

if deadlines harm your motivation, don't worry about it. if an application comes in a month or two from now of course we'll still consider it. this isn't a job, i'm just asking for volunteers to help moderate a small internet message board.

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 are your thoughts on neurodiversity?

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?

Do you have any ideas for c/neurodiveristy community engagement?

What is your general time availability? (amounts, common browsing times, etc)

Element information

Element is a messaging app that lets you talk to people over the Matrix protocol.

To get started, check out this link, where you can choose to either download Element for your platform or, if on a computer, open it in a browser ("Launch Element Web").

The instructions that follow are for the desktop application and the web application, but the process is similar on all apps:

  • Press "Create Account"
  • We host our own Matrix server, so if you want you can change matrix.org to chapo.chat. This is completely optional; users who sign up with a matrix.org username can still talk to people with chapo.chat username. (Note: It is chapo.chat, not hexbear.net. Also, registrations aren't always open on chapo.chat; if they're not, just create an account on matrix.org)
  • Fill in a username and password
  • Hit register, and you're done!
  • autismdragon [he/him, they/them]
    ·
    11 months ago

    Ok. Im actually kind of mad about this, but i dont want to cause problems in whats been a peaceful, positive thread.

    But i have to ask, as politely as possible, why is the veganism question part of the mod application for the neurodiversity comm? Would i be rejected for not following the hexbear party line on the subject?

    Because while i think veganism is a good thing to practice, ive been constantly put off by the way vegans on this site seem to not give a damn about the fact that a vegan diet can be difficult to literally actually impossible for autistic people. Whether its just difficulty changing habits like me, or whether its extreme cases of people with asd only being able to stomach a short list of foods like my friend. This is a neurosdiversity issue id like to discuss. But i frankly do not feel safe doing so here, not even in the ND comm. To see a question i feel is irrelevant to a person's ability to moderate an ND comm on the application makes me more certain of that. Seems like a way to filter out disent like that.

    Also without bringing up meta drama specifics, i know of other ND users who share my discomfort with the veganism discourse on this site, and the behavior of certain vegan users.

    • context [fae/faer, fae/faer]M
      ·
      11 months ago

      why is the veganism question part of the mod application for the neurodiversity comm? Would i be rejected for not following the hexbear party line on the subject?

      hey autismdragon, the shortest and truest answer is that it's a question on the default application that i copied and pasted, and i didn't remove it despite making a couple other minor nd-specific changes. approval of applications isn't solely up to me, although the nd mods are also given broad discretion to appoint mods we vouch for. so i think the real answer regarding approval is it will simply depend on who's reading it and deciding. site mods and at least some of the nd mods will surely want to see some kind of answer to that question consistent with hexbear policy.

      my understanding of hexbear policy is that while it's a pro-vegan and animal liberation site, what gets enforced is prohibiting anti-vegan sentiments.

      Volunteers, comments, and posts, should not be anti-vegan, although users and volunteers are not required to be vegan.

      per the code of conduct.

      i feel like there's plenty of room within that for you and others to discuss your own diets and habits. the discussion elsewhere in this thread has so far been one comment from a vegan encouraging another user to go beyond ditching red meat, and then a few follow up comments from other users about oysters. looks pretty well behaved to me and i have not received any reports about any of those comments.

      i hope this addresses your concerns. we're trying to curate a safe and comfortable environment for our neurodivergent users, but this community is on hexbear and the hexbear code of conduct applies.

      • autismdragon [he/him, they/them]
        ·
        11 months ago

        Thank you for the response. I appreciate it and understand about the application.

        I did leave an angry comment on that one post you mentioned though. Which was mostly me being annoyed about the situation already. I think ill delete it after writing this.

        But i do think Venus's reply was out of line for the situation at hand. Sharing new years resolutions among ND users, and someone shares that theyre giving up red meat, a net good for themselves and the world, and Venus chimes in that thats not good enough?

        Dietary changes are very difficult for a lot of autistic people in the best of circumstances. I think it was inappapropriate for the context.

    • AdmiralDoohickey@lemmygrad.ml
      ·
      11 months ago

      I am also autistic and think veganism is right but I can't transition yet, because I can't stand raw vegetables for shit (and that's the way they are commonly eaten in my countries).

      However I have found that stir frying some "safe" veggies like carrots, peppers and onions makes them edible and tasty. Also adding them to sauces or curries and eating them with pasta and rice respectively. Some other vegan foods are very tasty, like lentils or falafels.

      You might not be able to eat most of the above, but they are worth a try I guess

        • AdmiralDoohickey@lemmygrad.ml
          ·
          11 months ago

          I understand. I have that too but probably at a smaller extent than you. I guess the only way is to gradually do it, like turning one more day of the week to a vegan day each month or something. But that truly takes work, when we have so many other matters to attend to and that's the hard part for me. Any time I try to do something healthier like exercising, it comes crashing down when I enter into an intense period of my life and I have to rebuild it afterwards