This is more of a guess than something I've confirmed actually exists, but I'm sure it's going around -- if you've ever had it please say so below.
There's a lot of people who seem to delete comments because they feel like making those comments was a mistake, or regret them.
I also believe there's a lot of people that type up entire responses and then delete them and don't respond. This one happens on reddit a lot but I think it happens more here.
What's causing these and how can we go about alleviating them so people aren't afraid of participating?
--
EDIT: Getting the impression that just talking about this as a thing that exists might help some as there's not actually that much reason to worry. Participation is much better than non-participation!
I think one of the stronger aspects of Hexbear compared to reddit is a completely opposite philosophy on participation. On reddit votes and downvotes were intended to eliminate "fluff" commenting, attempting to encourage an environment where people only comment if they've got something valuable to add to the conversation and downvoting anyone that doesn't (this was the original culture and intention of their system). Here on the other hand we kinda have the opposite going and it's nicer, more human and more about actually chatting an interacting with other people.
Yep. The thing is one the dogpiling starts you really cannot talk to Chapos about cooling it. They get so angry at the way the poster is wrong they cannot just let them be wrong and move on. It's not good for a community for people to only ever post things they are certain will be accepted by the group.
As for what to do about it, I think mods should use 24 hour bans for people who have been members in good standing.
This is exactly why I surf logged out 99% of the time, and don't post in any situation where I disagree with someone.
The idea of ban-happy mods and having to make / remember a new account sounds exhausting and I'd rather just not participate honestly.
I'm tired and just want some news and laughs at the end of long days. The original sub was an absolute riot & that's what I yearn for
Woah, that's literally me!
😔
I wish there was a way to show the reason why a banned user got banned, like a link next to their user name or something.
You can see why a user was banned. You can search the username on the public modlog.
https://hexbear.net/modlog
/c/userunion exists for appeals, but tbh I don't think most of the people who get banned really care, since making another account isn't too hard lol
It doesn't really help that the mods routinely delete old posts in that thread and userunion after having been "resolved".
:D
I wish I knew about that sooner. Leaving it on the homepage's sidebar could be useful as long as it doesn't somehow encourage further wrecking behavior.
The log also shows removed comments or posts of the banned user. In some instances, the log shows what the comment said before it was removed. The log includes links to removed comments, even if the comment text is deleted. You can click the deleted comment link to see the context of the comment.
Banning good faith posts, so much so that people worry about getting banned and so don't post, is good moderating, actually.
I've never deleted anything, i post cringe and use it as a roadmap for growth 😎😎😎
Divulging too much tbh. Every comment I delete contains my full name and address.
i just deleted a comment cause i realized i was taking a bit seriously when it was not serious
I do that a lot (autism gang 😎) but I usually just leave it up and edit in a note about falling for the bit to help anyone else who might also be confused
Twice this week I’ve given a serious response and been told it was a bit, and I totally respect the bits and I don’t want them to go away but sometimes I think they’re serious because I got that bad brain
taking a bit seriously when it was not serious
Nice work, there's plenty of that going around already
I can't check my profile to see my upbears so I just assume nothing lands
+1 to this. Anecdotally, it seems if two people get into a proper argument on here and neither logs off, it spirals until one of them gets a ban.
Posting just increases your likelihood of getting banned lol. (I was joking but the comments suggest this is a real phenomenon. Phew.)
(But, if someone is worried about posting, they should consider how many useless posts, which only contain affective treacle, are constantly posted; your posts will never be as bad as those.)
I proudly post complete garbage because I like posting and I like there being more slop for the :LIB:s here to consume
I probably delete 75% of my responses before I hit submit. Should be 30% tops.
Maybe there should be a little bit more disagreement on this site. There's not much left to talk about when people already agree on everything.
Maybe there should be a little bit more disagreement on this site.
gonna have to disagree here
Maybe there should be a little bit more disagreement on this site. There’s not much left to talk about when people already agree on everything.
I feel like when it happens, there is decent disagreement on the site where people will talk it out to a conclusion or clarify that they were even on the same page all along - but also that disagreement usually starts pretty "vigorously" and is probably intimidating a few people into immediately disengaging or deleting their posts.
(I don't have evidence for the last bit that people actually do delete posts, but it's a hunch)
Of course everything is contextual based on the discussions at the time, but i feel like we start disagreements by going in hard at eachother (maybe out of a sense of defence of our space, paranoia about reactionaries, idk) and then mellow to a consensus and they result in really good chat - but post 1 of a disagreement can often be pretty full onIt’s just that the pressure of how intense these discussions get sometimes get people talking about normal, reasonable stuff to freak out and get themselves yeet’d off the site.
This is a very real problem. There is a huge emotional reaction people have when they feel like they're getting rejected by other people here, probably because people actually like it here, and that means when a conversation is going south like that for some people it causes a huge emotional explosion that then manifests in not-great ways that result in moderation acting.
Not sure how to resolve that. It's improved over time, it might improve more as the crowd gets larger and less like "everybody here knows exactly who I am and will remember this".
The other side of this is that people are human and get drunk or have stresses offline that are also contributing.
I deleted 3 responses so I must submit this one
When I listen to Marxists in the academy talk, every time they reach a consensus they uncover 5 more disagreements.
There never is a consensus. There's just pre-disagreement. We're just being sociable. There's a lot more disagreement here than post counts would have you believe.
yeah, that's true - consensus wasn't the right word but i couldn't think of a better one at the time.
maybe "amicable acknowledgement" is more accurate
When i post something hilarious and it doesn't get enough upbears i delete it to punish all of you
If I had to guess it's people who are still figuring out their ideology.
I never worry about catching a ban here (feel free to irony-ban me for that line) but if I was posting here as a nascent leftist I would be treading softly.
I think the mods here have more or less the correct "party-line" so I don't personally want them to get lax on moderation - but if this wasn't an ML-friendly space I would absolutely hate the mods.
What can you do.
So like... Typing a comment and only after typing it up realising that others are already saying it?
Hmm, maybe putting the comment box below the comment section entirely would change this? So that people scroll through a comment section before firing off a top-level comment. If I had to guess that might reduce top-level commenting while increasing comment replies to existing comments, not sure though UX differences produce really big behavioural changes on a lot of sites.
That's definitely a thought that crossed my mind but maybe not? It's quite hard to say whether it would reduce participation, instead of writing their duplicate top-level comment they might instead engage with someone else who was making that comment and add further thoughts on what someone else said -- creating fewer duplicate conversations and instead deeper conversations among the people that would have written duplicates.
There's a few possible ways for the engagement to change and it's pretty hard to predict without testing.
Usually I think of a comment, get halfway through writing it, and then realize it's not worth the effort
and then realize it’s not worth the effort
Why's that? Part of what I made this thread for was to try and consider actionable changes that might help certain elements of this. What might make it "worth the effort" ?
Usually when I decide something isn't worth the effort it's because I remember that eveyone here is a stranger on the internet and nothing I say here really matters. It's a lot better on Hexbear than say, :reddit-logo: though, since the community here is small enough to actually feel like a community sometimes.
I get that a good amount too, I'd say it makes up most of my unposted posts. If I want to make a long reply to something but don't really have the time to properly make my point I'd rather just not, or if it's just a flippant comment I'm gonna make I might just not bother If feel it doesn't really add much. The rest of my non-posts are ones where I know what emoji I want to use but can't find it :meow-cactus:
Posting under the influence and realizing it’s absolutely nonsensical.
