Mine is being allowed to tell people to eat all my ass and hair without being banned :possum-party:
It improved on the reddit model. As a basic platform I like reddit because it's the closest to Web 1.0 communities like Geocities or blog groups. I don't like it structurally or as spectacle though, with karma being the core flaw of the website. By gamifying community participation they encourage artificial participation. You're incentivised to karma farm and avoid downvotes. A power user there actually means something and it's extremely toxic, both for the individual and for the communities they participate in.
Hexbear took away the posting metagame so it's a step closer to the old internet. You can still be bullied for an opinion but it doesn't impact your account. You can still get points for an opinion but they're restricted to that thread alone. My account posting more or less daily looks exactly the same as a new one without any sort of trophies or score. As a model, the only incentive to participate is that you want to authentically participate in that community moment. That's a decommodification of social media which I much prefer to anything that structurally reflects celebrity.
I visited reddit once and got downvoted to oblivion for saying I would piss on the queens grave
Never again
They're a chicken versus egg problem for me. The metagame of reddit encourages that kind of person and traps them in a snowballing circlejerk of their views. It's like the peer pressure version of youtube's algorithm. Demographically and as a company reddit is terrible. The idea of a centralised forum where I can create my own subforums is where they got it right. It's a unique kind of rhizomatic growth where each new node can be a whole new miniature movement, with peasant rebellions against the subreddit lords. Hexbear's a step back there in that structurally ideas can't organically become new communities without admin approval.
Two big things:
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I can feel myself becoming a better person. I have a lot of reactionary bullshit drilled into my head, but I finally found a place where I can unlearn it benignly. This includes some deep pessimism about the state of the world. It's weird to say, but a social media site has had a positive effect on my mental health. I'll log off if the dark cloud comes back, but after about a year of lurking, I'm feeling better just knowing I'm not the only leftist out there.
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The layout, this is more like the old school sites where you have to interact more to get more content: no infinite scroll. There's also no ads on Hexbear and no annoying pop-ups everywhere. I'd say Hexbear is doing a fine job with it's mission of making the internet weird again. I cannot thank the Hexbear team enough for having a fully de-gentrified website.
TL;DR: Puter finally is doing something good :meow-hug:
There’s also no ads on Hexbear and no annoying pop-ups everywhere.
Now that you mention it, I think this is the only site I visit that doesn't trigger anything on uBlock. This and marxism.org.
There's no ads on China's official news site, People's Daily. Neither does another Chinese news site Sixth Tone. Both are funded by the CPC.
There's also an ad-free Hong Kong-based news site called Friday. Chinese news, but mostly focused on Hong Kong. (Haven't checked this one out much, but the few articles I've read on there were cool reads.)
Its nice to know you are getting better, ben garrison
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The smug feeling of superiority I get being the only true leftest on here.
Wait shit I thought I was the one true leftist, is my week up already?
I love a good bit account. Neera and Juan have made me laugh out loud on numerous occasions.
:stalin-heart:
The fact that everyone here is a bunch of dirty fuckin commies
Also the emojis :bolso-pain: :stalin-gun-1: :lula-bars:
The users tbh. I don't post that much and we have a range of view on here still, but it's nice to have a place to go online where the posters are decent people rather than insane reactionaries of either the liberal or conservative variety. Emotes are a close second though :che-poggers:
I like the community honestly. I haven’t really experienced a bad interaction. Some times people are rude or overly snarky, but overall I think everyone here is on the same side and looking toward the same better vision. Perhaps from different angles and perspectives but I would say we all looking in the same direction.
Oh and all the techno-wizards 🖥️⌨️🖲️ 🧙♂️🧙♀️are dope and have good taste in nerd-shit like comics and TTRPGS.
:communism-will-win:
unironically the feedback i get when i do something creative gives me a slightly higher will to live
also you get to say stuff like peepee poopoo (comedy gold)
we have the best posters, boys, they're great posters, let me tell ya
