We've seen an uptick in people posting dunks in here that belong in dunk_tank, as well as low-hanging fruit that gets removed from or isn't allowed in dunk_tank anymore. For context, rule 8 of dunk_tank:
Rule 8: The subject of a post cannot be low hanging fruit, that is comments/posts made by a private person that have low amount of upvotes/likes/views. Comments/Posts made on other instances that are accessible from hexbear are an exception to this.
There's a reason that dunks are cordoned off to their own comm, some users rightfully don't want to see reactionary nonsense all the time, even if we're making fun of the person who said it. /c/cth is a general-purpose comm but it's NOT for posting some random nobody asshole twitter user's bad takes, the absolute best course of action to take when you see that stuff out in the wild is to either directly shit on them yourself, or ignore them and don't give them more attention.
From this point on I'm going to be more stringent about moderating this. I get it, it's fun to dunk on the libs and the blue checks and the 
and that's why we have a whole dedicated comm for that. Any post that's obviously meant to be "hey look at this piece of shit, let's laugh at how bad their opinions are, upbears to the left and emojis in chat" belongs in the_dunk_tank. And any super low-hanging fruit doesn't belong on this site, period (see TDT rule 8 above). We have better things to do with our time than give unearned attention, time and energy to low-follower-count nobodies yelling into the void.
Thanks for your discretion comrades, stay sicko 
edit: as others have pointed out, /c/shitreactionariessay@lemmygrad.ml is a good place for any and all dunking content not allowed here. Post that ragebait to our comrades at the 'grad, they'll make good use of it. Also, per rule 9 of TFT dunking on fediverse users is still explicitly allowed so it's still open season on those in our own backyard.
So there's a type of post that people enjoy posting and engaging with, and a dedicated place to post that type of post. Then you make a rule that that type of post is no longer allowed in that dedicated place, so people naturally post it outside the dedicated place.
Just revert this shitty rule change and the "problem" will be solved
Noooo but I don't enjoy seeing those posts! I have better things to do!
This is an entirely predictable result of the addition of the bad rule 8 to the_dunk_tank
The purpose of this comm is literally to quarantine all of the "finding an idiot to get mad at" posts. This rule change is gonna make the rest of the site worse.
-ElGosso, 30 days ago on the dunk tank rule change post. Hm. Must be a psychic. Only explanation.
I called it too and asked for a quarantine zone for those kinda posts but was denied. LET US HAVE OUR SLOP
This conviction the mods seem to have that "[dunking on] super low-hanging fruit doesn't belong on this site, period" is weird and bad
Also "low hanging fruit" are posts not a lot of people have seen, while I guess the "high effort dunks" are posting whatever garbage Elon and jk have been up to because they have more views. Seems backwards to me :shrug-outta-hecks:
"I saw this and now you have to see this too" is not a good reason for posting. People don't need to see every bad take on the internet.
And the cousin of that one: “I got into an argument with a lib on Reddit so here’s our chain of single upvote comments, please tell I won the argument”
Exactly! That's the type of thing that should be clear is banned.
There's gonna be a middle ground between there and "moderately famous poster" that's gonna take some figuring out, but even just trimming that and things like 15-like YouTube comments from someone with a couple of subscribers, random anonymous racists arguing in the comments of a local newspaper article, things like that.
"I saw this, thought it was a funny bad take, and am now sharing with other people who will laugh at this fool" is usually my thought. I imagine the same is true for other dunk tank posters?
now you have to see this too
No one actually has to view the dunk tank. They can block it, scroll by, whatever. I scroll past a lot of posts. Hextube gets pinned all the time, but is of no relevance to me. Other comms I've blocked all together 🤷
The comm for that is now https://hexbear.net/c/shitreactionariessay@lemmygrad.ml
So a popular type of post many hexbear users like is no longer allowed on Hexbear at all? Why?
Well, I'll subscribe to that too, but lemmygrad posters are more serious, less fun and that comm is drastically less active than TDT
not a good reason for posting
i didn't need a reason to keep posting
Right. Seems kinda backwards if the criteria is "low hanging"
the numbers below a post do not actually affect its dunkability.
Yeah, but it should cool off after a while. I'm sure that now both comms are going after the low hanging fruit posts the posts will just wean off.
What is wrong with low hanging fruit anyway
It's not like making fun of reactionary losers is important work or anything
They belong better in some of the Lemmygrad lib showcase comms. I've seen too many posts on here and /r/trueanon that are just random nobodies saying deranged things 4 years ago. I don't mind it too much and it's ultimately not dissimilar from the approved posts, but it's extremely reddit energy to be dunking on low hanging fruit from trolls.So ignore them and let them settle to the bottom of the pile with all the other poor engagement posts
So, what you're saying is to defeat bad posts in the marketplace of ideas, rather than to use political power to do so?
Why do we have to "defeat" bad posts at all? Hexbear is a site where a significant portion of the posts are bad on purpose. We have an entire comm dedicated to posting the worst posts we can come up with. Title: I farded, body: hehe is a completely valid Hexbear post. In fact, it's probably been posted multiple times already.
We should be "defeating" posts that are racist, ableist, transphobic, liberal, etc. We shouldn't be "defeating" posts that are bad, that's what this site is for
some of us have been against c/badposting for the entirety of its existence
Is the fruit somehow higher if the person has more followers? I honestly don't understand.
A post is higher effort the more eyeballs the original had?
Yeah, part of the problem with these rules is that there's no good way to draw a line between what's low-hanging fruit and what's a legitimate target for hexbear dunking. The rule relies on the mood of the mod present at the time of posting.
Surely everyone will stop posting the posts they like to post because the two comms those posts best fit in ban those posts
Yeah? We had people posting casual transphobia and casual racism here in the early days, heavy moderation put an end to that. Obviously bad posts and bigotry aren't comparable but you get the idea, moderation is like cyberbullying but with institutional power; and if we've learned anything from the posting wars it's that bullying works.
That's not really comparable. Racism and transphobia are actually bad and ideologically opposed to the ideals of the site, making fun of bad opinions but with numbers that are too small under them is not. Getting rid of people who post racism and transphobia is a good thing to do, but are you actually suggesting banning low-hanging-fruit-dunkers?
As I said, it's not about the morals of the behavior, just the behavior itself and the fact that moderation will inevitably tone it down. And I don't think bans make sense for rule 8, but do you think people who post random twitter screenshots to the dunk tank are gonna keep going after their 36th consecutive post gets removed?
It's crazy, some people are actually so addicted to the emotional feedback loop of human misery that is posting every loser's shit take, that they get hostile when you try to take it away. Couldn't be me.
Yeah it's crazy that some people enjoy different things than me. I just can't understand it.
Thank you, exactly! But if they stop being terminally online, they might have to actually take some action, and action is scary.
Better to "dunk" on miserable 4 follower accounts that you only encounter in hour 7 of doom scrolling.
We have better things to do with our time than give unearned attention, time and energy to low-follower-count nobodies yelling into the void.
No we don't.
Can we have a /c/garbage comm for low hanging fruit for us trash goblins
Just a slight correction, the correct lemmygrad comm is !shitreactionariessay@lemmygrad.ml
Looks like their c/shitreactionariessay works.
edit: But I am with you for the most part, and would like there to be a place locally where hexbears can post that sort of thing if they want to.
what I'm getting from this is that super low hanging fruit dunks are bad posts so if we had a place for those 🤔
Uncritical support to the mods in their struggle against posts featuring bait from edgy 14 year olds with 3 followers
I just blocked thedunktank a while ago because I dont want to use my free time looking at bad takes
I support the mods 100% on this decision.
There is effectively an infinite supply of horrible people and horrible takes whereas your time and energy is limited.
I am somebody who lives in an almost constant state of rage and I think that this is the only normal reaction to the hellworld in which we currently live. But that's not a healthy way to live so I try to limit my exposure to the stuff that gives me psychic damage.
That's why I blocked the dunk tank - I enjoy dunking on bad people and bad takes as much as everyone but being exposed to a constant stream of that every day is not a great use of your time and energy.
Since it looks like a lot of people are not happy with this (but others are and make good points), can I be an enlightened centrist for a minute and suggest a compromise? How about a weekly megathread for the low-hanging fruit? That way the reactionary takes stay cordoned off in the dunk_tank comm but the low profile losers don't get much attention drawn to them by someone making an entire post about them, yet those of us who want to can still have the opportunity to show them to others so we can collectively point and laugh. Does that seem like a good middle ground?
I can't see it lasting longer than two weeks tops. The idea is that these types of post are too low effort in the first place. If users had to post them in a specific thread guaranteed to exponentially reduce views and interaction, they'd just decide it's not worth posting at all.
Counterpoint: Newsmega. The news megathread is one of my favorite parts of this site and it is very active even on "slow" news days. Obviously it's not a 1:1 comparison, but I think it illustrates pretty well that posting to a megathread is not at all a guarantee to exponentially reduces views and interaction. In fact, commenting to a megathread takes less effort than making a regular post, and that slight increase in the ease of making a contribution might make it more likely that people here will take the time to share some fool they happened to see somewhere else.
Well we needed a war to get the war/news-mega off the ground. What would a dunk tank mega need to become popular?
There's massive Drake slander that's happening right now with people digging up and rehashing all the times he has acted like a creep, so I guess that could work.
the trans mega got popular on its own so maybe it could be the same for the dunktank one
trans people are valuable and deserve community and built one, no-effort "look at this nonsense my friend's uncle said" posts are not sapient beings and I don't expect this tantrum to reach much beyond the current thread.
