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)
Okay, in defense of a low effort/no effort space for mockery and derision of weird liberal posts
I find that it serves as a form of santiy check and a kind of ritual for reinforcing community and in-group solidarity. The sanity check part is important for me; we're bombarded with so much capital realism and horror every day, and I don't have other commies in my day to day life. So having a space where other people can look at random silly unimportant things and mock them helps me stay grounded and, paradoxically, engaged.
It reminds me that the liberals all around me are not normal, neutral, or natural, that their views are weird and can be challenged and discounted.
The low/no effort part is important bc effort requires effort. Analyzing everything is very taxing and having a goofy place that doesn't ask much of you can be helpful when you're just worn out.
That's my two cents. I'm cool with whatever the community decides, just wanted to throw out an effort post.
Yeah we have tried to have comms where high effort was a requirement. The result has been the death of those comms. Effortposting sees little effort, theory sees little theory and c/strugglesessions (which implies an expected emotional effort for interaction, at the very least) isn't in session.
On top of that seriously discussing obvious slop-brained takes and actions only further legitimises them. Mocking them for being what they are - ridiculous, is a more effective rebuttal than a thorough and polite essay going thru the many faults one by one. Not to say we didn't see a lot of those long ass essays in the_dunk_tank, because people liked pointing out the flaws and discussing them with others. I don't really see what this is trying to achieve.
Happy the name changes, if it is really based on racism. I thought it was dunking as in basketball dunking. As in you are dunking on someone.
This is largely how I feel, too. I mean this in the most respectful way possible, but any organizing I do isn't going to be with you nerds on the pee pee poo poo beanis bear site. I'm bringing chili to a strike line, or giving somebody a couch to crash on. I'm not here to re-write/re-read What Is to Be Done? every time some semi-famous dipshit does a racism on Twitter dot com.
This is my outlet to get away from some of that bullshit and just shoot the shit with people who aren't monsters.
Thing is though, this obviously isn't up to what the community wants. The people running this place clearly don't care about that anymore.
Let's not be hyperbolic. They're not great, but it's obvious they still take feedback and respond to users. Sometimes. They do this stuff once in a while, but then they pull it back again once in a while. Otherwise we'd still have the twitter-has-to-be-nitter thing, main would be closed, the news mega wouldn't be stickied, a bunch other stuff I don't recall.
Not saying they're great at it, but still, they could do much worse.
And in the end the worst thing that can happen is
There was a time I would have agreed with this, I'm not so sure at this point. They're not getting rid of me yet though lol
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nah it's always been insular
Turns out one of the users commenting with snide remarks about the dunk tank was a mod of the dunk tank lol.
Yeah, that's how I feel. I post on here to chill out, not to start a revolution. If I'm putting in effort, I'm putting it into irl organising.
Yeah this is how I feel. I am often so low on spoons and so spent with the constant liberalism that we live in that this has been a good place to vent.
This was the one place where I don't have to spend an hour explaining what the issue is, because I knew that here people get it. That explaining and effort is taxing as hell and a leftist has to do that all the time in the world we live in, just to be allowed an opinion.
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