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)
I've referenced the self-referential and axiomatic nature of the rhetoric and discourse among this website and its users before, which is why I understand the frustration of the termination of two sub-forums that communicates memes and forces the brain to respond in memes.
From what I gathered among this thread is the primary grievance is that this decision was a unilateral decision made by anonymous moderators who diminished the userbase as being brocialists who like slop as denigrating to marginalized persons, and did it so suddenly, without warning, and so abruptly, without consultation.
I apologize for the patronizing tone, but would you expand on that statement instead of having me try to intuit the meaning?
Which I would think people on here would be fine with since part of the site culture is that sometimes people with power just bring the hammer down. And that can be a good thing when done by the right people for the right reasons. Endlessly debating and
ing on every dumb litte thing is not democracy. And an internet forum is not "a democracy". And there is no feasible way for a website to be "democratically run". The admins are making a decision they think will improve the website. And people are making whiny process critiques and getting mad that their favorite slop is going away. People should get some perspective!
I agree with you. I was just describing the situation as I saw it.
(I'm just annoyed when people communicate or reply to me in these riddles and intuitions like I have the same common understanding of their thoughts extant in their mind. I can't read minds and sometimes context is lost on me .I can only conjecture someone's intent and meaning when someone's being vague and mysterious [ which comes off to me as aloof and arrogant ].)