The mods behind this statement should come forward and c/selfcrit. So many people have pointed out the the jacketing the userbase here as cishet white Reddit debatebros is fucked up and hurtful among other issues, and they are cowards for hiding behind CARCOSA. If you have contempt for the users then say it with your whole fucking chest under your own name
Wat. Nobody, absolutely nobody, wanted Carcosa to step down. We just want to shitpost. Let us shitpost, Carcosa come back, and everything will be whole again. It's so simple it does not need to be more complicated than that.
ALL of this was clearly shortsighted and a mistake. All behind the scenes communications (between mods, admins, and with other instances), trying to implement changes without the community even being aware (let alone being behind them), and finally mods and admins stepping down. I mean seriously, take a step back and tell me this doesn’t absolutely reek of wrecker shit.
Do we seriously think that the squeaky wheel for moving the site further from “white cishet male vibes” would be adding a barrier to posting unless you engage in debatebro dialectics? I mean that’s comically white cishet male vibes.
Let’s be so real right now. Undo everything. Start over. That includes admins unilaterally unadminning. Theyve done their self crit and it seemed as genuine as it could be, now they should ask the community for forgiveness and I’m almost certain theyll get it. If they don’t, then that’s that and they bow out gracefully, but at this point (unless they resigned for mental health issues) I feel as though they owe it to the community to have a say. The community deserves this whole situation to be approached from the very beginning. This includes deciding whether a debate even needs to be held regarding the old or new comms. No poweruser bullshit about trying to change site culture or making it more serious without community input.
I am a mod on /agitprop. If people like the idea, I’m more than happy to have a weekly Megathread running parallel to the standing news Megathread that is limited strictly to serious discussion, close readings, and actual counter propaganda about current events and other cultural zeitgeist issues. We have plenty of great users ready to put great effort into their posts if they’ll get noticed. If you need any evidence, look at the current pinned thread on /agitprop which has had (knock on wood) NO modding to it thus far and been completely on topic and FILLED with high effort posting. Stopping people from being unserious and having fun will not make them be serious, it will just end their engagement. Plenty of people come here to do both things, myself included. If you like your shitposting, you can keep it.
Have faith that the community is good as if you are a part of it, and I promise you’ll have a much more fruitful experience than trying to change it from the top down.
GOOD post! Though I don't need carcosa to unadmin.
Also going forward we need to stop hiding mod actions behind automod. Reopen feedback or userunion. Stop having so many "anonymous" mod discussions, but instead have them a place where users can read (though not participate) what is going on. Anonymity should be for opsec reasons only, not just some shithead wanting to be able to talk shit without pushback.
I think there should probably be some accountability for whoever was/were behind "the white cishet man vibes" part of the post, editing it out of the original post doesn't change that is was there, saying that shit was kinda fucked, as many people in the original post noted
Yeah carcosa stepping down makes things worse not better. The issue was in no way carcosa, in fact they made it much less bad than it could have been. The idea that carcosa steps down and those cowardly mods still get to run around behaving like gross bigots pisses me off.
I still don't fully understand what is happening. I know I don't want @CARCOSA@hexbear.net to go though
Apparently this is why they are stepping down? I really disagree with that, people are conflating "trying to avoid more drama" with "working with nazis" in the other thread. I feel like I missed something there.
On top of that this is Carcosas reasoning for stepping down which is what motivated me to hammer home that they handled this situation as best as it possibly could be handled and they really should not step down for making mistakes, when the only mistake they've made is listen to those shitty mods.People, me included, are mad because of the mod statement that was released about the closing down of the comms + The reasoning for closing down the comms. In a lot of ways it seems like this is the culmination of something that has been a long time coming and been unresolved for far too long - Some users think posting is praxis and that hexbear should be the headquarters of the revolutionary vanguard.
These users are dipshits that don't understand that most leftist orgs are also just fun places to hang out and shoot the shit. That's why people choose to volunteer for that kind of stuff - Because it is, in part, nice.
These dipshits furthermore think their treats are somehow less treatlike than the treats they dislike despite both treats being hexbear.
Finally they have a narc mindset.
Also they smell bad and they coat their shitty behaviour with leftist rhetoric so they can get away with it. Lots of talk about "chauvinism", "bigotry" and "toxicity" despite the previous thread being full of those very same people being incredibly hostile, dismissive, derisive, misgendering, ableist and a lot more. This isn't hypocrisy, because they don't actually care about bigotry, they just use it as an excuse to avoid self-reflection.I don't understand why this place can't be both a place to help people organise and do productive stuff and be a fun place to shitpost.
I dunno, I am pretty dumb I guess.
No you're on the money because it does not make sense. It's a lot easier to organize in places with people than it is in a barren desert.
On top of that I do not understand why people think we need to be productive on a website we visit for fun. This is not a place I go to create value. I am not here to work.Trying to squeeze value out of casual discussion is lethal to casual discussion. It reminds me somewhat of Reddit’s attempt to monetize the website especially in the lead-up to their IPO.
I suppose Hexbear can be construed to serve a leftist purpose. That purpose is community and sanctuary. I don’t think it can or should be more than that, at least not in this space.
No actually posting has to be productive. I don't know how it can be productive, but it better be. I have a healthy mindset about being online.
If Carcosa is telling the truth, then it makes them look dumb and duplicitous for thinking other admins would fall for such an obvious ruse.
If Carcosa is lying, then it makes them look duplicitous and dumb because they are trying to weasel their way out of what the screenshot plainly says.
Given this, Carcosa is right to step down. How can anyone trust them anymore? I certainly don't trust them anymore.
What? Yeah Carcosa said they lied, that tracks completely with what they're saying, I've already talked to this here
It doesn't make carcosa look duplicitous. It makes carcosa look like somebody who is trying to convince somebody to help them, it's pretty standard fare when you talk to someone who is hostile to you. I do it at work from time to time.@tocopherol@lemmy.dbzer0.com put it pretty well here too
I no longer really trust Carcosa anymore because I find it hard to believe that anyone would think that other people, especially people hostile and distrustful of you like liberal and fascist admins of a shitty Reddit clone, would fall for such a transparent ruse. Hostile admins would automatically assume Carcosa is full of shit anyways on account of them being liberals and fascists hostile to Hexbear as a socialist website. And even if I can be made to trust Carcosa again, I certainly can no longer trust Carcosa's judgment. Like, based on what Carcosa said, they basically never bother running through this ruse with the other admins of this website. So Carcosa lied to other lemmy admins without telling the other Hexbear admins?
Frankly, I find that extraordinarily hard to believe. A much more sensible series of events is that the ruse was thought of and collectively decided upon by all the admins and Carcosa was made the emissary due to their reputation as "the reasonable Hexbearian" among the rest of the Fediverse. Carcosa saying it was all their idea and stepping down is Carcosa falling on their sword on behalf of the other admins so us unwashed sicko masses don't grab our pitchforks and blame the rest of the admins.
Whatever the case, what's done is done.
I no longer really trust Carcosa anymore because I find it hard to believe that anyone would think that other people, especially people hostile and distrustful of you like liberal and fascist admins of a shitty Reddit clone, would fall for such a transparent ruse.
That's fair. It's not nice to see someone you (used to) trust lying. I'm not trying to convince you and I don't think you're trying to convince me either, we're just sharing our thoughts.[1] I've personally been in similar situations wrt being the middleperson between a lot of groups and having to try to manage everything. It lead to me doing a lot of the same stuff.
I don't know if carcosa expected it to work, but I trust that carcosa hoped it would and that they ended up calculating that the positive outcome was worth risking the most negative outcome. I'm not saying it's a good thing to do, but I'm saying it's understandable and completely rational. Carcosa acknowledged their mistake and offered to step down, which I really do not think they should do. It was a mistake, but we all make mistakes.
No idea why I'm saying this, but I felt the need to. You're nice and I enjoy this interaction, thank you ↩︎
It is? A "narc" is slang for a "narcotics cop". How is that related to neurodivergency?
Sorry, I thought you were saying it like "narcissistic mindset"
I'll edit my comment
No worries, I can understand the confusion if you don't know the slang. An to be honest it was hostile.
I appreciate you genuinely asking how it could be ableist and recognizing that it could be hostile even when I was misinterpreting you, comrade
You're welcome! I'm ND myself and I get how it can be to feel targeted like that, better safe than sorry. I appreciate you pointing it out and being so kind about it, despite the tone of the post. I've edited it now anyway, because it was frankly way over the line <3
You know how there's a saying about thieves suspecting everybody of stealing?
ah shit you got me, yeah I'm actually being super nefarious or something. I don't know what you wrote here lol but I guess it was some paranoid thing about me lying about being ND or some ableist bullshit lol
Fuck what a gutbuster, you got me again lol, I'm sincerely laughing out loud. This is also a good example of what I meant by "can't handle disagreement so has to invent something to get mad at" by the way
Seek a mental health professionals help pleasewow that one seemed much more vitriolic, if you're getting worked up to the point of wishing death on others for the crime of not agreeing with you, then you should probably see a rage councelor
Some users think posting is praxis and that hexbear should be the headquarters of the revolutionary vanguard.
no one is thinking that, no one is forcing you to make effortposts, if you want to just call someone dumb you have c/gossip for that, what we are merely doing is forbidding low-effort dunking on private people, which we think is toxic and boring
which we think is toxic and boring
Who exactly is "we", and why should what you think matter to the rest of us?
Especially when you are not being forced to be the mod of a comm and can simply not engage with or even see the content VIA THE INTENTIONAL DESIGN OF THE SITE.
Feels like we just had a struggle session over somebody getting annoyed that when they jumped in the pool, they got wet.
Fuck off you dork. I'm pretty obviously being hyperbolic to underline a point in that sentence.
You're still being a dismissive shitheel who fails to engage with the users who have put forth well-reasoned arguments for why dunking is not toxic. You continuing to repeat "it's toxic" like some fucked up parrot does not make it so.
If it's boring, maybe don't be a mod of the comm you massive dipshit. Just block it, it's actually really easy. There's tons of comms I don't interact with, because I don't find them interesting. You are a fantastic example of the attitude I'm talking about.Now I'm gonna become the parrot and repeat myself, but it's pretty fucking telling that all the shitheels who cry about "toxicity in the dunk tank" have been massive assholes throughout this entire thing. If this was about toxicity, one would think you of all people would be less of a turd when you're interacting with other people, even people who dares to gasp disagree with you. Do some fucking self-crit you bug
edit: "we think" is obviously not everybody. Stop hiding behind a general vague group.
I did not engage with those arguments because i did not find them convincing, all they boil down to is that its cathartic and "fun", but i fail to see why the targets must be other common people for it to be cathartic and "fun"
If I go to work and my coworker is being a bigoted asshole conspiracy weirdo I am gonna vent about it when I get home to my partner.
I don’t care how much of a “common man” he is.NOOO VENTING TO YOUR PARTNER ISN'T PRODUCTIVE YOU HAVE TO PRODUCE VALUE ALL THE TIME I AM A SOCIALIST AND YOU ARE WHITE AND CIS AND HET AND CHAUVINIST AND TOXIC
I think it’s clear that plenty of people here, evidently at least a plurality, find these posts to be cathartic and "fun", so why should you and a handful of people disagreeing have any impact on why people shouldn’t get to have catharsis and fun?
Essentially, why are you right other than you think you are?
The "targets" don't even know we're talking about them. In the off chance that someone sees a post on the comm and decides to go dunk on some fascist, I'd say it's deserved, we should not take any actions to protect fascists from having their feelings hurt.
The purpose of those changes is not to protect the nameless chuds, but to make the content better and less toxic
naw listen, when someone whose entire online life is a tsunami of toxicity tells you that you're sucking shit i really do think it's wisest to at least consider the possibility that you may not have the clearest view of your own actions
let me rephrase. i don't want to say you are toxic. but you are definitely being toxic. if you don't want to claim that (i think you should) then you are at very least being...i guess deeply disrespectful? it's unpleasant, is what i am trying to get at. there should not be this level of hostility between the people running the show and the rest of us. i don't think it's natural. i also don't think it's something we the userbase are responsible for kicking off (at least in this instance).
js
alright, i'll play along.
i think the way you've comported yourself in general during this event positively reeks of disdain: for the userbase, their interests and desires, and for the effort they have expended trying to communicate such with you.*
you should be able to understand that replying to long, considered posts with terse statements of dismissal and apparent disinterest is, if nothing else, deeply rude behavior. it's the equivalent of responding to someone's impassioned monologue with "okay". at best they will feel stupid for trying to talk to you at all. it's flatly not the sort of behavior you extend towards someone you respect on any level.
*i know this isn't equivalent to the effort of upkeeping and running the site. i am keeping that in mind during this critique.
lmao i genuinely cannot tell if this is an example of the behavior i discussed or if it's just an amusing coincidence but i will take it in good faith and offer some advice in kind: if you feel that your time here has embittered you towards the userbase, the site culture, or your duties as a moderator, i really do think you should give consideration to either taking a break from moderating or the site as a whole. i say this with no hostility. you folks put in a lot of labor to keep the site usable and we all appreciate that. and the key word there really is labor. i'm sure monitoring the community that is simultaneously the most active and the most likely to contain deeply emotionally damaging/draining rhetoric is not easy, to say nothing of the drama it stirs up with the other, lesser instances.
you should not be spending your limited free time in this life doing something that you hate.
I would also like to see more effort posts instead of reddit tier screenshots and gotchas. I'd like to know - have it spelled out for me, rather - how to discuss and process why liberal and reactionary talking points and axioms are false and ineffective. but I think understanding the criticisms against liberals and reactionaries doesn't come from internet posts or youtube essays, but from reading and learning.
And then coming to the site to share that common understanding of reality via the leftist lens, and then exercise levity over that reality as we face our spectrum of competency and power(lessness) in that reality.
I've learned that the catharsis is the point. It's a necessary intellectual cultivation of enduring in reality and acting upon reality.
It'd be fair to say that you, I, and perhaps all of us would like to see that catharsis go somewhere. Yet we just won't see it go from Hexbear -> ??? - > socialist activism, community organizing, volunteering, etc.
The unknown factor are the material conditions and motivations of people to put their time and energy in the material world; the levity gleaned here is the point of the site, and as a community this is what its members make of it. It isn't inherently a bad thing.
Let people have their fun. It isn't meaningless, fruitless, or useless just because it does not interest you or I.
Dolores Umbridge was more hated among the Harry Potter fanbase than Voldemort.
What makes the distinction between mockery of public officials and petty trolls on the internet (twitter, reddit, lemmy) is that often our fellow proleterians are also our tormentors. In the news, Israeli football vandals picked fights, defaced properties, and chanted genocidal and racist rants. This behavior is echoed on the bottom of Israeli society and validated by the top; this behavior (not just Israeli racism but bigotry/oppression in general) is also echoed in Western states by core constituencies of its dominant population, and validated through willful ignorance and patronizing liberalism.
I think our problem here is that we've seen a lot of this content. So much so that it also gets grating.
But not everything is for everyone.
Ah is this the fabled improved rhetoric? Or is this your idea of not being dismissive and toxic?
"I didn't engage with the arguments because I didn't agree with them"
Fuck off, seriously. Do some self crit.- "Oh I don't like this thing, so therefore it's not good." Narc mindset.
- You're also changing your reasoning. Before it was that targeting non-powerful people "had no impact" lol. Now it' that you feel sorry for some chud who will never see us laughing at them?
- Also you're presenting it as a "has to". It doesn't have to target "other common people", which is a very loaded phrasing, but it can.
- What happened to it being unhealthy? Or do you realise how stupid that sounds, so you excluded it. That doesn't make sense though, since that would have required you engaged with the arguments.
Why are you modding the dunk tank? Why take the job if you hate it?
edit: If you can't even be arsed to put in basic effort when having an argument, how can you expect this site to be one that fosters effortposts?
Time for tone policing. Take your strongly worded words in your replies to replaceable down by like 30 to 50 hogs.
Some of the people that have Ms or As next to their names are gonna need having strong words of their own so I'd suggest not getting too tilted.
Thanks for giving me a warning, I appreciate it. I got too heated and treated an annoying dork like a genocide-apologising lib. It was too much.
i fail to see why the targets must be other common people for it to be cathartic and "fun"
You've read the posts though right? like objectively there are some pretty bad fucking people getting represented in that content
Those may be people that say terrible things but that doesnt matter, if we dont know their identity, most likely they are just another prole and their words are just as inconsequential as mine or yours
The words of a random chud might not be consequential in itself, but I think it's important to take note of what kind of rhetoric is going around chud circles and counter it and the dunking helps that. Maybe people are getting riled up or mad because of it but it seems like many of us don't see it that way. The dunk tank posts do not rile me or make me mad in general, it gives me a view into a culture I don't interact with and the comments allow discussion of how these mindsets come into being, and how to counter it.
it's important to take note of what kind of rhetoric is going around chud circles and counter it
c/counterpropaganda is precisely for that
Westerners are not members of the global proletariat, they are our enemies
” When will it finally be my turn to work in the coal mines?”
After the revolution you WILL be effortposting thrice daily
NO I WANT TO POST CUTE PICTURES OF CATS AND TWITTER SCREENSHOTS OF DINGUSES BEING DINGUSES
Turns out that comm is cool and good because the most prolific poster over there is a good friend of the admins.
Funny how that works.
You have been accused of wrongthink. Please cease having fun immediately because I don’t like it
How does removing the place where people go to do a thing, remove their ability to go to the place and do a thing? Are you 12? Children don't learn how action and consequence are linked until age 13. It would eplain a lot of your behaviour if you were a tween
But you can still do functionally the same thing in c/gossip just not at the same people
Then it's not functionally the same thing, dipshit
We're now at the point in the argument where you are trying to say "it doesn't even matter!" because all your other pathetic excuses have been hollowed out. The fact that you're a mod is sad, the fact that you haven't had the presence of mind to step down is fucking pathetic.
I know a lot of you people can't handle dissent and get irrationally angry when people disagree with you or like things you don't enjoy, but grow up. YOU and YOUR ACTIONS are unhealthy for the site culture. YOUR BEHAVIOUR is toxic. YOU are the problem. Do some self-crit. Take a step back and ask yourself some questions about why you feel the way you feel about these things.If you don't enjoy what the site is, then don't participate in it. This is not your personal project, but somethig a lot of people build and shape together. The site culture is ever-changing and that is an organic process. Being a mad little pissbaby because people enjoy things you don't, isn't organic, it's actually not even normal. The things YOU and YOUR clique is doing is killing the site. I know you're deluding yourself into thinking if you just get rid of [group] then this site will finally become good. The site is fine, you're the issue, the rot is inside you. You will never enjoy it, because you will always encounter people who disagree with you or dissent with your opinion or call you out for being a dipshit or enjoy things you don't enjoy. Even things you find troubesome in some way.
In the end this is just a niche leftist webforum, the worst case is permanent but I'd be sad to see this community go. Especially if it's killed because of some dork like you.Im not saying it doesnt matter, you accuse the mod team of taking away your "fun", so im pointing out you can still have "fun", was dunking on nobodies your only source of fun?
jfc I am becoming a broken record. Is this your idea of durable rhetoric? Is this your idea of non-toxicity? You are still doing basic debatebrodismissiveness as well as throwing out sad attempts at turning this into a personal mental health issue. Childish. Log out, never log on again until you've learned to handle people disagreeing with you.
I haven't actually "accused the mod team of taking away my fun" great reading ability! If you're gonna try to go down that path, actually engage with the specific things I am saying, instead of what you'd like me to be saying.edit: And we are now at the point in the argument where you try to move the discussion to something else, because you've exhausted the current one. This is why you are trying to make it about me. Loser.
u/TerribleHands literally asked
Why do you have to ruin other people's fun?
We clearly weren't you hack
But hey you've managed to change the discussion to one you're actually comfortable in: Something completely meaningless! Good for you that we are no longer talking about the many ways you've showed your ass, the many faults in your reasoning, the fact you're moderating something you dislike like an absolute moron, or any of that stuff, we're instead having a pointless argument about what we were arguing about arguing about. Once again, do some self crit. The fact you're a mod is pathetic
so you can do functionally the same thing just not functionally the same thing, gotcha, makes sense
it is functionally the same thing, you can still "dunk" on people, they just have to be public figures, that does not in any way diminish the "fun" in it does it?
Then it's not functionally the same thing, dipshit.
that does not in any way diminish the "fun" in it does it?
Jesus christ you are an insufferable debatebro. Had any normal user done what you did, they'd been banned. Despite you being a condescending smuglord and me therefore treating you like one, it's still probably only me who's gonna catch flak once the rest of your clique wakes up and you can cry to them about it. Eat shit.
so you can't dunk on the same people as before, they have to be public figures now?
yes, according to you guys the purpose of dunking is for it to be fun and cathartic, it still is if the dunking is on public figures , therefore it is functionally the same
so for someone that finds dunking fun and cathartic, can they still perform the function of dunking on someone who isn't a public figure in c/gossip?
okay so if you're going into semantics, can we agree that the term "functionally the same" means two things that have the same function?
okay cool, now could users perform the function of dunking people who weren't public figures on the_dunk_tank?
does rule 8 contain this text: "Comments/Posts made on other instances that are accessible from hexbear are an exception to this."?
But under that exception, it would be allowed for someone to post a bad take from comments/posts made by a private person that have low amount of upvotes/likes/views yes?
okay, with that exception in mind, could users perform the function of dunking people who weren't public figures on the_dunk_tank?
and the_dunk_tank and c/gossip have the same rules, aside from rule 8 where it now also links to counterpropaganda, correct?
Those were inattentively copied from the_dunk_tank, i removed reference to that rule 8 in c/gossip now, now instead the rule is just that subjects of a post must be a public person
ah gotcha, it's good to set the rules up clearly
so now there is no exception for posting private figures on c/gossip, right?
and the_dunk_tank held the function of providing a place where users could post a bad take from comments/posts made by a private person that have low amounts of upvotes/likes/views, provided that private person made that post or comment on other instances that are accessible from hexbear, yes?
so the_dunk_tank and c/gossip are not functionally the same now, or at least as of around 15 minutes ago, correct?
Go back to reddit, oh my god you are an insufferable lib smuglord.
You expect others - the site culture at large - to move towards one focused on effortposts and development of rhetoric, yet you yourself cant even be fucking arsed to have basic decency. You can't even be arsed to engage with the arguments, not even in good faith, but just at all. Being a reductive dipshit is sad loser behaviour, go kiss a worm.Lol did you get tired of getting dunked on on your main? It's really funny how you can feel this strongly, but be too much of a dweeb to user your account for it
Anyway thanks for the 30$ Please keep the accounts coming, I've got more bets lined up lol
That is incredibly hilarious coming from you
People disagreeing with you makes you so mad that you instantly resort to misgendering lol. Seriously do some self-crit. People dissenting shouldn't result in you freaking out like this lol
Why are you modding a comm you hate?Seems like there's a simple solution to that
You specifically should not be a mod. Carcosa shouldn't step down, you should.
Yeah, not really sure what has happened and as we are some of the most active posters, that worries me a little. Things seem to be blowing up and getting resolved while we're asleep.
Given some of the recent history, sometimes seems like we have a transphobic mod/admin problem, not a transphobic user problem.
Yeah lol the last thread about misogyny I had to bite my tongue not to blurt out "over half this site is queer! Maybe the problem isn't just the 10 cishet guys we keep as pets! Maybe you should look inwards you fucking dorks! Maybe you're the issue!"
queer people also aren't immune to misogyny brainworms unfortunately. I had some qualms about some details of that thread (if I'm thinking of the same one), but to say the mods are The Problem then as now...
I guess I'm just not sure i'm totally on board with the "shitty mod clique" thesis you're operating on. I think there are definitely some people operating more on vibes and their personal comfort, which sometimes results in bad analysis, but on the other hand, we want all sorts of marginalized people to be comfortable here, so its not like you can completely ignore those factors either.
But on the other hand, we want all sorts of marginalized people to be comfortable here, so its not like you can completely ignore those factors either.
I 100% agree! I tried to word this in such a way as to make it clear I do not disagree with that sentiment at all but I couldn't figure out a way to make it explicitly clear, without being clunky.
What I was trying to say was that there is a group of people who do not care about these issues they allege, but instead use them as an excuse to push thru changes they wish to see in the site, despite those changes being deeply unpopular. They can then say "oh it's only unpopular with bigots!" to avoid any critique.
agree, this was the thing that peeved me the most about the whole debacle honestly. also don't think carcosa needs to step down unless it's also for personal reasons.
For me what pissed me off, was an alt account of one of our users telling everyone to kill themselves if we disagreed with them because apparently we're just a bunch of chauvinistic white males...
yeah I thankfully missed that part. definitely a bizarre addition to the story
That alt was the most heated person in the struggle session
I have a theory 👁
I think carcosa going to self crit about the moderation process that lead to backlash is the exact reason I like them being a community mouthpiece and decision maker. we all make mistakes, but owning up to that, especially to some people who are pissed off about it, is very good community leadership
I feel like a lot of the mods would do well to consider why this shitty image macro is so descriptive of them
ShowA mod is a janitor. Your job is to keep the vibe up and the place clean. You're not some ruler or something lol, I get it if this is the first time you're placed in a position where you can tell people what to do, it can go to your head. It shouldn't though, you're just a mod.
First off about Carcosa stepping down, if this is not about your mental health, please don't. This isn't on you, if anything you have more than proved your capability of being a great admin by remaining civil and keeping a cool head despite the clusterfuck of a thread that was the last one.
I think everyone here can agree that the old comm had racist connotations once researching the name, I also had no idea until I looked it up. The real problem with the changes is that you're essentially trying to force a culture change on the site. While I'm personally not at all opposed to having a community for doing more serious counterpropaganda work in an organized manner, this doesn't cover the need most users here (including myself) have of simply taking a dump on stuff we see that pisses us off, without having to do serious Marxist analysis and refer to sources etc.
I believe we should keep the dredge tank just like it is, rename the dunk tank to one of the names proposed already in a recent post about it, and open up a new community for serious counterpropaganda work.
Though I do feel a part of the issue is also the shitty behaviour of some mods and this being one step in a long line of dogturds shitted out by them.
A lot of the more pointless struggle sessions on this site wouldn't happen if we could acknowledge that some mods don't actually want to participate on a website, they want a discord channel that they get to decide how everything goes, but at the same time are addicted to internet points so they can't leave
I do not desire @CARCOSA@hexbear.net's resignation or the removal of anti-dunk moderators from the site. I am very angry, I am very upset, but my anger is born not from hatred but from the knowledge that my comrades are knowledgeable, skilled, and capable of great things. I am angry because this seems like a sharp departure from their character.
A brittle sword breaks on the enemy’s armor. A well tempered sword bends and returns to true. If we are to be effective we must be like a tempered sword - Capable of sustaining great impacts without breaking. Part of this is the traditional Marxist practice of self criticism, but another part of this is love.
Having had a chance to sleep on the matter I can see that some of our comrades oppose the dunk tank and the concept of dunking out of a firm belief that it is harmful to their fellows. If I am understanding their position they view abandoning the practice of dunking as a means of protecting their comrades from further harm. They are seeking to act out of a place of compassion.
Others of our comrades have put forward good faith statements expressing that they experience the dunk tank as a safe space in which they can build up their identity and their conviction that the world of liberal capitalism is not inevitable, nor is it natural, nor is it neutral. The group practice of highlighting the absurdity, hypocrisy, and cruelty of liberal behavior shines a bright light that cuts through the fog of capitalist realism. For some of these users that light is the beacon that keeps them off of the rocks of despair and doomerism.
Many of us are extremely isolated due to identity, illness, or simply having no comrades nearby that they can spend time with. For these comrades and others Hexbear is a critical social third space that provides a desperately needed shelter. There is much discussion now of the “Male Loneliness Crisis”. We recognize here that crisis was manufactured by fascists to exploit boys who have been left horribly alienated and isolated by decaying capitalism. Many youth have no strong role models or venues for participating in community. Without these things they are unable to form a strong identity from which they can emerge to critically engage with the world. The identity is the fortress to which they can return to examine what they have learned, choose what to keep and what to discard.
For teenage children that fortress of identity has never been solid. They have always been thrown too and fro by the causal violence and repression of a liberal society largely hostile to their need for safety, comfort, instruction, compassion, and play. Enormous violence has been done to children, and enormous violence has been inflicted by those children, now adults, who were formed in to cruel and violent people.
Thus the fascist constructed the alt-right and the alt-right pipeline using social media as a weapon to direct boys in to hideous misogynistic spaces that swallow them up and barrage them with hatred, fear, and lies as they grow in to men. The result, as we all know, is a dangerous subculture of fascist footsoldiers ready for mobilization.
Why have I discussed this matter? Because it is Hexbear’s equal opposite. Hexbear was born out of state repression of marxist spaces, ordered by the hegemonic demands of capital, carried out by willing collaborators at Reddit. A small but important space for unapologetic Marxists and Anarchists to gather and participate in a venue where there views were not socially ostracized was temporarily created. This space was crushed by the forces of Capital. The great drama of leftist repression carried out in miniature, wiping out one of the few accessible leftist spaces in the Anglosphere.
Hexbear, as silly as this may sound, was the seed of hope carried from that place. We were initially called together by the Chapo Trap House Podcast, who in turn gained fame as surrogates for Bernie Sanders. Chapo Traphouse were the main characters of the “Dirtbag Left”. This social movement arose among young people who recognized that Capitalism had failed utterly, but also that no good faith discussion of leftist theory and praxis would be allowed in Liberal spaces or discourse. Our answer was to go on the attack – Recognizing that we would never be treated with good faith we chose to spurn good faith and tear down the walls of civility behind which the violence of Liberal Democracy is hidden. In embracing vulgarity, mockery, and cruelty we sought to show that Liberal civility was a lie concealing unbelievable inhuman violence. Our vulgar defense of strong humanistic convictions to counter their false politeness and piety. It was, in a fashion, the story of the Emperor’s New Clothes. The Dirtbag Left transgressed against social norms by directly and aggressively mocking the hypocrisy of the empire.
If you’ll pardon me for invoking a favorite of sealioning debate bros, this is a description of the Cynics of old from Christian Agustus Brandius writing in the 18th century
There are four reasons why the Cynics are so named. First because of the indifference of their way of life, for they make a cult of indifference and, like dogs, eat and make love in public, go barefoot, and sleep in tubs and at crossroads. The second reason is that the dog is a shameless animal, and they make a cult of shamelessness, not as being beneath modesty, but as superior to it. The third reason is that the dog is a good guard, and they guard the tenets of their philosophy. The fourth reason is that the dog is a discriminating animal which can distinguish between its friends and enemies. So do they recognize as friends those who are suited to philosophy, and receive them kindly, while those unfitted they drive away, like dogs, by barking at them.
I see in this statement much of the core of Hexbear’s beliefs and methods. First, that this is a group of stoic people who recognize the horrors of the world and do not shy from them. We do not retreat from our terror at the violence we face each day. We do not deny the violence the empire inflicts on people around the world so we can pretend that violence does not exist. We accept this violence, we accept our terror, and we continue to live in spite of it.
Second, that we will not be shamed for knowing what is true. If the Cynics can be called a cult of shamelessness then so can Hexbear. No excuses are made here for racism, transphobia or bigotry. There are no cries of “Free Speech” here. We do not pretend that there is any reason to listen to the hatred of bigots and reactionaries, we do not make apologies for our beliefs, and we do not allow the lies and propaganda of Capitalism to discourage us. This is a place were gender theory, anti-racism, anti-imperialism, intersectional feminism, and anti-capitalism are painted proudly on the banners we carry before us. We will not be shamed for knowing the truth and taking action to defend the truth.
Third, if a dog is a good guard, then so Hexbear is a good… erm.. bear… guard. Idk the metaphor isn’t good. None-the-less, this is a place where shitposting and silliness are strongly interwoven with critical analysis, discussion, investigation, and self-criticism. To participate in Hexbear is to be constantly learning. We have members from many parts of the globe and all walks of life. People with very different life experiences can come together to share what they know, remove false beliefs, and grow together. In this manner we guard our theory, our praxis, our comrades, and ourselves.
Fourth; We know who our enemies are! There are no questions here about what forces create and sustain the cruelty and oppression faced by the people of earth! Alone out of all modern ideological frameworks The Left is able to recognize, name, and explain our enemies and their motivations! This gives us enormous power that our enemies lack. The truth is not a perfect weapon but it is a powerful one, and we can wield it as a sword that will remain sharp no matter how outnumbered we are. Our foes are many and mighty, but still they can be cut!
And why have I said all of this?
Hexbear is a community of people who share beliefs, knowledge, and principles. I have not met anyone on Hexbear who is not resolute in their beliefs. And people with strong beliefs often come in to conflict! We have all of us encountered hardship and won knowledge at personal cost, suffering trauma, humiliation, and pain! Knowledge gained at such great cost is very precious and should not be relinquished easily. Moreover, we are all of us surrounded by enemies who exert hegemonic control over the knowledge, beliefs, and values of society. In our day to day lives we constantly encounter enemies who, if they have the power, will harm us. This causes us to adopt an entirely justified vigilance with which we seek to protect ourselves from distortions, propaganda, self-doubt, and even physical violence. This is a very important tool for surviving hellworld!
However, what happens when we at last arrive in a harbor which, if not entirely safe, is at least shielded from the brutality of the storm? We remain warriors, armed and vigilant. We are quick to draw our swords and unleash our battlecries because this is necessary in many other spaces in our lives! When we have lived so long among enemies it is not easy to trust, nor is it safe to trust easily.
So, we often come to blows. These struggle sessions have been a defining feature of the site changing it’s shape and membership numerous times. We have cut away and chased off many people who were not comrades or could not tolerate this community. The community today is smaller, but also focused with a stronger understanding of itself.
When we come to blows we are, generally, not acting in bad faith or for a love of violence. We are people of very strong convictions and when we make a decision we will stick doggedly to that decisio
No longer going to comment on the comm changes because whatever it's a website but putting my vote in for not allowing @CARCOSA@hexbear.net to resign.
Stalin trying to resign, but the CPSU not letting him vibes
Like some others, I have also come here specifically and only to request that @CARCOSA@hexbear.net remain in their position. If you're reading this, Carcosa, I have no doubt that you know very well that I am extremely critical of the mods of this site and of any site. And yet I am left with a positive impression of you. You have seemed sincere and and well-intentioned any time I have interacted with you, and my primary issue with your role in the site is that you don't have the time, energy, or processing power to simply take over all of the admin and mod roles personally.
In response to @CARCOSA@hexbear.nets last post in the previous thread and their announcement about stepping down
Carcosa, please don't step down. There is nothing wrong with making mistakes, what is wrong is not reflecting upon those mistakes, and you are very capable of self-reflection. Expecting someone to operate without error forever is ludicrous, an impossible demand. You are about the best person we could have in the position. You are patient, considerate and capable of balancing a great many groups, even when getting treated like the whipping boy.[1]
You haven't made any real errors in handling all this. Mistakes were made, but that's not really on you. It's obvious you've got a clique of mods that whip up a frenzy among themselves and then shield their shitty opinions with leftist rhetoric. Ironically that is what makes hexbear most like a real-world org lol. You probably interact with them a lot and you experience their positive side as well. Something like this was bound to happen with that going on for long enough time. You get lambasted by these dorks, they use rhetoric like calling the users "cishet white men" despite most of this sites' userbase being queer.I've been thinking about this since the last post about chauvinism "scaring people away" and then looking in the thread to see how it was celebrated. Hell, I've been thinking about since we talked about closing the news mega because some users didn't like "the vibe". They talked of chauvinism back then too. Funny how it seems to mean "things I don't like" and not actually being descriptive of chauvinism.
Just like in this thread, the very same people who act like toxic assholes were partying that now "finally" hexbear was becoming a good site open for all. As long as those people completely line up with what the little clique act like. I didn't want to say anything at the time, but I probably should have. I can't speak on behalf of women, on account of not being one, but I personally do not experience this site as inherently masculine.The only thing that really turns me off from this site, is the toxic and hostile clique that for some reason is allowed to act in a way that would get all others banned, and for some reason are listened to and taken more seriously than the rest of the site. There's a group who seems to think this place is their personal project, despite just being a link in a long chain of mods, despite not being here for very long[2] The main thing that keeps me from recommending this place to my girlfriends - and my enbiefriends - and my boyfriends - is that clique of needlessly hostile, agressive stereotype of an online leftist. Shit I wouldn't be surprised if one of them is actually employed by my boss[3].
I guess I was getting a bit sidetracked in the previous paragraph, but I'm trying to illustrate a point. You're interacting with these people a lot and due to your reasoning (which makes great sense for sure, just unfortunate that the people you got sucked. I guess it is true that those who want to be mods, generally are not people that should be mods lol) you weigh their viewpoints highly. Which makes sense. Their viewpoints just suck ass, because they're shitty people. This would of course result in you not being able to foresee something like this happening - Though you probably expected a bit of a struggle sesh, but not this dumpsterfire. And then when people react as we've reacted,[4] of course you would try to handle it. And being a good considerate person, you make sure to loop in the other side - the mods who made this decision. So you listen to the mods about how to handle this strugglesesh. The same mods who are chauvinistic toxic cliquey assholes. Listening to their advice has then only gone on to make things worse. You, being a good person, have tried to handle things as best you could. Releasing statements to make the process more transparent, replying to users with statements you've been adviced about from the mods, constantly trying to keep people informed without blowing the lid off things. Trying to stop drama comms and so on make great sense.
Taking the actions you've taken throughout this thread makes sense, please don't beat yourself up about it.
Don't get me wrong, I am mad and disappointed, but not at you. I think the fact you are still as patient as you are, as able to keep a light tone, able to listen to - or at the very least appear to be listening to - a userbase that has been (rightfully) inflamed, is impressive and should be applauded. The fact you're not a toxic douchebag after interacting with that set of mods for so long is very telling of your character. I'm not trying to kiss ass here, I just think it seems like you're a bit down about how this whole thing has gone, and I really need you to understand you handled it about as best as it could be handled, given your colleagues being completely useless rags.Please don't go away or hand the reins over to one of those pissbabies carcosa, please don't let that clique ruin this place. Please do not step down. You are incredibly important to the health of this site and, speaking on a personal note, you are a fantastic person to have around and I am happy to see you in the position at the helm of the site
Going forward
I don't think this is the last time this situation will erupt, if nothing changes about how moderation is handled and how site changes are handled.
Keeping the two comms open just leaves a sour taste in my mouth. Not kicking the mods who wrote that shit out is also a bad sign, for the direction this whole thing is headed.
I would really recommend that mod discussions aren't anonymous anymore. Have the matrix board or whatever it is, but make it so everyone can go and look what is being posted, just like with the modlog. The only time discussions should be anonymous, should be when there is a risk to operational security, and not a vague risk, an actual one. It should also be announced whenever those anonymous discussions take place and explained why they have to be anonymous.
Early in the site days we went away from displaying which mod took an action in the modlog, and just blaming everything on automod. I think reverting that would go a very long way to bust a lot of this cliquey shit.
When users notice certain users get special treatment, they get banned for commenting on it, until the situation becomes so egregious that it cannot be hidden anymore. Not allowing the userbase to call out bad mod practice, is also not good. We've closed both userunion and feedback because the mods don't like the "drama" - Getting called out for shitty behaviour. We really need a comm where the userbase is free to voice concerns and grievances. That would also go a long way towards avoiding these situations in the future. And this time mods shouldn't remove posts just because they dislike them, that's pissbaby shit.Edit: Please don't step down because you feel like you've done wrong. If you ever do step down, let it be because you need time away, not because of some dumbass strugglesession, the site would be worse off without you. Especially in the middle of this shitstorm.
Edit: Formatting
Sorry for using a gendered term, but I think they were always boys ↩︎
not that longevity matters, because the site doesn't belong to anyone, but if we were gonna have to entertain that silly idea, it most certainly does not belong to someone who doesn't know about John Kerry or whatever. See how silly that sounds? That's because the site is what the site is, it doesn't belong to anyone, it doesn't need to be managed. That's not good for "culture" or for "growth" or for whatever other argument these asscracks cook up next. ↩︎
If some mod is gonna remove this for fed-jacketing, just give me a heads-up instead and I'll edit out the obvious joke ↩︎
Which has been very reasonable until getting misgendered, where it then became even more reasonable ↩︎
I don't want to lose one of our most visible, transparent admins. I don't know the rest from a bar of soap let alone the others who were yucking ut up like old pals in the 1.2k comment prior thread. L for public relations and makes the site management even more opaque imo
Edit: it's not like we were calling for their head or anything either :/ igi if they want to step fown but still :(
Yeah there's been one good admin and that's been carcosa. One person who has done an incredible job of actually letting this site be transparent, despite there being an obvious clique who just wants to run it all like their shitty little mean girl clubhouse
I don't know the rest from a bar of soap let alone the others who were yucking it up like old pals in the 1.2k comment prior thread. L for public relations and makes the site management even more opaque imo
yeah, this is an unfortunate (but potentially unavoidable?) side effect of how we're doing admin anonymity, only very outspoken admins become familiar to the community, even if the rest have been here the whole time, which I believe most have, none of us feel like we know them.
the gags in the old thread I thought were mostly funny/fine but the overall point of "I don't know these people" stands
Struck me as a bit tone deaf/assumed familiarity (even though they're essentially the same people who'd be posting alongside us on alts) given the context. Also that jt was only the recently appointed admin coming in to comment with none of the others responsible for the decision just highlighted their absence. I know this is internet drama but it's left a serious sour taste in my mouth :/
Struck me as a bit tone deaf/assumed familiarity
yeah fair
Also that jt was only the recently appointed admin coming in to comment with none of the others responsible for the decision just highlighted their absence.
I think a lot of this has just been messy because of timezones tbh. the other admin accounts are pretty much inactive, and carcosa can't be online 24/7
I think a lot of this has just been messy because of timezones tbh. the other admin accounts are pretty much inactive, and carcosa can't be online 24/7
Also fair ty for giving me a bit of extra perspective
I don't know if I'll be able to respond to all of this and I suppose most of it isn't relevant to me as I will consider returning to the admin team and even to continue making announcements here and there but I am going to step away from decision-making. I brought these mods onto the team, I set up the decision-making process, I drafted the statement and made the final edit on the follow-up comment. I believe there needs to be accountability and me allowing the old & new admins to take the site forward is an appropriate consequence.
You don't need to respond to anything in my post, no worries. There's a whole thread calling for your return.
Carcosa you are too good. I hope you will step back into decision making, but I understand your thought process. I disagree with it. There should be accountability, but you've been held accountable. You've offered to step down, and you've been dunked on like none other. Not every mistake needs to be punished with drastic consequences, I know this will be a learning experience and to be frank I'd rather have you involved in the process, instead of someone who will then have to make the same experience themselves. You are knowledgeable and your input is valuable, it would be a shame not to be able to draw on that for the big and small decisions.
If some mod is gonna remove this for fed-jacketing, just give me a heads-up instead and I'll edit out the obvious joke
Guess what
Seriously, this is completely fine.
I have some qualms, but honestly don't have the energy or desire to relitigate it in this thread. Hard agree about them being a good admin
I would have phrased it more or less the same myself, had I been in carcosas position, because I expect that phrasing would be the most likely to get them to go along with it.
capitulating to liberals in this way is kinda like the old quote about nonviolence, it only works if your enemy has a conscience, and most liberals have none.
But yeah, I don't think it was horrible or malicious, just the timing made for a bad look. carcosa said as much, and I'm satisfied with that acknowledgement, I wish they would stay.
Yeah I would do that too in order to get someone from a hostile instance to help me out. I lie all the time in my day to day life when I interact with people I have to convince to do something. That's what you do.
would love some expansion on the whole "dunking is white cis guy vibes" thing
Well I don't like it and since I'm a leftist then everything I dislike is in some way not leftist. I can't really use any actual words to describe how dunking isn't leftist, so instead I'm just gonna throw out ol' reliable and hide behind Carcosa
this is also where I'm falling on it, from where I'm sitting it feels like a case of "I don't like this, but I can't articulate why, so I'll associate it with the 'bad' things instead"
Don’t worry, the solution to that problem is obviously to make people engage in the famously non cishet white male activity of writing a debatebro dissertation on why Elon Musk saying he should coup Bolivia is bad
HAHAHAAHA HOLY SHIT YOU'RE BACK! THANK YOU SO MUCH! I HAD A BET GOING AH FUCK YES
You just won me $30Lmao this is the best, I shouldn't tell you this, but if you misgender me again I win another $5 lol
We've already got the ableism, the chauvinism, the "coating in leftist rhetoric" you are so close
It's poorly worded but the dunk culture that we inherited from Reddit is a close relative to the "SJW compilation" shit. If you think the only problem with that is the people and ideas it targets, then Hexbear's dunk culture isn't a problem.
I personally think the underlying mechanism of dunk culture, though, is fostering a superiority complex out of in-group out-group dynamics, which is directly harmful to us as leftists. The whole "bullying works" nonsense is reddit shit that does not translate to the real social groups we all have to interact with. The kind of people we see posted in the dunk tank are often gonna be similar to the kind of people we have to agitate and educate in real life. And walking into those interactions with an internalized in-group justifying our superiority just serves to isolate us more than anything.
There's always been a split between whether hexbear is primarily an organizing tool or merely a water cooler for leftish people to hang out. It has potential to work as both. But it's clear that a lot of the unpaid volunteers putting labor into the site would like to imagine their efforts are going somewhere, especially as contradictions heighten in the real world. So when they perceive that a part of the escapist aspect of hexbear is undermining its utility for organizing, it makes perfect sense that they would want to try and change that.
I'm not gonna read through 1500 comments to get an accurate vibe of the response, but I can't imagine it was entirely pleasant. And when it comes down to it I value the opinions of the unpaid workers significantly more than the opinions of the consumers.
The mods/admins who were using the "it's cishet white guy behavior" angle never attempted to explain why they consider it to be the case. They just asserted it and stuck to it when many marginalized people were dissenting against the rule change. Your 4 paragraph comment spent more time making a good faith argument for the behavior to be white cis etc than hours worth of comments made by the offending mods.
Sure, but I'd hope the amount of work they've put in has earned them some degree of good-faith interpretation. It's difficult to put concepts into words, especially in the heat of the moment, so sometimes using a "vibe" as a shorthand signifier has to do.
Not to mention this debate has been ongoing for months or years, in various forms, so every statement has a depth of potential implications and contexts that aren't gonna be obvious to everyone.
"Cishet white guy behavior" is perfectly understandable to me as shorthand for the in-group/out-group superiority/inferiority complex that's plagued this site since the beginning, but I've been here continuously from the beginning. It's a poor signifier for users who haven't been here the whole time (whether new users or old users that left for a while) or even people with a different perspective/experience of the site.
"Cishet white guy behavior" is perfectly understandable to me as shorthand for the in-group/out-group superiority/inferiority complex that's plagued this site since the beginning, but I've been here continuously from the beginning. It's a poor signifier for users who haven't been here the whole time (whether new users or old users that left for a while) or even people with a different perspective/experience of the site.
I'll defer to you on this since I haven't been around close to as long and am not marginalized. A big issue I saw was that a lot of marginalized people caught strays for enjoying "cishet white guy behavior" and made it known that they saw it as invalidating.
Yeah that's a perfectly valid critique. There's an important concept behind the signifier, but there are better signifiers that can be used to communicate it.