"Imperialism leaves behind germs of rot which we must clinically detect and uproot from our land but from our minds as well." - Frantz Fanon

Hello users of Hexbear, the intent of this announcement is two-fold the first is that we would like to do another community moderator drive, if you have a community idea or want to help an existing one then please send an application either through hexbear or matrix direct message.

The call for new mods is crucial to our efforts to reduce racism and misogyny on the site, we need users to report and enough mods to be able to quickly act on the reports throughout the day and night. Also, CW or content warnings are essential to the safe browsing of Hexbear.

In addition, comments or posts removed for racist or misogyny will also be accompanied by escalating temporary bans. Upvotes will not be the single reason for a ban, however they may be used in conjunction with other posts/comments/upvotes. Consider this post the warning, however, mods are encouraged to reach out to hexbear users before a long duration ban.

The second is to increase transparency with regard to the site while not repeating the mistakes of previous attempts that were ultimately counterproductive, in part due to wreckers.

Previous attempts to increase site transparency and user participation were targeted by wreckers through increasing the intensity and frequency of struggle session drama.

Using matrix's increased level of user permissions as an anti-wrecking measure while having an increased barrier to sending messages with a clear process to gaining the ability to send messages, we hope to mitigate wrecking attempts.

Leading to the creation of the Hexbear Proposals chapo.chat matrix room.

This will be a place for site proposals and discussion before implementation on the site.
Every proposal will also be mirrored into a pinned post on the hexbear community. Any other ideas for helping to integrate the two spaces are welcome to be commented here or messaged to me directly.

Within Hexbear Proposals you can see the history of all site proposals and react to them, indicating a vote for or against a proposal.

Sending messages will be restricted to verified and active hexbear accounts older than 1 month with their matrix id in their hexbear user profile.

All top level messages within the channel must be a Proposals (idea for changing the site), Feedback (regarding non-technical aspects of the site, for technical please use https://hexbear.net/c/feedback), or Appeals (regarding admin/moderator actions).

Discussion regarding these will be within nested threads under the post.

To gain matrix verification, all you need to do is navigate to my hexbear userprofile and click the send a secure private message including your hexbear username.

In closing, I want to state that this site would not exist without the volunteer labor of the moderators, who I am deeply grateful for.

I would also like to take this moment to remind people that lemmy direct messages are not encrypted, and finally please use this post to discuss these changes, share community ideas, or express interest in moderation.

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)

Element information

Element is a messaging app that lets you talk to people over the Matrix protocol.

To get started, check out this link, where you can choose to either download Element for your platform or, if on a computer, open it in a browser.

The instructions that follow are for the desktop application and the web application, but the process is similar on all apps:

Press "Create Account"

We host our own Matrix server, so if you want you can change matrix.org to chapo.chat.

This is completely optional; users who sign up with a matrix.org username can still talk to people with chapo.chat username.

(Note: It is chapo.chat, not hexbear.net. Also, registrations aren't always open on chapo.chat; if they're not, just create an account on matrix.org)

Fill in a username and password

Hit register, and you're done!

  • aaaaaaadjsf [he/him, comrade/them]
    ·
    6 hours ago

    to our efforts to reduce racism and misogyny on the site

    Of the hexbear users that were banned for an upvote on the reactionary comment, four had she/her pronouns, three had they/them pronouns, three had he/him pronouns, and two had any/no pronouns. Now before someone misinterprets my comment, I'm not saying that women and non-binary people cannot be sexist or racist, I'm just saying that our renewed efforts to combat this undesirable behaviour appear to be hurting those we aim to protect. Maybe we need to re-evaluate our strategies given this reality, and the events of the past week(s). Using the same methods we used in the past to combat undesirable behaviour (in regards to voting bans) are not working and just causing more tension between the userbase and moderators/administrators.

    • SwitchyWitchyandBitchy [she/her]
      ·
      46 minutes ago

      I'm just saying that our renewed efforts to combat this undesirable behaviour appear to be hurting those we aim to protect.

      No, these efforts are first and foremost to make the site feel safe for our empoc and GSM populations. At least that's what I expect the policy to be. Irl or online, if for example I see a woman making a hostile environment for other women, I'm not gonna just let her because she's also a woman.

      • aaaaaaadjsf [he/him, comrade/them]
        ·
        29 minutes ago

        Now before someone misinterprets my comment, I'm not saying that women and non-binary people cannot be sexist or racist

        I literally said this in the comment. You could've actually read the comment instead of misinterpreting it. This is not the first time this has happened. In the previous effort to combat misogyny, a bunch of women and non-binary people were misgendered and stated to exhibit cishet men behaviour because they posted in a certain community. Now in an effort to combat misogyny again, a bunch of women and non binary people were banned for upvoting a single comment. Not even a pattern of behaviour, a single vote. This didn't even happen during the transphobe banning spree, there it was established that it would have to be at least a couple of comment.

        If you're just going to misinterpret everything I say in bad faith, why even reply?

          • aaaaaaadjsf [he/him, comrade/them]
            ·
            25 minutes ago

            If you're just going to misinterpret everything I say in bad faith, why even reply?

            Seriously, if you have no plans to address the arguments presented why even reply.

            You know what, I'm done with this bullshit. Last time I got death threats, this time no one even bothers to read the comments in good faith. Bye bye.

            • Bureaucrat [pup/pup's, null/void]
              ·
              18 minutes ago

              What is wrong with these people? You're nothing but reasonable and you get treated like shit. They get handled with kiddiegloves too. If you responded like they do, you'd be banned immediately. How can they be this hostile and then blame others for making the site unwelcoming?