First a call-out of fatphobia (https://hexbear.net/post/4189552) that ended up proving its point, then the stuff about "he/hims" (https://hexbear.net/post/4187781) ". Apparently a mod got banned!?
I am not very active and I never look at the megathreads, the number of comments in them scare me away from them. Is that where it's happening? I feel confused about what this community is like now.
I, uh, don't really know what my point is. Maybe someone can explain what the state of the site is? Especially on the he/hims thing. Maybe that's the main point of this post.
I feel sad for people that got hurt by this.
It's weird to only be involved exoterically on this site i guess is one way to put it? I really don't wade into drama threads, i don't exist in the deeper social network here. I just browse the pages, and the closest thing to drama I indulge in is like, when someone from a lemmy instance with liberal brain rot wades in and demands group humiliation from us.
I can tell it's impacting the user base, and the activity level, and I do want to ask the mods what's going on in the back end? Because the number of drama bombs going off behind the scenes that leaks out into the instance as a whole is probably beyond what's necessary - this shouldn't be happening like this y'all.
Like, to me an ideal mod-admin cadre exists to facilitate discussion inside some parameters, like a set of rules and conventions for behavior. Hexbear is leftist, and has a sizeable contingent of serious leftists, so I understand that comes with some of the tensions these spaces have in real life, and is prone to wrecking and power tripping and all that stuff - I think leftists expect some of that.
But it's happening an awful lot, and it's fucking things up - so structurally something should probably change, I just can't comment on specifics. I am just certain that unity of intention and purpose, and being even handed and consistent with enforcement does prevent a lot of what's happening. The fat-phobia stuff should not be happening, and it didn't need to go this far. I am transfemme and I have traumatic history with cis men and toxic masculinity - i struggle to be nice about men to be very delicate about it - but some of what flies here is just toxic to a healthy community in that regard. I say that with the hopeful understanding that as a transfemme woman I really do not want any cis men coddled over their identity and perceived oppression, but it still gets kinda wack here in that regard.
If this site wants to go that direction, i even think that would be fine, but consistency and, again, not letting drama be aired like, on the main page, is important because it's the kind of drama that makes people nope out, and regardless of merit, that shit kills the site, and i don't think hexbear deserves that as a place or community.
I'm gonna try to limit this post to all I say on this. I generally like the moderation and administration here - but something is clearly wrong, and some kind of overhaul in hierarchy, vetting, and autonomy needs to be reviewed.
Hexbear has a lot of issues that have been present for a long time. These are issues that came along with the exodus from r/CTH and never went away.
There's this perception that because someone has been on the site for a long time, they can't possibly have any bad takes or harmful opinions lying below the surface. Surely they would have aired them out over the past 4 years, right? If someone hasn't been banned, they must have good takes! But if issues like fatphobia or misogyny or western chauvinism or white supremacy aren't being actively handled, these things can just... Hide below the surface. People can hold opinions that suck, and the subject just hasn't come up before or they were previously not seen as concerns worthy of moderation.
As we're trying to work on some of these issues, tons of people with unexamined brainworms are coming out of the woodwork and exposing their reactionary mindsets. Some of those people are on old accounts, some of them are even mods. Obviously, we want to give everyone the opportunity to learn and grow, but a lot of people just seem to want to die on the hill. People really just keep trying to post through it, and end up saying or doing something so egregious that it results in a ban.
If you don't want to get banned, all you have to do is just not harass people in DMs, not write a weird racist screed that's virtually indistinguishable from a chud uncle's holiday dinner rant, not spend two hours blowing up at all the other mods and admins over an argument, etc. People aren't getting ousted for taking a certain side in petty arguments. They're getting into petty arguments, doubling down, refusing mediation, getting really mad at everyone else, and then refusing reconciliation and even literally going as far as to ask for a ban.
Regarding the drama constantly making it to the front page, there's a certain clique of users on the site who keep dredging up all of this stuff and making every modlog action they don't like into a struggle session. If you go back to these other struggle session threads, you might start noticing that some of the same people just keep showing up over and over, arguing in every thread, making unfounded accusations, and posting about how they think the mods are destroying the site. Do whatever you want with this information.
For sure. You however seem to be under the intention that just because you're well-intentioned or a member of some persecuted group, you cannot have brainworms of your own. The people you complain about have repeatedly and patiently tried to explain their issues, they've gotten banned for asking for clarification, they've gotten banned for asking how things in the modlog can be proof of an issue, when the modlog is proof of moderation functioning. This comment explains the issues so much better than I ever could.
Reacting to people getting banned for no reason is not making every modlog action a struggle session. Banning people for no reason creates the struggle session. Avoiding the arguments put forth in good faith, dismissing users concerns, banning people for disagreeing, never clarifying, upholding rules inconsistently, allowing some users to be incredibly inflammatory and then punishing those that react, this is what creates drama and struggle.
The removal of the linked comment is a perfect illustration of what the actual issue on the site is.
What's the take on posts like this? Do you consider it re-dredging the issue up or think it promotes healthy introspection?