We've largely been able to put aside our differences and unite together to defend against the reactionaries.
I remember about a year ago the landscape of the site was quite different; posts were still largely positive, but people were tearing into each other more harshley in the comments if they disagreed with the other's brand of leftism.
While federation has exposed us all to a fair share of horrific takes, it has also united us all in a Hexbear-versus-the-world sort of way. In some ways, I like how the inner community feels a lot more now, and it makes me hopeful for the future.
Relatedly, thanks everybody for keeping the dunk tank in !the_dunk_tank@hexbear.net so I can choose when I'm willing to expose myself to it.
Yeah, I don't have the same feeling for pre-federation Hexbear as most people. Pre-federation Hexbear was filled with pointless struggle sessions that make people here low-key bitter and resentful with one another. You could have some emotionally charged argument but somehow are still supposed to mingle with your opponents the next day. Part of it is because mods are, for good reason, more reluctant to ban people involved in struggle sessions because that would mean they're "taking a side" even though most struggle sessions usually have an obvious right and wrong side. Lemmy, owning to it being a shitty Reddit clone, also lacks the tools to quarantine struggle sessions by separating them into their own posts. In federation-era Hexbear, they could pretty much just ban outsiders with impunity, so mods can just drop the hammer on the side with Ledditors and call it a day.
However, I do think Hexbear being open will attract reactionaries. That is inevitable. And it will continue to attract reactionaries even if Hexbear defederates from every instance because our notoriety is too high now. I think a sanctuary instance that only federates with Hexbear is a possible solution admins should explore. Initially, it should just be completely empty, essentially a janky way to see Hexbear posts without seeing loser Ledditors (with an empty instance, an account from there will presumably see nothing under Local and only Hexbear posts and comments under All). If the workload is not too high, admins can begin moving certain comms like anti_cishet_aktion into the sanctuary instance. The only hard part is account creation. In order for this to work, admins will have to close off account creation to the public. You could only have an account there by requesting an account with your Hexbear account, and the admins will create your sanctuary account if your Hexbear account is of a certain age and in good standing. This also doesn't prevent reactionaries from creating wrecker Hexbear alts to start shit at the sanctuary instance, but honestly, they always had that capability even before federation.