deleted by creator

Looking back it's remarkable how much site culture has changed over the years. In the first year we had a bunch of AMAs and effortposts seem to have been much more common than now. The discussion was lively as well. The site culture changed around the time one of the many lifeboat communities got onboarded, and again when there was that whole accusation of the admin, and again with the whole drama about name changes and whatever. Why should we say that that change was good and this change is bad? Back then some users were against the change as well, and others were for it.

I wasn't aware about the early history of the website. I mostly thought it was even more struggle sessions (I peeped at the actual outdoor cats struggle session, and it was absolutely deranged. People were issuing death threats on each other lol).

And I still think it's funny how the news megathread is completely unaffected by federation. As long as the best part of the site is still trucking along, I guess I'm happy enough no matter what happens to the rest of the site.

one of the largest issues with the site as I see it is that our "dunking" culture and moderation policies just inherently makes this space less inclusive.

Post from three years ago from the ND modteam about this before they got burnt out: https://hexbear.net/post/77324?scrollToComments=false

they tried to make moderation changes, were sided against constantly when ND users got banned for tiny social mistakes, and that part of the site history is largely ignored, and swept under the rug.

there was a post a few weeks ago titled something like "ableism is not as bad as other forms of discrimination".

While I took a year or so long break from the site, it's clear to me that actively wanting to make the site more inclusive and a safe space mostly died with that modteam, because not much seems to have changed.

If the site wants to be inclusive, more posts and comments should be taken in good faith, and site policy should change to make it clear that constant aggressive arguing or assumptions of bad faith is not how we should engage here.

Things ain't what they used to be, but they also are

Why should I live in history, huh? Fuck, I don't wanna know anything anymore. This is a forum where nothing is solved.

Someone once told me hexbear is a flat circle, and everything we've ever posted - or will post - we're gonna post over and over and over again. And that little mod and that poster they gonna be in that thread, again and again and again, forever.

I think federation has in a lot of ways brought the best of us forward. We aren't just repeating talking points, we're sourcing them and checking them.

I agree with this 100%. I've learned a lot and just form people posting stuff when trying to educate the libs that come in here. It's even given me even more motivation to read theory and even branch out and read more types.

Your writing is also really good it was a nice read :)

I agree with this assessment very much

Give me a few minutes I gotta find a way to make your post into a struggle sesh

I do find it interesting how quick people are to romanticise how nice and chill 'old' Hexbear was. To be honest I found it much less chill, every day you'd see fighting over minor shit, even excluding struggle sessions. People argued, felt excluded, and left the site for the over many things, minor or major; I left the site for six months because of an argument I got into with multiple users (and I was also at fault) about an obscure TV show. I'm not saying oldbear was awful, it was very cool in many ways, but I would argue federation gives us a better sense of proportionality.

Wow. Big effort-post.