Hello users of Hexbear, we wanted to inform you that we are going to be locking the_dunk_tank and dredge_tank communities. We have created two new communities /c/gossip and /c/counterpropaganda to serve a similar but clearly distinct purpose than the dunk/dredge tanks.
Not only is the dunk tank a term that has racist origins, but also many posts there were almost no effort and often times requiring later edits to show how they weren't reactionary, ~~not useful with regard to developing rhetoric and furthering dialectical analysis of that which we dunk upon~~.
To that end, we wish posts of reactionaries to be placed in !counterpropaganda@hexbear.net along with an accompanying explanation (as simple or complex as desired) with the intent of countering the reactionary propaganda in the post body, as of now comments are not subject to the same ~~rhetorical rigor~~ rule.
For the posts ~~that are not "low-hanging fruit'~~ of notable people we ask that you use !gossip@hexbear.net .
These changes are mainly part of a continued effort to remove the racist and misogynistic elements from our community and grow.
Any moderators of the dunk tank or dredge tank that want to be a mod in the new communities let me know.
Any users with questions or comments please use this post, this change was made at the behest of the entire Hexbear mod and admin team. We will be looking for more moderators in an organized volunteer drive shortly, if you wish to submit an application you may send it to me via hexbear or matrix direct messages.
Use this post as a place for discussion to these changes. We will keep things as they are for 2 weeks and then reflect on the feedback, including this post: https://hexbear.net/post/3858346
As a personal addendum I am sorry if ~~the closing of the tanks~~ these changes removes a beloved space on the site and if you want to suggest a community to replace them you may do so at !commrequest@hexbear.net or submit a mod application to take a more active role in shaping the site.
Sitewide or community changes come from proposals put forth from the mod team, discussed, and voted on by the mod team.
Any users wanting to suggest a community to replace the tanks, may do so at !commrequest@hexbear.net current discussion is here https://hexbear.net/post/3858346 or submit a mod application to take a more active role in shaping the site.
You may also consider using !shitreactionariessay@lemmygrad.ml as a substitute for dunk/dredge tank posts as well
The mod statement can be found here: https://hexbear.net/comment/5613033
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)
Collected statements of mods in favor of this change:
“dunk culture” can be fun but it’s rarely constructive, gives off white cishet man vibes, and has the potential to shift closer to the reactionary reddit “snark”.
It promotes misanthropy and, depending on the post can serve as an outlet for “acceptable” bigotry by copy/pasting the most heinous takes without pushing back and sometimes without a CW.
We have all seen those toxic and reactionary opinions 200 million times, ultimately it is just getting really mad at other powerless people.
Counterpropaganda is where you can post Mike83829293’s takes. Posts require clear effort being made in countering the falsehoods of the original post, or furthering the discussion. What this effort looks like will be a dialogue between the users and mods.
Counterpropaganda posts cutting apart shitty Op-eds, MIC insider articles, journalistic stories, etc. are celebrated and encouraged, and will be separated from the shitpostier/chattier nature of the gossip community.
Gossip is the new place to post about people with power. The person being dunked on must be a public figure, and be paid to be a public figure.
The name gossip is because it makes the content seem deeply unserious, like the posts about Elon Musk, celebrities, journalists, all of the streamer infighting, YouTuber arguments, podcast guys, etc. Locking the dunk/dredge tanks will help with toning down the irony poisoning on this site esp from white people. it's such a white internet communist turn-off for me and it permeates this site. A lot of people have mentioned that there's a definite air of misogyny around the way the site is currently doing dunks, and calling it like it is, gossip, should prove to be not only a method of finding out problematic users, but also a more entertaining way of letting people talk about other public figures besides just Elon Musk and US political candidates
We absolutely need to be more vigilant about toxic behavior in these spaces, there's a non-zero amount of ironic bigotry that has slipped through the cracks to the point where I've independently had multiple different people mention it as a concern.
Dunk culture is along the lines of doing mutual self harm, like a smoking social club. You all go in and smoke together and encourage one another to keep smoking, and you feel a sense of community and a sense that what you're doing is cool and fun, like putting a poster over the hole in the wall instead of fixing the wall.
We want us to continue to be a fun shitposting forum. But there are tons of other kinds of shitposting. Remember "bad guy bit accounts" when we had like civility and neera_tanden and all those other bit accounts where they just posted and argued while larping as annoying liberals or chuds? We grew out of that, and I think the site is better for it. We still have bit accounts, but there's not really that kind of arguing in the comments anymore. We can grow out of this one too, and I think the site will also be better for it. We don't have to have a site culture defined by our flailing opposition to mainstream pop culture and politics, uselessly posted where nobody else will see it. This change has the potential to make HB a lot less toxic improve the quality of posts, we are assessing these changes over the next two weeks and will open the floor for discussion at that time.
Collected statements of mods against this change:
"dunk' culture" isn't inherently unhealthy for the site.
there are aspects of it that need to be cracked down on, and I don’t discount that some reformations to it will probably need to be made, but even after sitting on it for a bit I still think it's not the best idea to strangle the aspect out of the site.
It is not an inherently progressive move for the site culture to totally exclude it. I think a third space for it should exist, with the primary purpose of a space for 'dunk' content is mutual catharsis.
As a leftist, online and a bit offline, is a bit of a maddening experience. A 'dunk' space, even one filled with low hanging fruit, allows me to vent my anger and negative emotions off in a way that gives a shared space for it. It serves these little capsules of exasperation that keeps me from sort of overdosing on those emotion
??????????? im too autistic to understand "vibes", but i feel like saying everyone who likes making fun of bigots and such are giving off white cishet man vibes is, kinda gross and weird?
idk i do that with my afab friends a lot, we just call it "girl talk" instead of dunking.
Ima be honest, that sounds like a crazy reach that is inspired by some personal thing than based in the reality of what is posted on the comms. I don’t even particularly care for the dunk tank and I don’t think I’ve posted there once or twice if even? But It’s literally just “this guy is wrong lol look how wrong he is guys?” almost every time I’ve seen anything there.
Like before the answer to these kinds of tensions with badposting and other things was just block and move on but some how mods and people who have an issue with these comms can’t do that and have to reorient the site around their personal sensibilities? If you find shittalking inherently toxic, even if it’s against people who are literally reactionary/nazis/what have you, why not just block? What do you do outside of hexbear?
Laughing at nazis and neolibs on the internet = shitting on socially disenfranchised people for kicks
This is deeply unserious. Viva has spent a lot of effort responding and to reply like this is just not right
She hasn’t addressed any actual point once just reinforced her view as a problem and it should change but it’s also ok for her to be wildly toxic lol I’m not taking this as a good faith situation at this point tbh
I already went thru a whole discussion with her about this, so it's just extra shitty of her to redo it from the get-go lol
In this very thread even. But yeah, dunk_tank people are bad and toxic or whatever. This is the type of person who is just great for site culture lol
I’m like 80% sure she’s probably one of the mods trying to force this silly shit through tbh
The irony tho lol
99% sure I found a mods alt https://hexbear.net/comment/5614382 lol
God damn the misgendering while calling you a toxic debatebro is wild; if that's actually a Hexbear's alt, mod or not they ought to catch a permaban for that.
More than likely its @HelltakerHomosexual@hexbear.net the writing style and opinions are both 1:1 on top of the shitty reading comprehension
Just for the record:
Catradora_Stalinism: Carnist/vehemently anti-vegan mod of traa, extremely online and always getting into big slapfights with other users, extremely quick to throw out insults, writes exactly in this style. banned a while back for not shutting up about anti-vegan bullshit, made many alt accounts to troll for a couple days after the ban.
HelltakerHomosexual: Account made shortly after the spam alts stopped, carnist/vehemently anti-vegan mod of traa, extremely online and always getting into slapfights with other users, extremely quick to throw out insults, writes in exactly this style, preferred method of openly harassing people is making a bunch of alt accounts and trolling
The user who made death threats, but didn't get banned because she was friends with a bunch of mods? That user? You're telling me that loser didn't just go away?
Probably a better place than this to make the comment but w/e. I don’t really care to much about the dunk/dredge tank shit but do think the mod/admin response has been pretty silly. But I’ve seen people brush off that this site can be cliquey as ridiculous when it’s not that uncommon. It is noticeable that certain users get much more leniency for being inflammatory than others
Yeah it's been an issue for a long time. I really dislike the fact that mod actions are hidden behind automod and that "mod discussions" are closed off to the userbase. Clique shit. They seem to generate a little echo chamber whereever it is they congregate, looking at the dumbass shit said here.
She (I don't remember the pronouns anymore, apologies if they're wrong) said so much insane shit. I really do not get how she was around for so long, just like how I don't get it with her alleged alt. There's a lot of users I don't understand haven't caught a ban. Used ta be you got banned as a warning.
Lol I get what she means because I fast at times, but come on what a dumbass way to say it. I'm gonna assume it was also said in a dumbass context, like some sort of nonsensical dunk. She starts out with saying the concept of hunger isn't a real thing, and then goes on to explain how the feeling of being hungry isn't dangerous. Hunger is very much a real thing.
Feeling hungry is fine, you get used to it (when you fast, not when you starve, not trying to say anything fucked like that. Just that if you go for 24-48 hours without eating, the feeling of being hungry will subsume. It comes in waves.)
Feeling starved is not fine and you do not get used to it.
Nice ableism dear non-toxic friend.
Genuinely looking at your reaction and the effort you go thru in order to not engage with text, but just harass people you are mad at for no good reason: You should seek help from a mental health professional.
thanks for the continued ableism. if your main doesn't get permabanned for this the admins are a fuckin joke
The easiest way to tell if it's her is to just say something good about veganism lol
She doesn't like veganism?
everything youve done in the last hour is 10x more toxic than the history of the dunk tank on this site combined lmao
But it's the dunking that is problematic
It's toxic don't you see. Creates a chauvinistic atmosphere, as opposed to what we do, which is create an open and welcoming one.
Honestly all the people who talk about the chauvinism on here are the most toxic losers around. The fact there's not as many cis women as they'd like on here has a whole lot more to do with them, than they'd like to accept.
clicks moderation history
comment removed and account banned less than a half hour after posting
don't know who that is but banned. can't verify they're not just someone wandering in to stir the pot anyways given account was made specifically for this thread, besides being weirdly confrontational and dismissive
Appreciated nevertheless. Sorry about the paranoia
This appears to be a pattern with a couple of the mods who seem most aggressively for this decision and most against actually discussing it.
I just shrugged and moved on when it was clear I wasn't going to get a reasonable reply, but you're right that many of these mod replies aren't even close to being in good faith.
At this point it really feels like a couple of mods here are just flinging shit because the majority don't seem to agree with them and are annoyed at the disingenuous reasons given for this whole fuck up. It's pretty embarrassing to be honest.
I apologize for by bluntness, but don't all human beings do this, not just men? Can you honestly tell me that you have never spoken to a woman or a group of women and heard them insult a social group lower than them on the conventional social hierarchy? For a current example, there are a certain number of women on Twitter right now talking about calling ICE to have the undocumented family members of their Trump-voting neighbors deported. I mean, men are making those posts too, but I have seen just as many women making the same posts. Anecdotally, I have personally known many Christian women who insult or are dismissive towards Muslim women, which also has a racial component to it.
J. K. Rowling, specifically, is the world's most famous hater of trans women. She holds events where groups of cis women get together to basically hate on trans women together. In my opinion, this is a way for her to earn "social validation." Obviously this is toxic, as you say. But to claim that men do it far more often than women do, well, I have not seen any evidence of that in my personal life nor have I seen any data to support it. If you do have a book on the subject or a scientific study saying that men engage in this activity more than women do, I would be interested to read it and learn more about the issue. But I just think most human beings do it in specific social situations. Thank you for being open enough to have this discussion.
I worked in an office that was predominantly women with women in all leadership positions. Those women were mean. One of them leaves the room and the worst type of shit comes out their mouth about the woman who left the room. Really just subtext of gender essentialism going on in the anti dunk tank crowd
people besides cishet men reinforce patriarchy, maybe that's a better way to frame all this
We've been thru this already, but your vagueposting about how the dunk tank targets ND people isn't really grounded in the general observable reality of the content of the posts in the dunk tank. Responding, once again, with this claim is both unserious and exemplary of the toxic attitude that is leveled against the dunk tank.
I suppose I just haven’t seen enough of that coming from the comms then. I don’t spend as much time as I used to here but it’s mostly been against people I wouldn’t exactly characterize as social disenfranchised, like I say mostly against libs and reactionaries. I also wouldn’t expect punching down to get a lot of support here, hb is pretty vocal about that kind of thing even if it isn’t perfect. We’ve had enough purges I feel safe in making that assertion.
Lmao, 1 day old account infighting
I've been here since the beginning, I just delete accounts regularly for OpSec/Grass-Touching breaks.
cant block them when they leak and we know containment doesn't work from that study on reddit bans.
the mods are definitely disconnected from the users but idk why people need dunk/dredge/badposting content when chapotraphouse is also low-effort but not infantile.
bring back kerryposting i guess
??
Having subs dedicated to it obviously contains it more so than not, there’s people in this thread saying they blocked the subs and don’t want them to go bc it helped them not see it.
Well regardless people clearly seem to like it even if you don’t understand it and if you find it infantile you can block it. Like I said I found fake news and badposting infantile personally myself and blocked both so I didn’t have to see them
I think you need to look inwards, because it seems like you just assume a lot about your fellow comrades on this site, which their written words do not support. You generally seem to be reaching about what people in the dunk tank think about themselves and the world.
I do not share your experience of dunk tank posts, as we have thoroughly gone thru. Odd to see you've forgotten that somehow? Or you've decided to relitigate it for some reason?
Consider just blocking the comm, if you dislike its' content. Not everything has to be for you.
You're just saying words. Incoherent.
okay that makes more sense, thanks for explaining
no worries, i didn't really read you as hostile