chapotraphouse

Please, don't post less. I think it's important that people start to perceive "actual communists" as something not frInge, and one of the "metrics" for something to be perceived as not fringe is how widespread it is. I'm not even from Hexbear, but I've already started to see libs having more trouble to impose their unfactual crap when there's many more people to counteract with good info.

I think counteracting our "dont lurk, post" culture will be hard. Ive definitly tried to focus on posts that havent been replied to yet though.

That said, i think the libs on other instances will tend to object to our content regardless of our volume.

Agreed on ppb tho

The “reputation” of Hexbear is entirely determined by your political stance. We’re going to be authoritarian tankies no matter how nice or mean we are.

i vote that we use the emote more often instead of typing at people

I have seen good responses to measured posts, and from snark ass posts that at least explain context.

So yes, it is possible to make people do better by putting more effort in than immediately telling people to fuck off. You really should wait until they respond disengeniously before going bear mode on them. There will be plenty of people to back you up after they show their ass.

Posting is a sacred right that shall not be infringed.

Yeah, dunking only comes out later if they start being racist or queerphobic or bloodthirsty,

If they come into our instance though it's time

I don't know, getting people to post less might backfire in that having high activity is what makes Hexbear fun to use. I understand that you're asking for people to post less specifically elsewhere in the Lemmyverse, but I have a feeling that if you really succeeded in getting people to post less, that would probably bleed over into a general tendency to post less, which would be bad for the site. But maybe I'm just fear mongering and it wouldn't effect the overall site culture. Idk, like everyone else, I really like our little site and the culture that we have, and it's going to be interesting how federation is going to change it. Hopefully for the best! New users certainly help with the longevity of the project.

I think a lot of people have been posting with an immediate assumption that their interlocutors are hopeless or acting in bad faith. Escalation is not always correct and it can be pretty stinky.

It's good to have a reputation of relentlessly speaking for truth and your values. It is not good to have a reputation for being assholes who treat everyone who isn't on the same page as them as irredeemable or stupid.

I think spamming people with ppb or our numerous excellent emojis doesn't help Hexbear's reputation or the Lemmy Fediverse more broadly since it gives people just cause to defederate when we are essentially spamming them (EVEN IF IT IS DESERVED). It's just low effort posting. It's more like an inside joke. It's funny here, but it doesn't really work "outside" the group, so to speak.

I'm rather opposed to Hexbear users' behavior on other comms, especially for the following reason: most people read posts and threads without ever posting themselves. So if we want to argue a point, we really do need to do it in a way that informs a reader, even if that reader isn't the person being responded to. Hopefully the reader, even if they weren't posting, will come away with a better understanding of this hellworld we're in. Being a leftist ideally means you perceive a bit through the propaganda filter that we are all subjected to. It hopefully doesn't mean being boorish online toward others. Also, many of us came into our leftists beliefs gradually and over time. Others deserve the same chance.

If someone really wants to dunk on something, it can just be a screenshot of someone being shitty in c/the_dunk_tank. If someone in another prominent instance/comm is being extremely shitty (racist/transphobic/misogynist), ppb on sight with extreme prejudice. However, if someone is trying to converse something with bad, propagandized talking points, then just dismantle the points.

My 2c

Be more concious, yeah probably. Actually moderate or have informal rules, no. PPB sparingly, absolutely.

My reasoning for push back on this (off the cuff, I welcome other ideas) is this:

• We post. We don't use downvotes (and basically by proxy upvotes even though they still exist here) because they're too easily manipulated, especially by people not willing to stick their neck out and identify themselves. If we believe that people should voice their opinions and stand by them or be corrected, I don't see how we square not doing that with the people who need to hear it most - here or in other instances.

• None of us reliably give the best reply and different comrades have different strategies, backgrounds, views, approaches etc. I realise this is kind of covered by "if it's been said, don't say it again" but people are gonna disagree about exactly what's been said, moreso what hasn't and also things like emphasis. I agree that people should probably look at their own about-to-posts and think 'does this add anything?'.

• We're a largely excluded, ignored, and villified community - not as Hexbear, but as people. Doubly so for comrades who don't have the luxury of being able to blend in with the dominant racial/sexual/gender norms of where they live or the predominantly English-speaking internet. The fact that so many of us (a tiny fraction of a fraction in the scheme of things) have gathered together and refuse to be ignored or talked down to on this little corner of the internet is a beautiful thing. So I think whatever numbers we have should be displayed proudly, not curtailed or hidden.

• People don't read the entire threads. Espeicially not when they're hundreds of comments. People should. I try to out of habit most of the time, but also if someone come into a thread and left dozens of replies all over it then they realistically should expect that multiplied in return. Most of the users from outside Hexbear I've seen get dozens or hundreds of response have done so because they post incessantly throughout a thread without ever (or before they withdraw to) responding earnestly to particular responses.

I think climbing over each other for the sake of a dunk isn't very productive. I think being the second, third, fourth person (or even the first if you're just trying to get it in before others) to post PPB is boring.

My favourite parts of this site, where I spend most of my time here, are not the ones focused on memes or shitposting for a reason. But I also think trying to artificially change the culture of what we have here to be more approachable to a tiny percentage, of a tiny platform, which is a tiny proportion of a type of social media, on a small part of the internet isn't worth it. Especially if we lose some of the imperfect but organic vibe we've created here over three years.

But honestly, maybe thats because, for all the genuine, lovely impacts this place has on its users lives, it's still mostly a place that's just less shit than other bits of the internet for me. I took out a bunch of opposition football fans tonight and bought two rounds of drinks, which resulted in almost £300 in donations to our local socialist clothes/foodbank, a shitload of positive social media, and maybe an offshoot starting another town. I don't say that to brag our sound holier than anyone, but for me I'll do more good buying beers never mind actually organising offline than I ever will here. It doesn't mean that what we do here doesn't matter, I just think we can overfixate - sometimes in the extreme.

Should we sweep back the tide with a broom?

no

(yes)

I don't think you are going to get people to stop posting, but we should probably crackdown on some of the more aggressive behaviors from the sub like pinging users from other instances into hexbear.

Agree on more strategic, limited use of PPB, but otherwise I disagree with posting less. Let the liberals enjoy being dogpiled by us pinkos like they dogpile people on shitholes like reddit.

As relates to other instances, I’ve been trying to engage calmly and patiently, with as little hostility as possible. Getting a deluge of replies can be overwhelming, but I figure if the replies are thoughtful and respectful then at least people will get the idea that we’re not just dogpiling for fun.

This doesn’t apply to clearly hateful/bigoted posts, but if someone is just being a lib and engaging in the lib version of good faith, I feel a good faith response is warranted.

My thoughts are as follows:

I think there's room for this thought. Honestly the TLDR is enough - Not repeating what others have already said is probably enough to make sure we respond adequately but not overwhelmingly.

It heavily depends on what instance they're from. Pissing off enough lemm.ee losers to the point where lemm.ee defeds with us is no real loss because lemm.ee is full of losers. Just check the modlog. And at the end of the day, they're just using our behavior as an excuse because like the yellow-bellied libs they are, they have to package their obvious partisan move in some self-righteous bullshit. Do we go around calling people slurs or issuing death threats to people? Of course not. Oh boo hoo, we spam a bunch of giant emotes and ruin your anti-China circlejerk. How will you possibly recover?

I do think being selective in how ruthless we are based on what instance they come from can be a strategy, but I don't think we can pull it off because we're not organized enough.

🥰

upbear this comment if you think this post is dorky and bad

We should also make it more clear somehow that people can just tell us to disengage.

I am here because I saw someone get dogpiled outside of r/cth, and thought it was funny. I don't know if the dogpile-ee ever changed their mind, but I frankly don't care either. If we post softer to appease 100 hopeless libs, do we risk not catching the attention of that one angry leftist? Will the libs still feel unfairly attacked and dogpiled if it's four responses instead of a hundred? I say we keep posting.

if its a liberal giving a lukewarm liberal take, we should consciously not pile on

Death to America