Hexbear Discussion Round 2

temeela, 10 months ago

If you want my honest opinion, tolerating tankies is not worth whatever kind of project you want to build. I think we should unite forces with trans people on trans issues sure, but giving a platform to tankies ain’t it. They’ll poison discussions, as they already have, name-call and take-over whatever thread they do not like. They like to put on a nice face to avoid being deferated, but I doubt it’ll last.

HellAwaits, 10 months ago

Every instance that has talked shit and got dogpiled should be thanking us for breathing some life into their dead and boring ass websites.

Flinging stupid shit around isn’t breathing life into our “boring” website. I find being a Putin puppet way more boring quite frankly.

KiriM, 10 months ago

I’ve said almost all I care to on this matter except to point out that it has taken less than a day for a Ukrainian war related post to appear on 196 and for hexbear “Marxist Leninists” to start proudly proclaiming their pro Russia opinions. You give these people a platform by staying federated and they will do this, and whether or not you consider their opinions to be offensive is somewhat subjective (I do) they are at the very least a major vibe killer. Anyways, I was right and if this shit keeps popping up in my feed I’m out, peace.

Gormadt, 10 months ago

Yeah I’m a strong supporter of Ukraine in that conflict not just for political reasons.

I know 3 people who’s lives have been massively impacted by it; a friend who went home to defend his home who has been unreachable for a year, a friend who lost his whole family less than a month into the conflict, and a friend who now has his parents and younger brothers living with him because they fled Russia when it all kicked off.

To say I have strong opinions about the conflict is a bit of an understatement.

KiriM, 10 months ago

I’m so sorry about your friends. At this point the admin has made it clear they have no problem with this behaviour. Literally making excuses for and handwaving a cryptofascist state ravaging one of its smaller neighbours doesn’t constitute harassment.

It doesn’t seem possible to me that you can maintain a safe and inclusive space for all queer people while allowing a minority to engage in war apologism and all other manner of Soviet themed, larper bullshit. I really don’t want to actually try to address why what they’re doing is inexcusable because frankly they live for that kind of engagement, but its fucking shameful that this has become an issue at all, let alone a permanent feature of the community.

I really hope that your friends stay safe.

marionberrycore, 10 months ago

I want to give them a chance, I liked most of the times I came across them aside from the previous thread. The previous thread was pretty concerning though ngl - I don’t think they intended to brigade but it still happened. I want to have solidarity with them, but so far, coexisting with them has been hard for a lot of people here. I’m hoping they settle down somewhat and listen to their admins requests such as staying out of c/main discussions and not spamming emojis, so it doesn’t have to come to defederation.

Snowpix, 10 months ago

They do intend to brigade. They actively discuss spreading their forces across other instances to shut down discussion and deny everyone else a platform, or to troll. They aren’t around to participate in good faith.

Switchboard, 10 months ago

I’d honestly still prefer defederation. If they were malignant on their own instance that’s one thing, but they made this instance feel pretty unwelcome to me, and I’ve seen way too many red flags to be able to be comfortable having them around. Trans solidarity is no reason to put up with abuse. I know I’m not really an active participant here so this is more or less meaningless to most, but I’d rather leave and go through my transition alone than to stay and have to deal with their terminally online behavior. I don’t think it should be our responsibility to rehabilitate them, nor do I think that’s possible given the relative size of our instances.

Edit: I also feel it’s worth pointing out that they’ve been defederated from several other instances for malignant behavior and I’ve seen all of that here.

Edit 2: Just saw we’re staying federated with them, so it looks like this is my stop. To all of the fine people here at blåhaj.zone, thanks so much for being a bunch of cool people, I never really chimed in but you all just living your lives helped me figure out a lot of stuff about myself, and I wish you all nothing but the best! I can’t stay a member of an instance that welcomes tankies though, so happy trails.

ada, 10 months ago

After speaking to one of their admins and seeing the change in the rules on hexbear, I’m happy enough with the outcome.

Trans solidarity is incredibly important. It’s the reason this instance exists. I prioritise that.

Hexbear (and Beehaw) is one of the only Lemmy instances that genuinely prioritise the protection of their gender diverse users, and honestly, if for nothing else, I believe it’s worth a bit of discomfort to find a way of staying connected.

Snowpix, 10 months ago

Trans solidarity isn’t beneficial when they’re also brigading, harassing and abusing people, and disrupting threads constantly. They might be allies in terms of LGBTQ, but they are actively harmful in every other way.

Demographics, 10 months ago

I agree with defederation based solely on the fact that nothing can be argued without it developing into an utter shit-fest with them. They only have memes and a spectrum of weird to abhorrent takes politically to give.

What, overall would we be losing vs gaining the ability to use the rest of Lemmy in peace?

Gormadt, 10 months ago

This is exactly how I see it

Honestly I find them more toxic than the people over at Lemmygrad and that is by no means a support of those people either, they’re both shit.

lingh0e, 10 months ago

Exactly. I’ve been on boards, communities, channels and networks on dozens of different variations of internet based communication for more than two decades now. I’ve dealt with these types longer and more often than I’m proud to admit. It doesn’t matter how well spoken or well intentioned a few of them are, the people making the most noise on their behalf are shitheel trolls who aren’t worth engagement.

Mark my words, they’re trying to make a leftist version of The_Donald.

It’s up to us to call them on their bullshit before it really takes hold.

melmi, 10 months ago

They’re not “trying to make” anything, Hexbear is one of the oldest and most established Lemmy servers out there. They’ve been around longer than either of our instances.

lingh0e, 10 months ago

So?

melmi, 10 months ago

I just thought it was weird that you were saying “they’re trying to make a leftist version of the Donald” and “we have to call them out before it takes hold” like they’re not already here and in force. The problems we’re having right now descend from the just how established they are as a community, and the Federation isn’t as established yet, so there’s a lot of friction and no one quite knows how to handle the other.

There’s no conspiracy here, it’s just culture shock.

lingh0e, 10 months ago

Fair enough. I’m not suggesting it’s a conspiracy. Just that we shouldn’t let ourselves become complacent to their shit-slinging.

No one took the subreddit of shitheel meme slingers seriously in 2015 either. We tried to give them the benefit of the doubt.

Look where we are now.