Hey everyone, I've removed bans for everyone that did not request one in the previous admin thread. (I think. If you got banned and I didn't restore your account yet, let me know and I'll fix it.) Don't worry! We're not gonna just ban people for no reason.
In case anyone hasn't seen it yet, Alaskaball confirmed that Sangria was their admin alt. They were messing around with their admin tools on their own account and figured it would be seen as a funny bit, but without being informed of the bit many of the mods and admins were just as shocked, confused, and appalled as you were. I've talked to the other admins and mods, and we're all gonna take it easy on bits for a bit. (Pun intended. This is the last one, I promise.)
If you're afraid that there's been an infiltration of transphobic, egomaniacal wrecker mods who hate the users, I want to assure you that's absolutely not the case. The overwhelming majority of mods and admins on this site are trans. Our admins are all trusted, long-time users in good standing. We regularly browse, comment, and post on our main accounts. You post and chat with us daily as comrades, and we value all of you. You may not recognize the usernames on our admin accounts because we regularly swap the alts used for admin privileges. This is why you'll see really old or unused alt accounts as well as really new accounts on the admin team.
I've seen a lot of speculation down below, some entertaining, some upsetting. We absolutely do not accept transphobia or any form of bigotry on this site. Some of the statements provided by mods and admins have been seen as transphobic and bioessentialist. I want to offer some transparency, but also clarify that I can't get much more specific on this for personal security reasons.
During the earlier discussions on how we felt things could be improved with these communities, multiple trans mods and admins described their reasoning in favour of the change by expressing with a variety of wording that it's the [he/him] demographic in particular that has been the source of toxic and troubling behavior in the tanks. That the he/hims haven't been beating the accusations, so to speak. With that group being largely cishet white guys on this site, these two terms were assumed to roughly correlate. We weren't making prepared statements for release, the comments that got posted here were paraphrased and combined from more casual comments made by trans people, in the mod chat to mostly other trans people about some of the chauvinistic and ironically bigoted posting habits that they saw as alienating and unhealthy for the site, and what we could do to improve the situation. We genuinely didn't foresee the potential for a miscommunication of those statements as being bioessentialist, and want to extend our sincerest apologies for the misunderstanding.
Edit: Please feel welcome to post in c/gossip as you would have posted in the_dunk_tank, and in c/counterpropaganda as you would have posted in the_dredge_tank.
It's all incredible levels of overreactions on top of overreactions. It's all blown entirely out of proportion.
One of the core problems seems to be that everyone is moving incredibly quickly. Like, things that should be taking DAYS to spread in the community and come to understanding over are occurring in posts that are up for 2 hours, then locked, then everyone is expected to understand what happened in those threads.
Nobody knows what the hell is going on because half the drama is stuff that occurred between a literal handful of users and admins in a timespan that means only a few people even saw it and then everything else is being roughly understood through tail end tacked on threads over and over again.
SLOW DOWN.
Surely once the third admin steps down, the fourth will post "Update from the admin team: there's no update, we'll examine the issues that led to the recent drama and reflect on how to move forward. Everyone has been unbanned, continue posting comrades" and lock the thread
Surely...
This is how I would go about it. A cool off is sorely needed. People need to stop posting about it. The new comm name needs deciding. And that's about it.
Yep. That's the goal here. I'm here toanswer a few burning questions and help fix some things that got messed up, but we're all taking a little cooldown here.
One thing I think sorely needs impressing on the admin team is the need for announcements and big staff posts to really get 48hours of time between them so that the existing post can run its course (mostly posts last 24 hours) and then have another day of time to be digested properly.
The pace of things that happen leaves the community completely confused about what is going on. Everyone is fragmented into different segments based on whether they saw something or didn't and people did not get time to see many things, myself included.
(I plan to leave this post pinned and unlocked for at least 72 hours.)
💪
I'm not locking anything or going anywhere. I'm here til we get this fixed.
I know, you're the third admin
I really don't know what the fuck is going on at this point. Was the first few months of Hexbear like this?
The first few months of Hexbear was slower than this(in a better and more understandable way) over issues that were genuinely larger. This has occurred at such a speed and frenzy over something that literally could have been resolved with a single paragraph post that it makes everything else look relaxed by comparison.
Policy/staff announcement posts should not occur more than every 2 days. It takes that long for the MOST ACTIVE users to see them. Most people login once per day, and miss a day here and there. Hexbear this week has had announcement posts that were up for 2 hours before new announcement posts were made and then new ones.
If I were going to tip cold water on this I'd post a single paragraph about how the dunk tank is being renamed, a contest for it is occurring, some policy changes to avoid federated drama will be discussed but there will be no further policy or staff announcements until after the new comm name is decided in a few days.
Simple, easy. Give it all a cool off period. Tell people in the team to stop posting.
I wonder to what extent Trump getting reelected has anything to do with people's emotions being so out of wack. That was my very first comment. I made it in half jest, but perhaps I shouldn't have done that. I really wonder if people are genuinely afraid of Trump and that this fear is creeping into their decision-making. Emotions aren't always instantly felt. It's like how many people (most people?) don't immediately start sob when they receive news that their love one has died. It's only a while later that the sorrow really hits them and they start crying. Fear is the same thing as well.
I have never seen the admins and mods (and even some users here as one user who got temporary banned immediately typed some 10+ paragraph comment about how they self-harm because they think they'll never pass) here act so melodramatic. I tie all this with UlyssesT deleting his account as well. He was very clear that Trump's win genuinely scared him and he wanted to touch grass and build a small community so his family and friends could weather the storm. Perhaps the fear is creeping into the admins and pushing the admins to "do something," which is where the frantic energy is coming from.
Yes, it's the cool leftist thing to say that Trump ain't shit and the US already treat marginalized communities like complete shit, but emotions are emotions. You can either ride out the emotion and steer it towards productive ends or you could bottle it up and mask it before it explodes like what we're seeing right now.
I wouldn't know, being in britland. I feel basically nothing about it, but I have seen similar emotional behaviour from americans I consider friends in other spaces. They are snappier, quicker to boil over, and scared.
Build the wall but for the other reason. Just a huge-ass fence around all of America for four years. Cut off internet access, ground all flights in and out, close all ports. Just let that fire burn out for a bit, then open the doors and see what's left.
It'stime for a complete and total shut down of america til we can figure out what the hell is going on
i genuinely believe this struggle session is sillier than the outdoor cats one
The first year of Hexbear had a struggle session like every month. They were usually confined to one thread though
There were constant struggle sessions, this is kind of a return to form. Difference is that people have now formed more social/parasocial connections at this point which makes it more personal it seems.
Yeah it’s just getting ridiculous at this point
More thoughts later commuting rn