Hello users of Hexbear, there have been many changes and some drama the past few months.
The recent changes we've been making have been an attempt to create a more safe and welcoming environment for many demographics that have been overlooked in the past.
For any of our comrades that have been unintentionally hurt in this process, we apologise and hope to find a solution that accommodates as many people as possible while still meeting the needs of the marginalised groups who need a space like this the most.
The intent of this post is to provide a space for all users to air grievances with regard to the site. As well as provide suggestions for specific things that could be changed to address your grievance. Comments insulting the mod team or those without a specific means to address your problem may be removed. No commenter will be sitebanned, unless it clearly breaks the code of conduct.
I'm sorry I misunderstood the sarcasm, and navigating the two directions of the site where one wants to be serious, and the other wants to shitpost is a difficult task.
I don't think anyone can deny that when multiple users say they felt unsafe with the misogyny and racism, that something needs to be done.
I mentioned the context for the community change for anyone reading that may not understand why the dunk/dredge tanks were closed.
We defederated from an instance of over 1000 DAUss that had plenty of silly posts because they were making users feel unsafe.
We 100% should have consulted with the users before making the change and have committed to doing so going forward, I realize words are cheap and that it will take time to show that. Giving the users the opportunity to participate how the communities should be divided and what they should be named would've been best served as a public discussion.
I definitely made an error in making TC69 an admin, and we will not be adding admins.
Unfortunately, users will always have issues with site-culture and leave, we've been discussing that for years and I don't think that will change.
I once again ask people to use tone tags.
I'm ready for the tone tags struggle session. /s (I'm not actually ready)
I'm pretty sure this was what the vast majority of the complaints about this move were about, and they were all consistently ignored in the moment, or in some cases were brushed aside with accusations of 'You just like the racist old name.' It was a demonstration in why it's pointless for users to bother if they disagree with the choices being made behind the scenes- at best you get ignored, at worst people with the ability to ban you start maligning you.
It has been mentioned a few times recently, but we as a site need to move away from assuming that each other is engaging in the worst possible way. That goes for mods and users, internally we have been really emphasizing that as mods we need to assume chartable intention from the hexbear users.
Historically the moderators of the communities have been responsible for changes within the community, they are the ones who were interested in cultivating the community and some reached out to users for input most did not. In hindsight making changes to a very popular community should have involved the users of said community, unfortunately both sides got locked into the battle and the complaints were brushed aside.
Another changes that was made is that all changes are discussed publicly in a matrix channel as well as a pinned !hexbear@hexbear.net community post. Since then we have not made any changes, and when we do we will utilize those spaces so that users are able to give input.
I hope that change takes root. Thanks for taking the time to respond
Not even me? Just as a silly little bit? Please, I promise not to use it responsibly