this post was submitted on 22 May 2025
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hexbear

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Hexbear Proposals chapo.chat matrix room.

This will be a place for site proposals and discussion before implementation on the site.
Every proposal will also be mirrored into a pinned post on the hexbear community.

Any other ideas for helping to integrate the two spaces are welcome to be commented here or messaged to me directly.

Within Hexbear Proposals you can see the history of all site proposals and react to them, indicating a vote for or against a proposal.

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All top level messages within the channel must be a Proposals (idea for changing the site), Feedback (regarding non-technical aspects of the site, for technical please use https://hexbear.net/c/feedback), or Appeals (regarding admin/moderator actions).

Discussion regarding these will be within nested threads under the post.

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founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Hello users of hexbear:

Due to recent meta posts in our mutual aid community we wanted to open up discussion about the community [email protected]

We will never require explanation or justification from a user asking for aid in the community, and the mod and admin team continue to commit to not featuring an individual's mutual aid request to prevent unfair exposure.

In addition, we will maintain a strict "No critical comments or meta comments" on a mutual aid post.

This post is to discuss the mutual aid community's rule of allowing meta posts: mutual aid as a community, those making posts in it and those commenting on posts.

We are considering removing the exception allowing meta posts but wanted to involve the userbase before committing to a change.

Please comment with any thoughts, feelings, or suggestions regarding this change.

Thank you

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Personally, I look at post histories and whether or not they engage in the community at large or if it's all just mutual aid posts. I know that's not necessarily fair maybe but it's how I feel. The mutual aspect implies they do what they can to help others or engage in the community with meaningful posts and discussions.

It's not a pass/fail thing, it just feels like a window into the type of person asking for help and what they are likely to spend the money on.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Maybe there's a solution in this observation? Maybe two comms could be used, one focusing on mutual aid and the other on charity donations, with the mutual aid emphasising the mutual aspect and the charity one emphasising donations.

Though something like that could just end up with both comms completely dead, or just one very quickly (it's much easier to ask for mutual aid rather than charity) and it wouldn't solve anything.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

In theory that makes sense, but in reality I think it would just be the same thing spread out. I agree with other users that mutual aid should be more for acute problems instead of a rolling fundraiser to pay people's rents and stuff. Like another user said, who couldn't use a spare $100 for bills every month? I just don't think that's the spirit of mutual aid. We should be aiming to solve problems. The "no rules" way it is currently being handled feels a little more enabling than helpful. Maybe I'm wrong

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yeah, I thought it was an area worth discussing, but it isn't really. I kind of torpedoed my own thoughts on the idea in that comment.

We should be aiming to solve problems.

I focused much more on this in my main comment on the matter. I think setting things up to emphasise non-monetary aid and helping people get out of rough situations is better than just financial help alone. Though a bunch of random strangers on the internet might not be all that helpful for that unfortunately. I think a lot of people are worried about stepping on toes and giving unsolicited advice, because tbh, that happens all the time with people in crisis, and it's incredibly aggravating. Having a system in place if people want to use it, but it not being mandatory would be best I think.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I can see that point

However, I think we have a good community here and we should be aiming higher and trying to build something. Getting complacent during a slow collapse of the world order is just going to catch a lot of people here off guard and we will be fighting from an entrenched situation. I don't know how to "enforce" bettering things here and I know different people get different things out of being here, but the loose attitude here is a blessing and a curse. It's a great haven against the regular world, but "they" are coming for us. We should be doing more things through a theory based worldview and trying to build toward that future we all talk about. Unfortunately that requires some personal responsibility on everyone's part to not just be idle.

When I was a teen, I wanted to run away to a commune really bad. In my head, it was just smoking weed listening to Bob Dylan and playing naked volleyball or whatever. It's a lot more like being a farmer. It's going to be hard work. There's wells to ditch, food to grow, animals to take care of, things need fixing, there's cooking on a large scale.. After some research, I realized most communes were run by "doers" and populated by people who either did all the work while others fucked off or the "leaders" exploited everyone else. What I'm getting at is we share similarities with the hippie commune phenomena where a handful of people run this site and get to call the shots, and some who are here for leisure. It creates an uneven space where not much gets done.

There's a real identity problem with the site as a whole. Are we just a place to shit post about something you saw on Twitter or are we trying to educate and be involved? A mix of both is fine, but I feel like it's a rudderless ship as it stands.