from my recollection of the story:

Hexbear, way back in the day many a year ago, started as r/chapotraphouse, a subreddit dedicated to the podcast of the same name that eventually turned into the left wing internet community with only a tangential relation to said podcast that we have today. Over time, the general consensus on Hexbear about chapotraphouse was that it wasn't as good as it used to be and interest in the podcast largely fell off, at the same time that Citations needed starting gaining popularity on the internet more broadly and on hexbear. After a while, more people were talking about citations needed than chapotraphouse on Hexbear, and that observation turned into a sort of in joke. We all know that originally we were chapo fans but we talk so much more about citations needed now that fuck it, we're the official citations needed fan club website now