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submitted 22 hours ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

Hello users of Hexbear while we are always accepting moderation applications I would like to begin another formal volunteer drive.

Those of you interested in volunteering as a moderator, can send me your responses to the application questions below using either hexbear direct message or matrix message.

The answers may be as short or as long as you feel is adequate.

Application

What is your Hexbear username?

Do you have any preferred pronouns?

What are your thoughts on capitalism?

What are your thoughts on imperialism?

What are your thoughts on Palestine?

What are your thoughts on trans rights?

What are your thoughts on racial justice?

What do think about current and previous protests around the world?

What are your thoughts on Veganism and Animal Liberation?

Do you have any experience with other leftist online communities?

What did those experiences teach you?

What is your approach to moderation, and how do you work with teams?

How do you deal with online drama and people who try to start things for the sake of it?

What current communities would you be interested in moderating?

Would you like to create a new community?

Do you have any ideas for community engagement?

What is your general time availability? (Time zone, amounts, common browsing times, etc)

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top 38 comments
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[-] [email protected] 5 points 8 hours ago

I started to fill some questions out, then realized I'd be doing everyone on our favorite Citations Needed fan forum a favor by not being a mod, im just a run of the mill liberal shitposter.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 5 hours ago

Many of the current mods are of a similar type if you want to help we would be grateful!

[-] [email protected] 11 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

Would it be possible to make a short reading list consisting mainly of articles, about the subjects in the mod application? Nothing too basic ofc, but instead it should address blind spots and add to their knowledge on these subjects. It would be optional reading ofc.

@[email protected] don't mean to single you out but you're an expert in reading lists.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 4 hours ago

Great idea thank you

[-] [email protected] 9 points 9 hours ago

I don't consider myself an "expert," but thank you, that's very flattering! I'd say a lot of these areas, such as veganism, are areas I personally support of course but don't really have any "reading" I can recommend. I think other comrades may be able to speak up on what they enjoy reading about these.

[-] [email protected] 7 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago)

If the mod team thinks it's a good idea we could have a post for reading suggestions.

[-] [email protected] 15 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago)

I think only seeking moderators who are willing/able to answer broad essay questions on vague political issue might not be the best selection method. They're each one questions to which many people have devoted their whole lives.

Here's some things I would think to ask about (

  • are there any subjects, comms or dynamics you would recuse yourself from moderating?
  • what time commitment can you make over the next 6 months?
  • what do you think a moderator does?
  • what should a moderator not do?
  • in your opinion, what's the best parts of hexbear that you want to encourage?
  • if you were forced to delete 10% of comments on hexbear, how would you choose?
  • how is hexbear different from other Lemmy instances?
  • what kinds of people should not be on this site and how can you recognize them?
  • what is the next struggle session?
  • how should policy decisions be made on hexbear?
  • find a comment you think requires moderation action and explain what you would do.
  • what is one question you would add to this list? And one you would remove?

eta:

  • what would put you off being a mod?
  • what are the benefits of being a mod?
  • how do/should/could mods evaluate themselves individually and collectively?
  • why aren't you a mod already?
  • what emoji would you remove and why?

asking broad question like "what do you think of racial justice" invites a superficial answer, and its easy to tell what direction the "correct" answer would be. Do you want people who diverge from the obviously correct direction of answers? Like do you only want vegans as mods? maybe a more pointed question that gets at application of the ideas. This could be improved its just off the top of my head:

  • many people are of the opinion that there is a lot of racism & white supremacy on hexbear
    • How can it be the case given the "color blind" nature of the site?
    • how can moderstors influence this?
    • What is your understanding of current/past interventions to address this and their usefulness?
    • How else can hexbear get better?
    • Are some problems insurmountable in this context?
    • What feedback mechanisms are available to assess efficacy?

Its too many in total. You probably want to have a small number of mandatory questions and then maybe pick from a list of other ones.

I think of your list of ism questions, maybe people choose 1 they think they are strong on and 1 they think they are weak/unsure on.

eta 2: why ask pronouns? It is already a feature of the site. Is there something else that is meant to imply? or maybe it's left over from before.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 4 hours ago

Great comment and I'd like to take some time to read it again and respond appropriately

[-] [email protected] 11 points 12 hours ago

Like do you only want vegans as mods?

I think the point of that question is that anti-vegan shit is against site rules. So if someone says "I don't think it matters and vegans are annoying" they wouldn't be eligible to be a mod

[-] [email protected] 6 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

Yeah but no one filling an application would say something like that because they know it'd be the wrong answer. I think instead of asking that kind of question, admins could explicitly state that anti-veganism is not tolerated, and give brief quotes on the other subjects like imperialism/racial justice and so on. The onboarding process could involve some very light reading on these subjects.

asking broad question like "what do you think of racial justice" invites a superficial answer

I agree with @[email protected], and if people actually thought they are supposed to give a detailed and thorough answer then they'd be less likely to submit an application, who wants to write a bunch of short essays meow-bug

[-] [email protected] 5 points 11 hours ago

"I don't think it matters

ambivalence isn't the same as hostility

and vegans are annoying"

moderators aren't allowed to be annoyed?

Here's another question for the above list:

  • Are there any recurring topics on hexbear/lemmy that annoy you? As a moderator, how might you deal with that?

Personally I would recuse myself from moderating anything having to do with "beans".

[-] [email protected] 12 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago)

ambivalence isn't the same as hostility

You wouldn't consider it hostility if someone answered that to one of the topics you think are important? Like, "I don't think racial justice matters" wouldn't be a disqualifying response for a moderator in your opinion?

I highly doubt that.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 10 hours ago

You wouldn't consider it hostility if someone answered that to one of the topics you think are important? Like, "I don't think racial justice matters" wouldn't be a disqualifying response for a moderator in your opinion?

You equate veganism to anti racism.

CoC says

Volunteers, comments, and posts, should not be anti-vegan, although users and volunteers are not required to be vegan.

So in your opinion, would an appropriate equivalence be

Volunteers, comments, and posts, should not be racist, although users and volunteers are not required to be anti-racist.

??

[-] [email protected] 7 points 13 hours ago

If we already mod a community, do you want us to submit the application for additional comms we're considering modding for?

[-] [email protected] 2 points 5 hours ago

No need, please send me a message with a link to a post or comment in the communities you want to mod

[-] [email protected] 26 points 18 hours ago

Hexbear Moderator Drive

they should be biking smdh

[-] [email protected] 12 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

I was recently thinking about what @[email protected] said about unnamed roles and tasks, and I think keeping a comm active is one of them, and it should be its own volunteer position, with easier onboarding. You would volunteer to help keep a comm active, even if just by making those weekly/monthly threads. We sometimes completely forget about certain niche comms even though they have mods, who usually mod multiple comms anyway (which is very appreciated ofc), also its not their job to keep comms active or contribute to them or whatever.

We can call the position comm organizer or steward or something.

Take c/literature as an example, PM_ME_YOUR_FOUCAULTS had started a weekly series called Hexbear Reads and people engaged with it and asked to be added to the ping list and so on. So clearly people want something like that, even a generic weekly c/literature post where they talk about what they are reading. But since PM_ME_YOUR_FOUCAULTS's ban no one made a post like that. To be clear this is not about "pumping up engagement", which obviously doesn't fit the site culture, instead it's about addressing a need. People want these monthly/weekly posts but no one makes them!

This is not about c/literature mods or anyone else, they are doing a great job and they only signed up to moderate really. Also mods usually mod a couple of comms, but these hypothetical organizers should only be responsible for a comm or two.

It would be a chill volunteer position with no responsibilities or pressure, and the application for it should be small and easy to fill out.

[-] [email protected] 9 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago)

Thanks for the reference, did not feel like anyone understood what I was saying the first time and I'm glad to see someone did. I entirely agree with your idea! A perfect example!

[-] [email protected] 11 points 15 hours ago

I know that some mods fill this role perfectly, but it's not a requirement of the job and it shouldn't be one.

[-] [email protected] 26 points 19 hours ago

I would mod but I cant be trusted with all that power.The power would go straight to my head and I would eat all the beans

[-] [email protected] 4 points 9 hours ago

We'll just post more beanis

[-] [email protected] 12 points 16 hours ago

You should make me a moderatorsmuglord

[-] [email protected] 23 points 19 hours ago

My support to all who answer the call, I'm ignoring it again sit-back-and-enjoy

[-] [email protected] 1 points 1 hour ago

based and sleepi-pilled

[-] [email protected] 15 points 18 hours ago

Suggestion: add a question about what the applicant thinks of zionism and the burning pissraeli flag emote to weed out the liberal zionists

[-] [email protected] 7 points 16 hours ago

Follow up suggestion: make the mod application answers public (unless there's a reason not to that I'm not thinking of)

[-] [email protected] 7 points 17 hours ago

like rhyming with orange. i can smell the smoke pourin out their ears already

[-] [email protected] 17 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago)

i think there's no mods for c/hobby at the moment.

i would volunteer but i wouldn't be a good mod cause i get decision paralysis pretty bad so yeah alphys-anxious

[-] [email protected] 20 points 19 hours ago

Small comms tend to be extremely tame and low-maintainance.

[-] [email protected] 21 points 21 hours ago

I want to but don't feel like answering those questions right now

[-] [email protected] 19 points 20 hours ago

Good luck my friend, it would be great to become a supervisor. ❤❤

[-] [email protected] 19 points 20 hours ago

thanks habibi

[-] [email protected] 14 points 20 hours ago
[-] [email protected] 10 points 18 hours ago

Assigned ~~male~~ mod at birth

[-] [email protected] 7 points 18 hours ago

I may submit an app but it would be on Monday or something. Will this post still be active by then?

[-] [email protected] 6 points 17 hours ago
[-] [email protected] 9 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago)

This is copy pasted from my notes, I think I saw it last week, I keep meaning to ask about it

Matrix is not a community-based software, it was born [00] in Amdocs [01], a multinational corporation founded in Israel.

On the Internet we find many pieces of information connecting Amdocs with Israel’s Intelligence

https://hackea.org/notas/matrix.html

is this correct?

anyway, I think I'm still a mod for at least one comm (i havent checked in for a while though), I could potentially do some more but my health has been pretty bad lately and I have no confidence due to the bad vibes from a short stint in a community org

maybe ill be in touch

ps is your username the same on matrix?

this post was submitted on 18 Sep 2025
70 points (97.3% liked)

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