announcements
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Hey hexbears just want to update everyone.
We took the weekend to properly consider and are removing: programming.dev , aussie.zone , and lemm.ee from our allow-list.
We will look at refederation with lemm.ee after local-only communities are developed. When that feature is available we would really like to consider changing every hexbear community to local-only except for chapotraphouse, askchapo, news, and the_dunk_tank. The final say on if a community is local only or not is 100% up to the mod team on that community.
The reason for this is that lemm.ee despite having twice our monthly active users has a 700k annual comment rate to hexbear's 1 million, in addition lemm.ee has very little active communities that do not exist on hexbear.
Resulting in lemm.ee benefit of federation being votes and views, with a secondary benefit of comments.
However, as expressed by users belonging to marginalized groups, comments from .ee users are often lib-shit and in some cases outright hostile. While many on hexbear love dunking on these lost libs the duty to protect marginalized users is much more important.
The end vote for programming.dev and aussie.zone was a tie, so we decided to break the tie in favor of defederation. The decision on lemm.ee was much harder as the average user did express desire to remain federated however the admin team decided that a temporary removal from our allow-list was the best option.
As an admin team we have never wanted to prioritize growth, and we wanted to give federation with liberal instances a try, however we consider providing a safer browsing experience for marginalized users more important than the opportunity to dunk.
While user side instance blocking and local sort are options, neither address the issue of federated instance users coming into posts in hexbear communities to make reactionary comments.
Thank you everyone who gave input and please provide any feedback, comments, concerns, etc in comments.
final vote count:
federation
all 32
aussie.zone 27
lemm.ee 41
programming.dev 27
lemmy.blahaj.zone 5
defederation
all 40
aussie.zone 19
lemm.ee 4
programming.dev 19
lemmy.blahaj.zone 43

Lemmy.world has slandered Hexbear.net's name by accusing us of being a brigading troll instance, after days of requesting evidence they have provided none. After raising the concern that the largest lemmy instance is slandering and poisoning the well of smaller instances I was told that I was creating drama and that my only recourse is to make a post on hexbear.net, I am also asking the users of hexbear please do not harass lemmy.world or their mods/admins as well as asking hexbear users not to make lemmy.world accounts/delete any lemmy.world accounts you may have due to opsec/privacy concerns
With the cumulative updates Users may show/hide avatars, show/hide scores, show/hide NSFW content, show/hide read posts, show/hide notifications for new posts, block users, block communities, report direct messages, mods can distinguish a comment to sticky it to the top of a post. Users may set their feed in their account settings to determine if the default feed is local (hexbear.net only), subscribed (user subscribed communities only), or all (all posts on unblocked communities on federated instances).
Hello users of Hexbear in the next couple of weeks (exact date will most likely be somewhere around the 5th of August) we will be taking the site down for approximately three hours to update to lemmy 0.18.3 and begin federation., as we prepare for federation we wanted to create a primer for etiquette when engaging in the fediverse.
Please read and respect the rules of the community instance in which you are posting/commenting. Please try to keep the dirtbag lib-dunking to hexbear itself. Do not follow the Chapo Rules of Posting, instead try to engage utilizing informed rhetoric with sources to dismantle western propaganda. Posting the western atrocity propaganda and pig poop balls is hilarious but will pretty quickly get you banned and if enough of us do it defederated. Realize that you are a representative of the hexbear instance when you post on other instances.
Breaking the hexbear code of conduct on other instances will result in mod action here.
Know that your posts, comments, and DMs involving communities/users of other instances are stored on those instances databases, while delete requests are sent there is no guarantee they will be honored, especially if a different platform is involved (mastodon, etc).
In addition, a reminder that you may set your feed or search to local/subscribed/all and block users/communities to have a greater control over what content you have. Local is Hexbear only, subscribed is communities from hexbear and federated instances that you have specifically subscribed to, and All is hexbear + all federated instances. There will be a pinned post in the !hexbear community where you can nominate instances for our allow-list or block-list.
In closing, I want to remind everyone that the moderation policy of Hexbear communities will not change and will be strictly applied to any users from a federated instance. While we are not responsible for moderation policy of remote communities our admins do see reports you make of posts/comments on federated instances, and we are able to remove them, while not actually deleting the post/comment it does hide it so Hexbear users cannot see/interact with it.
Here is the list of instances we will be federating with at the beginning:
Mastodon for Sickos, this is the unofficial mastodon instance. Perfect for microblogging with the ability to send local only toots.
A collection of Marxist communities, for memes, learning, news, discussion, media, or anything you like.
Rules:
No capitalist apologia / anti-communism.
No bigotry - including racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, or xenophobia.
Be respectful. This is a safe space where all comrades should feel welcome, this includes a warning against uncritical sectarianism.
No porn or sexually explicit content (even if marked NSFW).
No right-deviationists (patsocs, nazbols, strasserists, duginists, etc).
A community of privacy and FOSS enthusiasts, run by Lemmy’s developers
Rules
No bigotry - including racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, or xenophobia. Code of Conduct.
Be respectful, especially when disagreeing. Everyone should feel welcome here.
No porn.
No Ads / Spamming.
General-purpose Lemmy instance. New users & communities welcome!
About this site Sign-ups are open E-mail verification is required Downvotes are enabled User community creation is enabled Image uploads are limited to 100kb We have a policy for administration and federation
Rules are simple:
No abusive language
No bigotry
No advertising
No pornography
Enjoy your favorite Lemmy communities at tchncs! This instance is general purpose but it tends to attract techy people. It is hosted in Germany.
Rules:
Be nice to each other
Do not publish advertisements
Do not publish conspiracy myths
Do not publish content illegal in Germany and/or France, such as holocaust denial or Nazi symbolism
Do not publish content promoting the ideology of National Socialism
Do not publish content that is hateful towards specific individuals or groups, or intended to cause or incite harm
For a very very detailed CoC, use https://social.tchncs.de/about/more
Instance Lemmy française, pour tous les français et francophones !
jlai.lu est une instance française à destination des communautés francophones, mais accepte aussi les participations en anglais.
Règles générales:
Pas de discrimination - Incluant racisme, sexisme, homophobie, transphobie, xénophobie, validisme, etc.
Restez courtois.
Pas de contenu pornographique ou érotique.
Pas de publicité, pas de spam, pas de troll.
An instance hosting communities for some niche interests and hobbies.
Remember the human on the other side of your screen! Always strive to be respectful and kind to one another.
Rules: https://possumpat.io/post/13059
An instance dedicated to nature and science.
We follow Lemmy’s code of conduct.
Please be respectful to each other.
The main focus of this instance is the natural sciences, and the scope encompasses all of the STEM fields.
a site dedicated to TTRPG discussion, memes, news, etc.
Given that we’re rather small at the moment, there aren’t terribly many instance-wide rules. As of right now, the main rules would be:
Don’t do anything illegal - anything against the law is basically prohibited here. We’d like to keep our instance relatively above board.
Stay on topic for the communities - Stay on topic for the community you’re posting in. Also respect their rules. The rules of which are left up to the mods of said community.
Be kind and respectful - We want this to be a positive place, regardless of a person’s ideals, values, and opinions. Just remember the person on the other side of the screen. Hate speech, name calling, or other rude/derogatory behavior is not generally allowed.
Please respect the rules of and do not harass others in remote or local communities - The fediverse is a wide, wide place. There’s multiple communities in existence that even predate our instance here dedicated to the subject of TTRPGs! Please don’t go into other communities and disrespect their space. You can even subscribe and participate in those communities in addition to ours!
A place for people to discuss Pathfinder and Starfinder tabletop RPGs
Rules:
Be civil, kind, and respectful of others; both asking for and giving advice should be courteous. Treat everyone in the community as if they are your friend.
No bigotry, harassment, or attacking people in the community (including racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, or other abusive behavior).
Keep content PG-13, this community wants to welcome all players and be respectful of those who may not want to be exposed to explicit content.
Keep content related to Paizo products. There is an offtopic community on this server for non-Paizo (Pathfinder or Starfinder) related discussion. Additional communities can be created as the community wishes.
There are specific communities here that are dedicated to art and looking for groups. Please keep those topics to those communities and leave the others for discussion.
Self-promotion is allowed, but please keep it to a minimum of one post per community per week. Promoting of others (i.e. Humble Bundle, Kickstarter, podcasts or youtube channels) is allowed, but within reason. Don’t spam the community with it. If requested, a self-promotion community could be created.
Do not post copyrighted material. We are going to maintain the standards set forth in Paizo’s Community Use Policy.
Do not post pirated material.
This is a statement from the news megathread crew:
First and foremost, this site and the news megathread's user base are not a monolith, and there are frequent discussions about who to support and to what degree. Nonetheless, we nearly universally acknowledge that the West's role in the world, through organizations such as NATO, the IMF, and the World Bank - among many others - are deeply harmful to the billions of people living both inside and outside of their imperial core, both militarily through wars of aggression and coups, and economic means, giving them unpayable loans, imposing austerity, and applying sanctions to keep these countries in permanent debt peonage. These organizations constitute the modern imperial order, with the United States at its heart - we are not fooled by the term "rules-based international order." It is in the Left's interest for these organizations to be demolished. When and how this will occur, and what precisely comes after, is the cause of great debate and discussion on this site, but it is necessary for a better world.
We do not, as a site, have an official line regarding Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and a wide variety of viewpoints are represented in discussions. This includes many users with varying degrees of support for Russia, which some people may find confusing or objectionable. To understand this perspective, it is essential to understand two things: the historical context that led to the invasion, and theoretical concept known as "critical support." Critical support means that we acknowlede and recognize a nation's flaws, and do not uphold it as an example to emulate, yet we believe that the nation's success is in alignment with our goals. While Russia may be a capitalist country, it is still a thorn in the side of the modern imperial order, but on the other hand, whle Russia may be a thorn in the side of the modern imperial order, it is still a capitalist country.
Understanding the war in Ukraine requires understanding that neither history nor the war began in February 2022, the Ukrainian government has been at war with its people since 2014. The Maidan protests started with many legitimate grievances but were heavily backed by western funding and support, especially to the right-wing groups that overtook the movement and accomplished the coup of the Ukrainian government. The people whose democratically elected candidate had just been removed by the western-backed coup were unhappy and many did not recognize the new illegally appointed government as legitimate. This group was especially prevalent in the eastern part of Ukraine and formed the basis of the separatist movement (always referred to as "Russia-backed separatists" in western media). The new government in Kyiv attempted to suppress the separatist movement with its army but the army refused to start shooting their own countrymen. This led the Kyiv government to turn to far-right paramilitaries like Azov, Aidar, C14, Right Sector, and Donbas battalion in order to attack the people of Donbas, these paramilitaries were later folded completely into the Ukrainian military. Crimea was spared this fate as it was annexed by Russia and didn't have to deal with 8 years of war. Multiple ceasefires, including Minsk 2, were brokered by Russia and European nations and signed by the Ukrainian government but were then simply ignored and the shelling of Donbas continued for 8 years. While Kyiv was waging war on its own countrymen with far-right paramilitary groups it was also promoting the far-right within itself. Stepan Bandera, a Nazi collaborator and genocidal murderer, was made into a national hero. His birthday was made into a national holiday and the street near the Babi Yar monument, a monument commemorating the largest Nazi massacre in Ukraine, was renamed in his honor. Far-right people were placed in high positions in the military and police. Politicians ran under the slogan "Military, Language, Faith". Official use of the Russian language was suppressed, despite it being the majority language among eastern Ukrainians. The Ukrainian people still desired peace with Donbas and Zelensky ran as a peace candidate, however after he won he refused or was unable to stop the the shelling of Donbas. In 2022 Russia recognized the Donbas Republics as sovereign states, Ukraine responded by further escalating their artillery attacks on the Donbas Republics, Russia responded with the invasion of Ukraine.
Hexbear is unwaveringly supportive of LGBTQIA+ rights and we unequivocally denounce the reactionary laws enacted in many countries in the anti-Western bloc, including Russia, Iran, and others. It is worth noting that some countries in this bloc are experiencing positive trends towards social progress, such as Cuba and Venezuela, while some countries in the Western bloc have either never supported LGBTQIA+ rights, or are experiencing a backslide. Tragically, some people have the perception that LGBTQIA+ rights are a Western export, ignoring both the bigotry that exists in Western countries, and the long history of LGBTQIA+ people in non-Western countries. The war in Ukraine, however, is not being fought over LGBTQIA+ rights. Neither side upholds these rights, nor will victory or defeat cause them to change their laws. The battle for LGBTQIA+ rights around the world is, as it has always been, really fucking hard, but if we make the mistake of trusting the imperialists to have our back, we will soon find a knife in it.
Please comment any questions, comments, concerns, or feedback below

It's been a long journey since we announced this back in December 2021. Welcome to the new Hexbear!
~~If~~ When you encounter a bug, please report it here. Please give us as much detail as you can (how to reproduce the bug, the platform/browser you're using) so it's easier for us to fix!
Known Issues :
A list of issues, not exhaustive or in priority order. We're looking into all of these and will be deploying a variety of hotfixes over the next few days/weeks with fixes.
🚨 A lot of these are bugs that exist in upstream Lemmy 🚨
- On some errors, infinite rotating spinner with no error message
- Includes resetting password via password reset link
- Can't navigate away when text is entered
- Issue logging out if initial pageload was not on homepage
- Reporting posts does not work in portrait mode on mobile. Temporary workaround: rotate to landscape mode
- Jerboa broken due to api changes
- Inline gifs/images are able to render way too big
- portrait mode for tablet width/aspect ratios probably should not show sidebar, too much wasted space.
- disabling "Show Read Posts" in user Profile hides featured/pinned posts from the homepage
- Highlighting then clicking reply to automatically quote includes "undefined" before the quote.
- Sitewide Featured Post titles turn blue when moused-over, becoming illegible on the blue background
- comment permalink is too easy to misclick when aiming for upbear or username.
- Post shown occasionally changes out from under you while browsing, comments remain the same
If you are open to volunteering, we are looking for frontend developers who can help figure out and fix some of these UX issues. If you think you can help, please send Layla a message on Element (@layla:chapo.chat). None of this is possible without your continued support. If you enjoy the site, please consider donating via our Liberapay or Patreon :hexbear-retro:
Edit: sorry for the second spurt of downtime folks, we are trying to solve the performance issues