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.
perhaps unpopular opinion I'd like to discuss:
if frauddogg
had been moderated like autismdragon instead of celebrated for null's behavior, void might not have felt the need to delete null's account when found out to be a former troop
this is not conspiracist, "mod-cabal" bullshit – it is undeniable that some people are moderated differently than the vast majority of users. I would prefer to not call out more examples – I'm not interested in a struggle session or interpersonal drama – but I have been poking around and saving them up since the TC69 incident, because "no investigation, no right to speak," and I've seen how @[email protected] et al have been treated for trying to discuss this difference without having a fucking catalog of evidence.
if frauddogg had been required to treat other hexbears with the good faith etc called for in the Code of Conduct, would void have felt compelled to delete null's account when the troop thing came up? would it have even come up at all in that conversation, if void hadn't been consistently behaving belligerently towards others, including other em_poc users?
🤷
effects on me personally, cw: self-harm
honestly, seeing void's behavior get celebrated sent me on a mental health decline. I thought so highly of you all, and this is what counts as "most comradely" etc to you? I don't get it, which makes me feel like either there is something deeply wrong with me, or that you are not the kind of people you present yourself to be and it would be safer to distance myself from you.I've been working on that for the last couple weeks. 🤷 it is very lonely, but at least I'm not contemplating self-harm because my not understanding something makes me a fragile cracker Becky worthy of the wall. I have tried my best to be a good comrade here; I have tried to treat you all with an open heart, and though I am white and Amerikkkan and housed, I have never in my life been above 200% of the FPL, and I have repeatedly paid my own bills late to help people on /c/mutual_aid eat.
this place is deeply baffling, and if I could figure out somewhere else full of trans leftists where I could get news that isn't entirely drenched in American propaganda, I would have already deleted my account.
edit1: removed an archive link per admin/mod request
edit2: changed another archive link to screenshots per admin/mod request
I have a lot to say about frauddogg, but I'll say these:
Frauddogg has done innumerable harm to the POC here because through Frauddogg's lack of disclosure as a vet, arrogant attitude, and disgraceful exit, nobody is going to take what Frauddogg said seriously. Whatever potential for self-growth that could've happened with respect to unexamined white privilege among some users has been lost because they'll just mentally say, "Lol, fuck you, I don't have to take this shit from a baby butcher. How about you selfcrit for invading a sovereign country instead of getting on my case for being racist?"
The circumstances of Frauddogg's exit had also planted a seed in many people's heads, which is that the anger isn't actually genuine or coming from having to live as a member of a marginalized community, but due to some personal inadequacies or grievances instead. For Frauddogg's case, it would be being a former member of one of the most anti-POC organizations in world history.
Frauddogg, despite the baggage of being a US soldier and messaging that rubbed some people the wrong way, was more right than wrong when it came to how weird Hexbear is towards POC. There's are some things I didn't agree with, but the broad message is largely true.
There are plenty of POC who are as angry and confrontational as Frauddogg was but unlike Frauddogg, lack the baggage of being a US soldier. They are as angry as Frauddogg was, but they do not have the same baggage as Frauddogg.
However, if those POC somehow make it here, the seed that Frauddogg planted in many people's heads would've bared fruit. And the fruit is "oh, you're just angry because you're overcompensating for having skeletons in your closet. You're angry because you are a vet/grew up with white people and are overcompensating because you are insecure about your racial identity/are biracial who's raised by the white side of your family/blah blah blah. Your anger is not coming from a genuine place, so we shouldn't have to respect your anger nor interrogate why you feel so angry because your anger is a personal problem, not a symptom of a systemic issue."
I think this will have further repercussions that I haven't foreseen yet. I've seen some people claim that Frauddogg was a wrecker and other people insist that Frauddogg actually quit because of how unwelcoming Hexbear is towards POC and not because of the disclosure. This is not good for the site at all.
I don't know how to properly communicate my anguish over the idea that what I said came across this way. I am very, very, very sorry.
I know frauddogg's anger came from a genuine place
I respected null's anger and reacted to it with curiosity (because I knew it meant there were things I didn't understand!) and caution (because childhood abuse left me afraid of confrontation, and being flamed – rightfully or not – by a popular poster that everyone agrees with, especially for reasons I do not understand and would get flamed even more for asking about, would have devastating mental health consequences).
my personal opinion is that persistent deep anger is both a personal problem and a systemic issue, regardless of its root cause:
frauddogg had mentioned childhood abuse, beatings by racists, and had been tricked as a child to sign up for even more systemic abuse – fucking of course null was angry. who isn't angry reading about it?!?
I celebrated null's anger in the lemmygrad masking struggle session that brought void to Hexbear.
I am every bit as scared of getting yelled at by you or kristina or Nakoichi or Awoo or Dirt_Owl or Galaxy_Brain or literally any of you as I was scared of getting yelled at by frauddogg. I hate confrontation and I hate hurting or upsetting people who don't deserve it. none of you deserve it.
I'm sorry.
I could totally be reading this wrong but I feel I have to point it out.
It feels very weird to me that you are saying that you are afraid of being yelled at by POC on this site and named them specifically "because you hate confrontation". Ive never seen Awoo or AssortedBiscuits hand anyone's asses to themselves here even if they deserved it. Again I could totally me misinterpreting this but I might not be the only one and could be good to reread it and see why it might make people feel offput.
Edit to add: I know you're autistic, me too. This is less a thing to make you feel bad and just an observation, meant to be helpful