I also would like to learn this. Since you people federated I've seen more posts complaining about how aggressive users of this instance are than I did from users of the instance. Yall do seem to think about politics (edit: and hate liberals) a lot more than the average user but I'm yet to see the 'vitriol'
Edit: this is a genuine question. What bad experience is everyone talking about when they say hexbear is toxic?
Just as a clarification, our hatred of liberals is not the same as that of right-wingers. We hate capitalist ideology, not "wokeness" or something nonsensical like that. We are the exact people conservatives are trying to shit on when they say that.
we're very active and have an anti-lurker culture + no downvotes, so if we see a bad take, we reply instead of downvoting and moving on. this leads a lot of people to get very animated and angry about us.
agreed! criticism and folding received criticism (even when it's offered abrasively) back into your own behavior is essential. this was one of the motivators in disabling downvotes.
I expect it likely works quite well in a community where everyone knows and agrees to that.
In my opinion, when the pond gets too big it becomes too hard to tell if what the abrasive-but-fair from the just-being-a-jerk comments
Like, I was distracted for hours and couldn't sleep then couldn't work because of a side-comment insult im a post because it went against someone I strongly believe in. Had to research everything that was being said in the post and carefully reply to move on. That is not the life I want for myself.
Don't know how much of that really apply here, since like someone else said, I haven't actually seen 'mean' hexbear comments outside of hexbear, and never gotten one.
In my opinion, when the pond gets too big it becomes too hard to tell if what the abrasive-but-fair from the just-being-a-jerk comments
firm moderation goes a very long way. if someone is just being a jerk, it's time to remove the comment. if they're doing it repeatedly, they need to be banned. doesn't solve everything but we've built a very solid community following this approach over the past 3 years. we're very tight-knit as a result.
I think it's in the same vein as all the handwave-y claims as the bigotry and hate that's present on hexbear and lemmygrad. Nobody ever links a post, it's just an oft repeated fable that somehow becomes "truth". (Yes, I realise the irony in not linking to a post here, but I'm lazy and I'm sure you've seen them)