Hi there,
I'm sure you've seen me around, as I've been here for quite while. I enjoyed and saw how this site grew, etc, but what I enjoyed was the genuine topics and conversation of discussions about this site. Perhaps it is the reintegration of life and routine, away from Covid, but I've noticed a decline in quality that makes me reminiscent and nostalgic for the past and even for members like LiberalSocialist.
You used to have something to say, regularly.
Chapochat/Hexbear wasn't just recycled memes and images from r/thedeprogram or r/trueanon.
There are still interesting things and conversations that are posted but they've been drowned out by pages of mediocre images that substitute picture and image for discussion and introspection; as another poster once typed, paraphrasing, we're all just trying to create site taglines and phrases and substituting quips for insight and catharsis.
Fair enough that catharsis, solidarity, and revelation can only be achieved through living your life and not through quiet meditation and discussion on reddit or psuedo-reddits. But there was at least more frequency of effort posts, venting, and exegesis of history, current and social events, and understanding of the world or at least an effort to do so.
To my observation, such that I lurk here, Such effort is only spared on video games. On media. On the dunk_tank. On getting upset about wrong opinion.
Despite the federation, this site seems to have only become isolated and divorced of what made it unique: effortposting.
Maybe it's not just Hexbear. Maybe that is why UlyssesT left; the catharsis is exhausted and online space is dominated by a a tendency for performative and justified outrage and yearning for solidarity and emotional validation. But rather than copium, as anyone afflicted with a disease would prefer, some small part of me wanted prognoses rather than diagnoses.
I don't know. I reflect on things like /moretankiechapo or /genzedong and see how things have declined in qualityposts. Perhaps it is for the better, as UlyssesT had discovered, to have the impetus to go outside and not only live life but to evangalize socialism and recapture purpose and community.
I'll see you tomorrow.
We used to have frequent struggle sessions that came out of those effort posts too. For better or worse these days every struggle session no matter how mild ends in a bunch of bannings. Every struggle session I see less and less of the people I saw before. Eventually all the people who have something to say are banned and now it's just us shit posters left.
Not really being critical of the moderation policy or anything but this is the natural end conclusion of "you can't disagree". A bunch of folks who only perfectly agree with each other don't have much to say outside commentary on current events and sharing jokes and memes. That's how it is.
If you want to try to start some discussions around things that you think won't end up with half the site banned go for it. I'd participate. I'm trying to start regular discussions on polyamory on that new comm for that exact reason; I think its a set of topics I haven't seen much discussion on here and might also not end up with anyone being banned. We'll see how it goes. Worth a try.
I actually feel pretty safe disagreeing with the majority opinion or users on here without it turning into a whole thing. Usually people stay respectful. I get that it can be different for things that touches on people's core values, like veganism, but for most smaller stuff it's fine.
It's much better than mainstream sites where disagreeing with the popular opinion will just get you a bunch of downvotes and the same snarky non-reply from 10 different people.
It's kinda mixed bag. Sometimes you get some small disagreements that don't turn into much of a discussion but are rather a small moment of learning, and there's nothing wrong with that...in fact I think that sort of thing should be encouraged. It's just not very engaging for the rest of the site. It's kind of that struggle between engaging content (which is often bad content) and good content which is often not that engaging in a "post lots" kinda way.
Yeah, it's definitely not perfect. I just avoid the bigger discussion that brings in hundreds of comments over multiple threads because of how negative it gets, which is a shame, because I'm sure there's something to learn there. There's some users who get needlessly combative over smaller stuff as well, so I try to remember I can just disengage if things get uncomfortable.
That is completely fair. I suppose "let's see how it goes" has to be combined with a genuine effort about commenting- rather, analyzing and prognosticating the world around us.