Might be nostalgia glasses + the new sorting algorithm. I've been here a while and things haven't changed that much.

What I have noticed:

• Discussions have mostly moved from posts to megathreads, honestly this is kinda weird to me but w/e. Its still happening tho, just maybe not in the expected format
• less trolling, due to the efforts of the admins/mods
• less reactionary shit in general, chuds & terfs & stupidpol types get utterly decimated when trying to post here, there were definitely people that used to slip past the radar and would poison the well of discussion here
• People here are a little less liberal (me included) after having to kill the Bernie in their hearts and minds + forced integration with lemmygrad

wasn't just recycled memes and images from r/thedeprogram or r/trueanon

One of my favorite parts of Hexbear is being able to see memes from reddit without having to go to Reddit myself

I appreciate all of the posters who go into that jungle to bring back the slop

In my experience, spending half a day writing and editing a post on and off is typically rewarded with less than a dozen comments. I used to write for its own sake, but there was no incentive to continue for me when life got busy.

This place is barely alive thanks to the low effort memes, otherwise it would already be dead

I thought UlyssesT was coming back

Sorry that my posts suck. If I see you make some effort posts I promise to engage in them seriously.

I dunno, im getting a lot from this place. I haven't been here very long but it's just a treat to have people around who think like me. I go over to one of the more reddit-like instances to check the barometer of the MSMians and it's all nasty and low like i remember, with insults standing in for discussion.

While this place might get some recycled memes at least i know i can speak freely here to thoughtful people, and it might not seem like much but it's been... necessary.

I think it's a function of the content aggregator model for forums. Comment chains favour quips and bickering over group discussion, upvotes favour low effort and high engagement posts over more involved posts about niche interests, the structure of posts directs people to react to the "content" instead of providing broader topics of discussion and sorting and hiding of posts means most peoples input is buried almost immediately.

I mean, what's the point of effort posting if only 10 or 15 people will even see your post and maybe 2 will comment. While a reddit thread or news article that makes people mad will get hundreds of upvotes and dozens of comments. We're using a site structure designed to create a self perpetuating content farm and it's working.

Be the change you wish to see in the world

It does make me sad how the only time there's a great number of comments about art or philosophy is in the monthly struggle session about whether all Western culture is just a tool of the CIA. I'm still holding out hope that we could get some genuine discussions going, especially because all other Internet venues for discussing literature are extremely fucked in terms of politics, but it doesn't seem likely.

Shut up nerd and go to the news mega, we have stoves and like 50 effort posts

All the effortposts are in the news megathread. I've also noticed that my posts get more attention as a comment in the mega than in /c/news, even when they're completely identical.

I'm gay

Im just here for the memes and the vibes in the mega

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.

Have you tried logging off and on again? Give it like a day in between to make sure all the slop has a chance to leave your feed, you lil piggy you (I kid, a lil, might be time to take a break, have a training montage and become a new power poster to attack and dethrone God)

You aren't the first person to complain about the vibes being off. I'm not sure if I feel it or not (maybe cuz it happened so slowly or just my usual bad memory). It does seem like there is a lot more churn in the feed with lower effort stuff (especially from the federated servers lol).

Maybe it could be the new sorting algorithm? Algorithms affect what people see but also what they post eventually. Maybe we could try reimplementing the old Hexbear sort to see if it helps?

Sure this place sucks, but it's always sucked, and it doesn't suck any more now than it did.

I dont know. Im just a shitposter. When I come home from work I just want to look at some memes. I respect effort posts and struggle sessions. I just dont have the mental capacity to engage with that stuff most of the time during the week.

fake news

I just don’t have anything interesting to say anymore.

This little piggy just wants their slop... WHY CAN'T I GET MORE SLOP! FILL MY TROUGH!

This site is really small so the nature of it can change pretty dramatically with just a small number of users coming or going. I suppose that is to say that nothing in life is static so enjoy it while it lasts. Change is inevitable and there’s not a lot you can do about it. The new effortposters arent the same as the old effortposters.

idk i've learned a lot more from this site since the news megathreads than any time before. like a month ago i posted like way too many effortposts to convince some that LLMs were probably not sentient. i still learn something new from every daily megathread also.

Sorry if I'm part of the problem. I'm one of those users (or perhaps the only user) who doesn't have any of the knowledge or desire to post anything actually substantive, so I just shitpost instead.

I'm of the opinion that if you have nothing to contribute, you shouldn't bother pretending you do. So at this point I just see myself more as a bystander filled with rage against the first world than someone with any desire, will, or ability to effect change. And honestly, effortposting is absolutely not my thing, is that a sin? Am I wasting space?

Maybe I'm being self conscious here, but I'm probably making it worse because I'm just making my one post here about myself. Look at how much I talk about myself. I can't seem to post anything without just talking about myself.

Me, having drafted a whole effortpost on the Cuban Missile Crisis the other day which I didn't post because I couldn't get the images from old telegrams to JFK to upload: 😞

Despite the federation, this site seems to have only become isolated and divorced of what made it unique: effortposting

I'll admit that I've been slacking on effortposting for a good while now, or even just posting all together. I find it harder to really engage with the site now. I can't really say if it's me or the site, its probably mostly me.

Wait, UlyssesT left?

Oh don't worry, I'm coming for both the TrueAnon and Deprogram people. Really great examples of western slacktivism that papers could be written about. Instead we just get weird guys writing papers about how Chapo = nazis. Let's talk about why your opinions on Russia and Guyana are adjacent to Konstantin Syomin, the Deprogram guest who thinks Hamas is an imperialist proxy.

Ulysseys seemed like he was in pain. If you're not able to post without being that mad, don't! Unless being mad kind of feels good I guess?

People need to set posting rules. I try to post outside and at work. Always feels like I'm getting in a free turn.

No I didnt

I like writing up effortposts, I just need to find a topic I can dive into for a couple hours. Now's a good time since I'm on winter break and have access to online archives & libraries through my university. I've been thinking of doing a writeup on Ryan McBeth, this think tank/YouTube osint guy who also wrote a Tom Clancy-esque Handmaidens Tail fanfic that just has so much to unpack it'd be a post all of its own