Hello users of Hexbear, we wanted to inform you that we are going to be locking the_dunk_tank and dredge_tank communities. We have created two new communities /c/gossip and /c/counterpropaganda to serve a similar but clearly distinct purpose than the dunk/dredge tanks.
Not only is the dunk tank a term that has racist origins, but also many posts there were almost no effort and often times requiring later edits to show how they weren’t reactionary, not useful with regard to developing rhetoric and furthering dialectical analysis of that which we dunk upon.
To that end, we wish posts of reactionaries to be placed in !counterpropaganda@hexbear.net along with an accompanying explanation (as simple or complex as desired) with the intent of countering the reactionary propaganda in the post body, as of now comments are not subject to the same rhetorical rigor rule.
For the posts that are not "low-hanging fruit’ of notable people we ask that you use !gossip@hexbear.net .
These changes are mainly part of a continued effort to remove the racist and misogynistic elements from our community and grow.
Any moderators of the dunk tank or dredge tank that want to be a mod in the new communities let me know.
Any users with questions or comments please use this post, this change was made at the behest of the entire Hexbear mod and admin team. We will be looking for more moderators in an organized volunteer drive shortly, if you wish to submit an application you may send it to me via hexbear or matrix direct messages.
Use this post as a place for discussion to these changes. We will keep things as they are for 2 weeks and then reflect on the feedback, including this post: https://hexbear.net/post/3858346
As a personal addendum I am sorry if the closing of the tanks these changes removes a beloved space on the site and if you want to suggest a community to replace them you may do so at !commrequest@hexbear.net or submit a mod application to take a more active role in shaping the site.
Sitewide or community changes come from proposals put forth from the mod team, discussed, and voted on by the mod team.
Any users wanting to suggest a community to replace the tanks, may do so at !commrequest@hexbear.net current discussion is here https://hexbear.net/post/3858346 or submit a mod application to take a more active role in shaping the site.
You may also consider using !shitreactionariessay@lemmygrad.ml as a substitute for dunk/dredge tank posts as well
The mod statement can be found here: https://hexbear.net/comment/5613033
Application
What is your Hexbear username? Do you have any preferred pronouns? What are your thoughts on capitalism? What are your thoughts on imperialism? What are your thoughts on trans rights? What are your thoughts on racial justice? What do think about current and previous protests around the world? What are your thoughts on Veganism and Animal Liberation? Do you have any experience with other leftist online communities? What did those experiences teach you? What is your approach to moderation, and how do you work with teams? How do you deal with online drama and people who try to start things for the sake of it? What current comms would you be interested in moderating? Do you have any ideas for community engagement? What is your general time availability? (Time zone, amounts, common browsing times, etc)
Not trying to stir up a shitstorm, but I was a little surprised when it was pointed out that @replaceable is a mod of the dunk tank, considering the fact he doesn’t enjoy its’ content. I was also surprised that this is how he decided to engage with those he disagreed with. Honestly if this is how you feel about a comm, just don’t moderate it instead. I don’t know who argued for what behind the scenes, but if this is the general mindset behind the reasoning provided, then jeez. Posting isn’t praxis, hexbear is itself a treat.
I gotta say, it’s weird to me to moderate a comm full of content one dislikes. I still don’t understand the mentality of “I don’t like it, therefore no one should be able to interact with it.” There’s plenty of stuff here I dislike or don’t get, but others do, so what’s the problem? I don’t really see the purpose of the megathread for example, but others do.
The name change is good and I hope there’s some formalized process for voting for new names or whatever is decided. I still don’t understand wether the rules have been changed or if you’re now going to not do that. I really don’t understand communicating like this in an announcement-thread about one of the most active comms, when you’re a moderator of that comm, that’s just not fostering anything good. It’d be pretty weird if I was a dismissive dick in c/internationale or in a thread about rules changes to c/internationale.
I honestly don’t know why some seem to think people are getting like genuinely worked up over 99% of the shit posted in the dunk tank. I imagine almost if not every single post is “ayy get a load of this stupid bastard” and then they go on like normal. Like it really is not that deep lol
Totally. apparently it genuinely affected a few people’s mental state, and they blocked the comm. Seems like that could’ve been the end of it but
Yea I mean I don’t want to affect anyone in a negative way… but sure I can’t stand badposting and at least a couple of users have irked me enough that I’ve blocked them so it’s good we have that, nothing is gonna be all things to all people and some people are gonna have certain sensitivities that others don’t share
I don’t care for fake news or bad posting so I blocked them.
Like, the system works. I don’t understand why there is this big rule change to try and police community behavior
policing community behavior is a big part of any online forum. That’s just the way it is. Or are the users of this website now
absolutists 
When it starts becoming a large part of the site it becomes unhealthy. Blocking the dunk tank means blocking a lot of content on the site. They’re trying to direct people to more healthy discussions instead of spending their time getting mad online.
Mods trying to make all content productive effortposts has never worked. Fundamentally they take more investment. All this does is lower participation overall.
Nowhere have they indicated that everything needs to be an effortpost. And lower participation is fine if the “participation” is people saying thought-free stuff in response to literal ragebait.
There seems to be an absolute disconnect with opponents of the comm having no idea whatsoever how it is use and why. And frankly I’ve gone from supportive to fuming angry at the patronizing attitude, infantilization, and open contempt displayed towards other users by the opponent crowd. I am shocked I did not expect to see hexbears treating their comrades so poorly and with so little consideration.
Wait, he’s a fucking mod lol Is this a thing where he has gone mad with (mod) power and like an unpopular king who has nothing but contempt for his subjects, refuses to abdicate due to being drunk on (mod) power? Or is he like Frankenstein who is having a cinematic moment where he melodramatically gets on his knees and laments, “my god, what have I done?” as his creation, a subforum of a niche website, (metaphorically) rampages across said niche website?
This is so pathetic lmao. Okay, this whole saga is really funny to me now.