Maybe it’s just me, but it feels like things have been getting kind of unpleasant around here lately, a lot more arguments, a lot more “I’m right, you’re wrong, fuck you, now bend the knee” kind of discussions rather than actually explaining a position or trying to convince someone to change their mind.
I know tensions are high for a lot of people right now, but I really don’t want to see this place turn into yet another dead online leftist forum where the dozen or so remaining members declare themselves the One True Leftists after having chased everyone else away through their toxicity.
Just because you think you’re right about something doesn’t give you the right to be an asshole about it.
It feels like a lot less of a “community” when people don’t really treat members of the community any different than a chud they are slam dunking on reddit or something.
I have never been a fan of twitter-dunking nor reddit snark, but I think many of us who use either or both of those sites bring some of with us here, including those who make an intentional effort to dial it down (me?). I really hate what corporations have done to social media, and i know we are all familiar with that. I often wish Hexbear (as the leading Lemmy instance) would be more diligent about community building.
I think even “reddiquite” was a nice attempt at something new, and it was successful for a bit (up till around 2012 or 13?). I still rate it like 4/10, and I think Hexbear moderation has beaten it out in some ways.
It was cool at the start of this site when we had c/userunion. Didn’t exactly work out, but it was trying something! I’m not trying to demand that the moderators just try and come up with something out of thin air, I think the community should start proposing rule changes and etiquette guidelines to c/Hexbear (that’s the local only one, right?)for unrionic discussion. Maybe we’d figure out something that sticks?