I’m being genuine here, some thinks that chacha is an environment for genuine leftist organization while others thinks that this site is just a board to post shit. Forming a consensus around what the purpose of the site is, and developing the site towards that goal will be better for the growth of our community better than any name or any other vanity changes.
Was anyone else on /r/chapotraphouse when Bernie won Nevada? At some point, our organizing will result in another mass movement - and with luck it will be a real, grassroots working class movement that transcends bougie electoralism and threatens capital. I have to believe that that’s the case, because the alternative is to think that everything we’re doing is doomed, and I’m not taking that pill. Anyway, when that shit happens, the place to fucking be will be ChapoChat, or Hexbear or wherever this community has ended up at that point, because there’s nothing eelse like this site on the internet. Genzedong isn’t it, lemmy isn’t it, blackwolffeed and acidmarxism aren’t it, etc.
In the meantime, we would benefit from a universal tagging system. Have the community tag shitposts, news, organizing, meta posts, memes, etc and let users filter out what they don’t want to see.
I lurked the CTH reddit until it got nuked, but never posted. I joined this place because i missed the podcast discussion , and figured that some of the good vibes might still be found there … but this place has always been a weird, kinda alienating and uncommunal place IMHO .it IS an interesting place ,but without the titualar poscast as keystone (and the failure of left electoralism globally) i kinda wondered what would keep it it glued together. it was thoughtprovoking that the site removed downvotes. I’ve always believed that the interface influences the behavior and having a big yes/nope button makes people quantified consumers of other people. if you come from a marginalised place or are hanging on by your fingernails , the reminder that your contribution can be easily ignored or discounted probbably stings a bit more than if you have a bit more comfort or other social frames holding you. i guess that’s why i keep checking in to see how the site is changing/mutating . I do think that OP is right, that by postively advocating for what ever this site thinks it stands for it becomes more of a shared experience, rather then a constant free market of upbears and popularity contests
it was thoughtprovoking that the site removed downvotes
Ah that’s extremely disappointing to hear this isn’t just a temporary feature. In a functioning community downvotes serve a very useful purpose IMO, not allowing downvotes is a great way for subtle lib-posting to thrive. I lurked on here a lot when things were getting going last year after the ban but haven’t been on here much the last few months. I kind of hoped this place would turn out to be less heavily moderated than the Chapo sub, that policy makes me question the direction things have gone in. Rules for the sake of rules seems very lib/Reddit-esque.
-Soulja
In a functioning community downvotes serve a very useful purpose
true, but i guess that’s my throughline: is chapo.chat/hexbear.net a functioning community? i’m not willing to write it off , and i’m interested to see it evolve, but i don’t know what the “glue” is, so all this rule tweeking and admin drama is a bit inside baseball for me .
IMHO , Downvotes are a very low effort, low cost, broad collapsing of a variation of negative responses one could have, and when i see a chapo.chat/hexbear.net post i’ve disliked, i tend to ignore it unless i can actually be bothered to effort post. so , does this make me a better community member ? i surely wouldn’t be alone in this idea, and i would imagine this interface reflects the structual valuing of the commited poster over the casual , and this might have some influence over why the recent introspection from mods over the tone and direction - because the interface changed the engagment.
Im actually kinda of interested to see if they implement word filtering, and how far they would go with it . sure you can key word search for things, but what about hiding things with words in it as some people have asked for… Would that negate the need for down votes? eg if you filtered out words used often in struggle sessions you don’t appreciate (like the polarising natalism/antinatalism struggle session that tends to happen here) would your experience be more enjoyable and would you be more willing to generate content ? or is it equivalent to sticking your head in the sand? Does anyone on these boards owe each other the right to be heard? or what if the filter was controlled by mods so that certain words couldn’t be avoided - We 👏 need 👏 to 👏 talk 👏 about 👏 Hamiliton .
Word filtering!! A world filter controlled by the mods?! That type of power in the hands of the mods tends to only end badly from what I’ve seen, it’s not usually even the fault of the mods themselves… just giving someone that power usually makes them think about how it should be implemented.
I get the appeal of a word filter in theory but i worry it just takes one lib to infiltrate the mod team for that to turn into shadow banning and a very disjointed experience overall. Especially since I worry that perhaps this place isn’t functioning as smoothly as I thought, or at least compared with last time I was hanging around here much more often (October/November last year).
Appreciate the input though, if a word filter is ever introduced I nominate “Archibald Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor” for first entry. Cheers
-Soulja
So I only found this place a month ago. Didn’t know about the subreddit before it was banned. Didn’t know about the podcast and don’t know what the fuss was about. I don’t have the attachment to this community the most of you do and I don’t expect my opinion to carry much weight. I try to lurk and absorb. But I got to say the daily “why aren’t we growing?” threads really baffle me.
I come here to be deprogrammed. I read the things you write to learn how I’ve grown up in the imperial core and everything I was ever taught was a lie because I know the serious posters are far more literate than I am.
But holy pigpoopballs, do I not care for the outright exclusionary humor, and the clique-iness. The childish drama both directed at and provided by the mods. I guess all I want is to search for a subject I feel like reading about today without seeing the main page.
Sites develop organically you can’t plan this shit, the more contradictions the better, all the best sites in internet history were a hodgepodge of shitposts and earnestness
It’s the wild west aspect that made the internet worthwhile in the first place, consensus is for debate nerds and goals are for soccer, let my people post
We can still have ideas for how we might promote things that emerge out of this, though.
