quick dual announcement

New Communities

we’ve tabulated the easiest part of the survey (other results coming later) and we’re pleased to announce that, in the future, we’ll be creating six new communities. these six choices can be stratified as:

most popular, community picks

  • World News
  • AskBeehaw

hand picked, also popular with our community

  • Tabletop Gaming
  • Anime and Manga

hand picked, base exists in our community for it and distinct enough to take a chance on

  • Vegan and Vegetarian[1]
  • Parenting

in the specific case of World News, the [email protected] community will be converted into the “World News” section, and a separate !usnews community will be spun off for US-centric news.

these communities will be created in batches of three. you’ll see WN+US news conversion/AB/TG first, then A&M/V&V/P about a week after that.

as for communities that didn’t make it, these are best fits for now:

Community Moderators

this also means we’re taking on new Community moderators. as with last time: this is not a full time job and we don’t want it to be, but this is also not a completely trivial commitment either, so please only apply if you’re comfortable with making that commitment. (if you think it’s becoming overwhelming or too much for you at a later point, that’s different and we can discuss that then.) our community mods haven’t had many issues though, so i doubt you will either.

What is expected of community moderators?

I’m sure you can surmise, but to be specific:

  • Encourage and promote respectful and constructive discussions, and address any behaviour that goes against our community’s spirit to be(e) nice.
  • Assist people by answering their questions, offering guidance, and helping them navigate the platform effectively, ensuring they feel heard.
  • Where possible, give us and/or your fellow active mods concerns, improvements, or insights you have from your section of our community.
What powers do community moderators have?

You’d be expected to use these responsibly, obviously:

  • The ability to remove or hide posts, comments, or other content that violate our community guidelines.
  • The authority to issue warnings to users who breach our mantra, and in severe cases, temporarily suspend their accounts.

We generally encourage a compassionate approach to moderating, though. Unless someone is clearly unproductive, we encourage you as a mod to engage in constructive dialogue before banning. And if you don’t have the energy for this, you can flag a post to bring it to our (or another mod’s) attention.

Additionally: blatantly misusing these or using them maliciously will be instant grounds for demotion, and in the latter case likely permanent banning from the site. Do not do that, please and thank you.

If I’m selected, how can I report stuff to the admins?

On site, you can flag it and leave it for us to deliberate. You can also reach one of us by DM on here.

If you need to immediately contact us for mod stuff, our main hubs of operation are Discord (where we have a specific channel for community mod reports) and Matrix (which is pretty relaxed and easy to follow). You can also use a DM on Beehaw itself.

How will mods be selected?

Hand selection. In the future we may supplement hand picking mods with another method—any mods selected by that method would most likely serve on a temporary basis (and that would be made clear to them on appointing).

Applications can be made here.[2]

  1. because i’ve already seen moderately concerning posts w/r/t to this: please do not make us regret this community. it is currently this grouping or nothing. ↩︎

  2. we are working on a non-Google platform here but but our first alternative failed to materialize today and there are easily half a dozen other things we need to prioritize right now (including the big 0.18 update, which had its timing on here derailed by a crippling bug). we’ll get to an alternative when we do. if you do not want to use the form, DM me and we can arrange something. ↩︎

  • adderaline@beehaw.orgEnglish
    6·
    1 year ago

    i am aware of the distinctions you are describing. i am even sympathetic to your position. i’m telling you that the sort of lines you are drawing here are not ones that most people feel the need to draw, and that regardless of how right you believe yourself to be, your opinion that these communities aught not touch is both not common, and not universal to vegans. there are places for which the sort of exclusive moderation policies you describe would be welcome and even necessary. the formation of such a community in the fediverse is inevitable. but that does require a certain critical mass of people who support such a community, and if that support doesn’t exist, then it doesn’t exist.

    also, the likelihood that people in a community about veganism and vegetarianism will inevitably include pictures containing dead animals, is, i think, at least a little bit presumptive. the content moderation will be determined by the moderators in the community, which doesn’t exist yet, so you don’t know that for certain.

    the content moderation of Beehaw seems to me not in service of granular, insular subcultures, but collections of common interests, and like it or not, vegans and vegetarians do have many common interests.

    • cnnrduncan@beehaw.orgEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      Honestly based on my own experiences in real life I’d say it’s more likely for the vegans to make the vegetarians uncomfortable through discussing the realities behind the production of certain animal products - I’ve only met one vegan IRL who was actually offended by people eating animal products, but I’ve definitely had a few veggo friends get a bit sad after overhearing me yarn about the dairy industry with an ex-dairy-farmer mate of mine!

      • The Cuuuuube@beehaw.orgEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        I’ve observed a utopian vs eutopian difference, philosophically, between vegans and vegetarians respectively. I was vegan for a while, but it was my position that my goal was to reduce my impact, not to eliminate animal products entirely, instead aiming for building a world where livestock, pets, and game animals live enjoyable lives free of suffering. Given this, I found myself aligned much more with the vegetarians I encountered who had the same goals, and were often understanding of that a purely vegan lifestyle is in many ways less sustainable for the planet than one that allows for animal products, and that vegan products are often priced outside what many consumers can afford. The vegans I encountered, however, treated me as if I were literally Hermann Goering