Hello users of hexbear after some discussion we mainly wanted to get your thoughts on the two pinned megathreads, one general and one news.

We’ve noticed that the news mega has basically become the general mega and the general mega has kinda slowed. Some are thinking that it might be time to tell people to stop posting random shit to the news mega because some appreciate the ever so slightly more serious, focused tone of the news mega

As of now there is not much of a standard for comments however we wanted to discuss with you regarding making a change. Where the news megathread is for discussion on current events and their history/implications for future while the general megathread is for commenting on one’s life, interests, or for shit-posting.

This would result in the news megathread being more heavily moderated to actively remove comments that are a better fit for the general megathread or off topic.

Please comment with any thoughts, opinions, comments, questions, or concerns.

  • dead [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
    2·
    10 months ago

    I don’t know if people still remember, but 2021 Hexbear was largely dominated by US-centric posts, many of which related to electoralism and soc dem related news in America (Bernie was still our socdem grandpa who got shoved by the DNC back then).

    Let me tell you a secret. Look at all the posts on the front page right now, they all have many comments. The Lemmy algorithm highly prioritizes posts which have more comments to be shown on the front page. If you see a non-US post that you think is important, post a comment on the post, preferably something that is optimistic or positive. Post “good article” or why you think it is important, this will encourage the poster to post more similar articles. Post an emoji if you want. Your comment doesn’t have to be particularly informative. As long as you comment on posts that like, you will see more things that you like on the front page.

    In the inverse case, do not comment on posts that you do not like. If you see a post that is malicious, western propaganda, etc. do not comment on it. You may be tempted to bully the poster or correct the narrative, but your comment is only going to boost the post in the algorithm. Most people who upvote a post probably don’t even read the comments, so correcting a narrative is pointless. Report posts that you believe are bourgeois propaganda, mods handle it. Make your own post with a more correct news article.

    With this information in mind, I believe that having a “news megathread” where users post all world news is making hexbear more US-centric. Megathreads act as a containment, a quarantine. Let’s say you have a story where China does something extremely cool. User A posts “China does something extremely cool thing” in c/news and 2 people comment on it. User B posts the same article in the news megathread and 3 people comment on it. By having the discussion split, the c/news post does less well in the algorithm and never shows up on the Hexbear frontpage. Likewise, if the article was only posted in the news megathread, it would also not show up on the front page. In either case, a world news megathread is reducing the chances for non-US news to reach the front page of hexbear. Having a news megathread makes Hexbear more US-centric.

    If you think that US news and world news needs to be split, Hexbear could have a international news comm and US news comm. Lemmy is a link aggregator software, the whole website is designed around the concept of posting links as posts, not as comments. If you want Hexbear to be less US-centric, then internation news posts should be posted as posts, not as comments.