I am one of the admins of Beehaw and I’m trying to get some feedback on our potential move.
Let’s start out with a little Beehaw history before judgements are passed, please.
A handful of us were beta testing Tildes when we decided to have discussions on a Discord server.
We decided that our ‘Northern Star’ or guiding principle would culminate as ‘Be Nice’ with purposefully vague/flexible interpretations. Our overall goal is to provide a safe space to disenfranchised persons.
We talked for a little over a year and some of our members became impatient. Then someone stepped in to suggest a couple of platforms that we could consider getting started with.
One of those platforms was Lemmy. None of us knew, at that time, anything about ActivityPub.
During the Reddit exodus (surrounding the API outcry and blackout), our instance exploded. We were, initially, crippled by the mass amounts of users seeking refuge.
Thankfully, someone stepped in and volunteered hundreds of hours of work to stabilize our instance and refine it further.
After many hours of talks, it became clear to us that our overall goal could be achieved outside of Lemmy/ActivityPub.
Right now, we feel that Lemmy and ActivityPub have downsides that are limiting us from achieving that goal.
Hexbear banned me for saying gender neutral pronouns exist: https://lemm.ee/post/12809875
A hexbear user also said that telling her not to use ableist slurs is a TERF plot: https://lemm.ee/post/13213726
Hexbear users “corrected” each other on my pronouns, while disregarding and dismissing my views on my own pronouns that were the topic of discussion: https://lemm.ee/post/12582694?scrollToComments=true
A hexbear user spouted ableist cliches about my disability: https://lemm.ee/post/12582396?scrollToComments=true
A hexbear user who complained when I told them not to use slurs said they were “vindicated” when I was banned: https://lemm.ee/comment/5243474
Hexbear mods remove a post that says nonbinary people deserve equal rights: https://lemm.ee/post/12581620?scrollToComments=true
A hexbear user says people with my disability tend to be abusive: https://lemm.ee/post/12581187?scrollToComments=true
A hexbear user called me insane, which is a loaded mental health term often pointed at neurodivergent people like me: https://lemm.ee/post/12442003?scrollToComments=true
A hexbear user found my removed post saying gender neutral pronouns exist and took it as evidence I nongender people on purpose: https://lemm.ee/comment/5182171
A hexbear user erases my asexuality by accusing me of wanting to see naked people: https://lemm.ee/post/12441146?scrollToComments=true
This particular user said so much ableist shit about NPD that you’re only going to see it all if you click the post: https://lemm.ee/post/12418815?scrollToComments=true
The fact you have this ready to go is super sketchy.
If it didn’t have the information, you would’ve said “YOU CLAIM THINGS WITHOUT PROOF, YOU’RE LYING!!1!1!1!1!1!1!” There’s no winning against a mindset like this, because no matter what the victim does, they will not be trusted.
If you feel like you need to win you have already lost.
I was just curious because the OPs experiences were diametrically opposed to my own (equally awful) but radically different ones.
But now I feel I’m being used like a semplicio in some ongoing feud between the gp and a mod, and while I emphathize im bowing out.