Asklemmy

I'll repeat a comment that I said once about hexbear:

I can feel a deep fire burning in almost all of Hexbear’s comments, quite different from most communities that just whine without purpose.

They are more of community than the rest of Lemmy.

Just lurk there for a while. IMO, biggest misconception is that they're omnicidal lunatics. They have a lot of in-jokes and bits that seem incomprehensible and border on unhinged to an outsider, and sometimes they kinda lean in to the perception. But if you spend enough time there you realise they're very intelligent and deeply empathetic people. The "unlimited genocide on the first world" rhetoric is an expression of frustration rather than actual intent.

I have an account on Hexbear, I also mod their !parenting@hexbear.net community, which has been growing steadily. It's always wild to me to read what people think goes on at the site because, in my engagement with folks, it's clear that everyone is just someone trying to get by in this crazy world we live in. All this talk about "tankies" or whatever, is pretty "online" behavior, and Hexbear often appears to me the least online by comparison. Sure, we're active on the site, but I don't get the sense that many people are wildly active outside the site, many people have negative views on most social media and have no interest in it.

The other thing that people never seem to notice is just how active our !mutual_aid@hexbear.net community is, and just how generous the users can be. There is a real sense of community on Hexbear that I struggle to find on the wider internet. That probably has a lot to do with the relative size of the user base.

I have a Hexbear alt. I use it, ironically, when I don't want to talk politics, or if I want to keep up with the news, as the News mega is very useful.

A lot of people hold contradictory views about it, or think it's some hyper-toxic space, but in my experience its less toxic than most other instances on Lemmy and gets into far fewer arguments. I love using the games comm and other hobby comms.

I also run a Capital weekly reading thread there, though momentum was hurt by the debacle a few months back regarding domain name.

I'm subscribed to their tech, gaming, and news communities. They're fine, I don't care to make an account on their instance but nothing wrong with the Hexbear communities I subscribe to.