This is an admin post, intended for blahaj lemmy users. Top level posts from members of other instances will be removed.
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Edit - Hexbear announced plans to deferedate from us.
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~~After recent events, it feels to me that sentiment has shifted and more people are asking for defederation of hexbear than previously~~
~~I've been doing my best to try and mend bridges and keep us connected, as it's my hope that we can maintain trans solidarity and work with them, despite the friction, however, ultimately, I feel that this is an issue for the blahaj lemmy community to decide, not the admins alone~~
~~So here's what we're going to do~~
~~We're going to leave things as they are for a week. That will give time for things to calm down whilst we see if we can work together. After a week, I'll put up a vote and get a feel for where the community is at in regards to our continued federation with hexbear. That poll will run for a week. If there is a strong will to defederate (a clear majority), then that's what we will do~~
Trolls are trolls first and foremost. They may adopt some ideology for the lulz, but only as a way to rile people up and troll them.
But their ideology has been consistent for the years they've been completely isolated from the Fediverse. It doesn't make sense that they would be trolls trolling no one but themselves for years with consistent ideology and rhetoric.
There’s an entire religious forum based on what you’re saying people wouldn’t do.
It’s all over the internet. People get off on fake personas they dive into.
https://screenshot-media.com/technology/social-media/christian-troll-farms/
The article you linked is about people manipulating the Facebook algorithm to show up on people's pages. That's very different from people on an isolated forum with a clear history and yet with no way for their content to reach outside their niche website until recently. They had extended struggle sessions about whether or not to even join the Fediverse, which wouldn't make any sense for them to do if they just wanted to troll people.
This is weird conspiracy stuff. I'm sure there are people out there who pretend to be communists on the internet, but claiming that Hexbear is an entire instance of non-communist trolls with your only evidence being "they seem trolly" is nonsense.
Yeah, that was just a quick search of me trying to find the forum I’m talking about. There’s an entire troll forum website where everybody on it is acting real redneck/ignorant/racist/super bigoted. There’s quite a few people out there who think it’s real lol.