Yeah federation was certainly effective for giving the site the old subreddit feel, but I liked what Hexbear became. There was no other place like it and I say that as someone who isn’t particularly vulnerable. I can’t imagine what it’s like for people who are.
This might sound self serving, but as a cissie having a space where vulnerable people could talk openly (particularly trans people in Hexbears case) was useful in my own radicalization. Every day I was reading perspectives from people whose lives I would never experience, and it was honest and everyone was nice.
But I kinda feel like we threw that out the window and let the jackals in and now we have to re-litigate the whole thing again. I don’t wanna. Especially considering if I do want to argue with people who aren’t worth the lifetime stroke count from the keys on my keyboard I could just go to literally any other social media platform on the internet.
You’re absolutely right it does and I have. I only bring it up because they’re so truly and utterly unfunny it offends me they share a space with us.