The trans and poc megathreads, I think, are the closest things we have to doing something materially good for people, by giving marginalized groups a public space not on platforms trying to kill them. However, the rest of the site (aside from the news mega) feels like it lost the spark it had when general megathreads had 500+ replies.

When I look in most normal threads I'm starting to see the same dozen or so users replying to everything. And threads that get traction are either vent posts or are just armchair theorying about things no one has any control over. It feels a bit like we're losing the old touch grass mentality and are getting sucked further and further into navel gazing

Chunka Luta might be the biggest real life project hexbear could have an influence on and I hardly see any interest in it. I've made posts about political issues that actually could affect people around me and they didn't get much traction either. It very much feels like the main way to get this place anymore is to stay in your room and just keep posting. Hence why I've been talking less and less to spend more time doing stuff irl. For me, hexbear is just a somewhat interactive newspaper.

I didn't like Melina at first, but over time I'm starting to see the point. Doomscrolling and hero worship aren't productive. And I don't think poking fun at these things is as counter-revolutionary as people are making it. It almost feels more in the original spirit of the site when I first joined.