hello folks! some additional suggestions have been made to round out Beehaw's current set of communities, so we've gone ahead and done that. we have four new communities accordingly, which are:
Disability and Accessibility! i think this one is pretty self-explanatory, but for anyone ambiguous on its intent, @xuxxun@beehaw.org puts it like this:
Feel free to post anything health, chronic illness, disability or accessibility related. If you need a space for support or sharing your experiences regarding all of the above topics, this is the right place as well :)
People of Color! this is a community specifically devoted to ethnic minority groups and their issues, and for discussions and connections relating to those minority groups. we're also hopeful it'll be a good space for minorities who are migrating to Lemmy, since i'm not aware of very many communities on here to this point like that. there's an already existing introduction thread in the community by @kalanggam@beehaw.org if you'd like to drop by.
Betterment and Praxis! i'll let @Wigglet@beehaw.org speak for the idea behind this one, because i think it really gets at some of the stuff we're trying to help build here:
Even if it’s just growing a little bit extra in the garden for the local food bank, picking up rubbish on the side of the road, or just making an effort to use the bus, having a supportive community encouraging you makes those little choices a bit easier. Maybe you’ve always wanted to do a little bit more for your community but don’t know where to start. Maybe you already do some of these things and want to help others get started. Maybe you’re just really proud of how something is done in your community. We might not be able to solve all the problems but we can at least try to make a few small things a little bit nicer.
and, finally: Socialism! there's no shortage of communities like this on Lemmy but a commonality many people have experienced is they're... not very welcoming, in general. luckily, a left-wing subreddit got in touch with us about moving (pre-boom, even) and we think their community on Reddit fit the ethos of the site pretty well, so we've helped move them over here. as the sidebar states, this community is:
A place for all leftist and labor news and discussion, as long as you’re nice about it. [...] Non-socialists are welcome to come to learn, though it’s hard to get to in-depth discussions if the community is constantly fighting over the basics. We ask that non-socialists please be respectful and try not to turn this into a “left vs right” debate forum by asking leading questions or by trying to draw others into a fight.
we hope you'll find each of these four new communities a useful space to discuss in.
now, as for the subject of new community creations: we're definitely slowing down on batches of communities after this set. this isn't a total stop--as our existing communities grow, we'll split off new ones as needed--but we're going to try and keep additions to a minimum until the Reddit wave crests. tentatively, our next batch of community creations will probably be after July 1, and any we create before then will be on an individual as-needed basis.
we think the current set of communities covers most things adequately enough for our purposes right now. some imperfections exist but to reiterate: we aren't trying to be Reddit, so some overlap and imperfection in coverage is fine with us.
this also doesn't mean we're done taking public opinion checks. we're not sure when this will be sent out yet (it's being worked on today), but we're drafting a community survey where among other things we'll gauge interest in the suggestions i've seen that haven't already been added. be on the lookout for that.
thanks folks!
I'd like to ask, what kinds of communities are you trying to make space for here on beehaw? I know this whole instance isn't trying to be a reddit replacement, but it seems like there's some amount of hobby space over here? Where are the lines for what kinds of hobby spaces have a home on beehaw? i.e. will there be an anime/manga instance at some point? Where do you draw the line on specificity as well? There's a gaming community, but what about ones for specific games? I figure that's out of scope for beehaw, but I'm just trying to get an idea for what the future of the community is as far as hobbyist spaces are here, given that's largely what I used reddit for
that's one of the ones which should be on the community survey we send out
i don't think we'll ever get to the point on here where we're so granular we make individual game communities (and i think the rest of Lemmy may cover for that anyways), but:
Gotcha, that makes sense. Honestly, the one missing space for me is a place to talk about anime/manga, like I previously specifically mentioned. Especially one that exists in such a well moderated space, lots of times those really easily veer into degeneracy/bigotry in a way that's really unhealthy, and I think having a productive place to engage with those hobbies would be wonderful. Obviously you're slowing down so please don't take this as me demanding it be added now, but I do think that beehaw would be uniquely positioned to have a specifically good anime community, which I would genuinely appreciate.
Yep, it's not the only community where we're not sure how to proceed quite yet. There's a lot of interest, but for precisely these reasons, it's something we want to think about for a bit longer before making any decisions. There are a number of potential communities that fall into a "often times on the internet, these places are problematic" for varying reasons that we want to be cautious about.
Yeah, that's fair. I don't think its intrinsic to anime or its fandom, so I think it's fine to have the community around, but I totally empathize with hesitance to start the community here.
No, it's absolutely not, but spaces on the internet which feature these voices are mostly dominated by a certain kind of behavior. It's hard for people to imagine anything else, so when they spin up new places, they just keep acting the same way.
A few other good examples of spaces that are often problematic for a variety of reasons - communities on men's rights (often misogynistic or incel dominated/focused), mental health and legal communities (full of advice by people who are not professionals, in a space where you really should get a professionals opinion), any community explicitly asking for negative advice like roast me or am I the asshole, and cosplaying (often dominated by male gaze).
There's a wide variety of spaces on the internet that happen to be negative because of the kinds of people that have traditionally set up these spaces and culture just being carried forward over time. While we'd like to help to break some of these cultures, we also need to be extra careful when maintaining our ethos and not take on too many risky things at once.
I just wanted to take a chance, since it was specifically mentioned here, to thank you and the rest of the Beehaw moderation/administration team for being so aware and thoughtful regarding issues like domination of the male gaze, bigotry, and mysoginy in online communities. Just earlier today I responded to a post somewhere mentioning that I wasn't sure what about Beehaw prompts me to be more vocal rather than sticking to my lurking ways, but I think the attention and care regarding these topics plays an enormous part. I know that the goal here is to build a community of caring, so I guess I just wanted to let the team know that I notice and appreciate it, and it is making this community a significantly more welcoming experience for me. I know it's difficult to strike a balance between maintaining an inclusive space and being overly strict regarding topics (such as the anime example already mentioned earlier in this thread), but I think you're all doing a marvelous job so far. Thank you for all that you do!
That's really touching to hear, thank you! I'm glad you find it inspiring. I find comments like yours inspiring too! 🥰
Yeah, agree with all of the above. I've worked in community management before so I totally understand where you're coming from, growth that's sustainable is more important than growth at all costs, and anything that threatens that should be handled carefully. I hope that the interest persists though, because if you do manage to create that space (and i think the fediverse and more specifically beehaw are well equipped to create that space) it could be something very special :)
It's a space we've been working on for years because we all feel strongly about it. The fact that so many of you have joined us here is proof that it's something a lot of people want to see. We might not figure out the perfect formula, but so long as we get a nice place for a little while on the internet and spread some joy and positivity I think that's more than worth it. Thanks for joining us on the journey and pitching in by contributing your thoughts 💜✨
This right here, and how often I see messages like it from folks like you and @alyaza just reinforces the happiness with my decision to be here.
And replies like this put a smile on my face in the morning! Keep it up, you're awesome 💜