cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/74649501

Hexbear, Lemmygrad and Lemmy.ml have been referred to as the “tankie triad” due to their authoritarian communist focus. Hexbear is also notorious for being defederated by most of the biggest Lemmy instances. The instance I’m on, lemmy.zip doesn’t go that far but has included it in the default personal block list of new users. My first notable encounter with Hexbear involved their community moderators’ power abuse, textbook harassment, and hostility in violation of their own rules from multiple users, including their moderators.

After I announced my new community, it didn’t take long for Maeve to repost that to slop@hexbear.net, the same community that fueled the past harassment and brigaded my earlier posts on other subjects, leading to what has every sign of another case of brigading by Hexbear users.

The timeline is as follows:

  • On November 5 at 2:49 PM UTC, I posted a link to this new community to fediverse_vs_disinfo@lemmy.dbzer0.com
  • On November 5 at 5:57 PM UTC, Hexbear user infoziSporg made a comment in my community. Possibly got there organically. I engaged and tried to anchor it back to the topic of the post.
  • On November 5 at 7:48 PM UTC, Maeve posted a link to my dbzer0 post in Hexbear’s Slop.
  • On November 6 at 8:54 AM UTC, Collatz_problem@hexbear.net showed up in my new comm and went straight for derailing, also upvoting infoziSporg’s comments. Collatz_problem’s comment was posted just two hours after their comment in a Slop thread, where the user is a frequent contributor, suggesting the user probably follows Slop.
    • On November 6 at 9:17 PM UTC, Feed_el_Castro@hexbear.net commented in my dbzer0 thread and upvoted Collatz_problem comment in my comm. The user has a history of recently posting to Slop, suggesting the user may follow Slop.
    • The upvotes also included one from culprit@lemmy.ml, who upvoted other Hexbear comments in the thread as well. The user too has a history of posting to Slop.
  • culpritus@hexbear.net (the name looks similar to culprit - possibly an alt) also upvoted infoziSporg’s earlier comment. The user also has a recent history of posting to Slop. By my memory, this also followed the Slop post.
  • On November 7 at 6:39 PM UTC infuziSporg@hexbear.net posted a comment upvoted by BeanisBrain@hexbear.net, who frequents Slop, where their most recent comment is from today.
  • calmblue75@lemmy.ml downvoted my comment posted on November 7 at 4:09 AM UTC. The user is also aware of Slop and posted to it recently.

Though the activity revolved mostly around voting, every single one of the few comments that were posted was a case of the straw man fallacy.

Manipulation is against the rules of this community, while vote manipulation is against the rules of this instance. Most of the evidence has been sent directly to the instance staff.

Edit: Format correction so the post displays properly for PieFed users.

    • Rose@lemmy.zipOPEnglish
      3·
      1 day ago

      Hardly! At the time of the incident, there was already a third-party post in my community, so if they couldn’t target one of mine, they’d likely target that one. If blocking stops me from seeing their activity, that would also hamper my ability to moderate that. Defederation is the only way it seems, and I’m moving to a new instance that defederates Hexbear regardless. I’m just not sure which one would be the most fitting for me. I had to leave .world at one point and now this one after two years. Lemmy/PieFed not allowing to move community subscribers is its biggest flaw IMO.

      • Malica@lemmy.zipEnglish
        1·
        21 hours ago

        I’m still relatively new so I don’t have any useful advice for you :( I hope you find a better home soon.

  • zoloftt@lemmy.worldEnglish
    11·
    3 days ago

    They are a Kremlin Op, maybe you ahould have a weekly feature of their shenanigans?

    • Rose@lemmy.zipOPEnglish
      4·
      3 days ago

      Would a personal instance block prevent them from interacting with my posts, by the way? And if so, it still wouldn’t prevent them from interacting with other posts in my communities unless I move them to a different instance, right?

      • 「黃家駒 Wong Ka Kui」@piefed.caEnglish
        6·
        3 days ago

        It would probably block you from seeing them and effectively makes it hard for you to moderate but your community members will still see the havoc they cause.

        Btw I think in Piefed, you could also add an entire instance block in your community settings (if the instance the comm is hosted in did not already blocked them), and it would effectively preemptively ban users from those instances you choose to block.

        So yeah, maybe try piefed? Or just pick a lemmy instance that already defederated them. Personal blocks do not apply to community.

        • Rose@lemmy.zipOPEnglish
          3·
          3 days ago

          It’s a strange place to be in, having to move comms and somehow try to carry over the users, but also risking that if I join an instance that defederates, the admins may later defederate an instance I don’t think should be defederated and I’ll be in the same spot again - a true PugJesus moment. One of the reasons I picked .zip was that it’s general or “neutral”, so to speak, but the harm of it not defederating Hexbear is now also obvious.

        • Eldritch@piefed.worldEnglish
          0·
          3 days ago

          Typically blocking an instance only blocks you from seeing the communities on it. You can also block individuals, but that’s done at an individual level. You cannot block everyone from an instance Wholesale as far as I know.

          • 「黃家駒 Wong Ka Kui」@piefed.caEnglish
            1·
            3 days ago

            oh yeah, i just checked and cant find a community setting that bans an entire instance, but theres a setting to reject down votes that meet/dont meet certain criteria. But to reject comments too, you’d have to find an instance that defederated them

      • Eldritch@piefed.worldEnglish
        2·
        3 days ago

        The thing is the fediverse is chalk full of them. If you block those three instances, they’ll just spam and brigade from others where they also have accounts. It’ll just be less obvious where it’s coming from.

        That said the .world servers blocked lemmygrad because of brigading. Hexbear makes lemmygrad look like amateurs on that front from my understanding. Hosting the community on a server that blocks the two attack dogs of the triad might not be a bad idea. If nothing else than to just reduce the volume.

  • deft@lemmy.wtfEnglish
    9·
    3 days ago

    I’d have to dig through my comments but there’s so many times I’m arguing with one of these boneheads then either one of their “smart” users rushes in to take over the conversation or an account that hasn’t posted in 6 months appears all the way down in my comment chain to argue

    So legitimate 🙄

    • Sturgist@lemmy.caEnglish
      4·
      3 days ago

      Pretty sure hexbear is just 6 14yr olds and a basement-dweller neckbeard in a really big trenchcoat.

  • Rose@lemmy.zipOPEnglish
    5·
    3 days ago

    They posted about this post to Slop as well, which resulted in over a dozen Hexbear users immediately turning to brigading that thread as well.

    Upvotes to a comment from one of their users:

    The user below deleted their account before I banned them just in case (not sure if an account can be re-activated):

  • Rose@lemmy.zipOPEnglish
    2·
    2 days ago

    Testing an alternative theory: the Hexbear users discovered the community through their feed by being subscribed to fediverse_vs_disinfo@lemmy.dbzer0.com.

    The users’ history in that community

    To sum up, the users either have no history in fediverse_vs_disinfo, have one comment in it from a year ago, or posted to it after the Slop post that linked it.

    Their activity in Slop

    I think the picture is crystal clear even without all the other circumstantial evidence like the timeline or Slop’s history of brigading. culrit’s short history stands out here, giving more weight to the idea that it could be alt of culpritus.