R: 58 / I: 5 (sticky)
This OP will (hopefully) remain updated with the latest information on voting. I won't be explaining too much about the process as it's currently only unofficially being used until a new constitution is written. The basics are that any staff member can create a [proposal]. Two other users approve this proposal for voting, this is not approval of the measure but of the clarity and purpose of the proposal. Once approved it can become a [vote]. Votes finish in 3 days or when a vote has majority approval/disapproval. There are also fast track votes, but we don't need to get into those. With that out of the way, here's the current view:
Ongoing Propositions:
* Proposal: Vote on whether we should use our public names in the mod meeting, if names should be up to moderator choice, or whether all mods should only be identified via numbers.
Votes:
* Vote: Extension of 3 days on board merger vote. – Vote ends Jan.3rd – 4 yay
* Vote: Have a conversation on switching staff rooms from matrix to another, self-hosted, FOSS software. Possible alternatives include, but not limited to: rocket.chat, session messenger, matterhorn, zulip, scuttlebutt, jabber. – 5 yay 2 abstain – Ends January 8th
* Vote: Merge /games/ and /anime/ into /hobby/ (while keeping a backup of the current threads of each for future use) Vote ends 31st Dec 10pm UTC – 6 yay 3 nay
Recently Completed:
* Get rid when possible of the side bar and the HTML frames in the home page. – PASSED 6 yay
* Vote: delete hidden boards from leftypol – PASSED 5 yay
* Make Dark Red the Default Theme for now. – PASSED 4 yay 3 nay
* Use cloudflare as an anti-DDOS protection for the time being, this choice will be rediscussed if needed with the userbase in the future. PASSED 8 yay
* Vote: make a thread for user feedback on onion access to leftypol.org – PASSED 6 yay
* Vote: make a thread for user feedback on future web ring candidates such as 7chan, 420chan, and possible others. – PASSED 6 yay
* Rename when possible and after the priorities have been taken care of, /gulag/ to /meta/. – PASSED 6 yay
* A thread shall be made about merging alt boards. Open to user discussion and suggestions. – PASSED 5 yay 1 nay
Thread For Discussion Of Votes
Updated: Dec.30 10:30PM UTCThis OP will (hopefully) remain updated with the latest information on voting. I won't be explaining too much about the process as it's currently only unofficially being used until a new constitution is written. The basics are that any staff member can create a [proposal]. Two other users approve this proposal for voting, this is not approval of the measure but of the clarity and purpose of the proposal. Once approved it can become a [vote]. Votes finish in 3 days or when a vote has majority approval/disapproval. There are also fast track votes, but we don't need to get into those. With that out of the way, here's the current view:
Ongoing Propositions:
* Proposal: Vote on whether we should use our public names in the mod meeting, if names should be up to moderator choice, or whether all mods should only be identified via numbers.
Votes:
* Vote: Extension of 3 days on board merger vote. – Vote ends Jan.3rd – 4 yay
* Vote: Have a conversation on switching staff rooms from matrix to another, self-hosted, FOSS software. Possible alternatives include, but not limited to: rocket.chat, session messenger, matterhorn, zulip, scuttlebutt, jabber. – 5 yay 2 abstain – Ends January 8th
* Vote: Merge /games/ and /anime/ into /hobby/ (while keeping a backup of the current threads of each for future use) Vote ends 31st Dec 10pm UTC – 6 yay 3 nay
Recently Completed:
* Get rid when possible of the side bar and the HTML frames in the home page. – PASSED 6 yay
* Vote: delete hidden boards from leftypol – PASSED 5 yay
* Make Dark Red the Default Theme for now. – PASSED 4 yay 3 nay
* Use cloudflare as an anti-DDOS protection for the time being, this choice will be rediscussed if needed with the userbase in the future. PASSED 8 yay
* Vote: make a thread for user feedback on onion access to leftypol.org – PASSED 6 yay
* Vote: make a thread for user feedback on future web ring candidates such as 7chan, 420chan, and possible others. – PASSED 6 yay
* Rename when possible and after the priorities have been taken care of, /gulag/ to /meta/. – PASSED 6 yay
* A thread shall be made about merging alt boards. Open to user discussion and suggestions. – PASSED 5 yay 1 nay
R: 125 / I: 12 (sticky)
Mod Logs: https://leftypol.org/log.php?board=leftypol
You can reach the leftypol team through the matrix chat
https://matrix.to/#/!vdWmErwFTxUwRiefpe:matrix.org?via=matrix.org
Technical suggestions or feedback should be posted for the time being in >>>/leftypol/30303
/leftypol/ feedback thread
Come dispute bans, complain, and other such things related to /leftypol/ here.Mod Logs: https://leftypol.org/log.php?board=leftypol
You can reach the leftypol team through the matrix chat
https://matrix.to/#/!vdWmErwFTxUwRiefpe:matrix.org?via=matrix.org
Technical suggestions or feedback should be posted for the time being in >>>/leftypol/30303
R: 138 / I: 17 (sticky)
The key issue we would like to discuss is the internal administrative structure. As of now, we have been attempting to use mostly horizontal democratic organisation (among mods), however this has had some notable lapses and issues, and some would like to use a more 'traditional' hierarchical structure with admins at the top, moderators in the middle, and janitors on the bottom, or just admins and moderators. The advantage of having admins with executive power is primarily to cut through deadlock, which has been a real problem since our migration. That said, perhaps there are other ways to deal with that.
Another proposal is the question of user democracy and more involvement of users without volunteer status in decisionmaking. This is a good idea in theory but in practice it is difficult to agree on how to move forward with it. Should users have direct voting power? If so, how will this be implemented and to what extent? Can the moderators override the users and if so in what circumstances? Should users be vetted (ie through Matrix) in order to ensure that the vote is not totally skewed by sockpuppets? If so doesn't that privilege people who use off-site communication unfairly? As you can see, it is a difficult subject, but interesting nonetheless.
One more issue is over who is and isn't allowed to post on leftypol, ideologically speaking. Mostly everyone can agree that this board should be for 'the left' but what does that mean exactly? Who is included and who is not in that definition? While I'm sure everyone will agree that 'orthodox leftism' should be allowed, there is ambiguity over what that means at the boundaries. Are anprims allowed? Post-colonialists? Anarcho-nihilists? Juche proponents, or Pol-potists? How about social democrats? And so on. To what extent are non-leftists allowed? Do they have the same 'rights' as leftist posters or are they treated harsher?
I have attached the most up to date version of the old constitution, which some of us think should be simply adapted to the new circumstances. On the other hand, some vols have proposed a new constitution altogether which I will attach below. There is also the option of throwing all of these out and working on something else, so please let your opinion be known. Per the vote on this topic internally, some moderators will be posting with their names displayed, and others may choose to post 'anonymously' (ie. still visible as a moderator but with no name attached).
===
The Bunkerchan manifesto: attached as PDF.
===
The 'new proposal' constitution:
"ARTICLE 1: OUR MISSION
/leftypol/ is a collective of people dedicated to non-sectarian discussion of politics and current events from a politically incorrect left-wing perspective. To facilitate this mission, both technical and moderation staff are needed, in order to create the website, maintain the software, the server, etc., and moderate content by deleting spam.
These staff members are required to have privileged positions above normal users in order to perform their duties. However this also comes with a responsibility to not abuse their powers and act in good faith to push forward the mission of leftypol by:
• Attracting users to the website – continuously growing the userbase while also maintaining a suitable board culture.
• Recruiting staff – adequately recruiting technical and moderation staff to perform functions necessary to the mission at hand. This includes removing staff members who abuse their power or are otherwise harmful to the mission.
• Miscellaneous functions – Carrying out any other tasks related to the mission of /leftypol/ while respecting feedback from the user base.
ARTICLE 2: THE STANDARD POLITICAL PROCESS
Proposals – In order to vote on an idea for a technical or political change to leftypol, it must be first proposed. A proposal must get at least two upvotes from people other than the proposer to proceed to the voting stage.
Voting – All decisions are made by direct vote of the current moderation staff. The voting period will be 72 hours, or, 3 days. Votes pass instantly with 50% of the vote or greater (except where downvotes are equal to votes). Nonvoting is counted as an ‘abstain’. At the end of the voting period those votes with more upvotes than downvotes are considered to have passed, even with a plurality.
Special Voting Categories – Certain types of votes are exempted from normal guidelines. Votes to create a thread to facilitate user feedback on certain issues are exempted from the proposal phase and can be voted on directly. The voting period for feedback threads is 12 hours instead of 72. Optionally, other categories of proposals can be designated as exempted by the modocracy through the standard process.
ARTICLE 3: SPECIAL GOVERNANCE CATEGORIES
Technology Team – also known as the tech team, those responsible for running/maintaining the website and all things technical. The tech team reserves the right to grant themselves special administrative powers on the website in order to perform their technical duties. The tech team also has the right to receive and act on technical feedback directly from the users with regards to bugs and minor feature requests. The leader of the technology team has the right to hire and fire members of the tech team without direct feedback from the modocracy. The leader of the tech team is the member who owns, pays for, and thereby assumes the legal risk of running the web server(s) for the website. The leader(s) of the tech team and corresponding stewardship of tech resources can be transferred via the normal political/voting process. Members of the tech team do not have the right to vote unless they are also moderators. Major technical changes and scheduled downtime are still subject to the standard political process.
Executive Committee – Upon an optional direct vote, for purposes of convenience, the modocracy may choose to appoint a temporary committee of administrators. There must be exactly 3 administrators. During the period of administrative rule, all voting and decision powers are given to the administrators (except hiring/firing staff which still requires a direct vote of the modocracy). Administrators govern by a direct internal vote. Administrators do not have to abide by any waiting periods for voting and also may vote on issues directly, bypassing the proposal phase. Normal moderators continue their duties in spam cleaning. The modocracy defines the start and end date of the period of administrative rule, and chooses which 3 staff members will act as administrator using the normal political process. This period may not exceed 90 days.
ARTICLE 4: CONTENT MODERATION POLICY
Content moderation policy defines clearly what types of content should be deleted, edited, and under what circumstances users should be banned, and for how long. Moderators should only moderate content in accordance with this policy and moderating outside the parameters of this policy should be considered an abuse. A detailed content moderation policy should be created and updated from time to time, taking into account feedback from the users. The moderation policy is created by the modocracy (or administrators).
ARTICLE 5: MODOCRATIC CENTRALISM
Any outreach to the userbase by the staff must first be approved by the normal political process. Outreach includes posting of internal mod drama, or any revealing of information that would have an impact on the optics of leftypol. Violating this policy is grounds for disciplinary action upon direct vote of the modocracy."
The /leftypol/ constitutional convention
Hello everyone, now that we've settled in here a bit more, it's time to address the burning questions of constitutional reform! Until now we have been playing it fast and loose, lets say, with the old Bunkerchan rules, but they are clearly no longer apropos.The key issue we would like to discuss is the internal administrative structure. As of now, we have been attempting to use mostly horizontal democratic organisation (among mods), however this has had some notable lapses and issues, and some would like to use a more 'traditional' hierarchical structure with admins at the top, moderators in the middle, and janitors on the bottom, or just admins and moderators. The advantage of having admins with executive power is primarily to cut through deadlock, which has been a real problem since our migration. That said, perhaps there are other ways to deal with that.
Another proposal is the question of user democracy and more involvement of users without volunteer status in decisionmaking. This is a good idea in theory but in practice it is difficult to agree on how to move forward with it. Should users have direct voting power? If so, how will this be implemented and to what extent? Can the moderators override the users and if so in what circumstances? Should users be vetted (ie through Matrix) in order to ensure that the vote is not totally skewed by sockpuppets? If so doesn't that privilege people who use off-site communication unfairly? As you can see, it is a difficult subject, but interesting nonetheless.
One more issue is over who is and isn't allowed to post on leftypol, ideologically speaking. Mostly everyone can agree that this board should be for 'the left' but what does that mean exactly? Who is included and who is not in that definition? While I'm sure everyone will agree that 'orthodox leftism' should be allowed, there is ambiguity over what that means at the boundaries. Are anprims allowed? Post-colonialists? Anarcho-nihilists? Juche proponents, or Pol-potists? How about social democrats? And so on. To what extent are non-leftists allowed? Do they have the same 'rights' as leftist posters or are they treated harsher?
I have attached the most up to date version of the old constitution, which some of us think should be simply adapted to the new circumstances. On the other hand, some vols have proposed a new constitution altogether which I will attach below. There is also the option of throwing all of these out and working on something else, so please let your opinion be known. Per the vote on this topic internally, some moderators will be posting with their names displayed, and others may choose to post 'anonymously' (ie. still visible as a moderator but with no name attached).
===
The Bunkerchan manifesto: attached as PDF.
===
The 'new proposal' constitution:
"ARTICLE 1: OUR MISSION
/leftypol/ is a collective of people dedicated to non-sectarian discussion of politics and current events from a politically incorrect left-wing perspective. To facilitate this mission, both technical and moderation staff are needed, in order to create the website, maintain the software, the server, etc., and moderate content by deleting spam.
These staff members are required to have privileged positions above normal users in order to perform their duties. However this also comes with a responsibility to not abuse their powers and act in good faith to push forward the mission of leftypol by:
• Attracting users to the website – continuously growing the userbase while also maintaining a suitable board culture.
• Recruiting staff – adequately recruiting technical and moderation staff to perform functions necessary to the mission at hand. This includes removing staff members who abuse their power or are otherwise harmful to the mission.
• Miscellaneous functions – Carrying out any other tasks related to the mission of /leftypol/ while respecting feedback from the user base.
ARTICLE 2: THE STANDARD POLITICAL PROCESS
Proposals – In order to vote on an idea for a technical or political change to leftypol, it must be first proposed. A proposal must get at least two upvotes from people other than the proposer to proceed to the voting stage.
Voting – All decisions are made by direct vote of the current moderation staff. The voting period will be 72 hours, or, 3 days. Votes pass instantly with 50% of the vote or greater (except where downvotes are equal to votes). Nonvoting is counted as an ‘abstain’. At the end of the voting period those votes with more upvotes than downvotes are considered to have passed, even with a plurality.
Special Voting Categories – Certain types of votes are exempted from normal guidelines. Votes to create a thread to facilitate user feedback on certain issues are exempted from the proposal phase and can be voted on directly. The voting period for feedback threads is 12 hours instead of 72. Optionally, other categories of proposals can be designated as exempted by the modocracy through the standard process.
ARTICLE 3: SPECIAL GOVERNANCE CATEGORIES
Technology Team – also known as the tech team, those responsible for running/maintaining the website and all things technical. The tech team reserves the right to grant themselves special administrative powers on the website in order to perform their technical duties. The tech team also has the right to receive and act on technical feedback directly from the users with regards to bugs and minor feature requests. The leader of the technology team has the right to hire and fire members of the tech team without direct feedback from the modocracy. The leader of the tech team is the member who owns, pays for, and thereby assumes the legal risk of running the web server(s) for the website. The leader(s) of the tech team and corresponding stewardship of tech resources can be transferred via the normal political/voting process. Members of the tech team do not have the right to vote unless they are also moderators. Major technical changes and scheduled downtime are still subject to the standard political process.
Executive Committee – Upon an optional direct vote, for purposes of convenience, the modocracy may choose to appoint a temporary committee of administrators. There must be exactly 3 administrators. During the period of administrative rule, all voting and decision powers are given to the administrators (except hiring/firing staff which still requires a direct vote of the modocracy). Administrators govern by a direct internal vote. Administrators do not have to abide by any waiting periods for voting and also may vote on issues directly, bypassing the proposal phase. Normal moderators continue their duties in spam cleaning. The modocracy defines the start and end date of the period of administrative rule, and chooses which 3 staff members will act as administrator using the normal political process. This period may not exceed 90 days.
ARTICLE 4: CONTENT MODERATION POLICY
Content moderation policy defines clearly what types of content should be deleted, edited, and under what circumstances users should be banned, and for how long. Moderators should only moderate content in accordance with this policy and moderating outside the parameters of this policy should be considered an abuse. A detailed content moderation policy should be created and updated from time to time, taking into account feedback from the users. The moderation policy is created by the modocracy (or administrators).
ARTICLE 5: MODOCRATIC CENTRALISM
Any outreach to the userbase by the staff must first be approved by the normal political process. Outreach includes posting of internal mod drama, or any revealing of information that would have an impact on the optics of leftypol. Violating this policy is grounds for disciplinary action upon direct vote of the modocracy."
R: 1 / I: 0
Reporting threads
Is there anyway I can report a thread without actually clicking on it? When I see some infested with CP for example, I immediately push the back button, you know, a normal reaction, and don't want to click it again to report it.
R: 71 / I: 4
There's been a huge drop in post quality after the split, and while I tried writing a few effortposts they mostly seemed to go nowhere. At least in the earlier days of /leftypol/ there was at a very least prolific production of funny memes despite sectarian shitflinging, but now, both new memes and effortposts are dwindling.
This "infrared" bullshit is the last straw, I create a thread about podcast suggestions and it was INSTANTLY shitted up by hazbros shilling their youtuber. Despite my efforts to debate in good faith they mostly just responded with the same sort of posturing bullshit that Vaush fans would do. I tried hiding the infrared post and just ignoring it but unfortunately those guys don't seem content to stay in their containment thread and spill out into literally everything. I have also requested the jannies to give the ability to at least hide single replies in threads (in tech feedback thread) but that doesn't seem to be on the menu either anytime soon.
I think I'm (unironically) going to reddit. The whole point of choosing leftypol over reddit was to escape the bullshit tone policing, but unfortunately we have gotten to the schizo saturation point where the weirdos outnumber the actual good people. Frankly, I'd rather deal with IDPOL and tone policing bullshit than whatever the fuck this has become. It would be one thing for a clique of autists to stan whatever eceleb there is (happens from time to time) but now you have literal jannies posting with their mod tags in threads supporting them and retweeting their shit from official accounts.
At least something like /r/communism has effortposts, blogs, and links to actually good resources from a ML perspective (and there are other sites/subreddits for other tendencies). I'd rather engage with thoughtful and edifying content thats slightly too identity centric than deal with this nonsense.
I don't want to debate or frankly even listen to debates. I'm tired. And old. My time is limited outside work and I don't have time to be watching some unhinged posturing sociopath stream for 6 hours, I would rather sleep or at least listen to/watch something funny, if not educational for 30 minutes to an hour.
leftypol was the best thing that ever happened to the internet left and I'll miss the mid 2010s "golden era" of leftypol with its memes and actually funny shitposts, but at least leftist reddit has theoryposts, so that will at least half compensate for it.
I wish everyone here the best of luck in rebuilding an actual good content base, and if that ever happens I may come back.
Later
Infrared bullshit
Posting this in /meta/ as to not shit up the /leftypol/ catalogThere's been a huge drop in post quality after the split, and while I tried writing a few effortposts they mostly seemed to go nowhere. At least in the earlier days of /leftypol/ there was at a very least prolific production of funny memes despite sectarian shitflinging, but now, both new memes and effortposts are dwindling.
This "infrared" bullshit is the last straw, I create a thread about podcast suggestions and it was INSTANTLY shitted up by hazbros shilling their youtuber. Despite my efforts to debate in good faith they mostly just responded with the same sort of posturing bullshit that Vaush fans would do. I tried hiding the infrared post and just ignoring it but unfortunately those guys don't seem content to stay in their containment thread and spill out into literally everything. I have also requested the jannies to give the ability to at least hide single replies in threads (in tech feedback thread) but that doesn't seem to be on the menu either anytime soon.
I think I'm (unironically) going to reddit. The whole point of choosing leftypol over reddit was to escape the bullshit tone policing, but unfortunately we have gotten to the schizo saturation point where the weirdos outnumber the actual good people. Frankly, I'd rather deal with IDPOL and tone policing bullshit than whatever the fuck this has become. It would be one thing for a clique of autists to stan whatever eceleb there is (happens from time to time) but now you have literal jannies posting with their mod tags in threads supporting them and retweeting their shit from official accounts.
At least something like /r/communism has effortposts, blogs, and links to actually good resources from a ML perspective (and there are other sites/subreddits for other tendencies). I'd rather engage with thoughtful and edifying content thats slightly too identity centric than deal with this nonsense.
I don't want to debate or frankly even listen to debates. I'm tired. And old. My time is limited outside work and I don't have time to be watching some unhinged posturing sociopath stream for 6 hours, I would rather sleep or at least listen to/watch something funny, if not educational for 30 minutes to an hour.
leftypol was the best thing that ever happened to the internet left and I'll miss the mid 2010s "golden era" of leftypol with its memes and actually funny shitposts, but at least leftist reddit has theoryposts, so that will at least half compensate for it.
I wish everyone here the best of luck in rebuilding an actual good content base, and if that ever happens I may come back.
Later
R: 6 / I: 0
overzealous modship.
This isn't even about me, it's about bantz being banned. Cull your fucking modteam right the fuck now assholes.
R: 3 / I: 0
Some suggestions
bring back Vaush -> Agent Kochinski
and filter breadtuber to fedtube
Request: wordfilter
Please bring back wordfilters.Some suggestions
bring back Vaush -> Agent Kochinski
and filter breadtuber to fedtube
R: 3 / I: 0
YO why the adms are not adding new banners? the banner thread is getting new banners for some time now without any being added
What is happening? did we reach the maximum number of banners? if we have already reached the maximum number of banners it's time to expand it
YO why the adms are not adding new banners? the banner thread is getting new banners for some time now without any being added
What is happening? did we reach the maximum number of banners? if we have already reached the maximum number of banners it's time to expand it
R: 5 / I: 0
How do I appeal bans?
pic unrelated, got banned for some cringe shit.
R: 1 / I: 0
AA/SJIS tags
Requesting support for Japanese ASCII art / Shift_JIS artwork. , -.―――--.､
,ｲ,,i､ﾘ,,リ,,ﾉﾉ,,;;;;;;;;ヽ
.i;}' "ﾐ;;;;:}
|} ,,..､_､ , _,,,..､ |;;;:|
|} ,_tｭ,〈 ﾋ''tｭ_ i;;;;|
| ｰ' | ｀ - ﾄ'{
.｢| ｲ_i _ >､ }〉}
｀{| _.ﾉ;;/;;/,ゞ;ヽ､ .!-'
| ＝'" |
iﾞ ､_ ﾞ,,, ,, ' {
丿＼ ￣￣ _,,-"ヽ
''"~ヽ ＼､_;;,..-" ＿ ,i`ー-
ヽ､oヽ/ ＼ /o/ | 
R: 54 / I: 8
Posting doesn't work for me
Or perhaps posting does, but I can't see the new posts.
R: 3 / I: 0
You take you fucking fake analysis and fuck off, you fucking kike.
Kiss my ass
The only understanding I have is that you are pro-censorship; you don't like what I said, but censorship is evil, and you know it, but you, like every fucking leftist tard is enjoying your fucking life while the right of us suffer. How do you come back from this? Fucking GOD, not Christ, just GOD, OK?You take you fucking fake analysis and fuck off, you fucking kike.
R: 4 / I: 0
test
test
R: 26 / I: 2
nigger->uighur
IQ->autism level
tranny->transhumanist
also if you got new propositions :
navalny->new yeltsin
do11ars->Blaise "do11ars" Compaoré
WORDFILTERS
Ok, there's a few wordfilter I really miss :nigger->uighur
IQ->autism level
tranny->transhumanist
also if you got new propositions :
navalny->new yeltsin
do11ars->Blaise "do11ars" Compaoré
R: 3 / I: 0
Why does this unrelated pic, posted as part of an OP, trigger jannies so much? are you grooming him to be your next janny or something?
Why does this unrelated pic, posted as part of an OP, trigger jannies so much? are you grooming him to be your next janny or something?
R: 8 / I: 0
What happened with the Bunkerchan split? I tried asking there but clearly that site is totally dead/co-opted.
What happened with the Bunkerchan split? I tried asking there but clearly that site is totally dead/co-opted.
R: 3 / I: 0
https://github.com/towards-a-new-leftypol/leftypol_lainchan/blob/b962f6a1283b33c6dc54c78cf4545adf92e21ce9/templates/themes/catalog/theme.php#L424
generic file OP test case for catalog, will be fixed
Kickstarter workers unionize
>>>/tech/160
deleted OP test case for catalog, works
Posting doesn't work for me
>>979
spoiler OP test
spoiler OP test case for cataloghttps://github.com/towards-a-new-leftypol/leftypol_lainchan/blob/b962f6a1283b33c6dc54c78cf4545adf92e21ce9/templates/themes/catalog/theme.php#L424
generic file OP test case for catalog, will be fixed
Kickstarter workers unionize
>>>/tech/160
deleted OP test case for catalog, works
Posting doesn't work for me
>>979
R: 100 / I: 8
I know this is going to anger people who already have taken a side, but I’m just saying what the majority of the people think about this shit.
Both sides need to realize they have made some errors and are BOTH contributing to the decay of the community by continuing the split. Until the splits end, NONE of the two websites will EVER recover the PPH and user number that bunkerchan.xyz had before the split.
You know why the number of users dropped? BECAUSE THEY DON’T HAVE THE TIME TO CARE ABOUT YOUR PETTY SHIT.
The sooner the split ends, the sooner we can grow back the user base and be back on track to build a big and influential leftist imageboard.
Mods and Admins of both websites need to reestablish contact with the other side and begin collaborating in concrete terms to make this realization possible. With honesty, good will and as well as reasonable amount of open-mindedness I believe we can reunify in less than one month.
I am therefore highlighting my proposal to heal both site and make them into one big site again:
<the mods teams of bunkerchan and leftypol will merge into one, both sides will wield equal power
<the tech-teams of both websites will merge into one and collaborate to make the website better
<total transparency of admin and mods activity, ask the users for feedback and use their choices to take a decision when tension arise between mods
<no more suicide-nuking of the boards, issues must be resolved with the community directly, no matter his position, if someone is hindering the progress of the site, remove him
<which final site we will go on depends on what the users prefers
<the url of the old website will redirect to the one the users chosen
<the threads created on the old website will be transferred to the one that the users chosen
<optionally, GETchan will be reintegrated directly into the website
What do you guys think? Do you have any idea on what kind of terms should the reunification happen?
Inb4:
>i’d rather stay divided because the other side is bad!!1!1!
(petty sectarianism)
>the other side is full of trannies!!!1!!1!11
>the other site is now filled with nazbols1!!1!111
>the other site only cares about shitposting!!11!!1
(rationalization of your emotional pettiness)
>our website is now better than the other side’s!!!111!1
(false sense of superiority to justify your emotional attachment to a specific website)
>the other side was bad in the past, therefore we can’t trust them now!!!11!1!11
(the nefarious factor, space_, was eliminated, there is no reasons to expect further conflicts of interest)
>their website’s technology is shit!!!!1111!11!1!
(you don’t have any proof that it’s actually shit, if it works it works and it’s currently the case for both websites, that’s still a rationalization of your emotional pettiness)
Reunification Now! Stop the Split!
https://strawpoll.com/guja98wopI know this is going to anger people who already have taken a side, but I’m just saying what the majority of the people think about this shit.
Both sides need to realize they have made some errors and are BOTH contributing to the decay of the community by continuing the split. Until the splits end, NONE of the two websites will EVER recover the PPH and user number that bunkerchan.xyz had before the split.
You know why the number of users dropped? BECAUSE THEY DON’T HAVE THE TIME TO CARE ABOUT YOUR PETTY SHIT.
The sooner the split ends, the sooner we can grow back the user base and be back on track to build a big and influential leftist imageboard.
Mods and Admins of both websites need to reestablish contact with the other side and begin collaborating in concrete terms to make this realization possible. With honesty, good will and as well as reasonable amount of open-mindedness I believe we can reunify in less than one month.
I am therefore highlighting my proposal to heal both site and make them into one big site again:
<the mods teams of bunkerchan and leftypol will merge into one, both sides will wield equal power
<the tech-teams of both websites will merge into one and collaborate to make the website better
<total transparency of admin and mods activity, ask the users for feedback and use their choices to take a decision when tension arise between mods
<no more suicide-nuking of the boards, issues must be resolved with the community directly, no matter his position, if someone is hindering the progress of the site, remove him
<which final site we will go on depends on what the users prefers
<the url of the old website will redirect to the one the users chosen
<the threads created on the old website will be transferred to the one that the users chosen
<optionally, GETchan will be reintegrated directly into the website
What do you guys think? Do you have any idea on what kind of terms should the reunification happen?
Inb4:
>i’d rather stay divided because the other side is bad!!1!1!
(petty sectarianism)
>the other side is full of trannies!!!1!!1!11
>the other site is now filled with nazbols1!!1!111
>the other site only cares about shitposting!!11!!1
(rationalization of your emotional pettiness)
>our website is now better than the other side’s!!!111!1
(false sense of superiority to justify your emotional attachment to a specific website)
>the other side was bad in the past, therefore we can’t trust them now!!!11!1!11
(the nefarious factor, space_, was eliminated, there is no reasons to expect further conflicts of interest)
>their website’s technology is shit!!!!1111!11!1!
(you don’t have any proof that it’s actually shit, if it works it works and it’s currently the case for both websites, that’s still a rationalization of your emotional pettiness)
R: 5 / I: 0
why?
Why are there so many infrared threads? /IG/ already exists and is not like people are dicussing anything of value on infrared threads anyways
R: 1 / I: 0
Simply change/add: $config['markup_code'] = ("/\[code\](.*?)\[\/code\]/is");
to the config.
[code] tags
Can you add [code] tags markup?Simply change/add: $config['markup_code'] = ("/\[code\](.*?)\[\/code\]/is");
to the config.
R: 37 / I: 4 (sage)
I guarantee you you will surpass the bunker in PPH and users because it is something neat and original. You can even create weekly activities like debates or vydia tournaments between boards while discussing theory. There is a fandom of political balls that can both be used as a guide to make the new boards and new flags, which will be a representation of each political ball. Similar to Krautchan. I can help you making these balls, I used to make pixel art.
Unless you stop being thet copy from bunkerchan no one will come here.
How to salvage this site
Instead of having the same fucking boards as bunkerchan, divide the site according to the different variants of left-wing political economy and group the ones that are similar in the same board. For example, all Anarchos on one board, M-Ls, Hoxhaists and Leninists on another one, Leftcoms and Ultras, Liberals and Sucdems, etc. Hell you can create one for Nazis and Lolberts where they can get reeducated after getting banned on the rest of the site, an actual gulag of sorts.I guarantee you you will surpass the bunker in PPH and users because it is something neat and original. You can even create weekly activities like debates or vydia tournaments between boards while discussing theory. There is a fandom of political balls that can both be used as a guide to make the new boards and new flags, which will be a representation of each political ball. Similar to Krautchan. I can help you making these balls, I used to make pixel art.
Unless you stop being thet copy from bunkerchan no one will come here.
R: 4 / I: 1
Baitposts
Why is like 90% of the catalog baitposts now? Either sectarian or /pol/ ? you fuckers need to use the hide post button better. HIDE and SAGE u niggers
R: 8 / I: 1
Let people just use normal TOR exit nodes if they wanna post here, instead of allowing direct access. Otherwise we will keep reading analspam for the next 3 years
TOR analspam guy
If this guy posts this one more time, jannies should ban TOR permanently.Let people just use normal TOR exit nodes if they wanna post here, instead of allowing direct access. Otherwise we will keep reading analspam for the next 3 years
R: 4 / I: 2
like on bunkerchan, 4chan, 8ch, etc.
good feature
autorefresh / refresh button
pls add autorefreshlike on bunkerchan, 4chan, 8ch, etc.
good feature
R: 2 / I: 1
Could we have some of the youtube links embed?
Could we have some of the youtube links embed?
R: 9 / I: 1
Hey one question for the cunt mods, the fuck you nuke Bunkerchan for?? You think it would make us move over here? Fuck you, cunts.
Hey one question for the cunt mods, the fuck you nuke Bunkerchan for?? You think it would make us move over here? Fuck you, cunts.
R: 2 / I: 0
Well?
why are /IG/ threads on leftypol and not on /b/ where they belong?
R: 3 / I: 1
Every thread appears as if they had only 5 hidden replies on the overboard.
Every thread appears as if they had only 5 hidden replies on the overboard.
R: 3 / I: 1
>Can't even start new threads from the catalog
What a shitty website
>Can't even start new threads from the catalog
What a shitty website
R: 164 / I: 17
In addition, we are collecting feedback on the idea of setting up onion access for Tor which comes with its own advantages and disadvantages.
Furthermore, we think that the majority of users support the idea of getting rid of the sidebar and replacing it with a generic homepage/splash landing page, but please let us know your feedback on that too. Prior proposals about dark red theme and comrade naming are attached also.
New Site Proposals
We are today asking you about the idea of growing our webring (which should already include GETchan and possibly bunkerchan) with other candidates. The potential ideas right now are 7chan (which Comatoast moderates on) and 420chan. Both of these have relatively left wing communities but we are not sure yet.In addition, we are collecting feedback on the idea of setting up onion access for Tor which comes with its own advantages and disadvantages.
Furthermore, we think that the majority of users support the idea of getting rid of the sidebar and replacing it with a generic homepage/splash landing page, but please let us know your feedback on that too. Prior proposals about dark red theme and comrade naming are attached also.
R: 6 / I: 0
does anyone like this night jungle css idea? all thats done is editing the images to be darker.
does anyone like this night jungle css idea? all thats done is editing the images to be darker.
R: 434 / I: 147
Bunkerchan General
This thread will be dedicated to hosting and advertising anti-bunkerchan agitprop. This thread will also be for discussing the current state of affairs at bunkerchan and discussing methods for convincing the people still trapped on flunker. R: 105 / I: 43
Bunkerchan General
This thread will be dedicated to hosting and advertising anti-bunkerchan agitprop. This thread will also be for discussing the current state of affairs at bunkerchan and discussing methods for convincing the people still trapped on flunker. R: 105 / I: 43
Bunkerchan General
This thread will be dedicated to hosting and advertising anti-bunkerchan agitprop. This thread will also be for discussing the current state of affairs at bunkerchan and discussing methods for convincing the people still trapped on flunker.
R: 6 / I: 0
You need some space on the header, that place is crowded
You need some space on the header, that place is crowded
R: 2 / I: 0
Pic unrelated
How to onion?
TOR not working. Need onion. Pls to helpPic unrelated
R: 4 / I: 1
hello can we use iso8601 for the dates
hello can we use iso8601 for the dates
R: 0 / I: 0
As it currently stands leftypol.org is basically split between two specialized groups: /techies/ (who do most of this shit) and non-/techies/ inside the vol group. "Interestingly" the latter group has a rather lax daily work schedule when compared to /techies/ proper.
Is this normal? Moreover, is this how a leftist group, let alone vol-team should function? That 3 bugs a day are being eradicated by the /techies/ and 1 new feature is being added every day, for the non-techie vol is merely something to acknowledge.
For God's sake, lazy ass non-techie vol, START DOING YOU JOB FOR ONCE!!
We are literally in a war with bunkerc.xyz!!!!!
Where is your contribution and how does it mirror the contribution of our techies??
Answer: NOWHERE. You are being useless, lazy, and boring, merely making sure that "every day challenges" are being taken care of.
This attitude of yours is COMPLETELY AND VISIBLY pathetic. We wan't none of it, you understand?
We want you, fucking non-techie vol to do your job:
- advocate and propagate the /tech/ teams accomplishments;
- fight against he bunk.xyz threat (while your fellow techie vols are programming);
- understand your position inside the posteriat, moreover, understand your position inside the production process;
- we literally had enough with your shit. ALL OF YOUR EXCUSES ARE JUST RIDICULOUS.
EVERYBODY KNOWS THAT YOU, NON-/TECHIE/ VOLS PUT HALF THE WORK INTO PROPAGATING THIS SITE, COMPARED TO PROPER /TECH/IES, AND THIS WILL NOT DO ANYMORE.
Shame on you, for letting this to fester.
Shame on you, for not realizing that techies work 10x more than you do, and not realizing that this would require from you at least 10x of more input.
Get yourself together. Pull yourself out from your "le comfy cultural marxist/vol team" position to become the PIONEERS of the actual current vanguard (techies), and actively communicate their successes.
fuck, dude.
Just stahp, okay?
Start organizing your currently LAZY forces so that they may serve our vanguard (techies).
FWAHK.
UP YOUR GAME, NON-TECHIE VOLS
For fuck's sake, you morons, the small percentage inside the vol team who are actual /tech/ies are working their butts off every day, yet as a typical end-user, I receive NONE of their glorious achievements as INFO.As it currently stands leftypol.org is basically split between two specialized groups: /techies/ (who do most of this shit) and non-/techies/ inside the vol group. "Interestingly" the latter group has a rather lax daily work schedule when compared to /techies/ proper.
Is this normal? Moreover, is this how a leftist group, let alone vol-team should function? That 3 bugs a day are being eradicated by the /techies/ and 1 new feature is being added every day, for the non-techie vol is merely something to acknowledge.
For God's sake, lazy ass non-techie vol, START DOING YOU JOB FOR ONCE!!
We are literally in a war with bunkerc.xyz!!!!!
Where is your contribution and how does it mirror the contribution of our techies??
Answer: NOWHERE. You are being useless, lazy, and boring, merely making sure that "every day challenges" are being taken care of.
This attitude of yours is COMPLETELY AND VISIBLY pathetic. We wan't none of it, you understand?
We want you, fucking non-techie vol to do your job:
- advocate and propagate the /tech/ teams accomplishments;
- fight against he bunk.xyz threat (while your fellow techie vols are programming);
- understand your position inside the posteriat, moreover, understand your position inside the production process;
- we literally had enough with your shit. ALL OF YOUR EXCUSES ARE JUST RIDICULOUS.
EVERYBODY KNOWS THAT YOU, NON-/TECHIE/ VOLS PUT HALF THE WORK INTO PROPAGATING THIS SITE, COMPARED TO PROPER /TECH/IES, AND THIS WILL NOT DO ANYMORE.
Shame on you, for letting this to fester.
Shame on you, for not realizing that techies work 10x more than you do, and not realizing that this would require from you at least 10x of more input.
Get yourself together. Pull yourself out from your "le comfy cultural marxist/vol team" position to become the PIONEERS of the actual current vanguard (techies), and actively communicate their successes.
fuck, dude.
Just stahp, okay?
Start organizing your currently LAZY forces so that they may serve our vanguard (techies).
FWAHK.
R: 3 / I: 0
On another note, you don't seem to have a public repository for this stuff which makes me think y'all are authoritarian as fuck and don't want to democratize this site. CRINGE!!
hey idiot leftards
Your shitty navigation bar fucks with the position of backlinked posts. You need to account for this so when a backlink is clicked, the top of the post isn't hidden under the navigation bar. Bunkerchan does this just fine, so copy their CSS.On another note, you don't seem to have a public repository for this stuff which makes me think y'all are authoritarian as fuck and don't want to democratize this site. CRINGE!!
R: 8 / I: 0
I want to be able to add my own CSS (I made a custom one for bunkerchan)
I want to be able to post 5 files in one post
I want to be able to have 4chanX style customization, filters and threads watcher
I want an onion link
What do you think?
My demands for the website
I want an update thread button at the bottom of the page and being able to toggle it to be automaticI want to be able to add my own CSS (I made a custom one for bunkerchan)
I want to be able to post 5 files in one post
I want to be able to have 4chanX style customization, filters and threads watcher
I want an onion link
What do you think?
R: 3 / I: 0
Can't report shit:
> Undefined index: id in /srv/http/lainchan.leftypol.org/inc/functions.php at line 2753
Can't report shit:
> Undefined index: id in /srv/http/lainchan.leftypol.org/inc/functions.php at line 2753
R: 2 / I: 0
>pic unrelated
Also fucking disable the "pic requirement" for this board, you end up having more data in your ass that way
Otherwise cool site
Fuck you, Im out.
Please fucking fix the mobile support
Fucking improve this bloody bullshit site, the retarded mobile support glitches alot, I fucking know you guys are newly set, but fucking hell, fix mobile problems.>pic unrelated
Also fucking disable the "pic requirement" for this board, you end up having more data in your ass that way
Otherwise cool site
Fuck you, Im out.
R: 2 / I: 1
why aren't you using tsuki?
why aren't you using tsuki?
R: 753 / I: 155
Bunkerchan containment thread. Keep all tranny posts and things to be noticed in here.
Bunkerchan containment thread. Keep all tranny posts and things to be noticed in here.
R: 4 / I: 0
"Yo, so I don't know who's News Anon, but I see again and again the same problems he's having when posting. Regular issues are: forgetting one "=" -> title doesn't redtext, punctuation problems (see for example the second TL;DR of his latest OP/ED section). Wouldn't a techie be able to help him out? I'm thinking about surface where he could add in the link, the software would try to grab a title (editable, like with Reddit), offers him spellcheck, and finally, generates a copy-pastable output text he just needs to copy… and paste… into OP or into his usual sections.
Also, (again, dunno if he's a vol or not) leftypol.org could offer sub-vol privileges to a select few "news anons", providing access to this feature, and also a kind of on-site calendar where each day could be covered by said official news-anons on a daily basis."
"Yo, so I don't know who's News Anon, but I see again and again the same problems he's having when posting. Regular issues are: forgetting one "=" -> title doesn't redtext, punctuation problems (see for example the second TL;DR of his latest OP/ED section). Wouldn't a techie be able to help him out? I'm thinking about surface where he could add in the link, the software would try to grab a title (editable, like with Reddit), offers him spellcheck, and finally, generates a copy-pastable output text he just needs to copy… and paste… into OP or into his usual sections.
Also, (again, dunno if he's a vol or not) leftypol.org could offer sub-vol privileges to a select few "news anons", providing access to this feature, and also a kind of on-site calendar where each day could be covered by said official news-anons on a daily basis."
R: 1 / I: 0
All threads have the date they were copied in instead of their source date plus some of them are badly copied missing newlines and leaving us with
>>5posts that look like this
I know this has no solution but it's still awful.
All threads have the date they were copied in instead of their source date plus some of them are badly copied missing newlines and leaving us with
>>5posts that look like this
I know this has no solution but it's still awful.
R: 1 / I: 0
>not ragequitting bunker/leftypol/ in fashion by deleting the board
You people have a lot to learn in terms of spitefully leaving your workplace.
>not ragequitting bunker/leftypol/ in fashion by deleting the board
You people have a lot to learn in terms of spitefully leaving your workplace.
R: 5 / I: 0
Are the /GET/ and /ref/ posts all really gone, or is it possible to get them back so we could save some of the threads on there? Just curious
Are the /GET/ and /ref/ posts all really gone, or is it possible to get them back so we could save some of the threads on there? Just curious
R: 5 / I: 0
bruh
bruh
R: 0 / I: 0
BRIEF RUNDOWN
In short, /leftypol/ has split due to drama which essentially boils down to a dispute over server access on Bunkerchan. We, the /leftypol/ moderation team, have been forced to leave by Space, who removed our moderator rights due to our decision to stand together in solidarity rather than allow Space to demand the removal of certain mods who he viewed as primarily responsible for behind the scenes efforts to try to force him to give us the power to keep the site running and to improve it beyond its current state. Therefore, we have decided to activate our own clone of /leftypol/ which we have been preparing in case of this eventuality. We do not welcome this split or take it lightly but from our perspective it has been forced upon us. We are now working to make this site feature complete and to progress ever further.
A full outline of the history of the dispute and current events (as well as our next steps) is below if you would like to do the extra reading.
BACKGROUND
To briefly outline the problems that we have been having, they most importantly concern access to the server side of the side. At present, nobody other than Space has ultimate control over the site and Space is still required to approve any serious code changes (IE ones other than those that can be made by site staff). This is a relatively normal state of affairs of course, but the problem is that Space is not always available when we need him and has intermittent periods of what I can only call disinterest in the site.
Often, it has been difficult to get him to approve simple fixes to the site which are urgently needed to keep it running or else bring it back when it does break. Many of the technical issues (not all, but some) that we have had to deal with since the migration of /leftypol/ to Bunkerchan have been due to Space not taking the time to implement fixes which have been suggested by our tech team. When the changes do not directly affect the stability of the site, it is often even harder to get Space’s attention.
For example, Space’s approval was needed to make changes to the board headers to add new boards which has led to long delays in adding new boards to the topbar, and other changes. Often, when we the mod team have seemed to dally in adding new features it is because of the difficulty with getting approval for changes. This can often take weeks, which sadly makes us look unreliable and hampers our flexibility as a board.
The clear solution to this issue was for Space to share his server access with the highest members of our technical staff so that they could push through changes themselves. For months, Space promised to do so but would never deliver, or would add on unreasonable demands to his original agreement. For example, when Comrade King, former admin of /GETchan/, agreed to merge his site with Bunkerchan, it was agreed that Space would give him server access, but this was never done. Later on Space demanded that King share a scan of his driver’s licence as ‘verification’ which he found unacceptable. The tension between /GET/’s staff and Space has contributed to their decision to try to once again leave the site, unfortunately.
In addition, Space agreed to give server access to Comrade_Rat who has been the main technical contributor on our staff and is someone Space knows personally. Rat was part of the Bunkerchan staff before /leftypol/ moved to the site in the wake of 8chan’s demise. Due to Rat’s presence and willingness to work with us since the migration we would have been happy with this, but as stated, Space stonewalled this and promised it would be done while never doing so. I (Caballo) eventually personally pressed Space on this matter as can be seen in the attached screenshots but he refused to back down.
One of the key issues regarding server access was our dissatisfaction with our board’s software, Lynxchan. This software is difficult in many ways and our technical staff ultimately decided that it would be better to switch to new board software rather than try to fix something they felt was fundamentally an inferior option. Many of the peculiar issues of the site which we have been asked to fix have been caused by Lynxchan’s deficiencies. To that end, our technical staff have been working on custom software, Gochan, but in the interim, we wanted to switch to the more established Lainchan software. However, this process would be realistically impossible to complete without server access.
As a side issue, Space used his status as site owner to override our decisions about the site, telling us what we could and could not do and ignoring our own voting when he disagreed. Of particular concern was the question of funding the site and of monetisation. We of course recognised that Space was bearing the financial burden of hosting the site, and we are still grateful for him doing so, but our suggestions for collecting donations in an organised manner to make the ownership of the site more ‘community based’ or democratic were brushed off.
THE CONSPIRACY
Eventually, we decided that we had no other option than to create a backup plan as trust in Space had dropped so low. We felt that we could not continue to put in so much work when our efforts were undone by Space’s inaction. At the time we embarked on this plan, it was common to not be able to talk to Space for weeks at a time. We knew that ultimately Space could not be forced to hand over control of the site to anyone, so we endeavoured to make our own site which we had control over, both as a contingency plan in case we were removed from moderating /leftypol/ by Space, and as a bargaining chip to show Space that we were serious about our demands.
This site will be hosted at leftypol.org , a domain which was given to us by the former owner of the /leftypol/ splinter site at that address. Our technical staff have worked hard to enable us to import the content of bunkerchan.xyz to that site at the moment of our potential departure, so that our board’s topics and discussions are not lost as was the case when 8chan closed. In effect, we have set up a contingency so that our tenure as the mod team of /leftypol/, and the experience of the users of /leftypol/ and related boards, can continue without much disruption. We have also changed the board software to Lainchan to enable a smoother experience for the users.
It took us months to set up this site, during which time we hid it from Space, as we feared his potential reaction. We knew that Space could, if he so chose, remove us as moderators of /leftypol/ and install others, which we felt would be potentially ruinous. That sounds a bit egocentric, I admit, but the drama involving the rogue admin Pyongyang, who Space initially supported over all of us, convinced us that if we were removed, /leftypol/ would likely be taken in an ideological direction we would find unacceptable.
To emphasise, Pyongyang was not merely part of a different leftist sect, as our mod team comprises a wide range of tendencies, but was arguably a full blown reactionary that reverted our actions in secret while creating a /troon/ board that was set to become a haven for idpol and stupidpol-esque rhetoric. Pyongyang eventually stepped down on his own when it became clear that he was not enjoying the support of the users, with Space refusing to take action to remove him.
During these last months we have run the site as usual and attempted to hide the tension between us and Space (though it has been noticed occasionally by some users). In the past month or so, Space has become more involved with the site for personal reasons, which we viewed as a welcome development. We always hoped that we would eventually we able to reason with Space and convince him to hand over access to the site to us, and it made solving routine issues much easier for him to be involved. That said, we continued work on the backup site.
THE SPLIT
Recently, Space was approached by a person on Twitter who asked if he could be given ownership over the hidden board, /dead/. Space agreed to this without consulting us, which we viewed as an overreach. While it is true that /dead/ was on the site before /leftypol/ was, we the /leftypol/ mods have taken over 95% of the day to day running of the site in the time since migration. The vast majority of activity on Bunkerchan has taken place in the relatively short time since we have moved here.
To make a long story short, our opposition made Space suspicious and led to him discovering the existence of our conspiracy. Space had arranged a closed meeting between the admins of the site, and was stonewalling communications with us. This led to a group of the moderators deciding to make the split public with the original version of this post. We originally predicted that following this meeting there was a possibility that the board could be taken out of our hands and given to outside actors, which turned out to be the case. Space was not interested in negotiation and demanded the removal of four mods who had been involved in the conspiracy including an admin. In addition, he would only give server access to a ‘loyalist’ admin who was rarely involved with /leftypol/ since the migration.
We, the moderators of /leftypol/, decided we would not be divided and conquered by Space and stood together in solidarity. Therefore, Space removed around 20 moderators who were members of the conspiracy, along with a few new mods who were not aware of it. Therefore, we have decided to continue our tenure at leftypol.org and we hope that you will join us on this journey, though it will ultimately be up to you. This was not the outcome that anyone wanted and it is not the one that we wanted. This site is not ready for use in many ways and we are aware of its current limitations, but our hand was forced by an infiltrator revealing the full extent of our planning to Space. Perhaps there will be some reconciliation in future but at present we have to assume that will not happen.
MOVING FORWARD
Our first priority will be to bring this site up to feature parity with bunkerchan and to make the user experience similar. We still have a long way to go in this respect and we are aware of the many missing features and conveniences that have not been carried over. The technical team is working hard to improve the site as quickly as they can while the other mods work on non-coding tasks. Eventually we will try to surpass bunkerchan by adding features which have been requested for many months.
Secondly, we will determine the status of /GET/ and /ref/. Their administration is currently convening to decide whether they will remain on Bunkerchan, move to this board, or move to their own bunker at GETchan.net. They have unfortunately been suffering their own split which is partly attributable to the situation on Bunkerchan, and we hope it will come to an amicable conclusion for everyone. We wish the /GET/ community success wherever they choose to reside.
Thirdly, we want to create a more open and community-centred style of moderation and decision making. We will host a public monthly discussion with each other and the userbase where we discuss the running of the board, what is working well and what might not be, changes we wish to see, new priorities and plans, and so on. The first of these should happen soon so that we can gather feedback about the current situation.
Fourth, we need to consider our current situation and what we could do differently in the future. As I outlined above, this outcome was not what anyone wanted and we need to try to make more harmonious decisions in future. We should never allow ourselves to be put into the situation which occurred on Bunkerchan again, where we are at the mercy of one person. To that end, we are going to explore the best ways to share power and responsibility among the administration/moderation team and perhaps even the users as we experiment with direct democracy.
Fifth, we will try to explore ways to end the current split. We know it is not a positive development and we understand that it hurts our community. To this end, we will attempt to retain positive relations with Bunkerchan as part of a unified webring, and examine possible diplomatic solutions to the split. We are open to a reconciliation but of course there are terms that we would expect to be met and of course Space and the new administration of Bunkerchan is likely to have their own conditions. For now, we have both agreed to leave a sticky advertising each other’s boards in our respective /leftypol/s.
Finally, we will update our manifesto and rules to reflect the new situation. This will be a relatively simple but time consuming effort and is not a priority. For now we would ask users to simply use their common sense, rules that refer to ‘bunkerchan’ should be read as applying to ‘leftypol.org’, and so on.
I would like to once again thank you all for your patience in the current times. We will try to modify this topic to keep updated with current events.
With love, the moderation team
Background to the split, what happened, what is coming next
This board is a successor to https://bunkerchan.xyz/ which will continue to operate under the management of Space and their remaining/new moderators. We wish them the best of luck for the future despite our differences.BRIEF RUNDOWN
In short, /leftypol/ has split due to drama which essentially boils down to a dispute over server access on Bunkerchan. We, the /leftypol/ moderation team, have been forced to leave by Space, who removed our moderator rights due to our decision to stand together in solidarity rather than allow Space to demand the removal of certain mods who he viewed as primarily responsible for behind the scenes efforts to try to force him to give us the power to keep the site running and to improve it beyond its current state. Therefore, we have decided to activate our own clone of /leftypol/ which we have been preparing in case of this eventuality. We do not welcome this split or take it lightly but from our perspective it has been forced upon us. We are now working to make this site feature complete and to progress ever further.
A full outline of the history of the dispute and current events (as well as our next steps) is below if you would like to do the extra reading.
BACKGROUND
To briefly outline the problems that we have been having, they most importantly concern access to the server side of the side. At present, nobody other than Space has ultimate control over the site and Space is still required to approve any serious code changes (IE ones other than those that can be made by site staff). This is a relatively normal state of affairs of course, but the problem is that Space is not always available when we need him and has intermittent periods of what I can only call disinterest in the site.
Often, it has been difficult to get him to approve simple fixes to the site which are urgently needed to keep it running or else bring it back when it does break. Many of the technical issues (not all, but some) that we have had to deal with since the migration of /leftypol/ to Bunkerchan have been due to Space not taking the time to implement fixes which have been suggested by our tech team. When the changes do not directly affect the stability of the site, it is often even harder to get Space’s attention.
For example, Space’s approval was needed to make changes to the board headers to add new boards which has led to long delays in adding new boards to the topbar, and other changes. Often, when we the mod team have seemed to dally in adding new features it is because of the difficulty with getting approval for changes. This can often take weeks, which sadly makes us look unreliable and hampers our flexibility as a board.
The clear solution to this issue was for Space to share his server access with the highest members of our technical staff so that they could push through changes themselves. For months, Space promised to do so but would never deliver, or would add on unreasonable demands to his original agreement. For example, when Comrade King, former admin of /GETchan/, agreed to merge his site with Bunkerchan, it was agreed that Space would give him server access, but this was never done. Later on Space demanded that King share a scan of his driver’s licence as ‘verification’ which he found unacceptable. The tension between /GET/’s staff and Space has contributed to their decision to try to once again leave the site, unfortunately.
In addition, Space agreed to give server access to Comrade_Rat who has been the main technical contributor on our staff and is someone Space knows personally. Rat was part of the Bunkerchan staff before /leftypol/ moved to the site in the wake of 8chan’s demise. Due to Rat’s presence and willingness to work with us since the migration we would have been happy with this, but as stated, Space stonewalled this and promised it would be done while never doing so. I (Caballo) eventually personally pressed Space on this matter as can be seen in the attached screenshots but he refused to back down.
One of the key issues regarding server access was our dissatisfaction with our board’s software, Lynxchan. This software is difficult in many ways and our technical staff ultimately decided that it would be better to switch to new board software rather than try to fix something they felt was fundamentally an inferior option. Many of the peculiar issues of the site which we have been asked to fix have been caused by Lynxchan’s deficiencies. To that end, our technical staff have been working on custom software, Gochan, but in the interim, we wanted to switch to the more established Lainchan software. However, this process would be realistically impossible to complete without server access.
As a side issue, Space used his status as site owner to override our decisions about the site, telling us what we could and could not do and ignoring our own voting when he disagreed. Of particular concern was the question of funding the site and of monetisation. We of course recognised that Space was bearing the financial burden of hosting the site, and we are still grateful for him doing so, but our suggestions for collecting donations in an organised manner to make the ownership of the site more ‘community based’ or democratic were brushed off.
THE CONSPIRACY
Eventually, we decided that we had no other option than to create a backup plan as trust in Space had dropped so low. We felt that we could not continue to put in so much work when our efforts were undone by Space’s inaction. At the time we embarked on this plan, it was common to not be able to talk to Space for weeks at a time. We knew that ultimately Space could not be forced to hand over control of the site to anyone, so we endeavoured to make our own site which we had control over, both as a contingency plan in case we were removed from moderating /leftypol/ by Space, and as a bargaining chip to show Space that we were serious about our demands.
This site will be hosted at leftypol.org , a domain which was given to us by the former owner of the /leftypol/ splinter site at that address. Our technical staff have worked hard to enable us to import the content of bunkerchan.xyz to that site at the moment of our potential departure, so that our board’s topics and discussions are not lost as was the case when 8chan closed. In effect, we have set up a contingency so that our tenure as the mod team of /leftypol/, and the experience of the users of /leftypol/ and related boards, can continue without much disruption. We have also changed the board software to Lainchan to enable a smoother experience for the users.
It took us months to set up this site, during which time we hid it from Space, as we feared his potential reaction. We knew that Space could, if he so chose, remove us as moderators of /leftypol/ and install others, which we felt would be potentially ruinous. That sounds a bit egocentric, I admit, but the drama involving the rogue admin Pyongyang, who Space initially supported over all of us, convinced us that if we were removed, /leftypol/ would likely be taken in an ideological direction we would find unacceptable.
To emphasise, Pyongyang was not merely part of a different leftist sect, as our mod team comprises a wide range of tendencies, but was arguably a full blown reactionary that reverted our actions in secret while creating a /troon/ board that was set to become a haven for idpol and stupidpol-esque rhetoric. Pyongyang eventually stepped down on his own when it became clear that he was not enjoying the support of the users, with Space refusing to take action to remove him.
During these last months we have run the site as usual and attempted to hide the tension between us and Space (though it has been noticed occasionally by some users). In the past month or so, Space has become more involved with the site for personal reasons, which we viewed as a welcome development. We always hoped that we would eventually we able to reason with Space and convince him to hand over access to the site to us, and it made solving routine issues much easier for him to be involved. That said, we continued work on the backup site.
THE SPLIT
Recently, Space was approached by a person on Twitter who asked if he could be given ownership over the hidden board, /dead/. Space agreed to this without consulting us, which we viewed as an overreach. While it is true that /dead/ was on the site before /leftypol/ was, we the /leftypol/ mods have taken over 95% of the day to day running of the site in the time since migration. The vast majority of activity on Bunkerchan has taken place in the relatively short time since we have moved here.
To make a long story short, our opposition made Space suspicious and led to him discovering the existence of our conspiracy. Space had arranged a closed meeting between the admins of the site, and was stonewalling communications with us. This led to a group of the moderators deciding to make the split public with the original version of this post. We originally predicted that following this meeting there was a possibility that the board could be taken out of our hands and given to outside actors, which turned out to be the case. Space was not interested in negotiation and demanded the removal of four mods who had been involved in the conspiracy including an admin. In addition, he would only give server access to a ‘loyalist’ admin who was rarely involved with /leftypol/ since the migration.
We, the moderators of /leftypol/, decided we would not be divided and conquered by Space and stood together in solidarity. Therefore, Space removed around 20 moderators who were members of the conspiracy, along with a few new mods who were not aware of it. Therefore, we have decided to continue our tenure at leftypol.org and we hope that you will join us on this journey, though it will ultimately be up to you. This was not the outcome that anyone wanted and it is not the one that we wanted. This site is not ready for use in many ways and we are aware of its current limitations, but our hand was forced by an infiltrator revealing the full extent of our planning to Space. Perhaps there will be some reconciliation in future but at present we have to assume that will not happen.
MOVING FORWARD
Our first priority will be to bring this site up to feature parity with bunkerchan and to make the user experience similar. We still have a long way to go in this respect and we are aware of the many missing features and conveniences that have not been carried over. The technical team is working hard to improve the site as quickly as they can while the other mods work on non-coding tasks. Eventually we will try to surpass bunkerchan by adding features which have been requested for many months.
Secondly, we will determine the status of /GET/ and /ref/. Their administration is currently convening to decide whether they will remain on Bunkerchan, move to this board, or move to their own bunker at GETchan.net. They have unfortunately been suffering their own split which is partly attributable to the situation on Bunkerchan, and we hope it will come to an amicable conclusion for everyone. We wish the /GET/ community success wherever they choose to reside.
Thirdly, we want to create a more open and community-centred style of moderation and decision making. We will host a public monthly discussion with each other and the userbase where we discuss the running of the board, what is working well and what might not be, changes we wish to see, new priorities and plans, and so on. The first of these should happen soon so that we can gather feedback about the current situation.
Fourth, we need to consider our current situation and what we could do differently in the future. As I outlined above, this outcome was not what anyone wanted and we need to try to make more harmonious decisions in future. We should never allow ourselves to be put into the situation which occurred on Bunkerchan again, where we are at the mercy of one person. To that end, we are going to explore the best ways to share power and responsibility among the administration/moderation team and perhaps even the users as we experiment with direct democracy.
Fifth, we will try to explore ways to end the current split. We know it is not a positive development and we understand that it hurts our community. To this end, we will attempt to retain positive relations with Bunkerchan as part of a unified webring, and examine possible diplomatic solutions to the split. We are open to a reconciliation but of course there are terms that we would expect to be met and of course Space and the new administration of Bunkerchan is likely to have their own conditions. For now, we have both agreed to leave a sticky advertising each other’s boards in our respective /leftypol/s.
Finally, we will update our manifesto and rules to reflect the new situation. This will be a relatively simple but time consuming effort and is not a priority. For now we would ask users to simply use their common sense, rules that refer to ‘bunkerchan’ should be read as applying to ‘leftypol.org’, and so on.
I would like to once again thank you all for your patience in the current times. We will try to modify this topic to keep updated with current events.
With love, the moderation team
R: 0 / I: 0
BRIEF RUNDOWN
In short, /leftypol/ has split due to drama which essentially boils down to a dispute over server access on Bunkerchan. We, the /leftypol/ moderation team, have been forced to leave by Space, who removed our moderator rights due to our decision to stand together in solidarity rather than allow Space to demand the removal of certain mods who he viewed as primarily responsible for behind the scenes efforts to try to force him to give us the power to keep the site running and to improve it beyond its current state. Therefore, we have decided to activate our own clone of /leftypol/ which we have been preparing in case of this eventuality. We do not welcome this split or take it lightly but from our perspective it has been forced upon us. We are now working to make this site feature complete and to progress ever further.
A full outline of the history of the dispute and current events (as well as our next steps) is below if you would like to do the extra reading.
BACKGROUND
To briefly outline the problems that we have been having, they most importantly concern access to the server side of the side. At present, nobody other than Space has ultimate control over the site and Space is still required to approve any serious code changes (IE ones other than those that can be made by site staff). This is a relatively normal state of affairs of course, but the problem is that Space is not always available when we need him and has intermittent periods of what I can only call disinterest in the site.
Often, it has been difficult to get him to approve simple fixes to the site which are urgently needed to keep it running or else bring it back when it does break. Many of the technical issues (not all, but some) that we have had to deal with since the migration of /leftypol/ to Bunkerchan have been due to Space not taking the time to implement fixes which have been suggested by our tech team. When the changes do not directly affect the stability of the site, it is often even harder to get Space’s attention.
For example, Space’s approval was needed to make changes to the board headers to add new boards which has led to long delays in adding new boards to the topbar, and other changes. Often, when we the mod team have seemed to dally in adding new features it is because of the difficulty with getting approval for changes. This can often take weeks, which sadly makes us look unreliable and hampers our flexibility as a board.
The clear solution to this issue was for Space to share his server access with the highest members of our technical staff so that they could push through changes themselves. For months, Space promised to do so but would never deliver, or would add on unreasonable demands to his original agreement. For example, when Comrade King, former admin of /GETchan/, agreed to merge his site with Bunkerchan, it was agreed that Space would give him server access, but this was never done. Later on Space demanded that King share a scan of his driver’s licence as ‘verification’ which he found unacceptable. The tension between /GET/’s staff and Space has contributed to their decision to try to once again leave the site, unfortunately.
In addition, Space agreed to give server access to Comrade_Rat who has been the main technical contributor on our staff and is someone Space knows personally. Rat was part of the Bunkerchan staff before /leftypol/ moved to the site in the wake of 8chan’s demise. Due to Rat’s presence and willingness to work with us since the migration we would have been happy with this, but as stated, Space stonewalled this and promised it would be done while never doing so. I (Caballo) eventually personally pressed Space on this matter as can be seen in the attached screenshots but he refused to back down.
One of the key issues regarding server access was our dissatisfaction with our board’s software, Lynxchan. This software is difficult in many ways and our technical staff ultimately decided that it would be better to switch to new board software rather than try to fix something they felt was fundamentally an inferior option. Many of the peculiar issues of the site which we have been asked to fix have been caused by Lynxchan’s deficiencies. To that end, our technical staff have been working on custom software, Gochan, but in the interim, we wanted to switch to the more established Lainchan software. However, this process would be realistically impossible to complete without server access.
As a side issue, Space used his status as site owner to override our decisions about the site, telling us what we could and could not do and ignoring our own voting when he disagreed. Of particular concern was the question of funding the site and of monetisation. We of course recognised that Space was bearing the financial burden of hosting the site, and we are still grateful for him doing so, but our suggestions for collecting donations in an organised manner to make the ownership of the site more ‘community based’ or democratic were brushed off.
THE CONSPIRACY
Eventually, we decided that we had no other option than to create a backup plan as trust in Space had dropped so low. We felt that we could not continue to put in so much work when our efforts were undone by Space’s inaction. At the time we embarked on this plan, it was common to not be able to talk to Space for weeks at a time. We knew that ultimately Space could not be forced to hand over control of the site to anyone, so we endeavoured to make our own site which we had control over, both as a contingency plan in case we were removed from moderating /leftypol/ by Space, and as a bargaining chip to show Space that we were serious about our demands.
This site will be hosted at leftypol.org , a domain which was given to us by the former owner of the /leftypol/ splinter site at that address. Our technical staff have worked hard to enable us to import the content of bunkerchan.xyz to that site at the moment of our potential departure, so that our board’s topics and discussions are not lost as was the case when 8chan closed. In effect, we have set up a contingency so that our tenure as the mod team of /leftypol/, and the experience of the users of /leftypol/ and related boards, can continue without much disruption. We have also changed the board software to Lainchan to enable a smoother experience for the users.
It took us months to set up this site, during which time we hid it from Space, as we feared his potential reaction. We knew that Space could, if he so chose, remove us as moderators of /leftypol/ and install others, which we felt would be potentially ruinous. That sounds a bit egocentric, I admit, but the drama involving the rogue admin Pyongyang, who Space initially supported over all of us, convinced us that if we were removed, /leftypol/ would likely be taken in an ideological direction we would find unacceptable.
To emphasise, Pyongyang was not merely part of a different leftist sect, as our mod team comprises a wide range of tendencies, but was arguably a full blown reactionary that reverted our actions in secret while creating a /troon/ board that was set to become a haven for idpol and stupidpol-esque rhetoric. Pyongyang eventually stepped down on his own when it became clear that he was not enjoying the support of the users, with Space refusing to take action to remove him.
During these last months we have run the site as usual and attempted to hide the tension between us and Space (though it has been noticed occasionally by some users). In the past month or so, Space has become more involved with the site for personal reasons, which we viewed as a welcome development. We always hoped that we would eventually we able to reason with Space and convince him to hand over access to the site to us, and it made solving routine issues much easier for him to be involved. That said, we continued work on the backup site.
THE SPLIT
Recently, Space was approached by a person on Twitter who asked if he could be given ownership over the hidden board, /dead/. Space agreed to this without consulting us, which we viewed as an overreach. While it is true that /dead/ was on the site before /leftypol/ was, we the /leftypol/ mods have taken over 95% of the day to day running of the site in the time since migration. The vast majority of activity on Bunkerchan has taken place in the relatively short time since we have moved here.
To make a long story short, our opposition made Space suspicious and led to him discovering the existence of our conspiracy. Space had arranged a closed meeting between the admins of the site, and was stonewalling communications with us. This led to a group of the moderators deciding to make the split public with the original version of this post. We originally predicted that following this meeting there was a possibility that the board could be taken out of our hands and given to outside actors, which turned out to be the case. Space was not interested in negotiation and demanded the removal of four mods who had been involved in the conspiracy including an admin. In addition, he would only give server access to a ‘loyalist’ admin who was rarely involved with /leftypol/ since the migration.
We, the moderators of /leftypol/, decided we would not be divided and conquered by Space and stood together in solidarity. Therefore, Space removed around 20 moderators who were members of the conspiracy, along with a few new mods who were not aware of it. Therefore, we have decided to continue our tenure at leftypol.org and we hope that you will join us on this journey, though it will ultimately be up to you. This was not the outcome that anyone wanted and it is not the one that we wanted. This site is not ready for use in many ways and we are aware of its current limitations, but our hand was forced by an infiltrator revealing the full extent of our planning to Space. Perhaps there will be some reconciliation in future but at present we have to assume that will not happen.
MOVING FORWARD
Our first priority will be to bring this site up to feature parity with bunkerchan and to make the user experience similar. We still have a long way to go in this respect and we are aware of the many missing features and conveniences that have not been carried over. The technical team is working hard to improve the site as quickly as they can while the other mods work on non-coding tasks. Eventually we will try to surpass bunkerchan by adding features which have been requested for many months.
Secondly, we will determine the status of /GET/ and /ref/. Their administration is currently convening to decide whether they will remain on Bunkerchan, move to this board, or move to their own bunker at GETchan.net. They have unfortunately been suffering their own split which is partly attributable to the situation on Bunkerchan, and we hope it will come to an amicable conclusion for everyone. We wish the /GET/ community success wherever they choose to reside.
Thirdly, we want to create a more open and community-centred style of moderation and decision making. We will host a public monthly discussion with each other and the userbase where we discuss the running of the board, what is working well and what might not be, changes we wish to see, new priorities and plans, and so on. The first of these should happen soon so that we can gather feedback about the current situation.
Fourth, we need to consider our current situation and what we could do differently in the future. As I outlined above, this outcome was not what anyone wanted and we need to try to make more harmonious decisions in future. We should never allow ourselves to be put into the situation which occurred on Bunkerchan again, where we are at the mercy of one person. To that end, we are going to explore the best ways to share power and responsibility among the administration/moderation team and perhaps even the users as we experiment with direct democracy.
Fifth, we will try to explore ways to end the current split. We know it is not a positive development and we understand that it hurts our community. To this end, we will attempt to retain positive relations with Bunkerchan as part of a unified webring, and examine possible diplomatic solutions to the split. We are open to a reconciliation but of course there are terms that we would expect to be met and of course Space and the new administration of Bunkerchan is likely to have their own conditions. For now, we have both agreed to leave a sticky advertising each other’s boards in our respective /leftypol/s.
Finally, we will update our manifesto and rules to reflect the new situation. This will be a relatively simple but time consuming effort and is not a priority. For now we would ask users to simply use their common sense, rules that refer to ‘bunkerchan’ should be read as applying to ‘leftypol.org’, and so on.
I would like to once again thank you all for your patience in the current times. We will try to modify this topic to keep updated with current events.
With love, the moderation team
Background to the split, what happened, what is coming next
This board is a successor to https://bunkerchan.xyz/ which will continue to operate under the management of Space and their remaining/new moderators. We wish them the best of luck for the future despite our differences.BRIEF RUNDOWN
In short, /leftypol/ has split due to drama which essentially boils down to a dispute over server access on Bunkerchan. We, the /leftypol/ moderation team, have been forced to leave by Space, who removed our moderator rights due to our decision to stand together in solidarity rather than allow Space to demand the removal of certain mods who he viewed as primarily responsible for behind the scenes efforts to try to force him to give us the power to keep the site running and to improve it beyond its current state. Therefore, we have decided to activate our own clone of /leftypol/ which we have been preparing in case of this eventuality. We do not welcome this split or take it lightly but from our perspective it has been forced upon us. We are now working to make this site feature complete and to progress ever further.
A full outline of the history of the dispute and current events (as well as our next steps) is below if you would like to do the extra reading.
BACKGROUND
To briefly outline the problems that we have been having, they most importantly concern access to the server side of the side. At present, nobody other than Space has ultimate control over the site and Space is still required to approve any serious code changes (IE ones other than those that can be made by site staff). This is a relatively normal state of affairs of course, but the problem is that Space is not always available when we need him and has intermittent periods of what I can only call disinterest in the site.
Often, it has been difficult to get him to approve simple fixes to the site which are urgently needed to keep it running or else bring it back when it does break. Many of the technical issues (not all, but some) that we have had to deal with since the migration of /leftypol/ to Bunkerchan have been due to Space not taking the time to implement fixes which have been suggested by our tech team. When the changes do not directly affect the stability of the site, it is often even harder to get Space’s attention.
For example, Space’s approval was needed to make changes to the board headers to add new boards which has led to long delays in adding new boards to the topbar, and other changes. Often, when we the mod team have seemed to dally in adding new features it is because of the difficulty with getting approval for changes. This can often take weeks, which sadly makes us look unreliable and hampers our flexibility as a board.
The clear solution to this issue was for Space to share his server access with the highest members of our technical staff so that they could push through changes themselves. For months, Space promised to do so but would never deliver, or would add on unreasonable demands to his original agreement. For example, when Comrade King, former admin of /GETchan/, agreed to merge his site with Bunkerchan, it was agreed that Space would give him server access, but this was never done. Later on Space demanded that King share a scan of his driver’s licence as ‘verification’ which he found unacceptable. The tension between /GET/’s staff and Space has contributed to their decision to try to once again leave the site, unfortunately.
In addition, Space agreed to give server access to Comrade_Rat who has been the main technical contributor on our staff and is someone Space knows personally. Rat was part of the Bunkerchan staff before /leftypol/ moved to the site in the wake of 8chan’s demise. Due to Rat’s presence and willingness to work with us since the migration we would have been happy with this, but as stated, Space stonewalled this and promised it would be done while never doing so. I (Caballo) eventually personally pressed Space on this matter as can be seen in the attached screenshots but he refused to back down.
One of the key issues regarding server access was our dissatisfaction with our board’s software, Lynxchan. This software is difficult in many ways and our technical staff ultimately decided that it would be better to switch to new board software rather than try to fix something they felt was fundamentally an inferior option. Many of the peculiar issues of the site which we have been asked to fix have been caused by Lynxchan’s deficiencies. To that end, our technical staff have been working on custom software, Gochan, but in the interim, we wanted to switch to the more established Lainchan software. However, this process would be realistically impossible to complete without server access.
As a side issue, Space used his status as site owner to override our decisions about the site, telling us what we could and could not do and ignoring our own voting when he disagreed. Of particular concern was the question of funding the site and of monetisation. We of course recognised that Space was bearing the financial burden of hosting the site, and we are still grateful for him doing so, but our suggestions for collecting donations in an organised manner to make the ownership of the site more ‘community based’ or democratic were brushed off.
THE CONSPIRACY
Eventually, we decided that we had no other option than to create a backup plan as trust in Space had dropped so low. We felt that we could not continue to put in so much work when our efforts were undone by Space’s inaction. At the time we embarked on this plan, it was common to not be able to talk to Space for weeks at a time. We knew that ultimately Space could not be forced to hand over control of the site to anyone, so we endeavoured to make our own site which we had control over, both as a contingency plan in case we were removed from moderating /leftypol/ by Space, and as a bargaining chip to show Space that we were serious about our demands.
This site will be hosted at leftypol.org , a domain which was given to us by the former owner of the /leftypol/ splinter site at that address. Our technical staff have worked hard to enable us to import the content of bunkerchan.xyz to that site at the moment of our potential departure, so that our board’s topics and discussions are not lost as was the case when 8chan closed. In effect, we have set up a contingency so that our tenure as the mod team of /leftypol/, and the experience of the users of /leftypol/ and related boards, can continue without much disruption. We have also changed the board software to Lainchan to enable a smoother experience for the users.
It took us months to set up this site, during which time we hid it from Space, as we feared his potential reaction. We knew that Space could, if he so chose, remove us as moderators of /leftypol/ and install others, which we felt would be potentially ruinous. That sounds a bit egocentric, I admit, but the drama involving the rogue admin Pyongyang, who Space initially supported over all of us, convinced us that if we were removed, /leftypol/ would likely be taken in an ideological direction we would find unacceptable.
To emphasise, Pyongyang was not merely part of a different leftist sect, as our mod team comprises a wide range of tendencies, but was arguably a full blown reactionary that reverted our actions in secret while creating a /troon/ board that was set to become a haven for idpol and stupidpol-esque rhetoric. Pyongyang eventually stepped down on his own when it became clear that he was not enjoying the support of the users, with Space refusing to take action to remove him.
During these last months we have run the site as usual and attempted to hide the tension between us and Space (though it has been noticed occasionally by some users). In the past month or so, Space has become more involved with the site for personal reasons, which we viewed as a welcome development. We always hoped that we would eventually we able to reason with Space and convince him to hand over access to the site to us, and it made solving routine issues much easier for him to be involved. That said, we continued work on the backup site.
THE SPLIT
Recently, Space was approached by a person on Twitter who asked if he could be given ownership over the hidden board, /dead/. Space agreed to this without consulting us, which we viewed as an overreach. While it is true that /dead/ was on the site before /leftypol/ was, we the /leftypol/ mods have taken over 95% of the day to day running of the site in the time since migration. The vast majority of activity on Bunkerchan has taken place in the relatively short time since we have moved here.
To make a long story short, our opposition made Space suspicious and led to him discovering the existence of our conspiracy. Space had arranged a closed meeting between the admins of the site, and was stonewalling communications with us. This led to a group of the moderators deciding to make the split public with the original version of this post. We originally predicted that following this meeting there was a possibility that the board could be taken out of our hands and given to outside actors, which turned out to be the case. Space was not interested in negotiation and demanded the removal of four mods who had been involved in the conspiracy including an admin. In addition, he would only give server access to a ‘loyalist’ admin who was rarely involved with /leftypol/ since the migration.
We, the moderators of /leftypol/, decided we would not be divided and conquered by Space and stood together in solidarity. Therefore, Space removed around 20 moderators who were members of the conspiracy, along with a few new mods who were not aware of it. Therefore, we have decided to continue our tenure at leftypol.org and we hope that you will join us on this journey, though it will ultimately be up to you. This was not the outcome that anyone wanted and it is not the one that we wanted. This site is not ready for use in many ways and we are aware of its current limitations, but our hand was forced by an infiltrator revealing the full extent of our planning to Space. Perhaps there will be some reconciliation in future but at present we have to assume that will not happen.
MOVING FORWARD
Our first priority will be to bring this site up to feature parity with bunkerchan and to make the user experience similar. We still have a long way to go in this respect and we are aware of the many missing features and conveniences that have not been carried over. The technical team is working hard to improve the site as quickly as they can while the other mods work on non-coding tasks. Eventually we will try to surpass bunkerchan by adding features which have been requested for many months.
Secondly, we will determine the status of /GET/ and /ref/. Their administration is currently convening to decide whether they will remain on Bunkerchan, move to this board, or move to their own bunker at GETchan.net. They have unfortunately been suffering their own split which is partly attributable to the situation on Bunkerchan, and we hope it will come to an amicable conclusion for everyone. We wish the /GET/ community success wherever they choose to reside.
Thirdly, we want to create a more open and community-centred style of moderation and decision making. We will host a public monthly discussion with each other and the userbase where we discuss the running of the board, what is working well and what might not be, changes we wish to see, new priorities and plans, and so on. The first of these should happen soon so that we can gather feedback about the current situation.
Fourth, we need to consider our current situation and what we could do differently in the future. As I outlined above, this outcome was not what anyone wanted and we need to try to make more harmonious decisions in future. We should never allow ourselves to be put into the situation which occurred on Bunkerchan again, where we are at the mercy of one person. To that end, we are going to explore the best ways to share power and responsibility among the administration/moderation team and perhaps even the users as we experiment with direct democracy.
Fifth, we will try to explore ways to end the current split. We know it is not a positive development and we understand that it hurts our community. To this end, we will attempt to retain positive relations with Bunkerchan as part of a unified webring, and examine possible diplomatic solutions to the split. We are open to a reconciliation but of course there are terms that we would expect to be met and of course Space and the new administration of Bunkerchan is likely to have their own conditions. For now, we have both agreed to leave a sticky advertising each other’s boards in our respective /leftypol/s.
Finally, we will update our manifesto and rules to reflect the new situation. This will be a relatively simple but time consuming effort and is not a priority. For now we would ask users to simply use their common sense, rules that refer to ‘bunkerchan’ should be read as applying to ‘leftypol.org’, and so on.
I would like to once again thank you all for your patience in the current times. We will try to modify this topic to keep updated with current events.
With love, the moderation team
R: 0 / I: 0
BRIEF RUNDOWN
In short, /leftypol/ has split due to drama which essentially boils down to a dispute over server access on Bunkerchan. We, the /leftypol/ moderation team, have been forced to leave by Space, who removed our moderator rights due to our decision to stand together in solidarity rather than allow Space to demand the removal of certain mods who he viewed as primarily responsible for behind the scenes efforts to try to force him to give us the power to keep the site running and to improve it beyond its current state. Therefore, we have decided to activate our own clone of /leftypol/ which we have been preparing in case of this eventuality. We do not welcome this split or take it lightly but from our perspective it has been forced upon us. We are now working to make this site feature complete and to progress ever further.
A full outline of the history of the dispute and current events (as well as our next steps) is below if you would like to do the extra reading.
BACKGROUND
To briefly outline the problems that we have been having, they most importantly concern access to the server side of the side. At present, nobody other than Space has ultimate control over the site and Space is still required to approve any serious code changes (IE ones other than those that can be made by site staff). This is a relatively normal state of affairs of course, but the problem is that Space is not always available when we need him and has intermittent periods of what I can only call disinterest in the site.
Often, it has been difficult to get him to approve simple fixes to the site which are urgently needed to keep it running or else bring it back when it does break. Many of the technical issues (not all, but some) that we have had to deal with since the migration of /leftypol/ to Bunkerchan have been due to Space not taking the time to implement fixes which have been suggested by our tech team. When the changes do not directly affect the stability of the site, it is often even harder to get Space’s attention.
For example, Space’s approval was needed to make changes to the board headers to add new boards which has led to long delays in adding new boards to the topbar, and other changes. Often, when we the mod team have seemed to dally in adding new features it is because of the difficulty with getting approval for changes. This can often take weeks, which sadly makes us look unreliable and hampers our flexibility as a board.
The clear solution to this issue was for Space to share his server access with the highest members of our technical staff so that they could push through changes themselves. For months, Space promised to do so but would never deliver, or would add on unreasonable demands to his original agreement. For example, when Comrade King, former admin of /GETchan/, agreed to merge his site with Bunkerchan, it was agreed that Space would give him server access, but this was never done. Later on Space demanded that King share a scan of his driver’s licence as ‘verification’ which he found unacceptable. The tension between /GET/’s staff and Space has contributed to their decision to try to once again leave the site, unfortunately.
In addition, Space agreed to give server access to Comrade_Rat who has been the main technical contributor on our staff and is someone Space knows personally. Rat was part of the Bunkerchan staff before /leftypol/ moved to the site in the wake of 8chan’s demise. Due to Rat’s presence and willingness to work with us since the migration we would have been happy with this, but as stated, Space stonewalled this and promised it would be done while never doing so. I (Caballo) eventually personally pressed Space on this matter as can be seen in the attached screenshots but he refused to back down.
One of the key issues regarding server access was our dissatisfaction with our board’s software, Lynxchan. This software is difficult in many ways and our technical staff ultimately decided that it would be better to switch to new board software rather than try to fix something they felt was fundamentally an inferior option. Many of the peculiar issues of the site which we have been asked to fix have been caused by Lynxchan’s deficiencies. To that end, our technical staff have been working on custom software, Gochan, but in the interim, we wanted to switch to the more established Lainchan software. However, this process would be realistically impossible to complete without server access.
As a side issue, Space used his status as site owner to override our decisions about the site, telling us what we could and could not do and ignoring our own voting when he disagreed. Of particular concern was the question of funding the site and of monetisation. We of course recognised that Space was bearing the financial burden of hosting the site, and we are still grateful for him doing so, but our suggestions for collecting donations in an organised manner to make the ownership of the site more ‘community based’ or democratic were brushed off.
THE CONSPIRACY
Eventually, we decided that we had no other option than to create a backup plan as trust in Space had dropped so low. We felt that we could not continue to put in so much work when our efforts were undone by Space’s inaction. At the time we embarked on this plan, it was common to not be able to talk to Space for weeks at a time. We knew that ultimately Space could not be forced to hand over control of the site to anyone, so we endeavoured to make our own site which we had control over, both as a contingency plan in case we were removed from moderating /leftypol/ by Space, and as a bargaining chip to show Space that we were serious about our demands.
This site will be hosted at leftypol.org , a domain which was given to us by the former owner of the /leftypol/ splinter site at that address. Our technical staff have worked hard to enable us to import the content of bunkerchan.xyz to that site at the moment of our potential departure, so that our board’s topics and discussions are not lost as was the case when 8chan closed. In effect, we have set up a contingency so that our tenure as the mod team of /leftypol/, and the experience of the users of /leftypol/ and related boards, can continue without much disruption. We have also changed the board software to Lainchan to enable a smoother experience for the users.
It took us months to set up this site, during which time we hid it from Space, as we feared his potential reaction. We knew that Space could, if he so chose, remove us as moderators of /leftypol/ and install others, which we felt would be potentially ruinous. That sounds a bit egocentric, I admit, but the drama involving the rogue admin Pyongyang, who Space initially supported over all of us, convinced us that if we were removed, /leftypol/ would likely be taken in an ideological direction we would find unacceptable.
To emphasise, Pyongyang was not merely part of a different leftist sect, as our mod team comprises a wide range of tendencies, but was arguably a full blown reactionary that reverted our actions in secret while creating a /troon/ board that was set to become a haven for idpol and stupidpol-esque rhetoric. Pyongyang eventually stepped down on his own when it became clear that he was not enjoying the support of the users, with Space refusing to take action to remove him.
During these last months we have run the site as usual and attempted to hide the tension between us and Space (though it has been noticed occasionally by some users). In the past month or so, Space has become more involved with the site for personal reasons, which we viewed as a welcome development. We always hoped that we would eventually we able to reason with Space and convince him to hand over access to the site to us, and it made solving routine issues much easier for him to be involved. That said, we continued work on the backup site.
THE SPLIT
Recently, Space was approached by a person on Twitter who asked if he could be given ownership over the hidden board, /dead/. Space agreed to this without consulting us, which we viewed as an overreach. While it is true that /dead/ was on the site before /leftypol/ was, we the /leftypol/ mods have taken over 95% of the day to day running of the site in the time since migration. The vast majority of activity on Bunkerchan has taken place in the relatively short time since we have moved here.
To make a long story short, our opposition made Space suspicious and led to him discovering the existence of our conspiracy. Space had arranged a closed meeting between the admins of the site, and was stonewalling communications with us. This led to a group of the moderators deciding to make the split public with the original version of this post. We originally predicted that following this meeting there was a possibility that the board could be taken out of our hands and given to outside actors, which turned out to be the case. Space was not interested in negotiation and demanded the removal of four mods who had been involved in the conspiracy including an admin. In addition, he would only give server access to a ‘loyalist’ admin who was rarely involved with /leftypol/ since the migration.
We, the moderators of /leftypol/, decided we would not be divided and conquered by Space and stood together in solidarity. Therefore, Space removed around 20 moderators who were members of the conspiracy, along with a few new mods who were not aware of it. Therefore, we have decided to continue our tenure at leftypol.org and we hope that you will join us on this journey, though it will ultimately be up to you. This was not the outcome that anyone wanted and it is not the one that we wanted. This site is not ready for use in many ways and we are aware of its current limitations, but our hand was forced by an infiltrator revealing the full extent of our planning to Space. Perhaps there will be some reconciliation in future but at present we have to assume that will not happen.
MOVING FORWARD
Our first priority will be to bring this site up to feature parity with bunkerchan and to make the user experience similar. We still have a long way to go in this respect and we are aware of the many missing features and conveniences that have not been carried over. The technical team is working hard to improve the site as quickly as they can while the other mods work on non-coding tasks. Eventually we will try to surpass bunkerchan by adding features which have been requested for many months.
Secondly, we will determine the status of /GET/ and /ref/. Their administration is currently convening to decide whether they will remain on Bunkerchan, move to this board, or move to their own bunker at GETchan.net. They have unfortunately been suffering their own split which is partly attributable to the situation on Bunkerchan, and we hope it will come to an amicable conclusion for everyone. We wish the /GET/ community success wherever they choose to reside.
Thirdly, we want to create a more open and community-centred style of moderation and decision making. We will host a public monthly discussion with each other and the userbase where we discuss the running of the board, what is working well and what might not be, changes we wish to see, new priorities and plans, and so on. The first of these should happen soon so that we can gather feedback about the current situation.
Fourth, we need to consider our current situation and what we could do differently in the future. As I outlined above, this outcome was not what anyone wanted and we need to try to make more harmonious decisions in future. We should never allow ourselves to be put into the situation which occurred on Bunkerchan again, where we are at the mercy of one person. To that end, we are going to explore the best ways to share power and responsibility among the administration/moderation team and perhaps even the users as we experiment with direct democracy.
Fifth, we will try to explore ways to end the current split. We know it is not a positive development and we understand that it hurts our community. To this end, we will attempt to retain positive relations with Bunkerchan as part of a unified webring, and examine possible diplomatic solutions to the split. We are open to a reconciliation but of course there are terms that we would expect to be met and of course Space and the new administration of Bunkerchan is likely to have their own conditions. For now, we have both agreed to leave a sticky advertising each other’s boards in our respective /leftypol/s.
Finally, we will update our manifesto and rules to reflect the new situation. This will be a relatively simple but time consuming effort and is not a priority. For now we would ask users to simply use their common sense, rules that refer to ‘bunkerchan’ should be read as applying to ‘leftypol.org’, and so on.
I would like to once again thank you all for your patience in the current times. We will try to modify this topic to keep updated with current events.
With love, the moderation team
Background to the split, what happened, what is coming next
This board is a successor to https://bunkerchan.xyz/ which will continue to operate under the management of Space and their remaining/new moderators. We wish them the best of luck for the future despite our differences.BRIEF RUNDOWN
In short, /leftypol/ has split due to drama which essentially boils down to a dispute over server access on Bunkerchan. We, the /leftypol/ moderation team, have been forced to leave by Space, who removed our moderator rights due to our decision to stand together in solidarity rather than allow Space to demand the removal of certain mods who he viewed as primarily responsible for behind the scenes efforts to try to force him to give us the power to keep the site running and to improve it beyond its current state. Therefore, we have decided to activate our own clone of /leftypol/ which we have been preparing in case of this eventuality. We do not welcome this split or take it lightly but from our perspective it has been forced upon us. We are now working to make this site feature complete and to progress ever further.
A full outline of the history of the dispute and current events (as well as our next steps) is below if you would like to do the extra reading.
BACKGROUND
To briefly outline the problems that we have been having, they most importantly concern access to the server side of the side. At present, nobody other than Space has ultimate control over the site and Space is still required to approve any serious code changes (IE ones other than those that can be made by site staff). This is a relatively normal state of affairs of course, but the problem is that Space is not always available when we need him and has intermittent periods of what I can only call disinterest in the site.
Often, it has been difficult to get him to approve simple fixes to the site which are urgently needed to keep it running or else bring it back when it does break. Many of the technical issues (not all, but some) that we have had to deal with since the migration of /leftypol/ to Bunkerchan have been due to Space not taking the time to implement fixes which have been suggested by our tech team. When the changes do not directly affect the stability of the site, it is often even harder to get Space’s attention.
For example, Space’s approval was needed to make changes to the board headers to add new boards which has led to long delays in adding new boards to the topbar, and other changes. Often, when we the mod team have seemed to dally in adding new features it is because of the difficulty with getting approval for changes. This can often take weeks, which sadly makes us look unreliable and hampers our flexibility as a board.
The clear solution to this issue was for Space to share his server access with the highest members of our technical staff so that they could push through changes themselves. For months, Space promised to do so but would never deliver, or would add on unreasonable demands to his original agreement. For example, when Comrade King, former admin of /GETchan/, agreed to merge his site with Bunkerchan, it was agreed that Space would give him server access, but this was never done. Later on Space demanded that King share a scan of his driver’s licence as ‘verification’ which he found unacceptable. The tension between /GET/’s staff and Space has contributed to their decision to try to once again leave the site, unfortunately.
In addition, Space agreed to give server access to Comrade_Rat who has been the main technical contributor on our staff and is someone Space knows personally. Rat was part of the Bunkerchan staff before /leftypol/ moved to the site in the wake of 8chan’s demise. Due to Rat’s presence and willingness to work with us since the migration we would have been happy with this, but as stated, Space stonewalled this and promised it would be done while never doing so. I (Caballo) eventually personally pressed Space on this matter as can be seen in the attached screenshots but he refused to back down.
One of the key issues regarding server access was our dissatisfaction with our board’s software, Lynxchan. This software is difficult in many ways and our technical staff ultimately decided that it would be better to switch to new board software rather than try to fix something they felt was fundamentally an inferior option. Many of the peculiar issues of the site which we have been asked to fix have been caused by Lynxchan’s deficiencies. To that end, our technical staff have been working on custom software, Gochan, but in the interim, we wanted to switch to the more established Lainchan software. However, this process would be realistically impossible to complete without server access.
As a side issue, Space used his status as site owner to override our decisions about the site, telling us what we could and could not do and ignoring our own voting when he disagreed. Of particular concern was the question of funding the site and of monetisation. We of course recognised that Space was bearing the financial burden of hosting the site, and we are still grateful for him doing so, but our suggestions for collecting donations in an organised manner to make the ownership of the site more ‘community based’ or democratic were brushed off.
THE CONSPIRACY
Eventually, we decided that we had no other option than to create a backup plan as trust in Space had dropped so low. We felt that we could not continue to put in so much work when our efforts were undone by Space’s inaction. At the time we embarked on this plan, it was common to not be able to talk to Space for weeks at a time. We knew that ultimately Space could not be forced to hand over control of the site to anyone, so we endeavoured to make our own site which we had control over, both as a contingency plan in case we were removed from moderating /leftypol/ by Space, and as a bargaining chip to show Space that we were serious about our demands.
This site will be hosted at leftypol.org , a domain which was given to us by the former owner of the /leftypol/ splinter site at that address. Our technical staff have worked hard to enable us to import the content of bunkerchan.xyz to that site at the moment of our potential departure, so that our board’s topics and discussions are not lost as was the case when 8chan closed. In effect, we have set up a contingency so that our tenure as the mod team of /leftypol/, and the experience of the users of /leftypol/ and related boards, can continue without much disruption. We have also changed the board software to Lainchan to enable a smoother experience for the users.
It took us months to set up this site, during which time we hid it from Space, as we feared his potential reaction. We knew that Space could, if he so chose, remove us as moderators of /leftypol/ and install others, which we felt would be potentially ruinous. That sounds a bit egocentric, I admit, but the drama involving the rogue admin Pyongyang, who Space initially supported over all of us, convinced us that if we were removed, /leftypol/ would likely be taken in an ideological direction we would find unacceptable.
To emphasise, Pyongyang was not merely part of a different leftist sect, as our mod team comprises a wide range of tendencies, but was arguably a full blown reactionary that reverted our actions in secret while creating a /troon/ board that was set to become a haven for idpol and stupidpol-esque rhetoric. Pyongyang eventually stepped down on his own when it became clear that he was not enjoying the support of the users, with Space refusing to take action to remove him.
During these last months we have run the site as usual and attempted to hide the tension between us and Space (though it has been noticed occasionally by some users). In the past month or so, Space has become more involved with the site for personal reasons, which we viewed as a welcome development. We always hoped that we would eventually we able to reason with Space and convince him to hand over access to the site to us, and it made solving routine issues much easier for him to be involved. That said, we continued work on the backup site.
THE SPLIT
Recently, Space was approached by a person on Twitter who asked if he could be given ownership over the hidden board, /dead/. Space agreed to this without consulting us, which we viewed as an overreach. While it is true that /dead/ was on the site before /leftypol/ was, we the /leftypol/ mods have taken over 95% of the day to day running of the site in the time since migration. The vast majority of activity on Bunkerchan has taken place in the relatively short time since we have moved here.
To make a long story short, our opposition made Space suspicious and led to him discovering the existence of our conspiracy. Space had arranged a closed meeting between the admins of the site, and was stonewalling communications with us. This led to a group of the moderators deciding to make the split public with the original version of this post. We originally predicted that following this meeting there was a possibility that the board could be taken out of our hands and given to outside actors, which turned out to be the case. Space was not interested in negotiation and demanded the removal of four mods who had been involved in the conspiracy including an admin. In addition, he would only give server access to a ‘loyalist’ admin who was rarely involved with /leftypol/ since the migration.
We, the moderators of /leftypol/, decided we would not be divided and conquered by Space and stood together in solidarity. Therefore, Space removed around 20 moderators who were members of the conspiracy, along with a few new mods who were not aware of it. Therefore, we have decided to continue our tenure at leftypol.org and we hope that you will join us on this journey, though it will ultimately be up to you. This was not the outcome that anyone wanted and it is not the one that we wanted. This site is not ready for use in many ways and we are aware of its current limitations, but our hand was forced by an infiltrator revealing the full extent of our planning to Space. Perhaps there will be some reconciliation in future but at present we have to assume that will not happen.
MOVING FORWARD
Our first priority will be to bring this site up to feature parity with bunkerchan and to make the user experience similar. We still have a long way to go in this respect and we are aware of the many missing features and conveniences that have not been carried over. The technical team is working hard to improve the site as quickly as they can while the other mods work on non-coding tasks. Eventually we will try to surpass bunkerchan by adding features which have been requested for many months.
Secondly, we will determine the status of /GET/ and /ref/. Their administration is currently convening to decide whether they will remain on Bunkerchan, move to this board, or move to their own bunker at GETchan.net. They have unfortunately been suffering their own split which is partly attributable to the situation on Bunkerchan, and we hope it will come to an amicable conclusion for everyone. We wish the /GET/ community success wherever they choose to reside.
Thirdly, we want to create a more open and community-centred style of moderation and decision making. We will host a public monthly discussion with each other and the userbase where we discuss the running of the board, what is working well and what might not be, changes we wish to see, new priorities and plans, and so on. The first of these should happen soon so that we can gather feedback about the current situation.
Fourth, we need to consider our current situation and what we could do differently in the future. As I outlined above, this outcome was not what anyone wanted and we need to try to make more harmonious decisions in future. We should never allow ourselves to be put into the situation which occurred on Bunkerchan again, where we are at the mercy of one person. To that end, we are going to explore the best ways to share power and responsibility among the administration/moderation team and perhaps even the users as we experiment with direct democracy.
Fifth, we will try to explore ways to end the current split. We know it is not a positive development and we understand that it hurts our community. To this end, we will attempt to retain positive relations with Bunkerchan as part of a unified webring, and examine possible diplomatic solutions to the split. We are open to a reconciliation but of course there are terms that we would expect to be met and of course Space and the new administration of Bunkerchan is likely to have their own conditions. For now, we have both agreed to leave a sticky advertising each other’s boards in our respective /leftypol/s.
Finally, we will update our manifesto and rules to reflect the new situation. This will be a relatively simple but time consuming effort and is not a priority. For now we would ask users to simply use their common sense, rules that refer to ‘bunkerchan’ should be read as applying to ‘leftypol.org’, and so on.
I would like to once again thank you all for your patience in the current times. We will try to modify this topic to keep updated with current events.
With love, the moderation team
R: 681 / I: 95
BRIEF RUNDOWN
In short, /leftypol/ has split due to drama which essentially boils down to a dispute over server access on Bunkerchan. We, the /leftypol/ moderation team, have been forced to leave by Space, who removed our moderator rights due to our decision to stand together in solidarity rather than allow Space to demand the removal of certain mods who he viewed as primarily responsible for behind the scenes efforts to try to force him to give us the power to keep the site running and to improve it beyond its current state. Therefore, we have decided to activate our own clone of /leftypol/ which we have been preparing in case of this eventuality. We do not welcome this split or take it lightly but from our perspective it has been forced upon us. We are now working to make this site feature complete and to progress ever further.
A full outline of the history of the dispute and current events (as well as our next steps) is below if you would like to do the extra reading.
BACKGROUND
To briefly outline the problems that we have been having, they most importantly concern access to the server side of the side. At present, nobody other than Space has ultimate control over the site and Space is still required to approve any serious code changes (IE ones other than those that can be made by site staff). This is a relatively normal state of affairs of course, but the problem is that Space is not always available when we need him and has intermittent periods of what I can only call disinterest in the site.
Often, it has been difficult to get him to approve simple fixes to the site which are urgently needed to keep it running or else bring it back when it does break. Many of the technical issues (not all, but some) that we have had to deal with since the migration of /leftypol/ to Bunkerchan have been due to Space not taking the time to implement fixes which have been suggested by our tech team. When the changes do not directly affect the stability of the site, it is often even harder to get Space’s attention.
For example, Space’s approval was needed to make changes to the board headers to add new boards which has led to long delays in adding new boards to the topbar, and other changes. Often, when we the mod team have seemed to dally in adding new features it is because of the difficulty with getting approval for changes. This can often take weeks, which sadly makes us look unreliable and hampers our flexibility as a board.
The clear solution to this issue was for Space to share his server access with the highest members of our technical staff so that they could push through changes themselves. For months, Space promised to do so but would never deliver, or would add on unreasonable demands to his original agreement. For example, when Comrade King, former admin of /GETchan/, agreed to merge his site with Bunkerchan, it was agreed that Space would give him server access, but this was never done. Later on Space demanded that King share a scan of his driver’s licence as ‘verification’ which he found unacceptable. The tension between /GET/’s staff and Space has contributed to their decision to try to once again leave the site, unfortunately.
In addition, Space agreed to give server access to Comrade_Rat who has been the main technical contributor on our staff and is someone Space knows personally. Rat was part of the Bunkerchan staff before /leftypol/ moved to the site in the wake of 8chan’s demise. Due to Rat’s presence and willingness to work with us since the migration we would have been happy with this, but as stated, Space stonewalled this and promised it would be done while never doing so. I (Caballo) eventually personally pressed Space on this matter as can be seen in the attached screenshots but he refused to back down.
One of the key issues regarding server access was our dissatisfaction with our board’s software, Lynxchan. This software is difficult in many ways and our technical staff ultimately decided that it would be better to switch to new board software rather than try to fix something they felt was fundamentally an inferior option. Many of the peculiar issues of the site which we have been asked to fix have been caused by Lynxchan’s deficiencies. To that end, our technical staff have been working on custom software, Gochan, but in the interim, we wanted to switch to the more established Lainchan software. However, this process would be realistically impossible to complete without server access.
As a side issue, Space used his status as site owner to override our decisions about the site, telling us what we could and could not do and ignoring our own voting when he disagreed. Of particular concern was the question of funding the site and of monetisation. We of course recognised that Space was bearing the financial burden of hosting the site, and we are still grateful for him doing so, but our suggestions for collecting donations in an organised manner to make the ownership of the site more ‘community based’ or democratic were brushed off.
THE CONSPIRACY
Eventually, we decided that we had no other option than to create a backup plan as trust in Space had dropped so low. We felt that we could not continue to put in so much work when our efforts were undone by Space’s inaction. At the time we embarked on this plan, it was common to not be able to talk to Space for weeks at a time. We knew that ultimately Space could not be forced to hand over control of the site to anyone, so we endeavoured to make our own site which we had control over, both as a contingency plan in case we were removed from moderating /leftypol/ by Space, and as a bargaining chip to show Space that we were serious about our demands.
This site will be hosted at leftypol.org , a domain which was given to us by the former owner of the /leftypol/ splinter site at that address. Our technical staff have worked hard to enable us to import the content of bunkerchan.xyz to that site at the moment of our potential departure, so that our board’s topics and discussions are not lost as was the case when 8chan closed. In effect, we have set up a contingency so that our tenure as the mod team of /leftypol/, and the experience of the users of /leftypol/ and related boards, can continue without much disruption. We have also changed the board software to Lainchan to enable a smoother experience for the users.
It took us months to set up this site, during which time we hid it from Space, as we feared his potential reaction. We knew that Space could, if he so chose, remove us as moderators of /leftypol/ and install others, which we felt would be potentially ruinous. That sounds a bit egocentric, I admit, but the drama involving the rogue admin Pyongyang, who Space initially supported over all of us, convinced us that if we were removed, /leftypol/ would likely be taken in an ideological direction we would find unacceptable.
To emphasise, Pyongyang was not merely part of a different leftist sect, as our mod team comprises a wide range of tendencies, but was arguably a full blown reactionary that reverted our actions in secret while creating a /troon/ board that was set to become a haven for idpol and stupidpol-esque rhetoric. Pyongyang eventually stepped down on his own when it became clear that he was not enjoying the support of the users, with Space refusing to take action to remove him.
During these last months we have run the site as usual and attempted to hide the tension between us and Space (though it has been noticed occasionally by some users). In the past month or so, Space has become more involved with the site for personal reasons, which we viewed as a welcome development. We always hoped that we would eventually we able to reason with Space and convince him to hand over access to the site to us, and it made solving routine issues much easier for him to be involved. That said, we continued work on the backup site.
THE SPLIT
Recently, Space was approached by a person on Twitter who asked if he could be given ownership over the hidden board, /dead/. Space agreed to this without consulting us, which we viewed as an overreach. While it is true that /dead/ was on the site before /leftypol/ was, we the /leftypol/ mods have taken over 95% of the day to day running of the site in the time since migration. The vast majority of activity on Bunkerchan has taken place in the relatively short time since we have moved here.
To make a long story short, our opposition made Space suspicious and led to him discovering the existence of our conspiracy. Space had arranged a closed meeting between the admins of the site, and was stonewalling communications with us. This led to a group of the moderators deciding to make the split public with the original version of this post. We originally predicted that following this meeting there was a possibility that the board could be taken out of our hands and given to outside actors, which turned out to be the case. Space was not interested in negotiation and demanded the removal of four mods who had been involved in the conspiracy including an admin. In addition, he would only give server access to a ‘loyalist’ admin who was rarely involved with /leftypol/ since the migration.
We, the moderators of /leftypol/, decided we would not be divided and conquered by Space and stood together in solidarity. Therefore, Space removed around 20 moderators who were members of the conspiracy, along with a few new mods who were not aware of it. Therefore, we have decided to continue our tenure at leftypol.org and we hope that you will join us on this journey, though it will ultimately be up to you. This was not the outcome that anyone wanted and it is not the one that we wanted. This site is not ready for use in many ways and we are aware of its current limitations, but our hand was forced by an infiltrator revealing the full extent of our planning to Space. Perhaps there will be some reconciliation in future but at present we have to assume that will not happen.
MOVING FORWARD
Our first priority will be to bring this site up to feature parity with bunkerchan and to make the user experience similar. We still have a long way to go in this respect and we are aware of the many missing features and conveniences that have not been carried over. The technical team is working hard to improve the site as quickly as they can while the other mods work on non-coding tasks. Eventually we will try to surpass bunkerchan by adding features which have been requested for many months.
Secondly, we will determine the status of /GET/ and /ref/. Their administration is currently convening to decide whether they will remain on Bunkerchan, move to this board, or move to their own bunker at GETchan.net. They have unfortunately been suffering their own split which is partly attributable to the situation on Bunkerchan, and we hope it will come to an amicable conclusion for everyone. We wish the /GET/ community success wherever they choose to reside.
Thirdly, we want to create a more open and community-centred style of moderation and decision making. We will host a public monthly discussion with each other and the userbase where we discuss the running of the board, what is working well and what might not be, changes we wish to see, new priorities and plans, and so on. The first of these should happen soon so that we can gather feedback about the current situation.
Fourth, we need to consider our current situation and what we could do differently in the future. As I outlined above, this outcome was not what anyone wanted and we need to try to make more harmonious decisions in future. We should never allow ourselves to be put into the situation which occurred on Bunkerchan again, where we are at the mercy of one person. To that end, we are going to explore the best ways to share power and responsibility among the administration/moderation team and perhaps even the users as we experiment with direct democracy.
Fifth, we will try to explore ways to end the current split. We know it is not a positive development and we understand that it hurts our community. To this end, we will attempt to retain positive relations with Bunkerchan as part of a unified webring, and examine possible diplomatic solutions to the split. We are open to a reconciliation but of course there are terms that we would expect to be met and of course Space and the new administration of Bunkerchan is likely to have their own conditions. For now, we have both agreed to leave a sticky advertising each other’s boards in our respective /leftypol/s.
Finally, we will update our manifesto and rules to reflect the new situation. This will be a relatively simple but time consuming effort and is not a priority. For now we would ask users to simply use their common sense, rules that refer to ‘bunkerchan’ should be read as applying to ‘leftypol.org’, and so on.
I would like to once again thank you all for your patience in the current times. We will try to modify this topic to keep updated with current events.
With love, the moderation team
Background to the split, what happened, what is coming next
This board is a successor to https://bunkerchan.xyz/ which will continue to operate under the management of Space and their remaining/new moderators. We wish them the best of luck for the future despite our differences.BRIEF RUNDOWN
In short, /leftypol/ has split due to drama which essentially boils down to a dispute over server access on Bunkerchan. We, the /leftypol/ moderation team, have been forced to leave by Space, who removed our moderator rights due to our decision to stand together in solidarity rather than allow Space to demand the removal of certain mods who he viewed as primarily responsible for behind the scenes efforts to try to force him to give us the power to keep the site running and to improve it beyond its current state. Therefore, we have decided to activate our own clone of /leftypol/ which we have been preparing in case of this eventuality. We do not welcome this split or take it lightly but from our perspective it has been forced upon us. We are now working to make this site feature complete and to progress ever further.
A full outline of the history of the dispute and current events (as well as our next steps) is below if you would like to do the extra reading.
BACKGROUND
To briefly outline the problems that we have been having, they most importantly concern access to the server side of the side. At present, nobody other than Space has ultimate control over the site and Space is still required to approve any serious code changes (IE ones other than those that can be made by site staff). This is a relatively normal state of affairs of course, but the problem is that Space is not always available when we need him and has intermittent periods of what I can only call disinterest in the site.
Often, it has been difficult to get him to approve simple fixes to the site which are urgently needed to keep it running or else bring it back when it does break. Many of the technical issues (not all, but some) that we have had to deal with since the migration of /leftypol/ to Bunkerchan have been due to Space not taking the time to implement fixes which have been suggested by our tech team. When the changes do not directly affect the stability of the site, it is often even harder to get Space’s attention.
For example, Space’s approval was needed to make changes to the board headers to add new boards which has led to long delays in adding new boards to the topbar, and other changes. Often, when we the mod team have seemed to dally in adding new features it is because of the difficulty with getting approval for changes. This can often take weeks, which sadly makes us look unreliable and hampers our flexibility as a board.
The clear solution to this issue was for Space to share his server access with the highest members of our technical staff so that they could push through changes themselves. For months, Space promised to do so but would never deliver, or would add on unreasonable demands to his original agreement. For example, when Comrade King, former admin of /GETchan/, agreed to merge his site with Bunkerchan, it was agreed that Space would give him server access, but this was never done. Later on Space demanded that King share a scan of his driver’s licence as ‘verification’ which he found unacceptable. The tension between /GET/’s staff and Space has contributed to their decision to try to once again leave the site, unfortunately.
In addition, Space agreed to give server access to Comrade_Rat who has been the main technical contributor on our staff and is someone Space knows personally. Rat was part of the Bunkerchan staff before /leftypol/ moved to the site in the wake of 8chan’s demise. Due to Rat’s presence and willingness to work with us since the migration we would have been happy with this, but as stated, Space stonewalled this and promised it would be done while never doing so. I (Caballo) eventually personally pressed Space on this matter as can be seen in the attached screenshots but he refused to back down.
One of the key issues regarding server access was our dissatisfaction with our board’s software, Lynxchan. This software is difficult in many ways and our technical staff ultimately decided that it would be better to switch to new board software rather than try to fix something they felt was fundamentally an inferior option. Many of the peculiar issues of the site which we have been asked to fix have been caused by Lynxchan’s deficiencies. To that end, our technical staff have been working on custom software, Gochan, but in the interim, we wanted to switch to the more established Lainchan software. However, this process would be realistically impossible to complete without server access.
As a side issue, Space used his status as site owner to override our decisions about the site, telling us what we could and could not do and ignoring our own voting when he disagreed. Of particular concern was the question of funding the site and of monetisation. We of course recognised that Space was bearing the financial burden of hosting the site, and we are still grateful for him doing so, but our suggestions for collecting donations in an organised manner to make the ownership of the site more ‘community based’ or democratic were brushed off.
THE CONSPIRACY
Eventually, we decided that we had no other option than to create a backup plan as trust in Space had dropped so low. We felt that we could not continue to put in so much work when our efforts were undone by Space’s inaction. At the time we embarked on this plan, it was common to not be able to talk to Space for weeks at a time. We knew that ultimately Space could not be forced to hand over control of the site to anyone, so we endeavoured to make our own site which we had control over, both as a contingency plan in case we were removed from moderating /leftypol/ by Space, and as a bargaining chip to show Space that we were serious about our demands.
This site will be hosted at leftypol.org , a domain which was given to us by the former owner of the /leftypol/ splinter site at that address. Our technical staff have worked hard to enable us to import the content of bunkerchan.xyz to that site at the moment of our potential departure, so that our board’s topics and discussions are not lost as was the case when 8chan closed. In effect, we have set up a contingency so that our tenure as the mod team of /leftypol/, and the experience of the users of /leftypol/ and related boards, can continue without much disruption. We have also changed the board software to Lainchan to enable a smoother experience for the users.
It took us months to set up this site, during which time we hid it from Space, as we feared his potential reaction. We knew that Space could, if he so chose, remove us as moderators of /leftypol/ and install others, which we felt would be potentially ruinous. That sounds a bit egocentric, I admit, but the drama involving the rogue admin Pyongyang, who Space initially supported over all of us, convinced us that if we were removed, /leftypol/ would likely be taken in an ideological direction we would find unacceptable.
To emphasise, Pyongyang was not merely part of a different leftist sect, as our mod team comprises a wide range of tendencies, but was arguably a full blown reactionary that reverted our actions in secret while creating a /troon/ board that was set to become a haven for idpol and stupidpol-esque rhetoric. Pyongyang eventually stepped down on his own when it became clear that he was not enjoying the support of the users, with Space refusing to take action to remove him.
During these last months we have run the site as usual and attempted to hide the tension between us and Space (though it has been noticed occasionally by some users). In the past month or so, Space has become more involved with the site for personal reasons, which we viewed as a welcome development. We always hoped that we would eventually we able to reason with Space and convince him to hand over access to the site to us, and it made solving routine issues much easier for him to be involved. That said, we continued work on the backup site.
THE SPLIT
Recently, Space was approached by a person on Twitter who asked if he could be given ownership over the hidden board, /dead/. Space agreed to this without consulting us, which we viewed as an overreach. While it is true that /dead/ was on the site before /leftypol/ was, we the /leftypol/ mods have taken over 95% of the day to day running of the site in the time since migration. The vast majority of activity on Bunkerchan has taken place in the relatively short time since we have moved here.
To make a long story short, our opposition made Space suspicious and led to him discovering the existence of our conspiracy. Space had arranged a closed meeting between the admins of the site, and was stonewalling communications with us. This led to a group of the moderators deciding to make the split public with the original version of this post. We originally predicted that following this meeting there was a possibility that the board could be taken out of our hands and given to outside actors, which turned out to be the case. Space was not interested in negotiation and demanded the removal of four mods who had been involved in the conspiracy including an admin. In addition, he would only give server access to a ‘loyalist’ admin who was rarely involved with /leftypol/ since the migration.
We, the moderators of /leftypol/, decided we would not be divided and conquered by Space and stood together in solidarity. Therefore, Space removed around 20 moderators who were members of the conspiracy, along with a few new mods who were not aware of it. Therefore, we have decided to continue our tenure at leftypol.org and we hope that you will join us on this journey, though it will ultimately be up to you. This was not the outcome that anyone wanted and it is not the one that we wanted. This site is not ready for use in many ways and we are aware of its current limitations, but our hand was forced by an infiltrator revealing the full extent of our planning to Space. Perhaps there will be some reconciliation in future but at present we have to assume that will not happen.
MOVING FORWARD
Our first priority will be to bring this site up to feature parity with bunkerchan and to make the user experience similar. We still have a long way to go in this respect and we are aware of the many missing features and conveniences that have not been carried over. The technical team is working hard to improve the site as quickly as they can while the other mods work on non-coding tasks. Eventually we will try to surpass bunkerchan by adding features which have been requested for many months.
Secondly, we will determine the status of /GET/ and /ref/. Their administration is currently convening to decide whether they will remain on Bunkerchan, move to this board, or move to their own bunker at GETchan.net. They have unfortunately been suffering their own split which is partly attributable to the situation on Bunkerchan, and we hope it will come to an amicable conclusion for everyone. We wish the /GET/ community success wherever they choose to reside.
Thirdly, we want to create a more open and community-centred style of moderation and decision making. We will host a public monthly discussion with each other and the userbase where we discuss the running of the board, what is working well and what might not be, changes we wish to see, new priorities and plans, and so on. The first of these should happen soon so that we can gather feedback about the current situation.
Fourth, we need to consider our current situation and what we could do differently in the future. As I outlined above, this outcome was not what anyone wanted and we need to try to make more harmonious decisions in future. We should never allow ourselves to be put into the situation which occurred on Bunkerchan again, where we are at the mercy of one person. To that end, we are going to explore the best ways to share power and responsibility among the administration/moderation team and perhaps even the users as we experiment with direct democracy.
Fifth, we will try to explore ways to end the current split. We know it is not a positive development and we understand that it hurts our community. To this end, we will attempt to retain positive relations with Bunkerchan as part of a unified webring, and examine possible diplomatic solutions to the split. We are open to a reconciliation but of course there are terms that we would expect to be met and of course Space and the new administration of Bunkerchan is likely to have their own conditions. For now, we have both agreed to leave a sticky advertising each other’s boards in our respective /leftypol/s.
Finally, we will update our manifesto and rules to reflect the new situation. This will be a relatively simple but time consuming effort and is not a priority. For now we would ask users to simply use their common sense, rules that refer to ‘bunkerchan’ should be read as applying to ‘leftypol.org’, and so on.
I would like to once again thank you all for your patience in the current times. We will try to modify this topic to keep updated with current events.
With love, the moderation team