Lately I’ve been seeing posters here express some form of the sentiment that Hexbear has fallen from its previous heights of glory and now we post amongst the ruins of greatness. This is not a response to anyone in particular, and I don’t want to call anyone out. In fact, it seems to be a normal human tendency to romanticize the past. But I’ve been here since the beginning and want to provide an alternate view.
1. Hexbear just isn’t like it used to be. 
This is one I am particularly suspicious of, since people started posting this after the site had been around for a couple of months. Before that they posted about how chapo.chat wasn’t like the old chapotraphouse subreddit. If the good ol’ days ever existed, they always seem to have been just prior to the current moment. If anything the site culture and vibe have been remarkably consistent since its inception, for better or worse. Faces have changed, people have come and gone and sometimes come back again, but Hexbear remains.
2. People used to be nice here and treat each other as comrades. Now there is just a culture of shallow dunks. 
Seriously? Be for real. I’m not going to deny that we love a good dunk around here, but let’s not pretend that this is a new phenomenon. It’s a big part of the culture around here that predates the site and even arguably even the subreddit. You can be free to like it or not, criticize it or not, say its productive or not, but its definitely not a new development. There’s always been a lot of love and mutual support, but also a lot of vicious arguments intracommunity arguments here. If anything I think there’s less of this now. The early posters would laugh at what passes for a struggle session around here these days. The VCJ struggle session seemed at the time like it might legitimately end the entire site.
3. This site had the potential to be a place for organizing and building something rather than just posting. 
This one is an interesting counterfactual. From the beginning there was no clear agreement on what the ultimate purpose of the site would be, and there were definitely people who saw the site as having revolutionary potential. There were also people who saw it as a place to hang out and shitpost among comrades and were skeptical of its potential for organizing. Over time, I think it’s become clear that we’re closer to the latter than the former. I’m okay with that, personally, but more than that I think it’s worth considering why despite having a lot of smart, determined people on the site, organizing never really materialized, or if it ever had that potential in the first place.
4. People used to post effort posts and stuff and now its just a bunch of shitposting. 
It’s always been mostly shitposting. This is one of my first comments on this site. It’s hard to say if there really used to be more effort posts or not, but what’s stopping you from writing an effort post if you feel like Hexbear needs more of them? I’m doing it right now, and so can you.
One thing that really has changed is that we used to have more comrades actively working on developing the site. Hopefully more people will step up to do that (not me though because I can’t code).
In conclusion, Hexbear is mostly, for better or worse, as it always has been. Enjoy your time here without worrying about whether it measures up to some imagined glorious past. If there’s something you feel is lacking, step up and contribute it. This site is nothing more or less than the sum of our contributions.
People talk about organizing a lot but I honestly don’t even know what effective organizing looks like in the imperial core. irl it seems to mostly become reading groups, marches & demonstrations, or charity. Which is fine I guess but like… the concept of volunteering has been around for a long time and that’s pretty much what this ends up looking like? The only thing I’ve encountered that really seems like a viable route to power is salting workplaces, which requires (literal) full-time commitment. I’m sure there are also some hard-to-find organizations that do various types of sabotage for people who are willing to run the risk of spending 20 years in prison.
Salting and organising for a union is good organising in the imperial core. A lot of the more dogmatic users on this site do not enjoy this, because it involves cooperating with people who aren’t their particular strain of leftist.
Interacting with local orgs can be good, and if you have experience with activism then joining and helping political youth groups is also good. Creating parallel power structures is also a good thing. While conditions for a revolution aren’t around, they won’t come unless you help them arrive. Creating a sense of community helps facilitate further organising. Some users on this site will mocn this sentiment because you’re not mortaring your local alderman or demolishing the walls of your local prison. This is because they do not understand that twitter posts aren’t representative of real life.
though I doubt they themselves have ever or will ever do anything like it.
They will call for
Yes I am bitter
Edit: To make it simpler and practical - If you work in a place with no union, talk to your colleagues. If you have the time, talk to your neighbours or get involved in a local cultural or political “scene”. This involved showing up physically to events and talking to people and getting to know them. Maybe there’s squatters or people arranging blockades or whatever, they will definitely need help. As will people organising protests - which I do not think have an effect in themselves, but they are good places to grow a platform for other action or activities.
If you have special knowledge (like legal, worksman, martial arts, language, whatever that might be of use) make it known to these groups and help them either by doing stuff for them or by teaching them. You can also do stuff like: Bake bread for the houseless and hungry and pass it out, volunteer in a soup kitchen, volunteer elsewhere. Helping as a volunteer is both good in itself, but also in the long run something that helps build a base for other actions.
How much time you can and will devote to this is completely up to yourself.