When you go to create an account on beehaw, they have a questionnaire you have to fill out with questions like "what do you plan to contribute to beehaw?" and then one of the 4 admins that run beehaw have to read your answers and then approve or reject.

I don't blame them for being a small team running a forum and want to keep trolls and spam out, but it sounds like they are trying to have the best of 2 contradictory worlds. with the selective tight group of like minded individuals, but also have their communities reach a large audience and grow interaction. It just unfortunately doesn't work that way.

But now these 4 admins stumbled into hosting the some of largest popular communities in the fediverse and are struggling to handle the bullcrap that comes with being popular on the internet.

[–] FantasticFox@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

But what stops a troll just writing whatever they think the Admins want to read in the form?

It just seems like security theatre, it provides the illusion that they are filtering their userbase, but in reality there's no way for them to validate whatever anyone writes, so it's pretty worthless.

[–] Taxxor@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I’d even say it’s more likely for someone that specifically wants to troll beehaw to fill out those questions and potential genuine users are more likely to just use another instance with an easier sign up process

[–] Chefdano3@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago

I mean, nothing stops them that I know of. I also think it's a little pointless