Hello users of hexbear:

Due to recent meta posts in our mutual aid community we wanted to open up discussion about the community [email protected]

We will never require explanation or justification from a user asking for aid in the community, and the mod and admin team continue to commit to not featuring an individual’s mutual aid request to prevent unfair exposure.

In addition, we will maintain a strict “No critical comments or meta comments” on a mutual aid post.

This post is to discuss the mutual aid community’s rule of allowing meta posts: mutual aid as a community, those making posts in it and those commenting on posts.

We are considering removing the exception allowing meta posts but wanted to involve the userbase before committing to a change.

Please comment with any thoughts, feelings, or suggestions regarding this change.

Thank you

  • Angel [any]@hexbear.netEnglish
    29·
    14 hours ago

    This community’s existence is literally the very reason why I’ve been able to keep being alive. At times, I’ve been able to receive assistance from less anonymous sources, but Hexbear is the place that truly kept me going considering the amount of support I’ve gotten here.

    This isn’t an exaggeration—if I look back on my life for as long as I’ve been in these shitty circumstances and reimagine me navigating them without c/mutual_aid, it’s a very nerve-wracking hypothetical to ponder. I most likely would’ve been dead soon enough.

    Skepticism is certainly expected, but I feel like the desire to weed out scammers or disingenuous people is seeming so strong through this struggle that people are myopically forgetting to consider what some hard restrictions on this community would actually entail for the state of some of our lives.

    I hate that I have to rely on c/mutual_aid to literally survive; that brief period where I actually had a job and didn’t have to use this community as a recipient (and could even use it as a donor) was the happiest time period I can recall while being through this whole mess. And then, without an iota of transparency, that job chops me, but after trying to find work since then, even at the least demanding (in terms of requirements) workplaces, I realized the ride will continue to be a long, bumpy one. I hate working with animal products, but I went as far to apply to places like McDonald’s and KFC, and I still couldn’t get hired.

    Being Black and transfem led me to this hell, but something I’ve always picked up on from people is that they might do something like put #blacktranslivesmatter in their bio but not actually understand just how harsh it can be to live this way, especially if you are in a reactionary region, as I do. And, as I can see, I’m not the only person who is saying these sort of things.

    I don’t know what else to say other than I hope we come to a reasonable solution here. This anxiety is far from what I need right now, so I’m going to try not to read these comments too much.