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
users can post 3 times a week, asks no more than 100$ each post –Imagine walking up to someone homeless and desperate on the street holding a sign that reads “homeless and hungry anything helps” and saying “You’ve been here every day this week, you can’t get anymore aid, you need to leave.” That’s what this reads like. Limit posts to once a day if you really want to regulate the comm this much, but let the people giving decide the amount. Change the format to require labels like “need for long-term” or something but this just feels like overstepping and a good way to further alienate people who can and want to give more.
display name is changed to “emergency aid” –pedantic and unnecessary, just avoid the struggle session and keep the comm as it is with the added weekly advice/non-monetary aid posts or something
users communicate if they are open to non monetary resources (local aid groups, etc.) –people should ask in the comments before offering advice, the posters shouldn’t have to add this, it should be a given that unless explicitly asked commenters should just shut the fuck up and move on or wait for a thread where advice is meant to be posted
user requests aid, amount requested in title using [$0/$x] format –this is fine but it has the potential for alienating those who can only give a small amount or stopping those who could give more from doing so when it should be up to the person giving how much they want to contribute, it’s none of the community’s business how much is being given
users donate and report the post with the amount donated, mods note it or report it with a message indicating they donated so a mod can comment –it’s none of the community’s business how much is being given, have the OP update the post title and say thanks or if they’re good or not or lock it after 72hrs or something, this just feels like such a huge overstep
user updates title with amount received and the thread is locked when the goal is met –it’s none of the community’s business how much is being given, see previous answer
meta posts are no longer permitted –it’s on the mods to determine if this is worth it, but changing a single community rule could address the reason this was brought up
do you think there should be a weekly limit on amount requested? No.
do you think there should be a weekly limit on amount of posts? Daily, yes, weekly no.
do you think mods should keep track of amounts received via user reports after donating? Absolutely not.
do you think we change the name from mutual_aid to emergency aid? No.
do you think we should allow meta posts? I don’t think they’re happening enough to warrant this.