Hello users of hexbear:

Due to recent meta posts in our mutual aid community we wanted to open up discussion about the community !mutual_aid@hexbear.net

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

  • Simon 𐕣he 🪨 Johnson@lemmy.mlEnglish
    10·
    24 hours ago

    I think from the perspective of competing needs the more likely issue is that some people get more because they are more popular / appealing than others which is another form of market logic of its own. I think that’s a fair criticism, but it’s still a criticism of those who choose the allocation of resources rather than a criticism of those who need them.

    My point is that being the arbiter of competing needs on a person to person basis is morally fraught (and typically on some level dishonest) which is why real mutual aid is a communal and social function rather than a peer-to-peer market function. Also that enforcing a system of account on those who are in need is just opening up a can of worms for petty sectarian moralizing that is going to wind up with harming more people than preventing scenarios like this.

    There’s also just a lot of unverified, unknowable information to make a call here, and digging thru the post and user histories that started this thread it’s incredibly difficult to tell what the truth of the obvious off board drama between the involved users is.

    FWIW you shouldn’t have gone homeless, that’s a failing of society on multiple levels that should be eradicated.

    • ghosts [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
      17·
      24 hours ago

      I’m not trying to call you out, I just really related to Adkml’s comment. I stopped begging for cash when I saw that the posters above and below me were victims of genocide.

      I’m absolutely against means testing of any kind, but I think that it is up to the poster to determine if some amount of a limited pool of resources should be allocated toward them, and failing that, it is up to the donator to determine if their donations are going to someone in dire need.

      We’re all just trying our best to keep each other alive.

      • Simon 𐕣he 🪨 Johnson@lemmy.mlEnglish
        6·
        24 hours ago

        I’m not trying to call you out,

        I wasn’t taking it that way. I just think that your POV matters, but should be treated different than the POV of someone giving.

        I stopped begging for cash when I saw that the posters above and below me were victims of genocide.

        I think this is very noble of you.

        I’m absolutely against means testing of any kind, but I think that it is up to the poster to determine if some amount of a limited pool of resources should be allocated toward them, and failing that, it is up to the donator to determine if their donations are going to someone in dire need.

        Yeah I agree with this, the best we can do is caveat emptor.

        I just think that adjudicating it before/after the fact or debating whose rules are more moral is pointless and harmful. There’s already calls for the user to get banned, from people who likely only read scenario as presented by Adkml which is not productive. I think there are scenarios where the $4k/car/drugs thing could be extremely shitty sure, but I don’t have all the information to judge, I don’t want the user to provide it, and it’s not my place to judge to begin with.

        This is a message board, meaning it’s already a suboptimal way to distribute aid. At the end of the day this wasn’t someone pretending to be in need, they did get a car with the money, this person is still homeless. People should just live and let live.

        • ghosts [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
          16·
          24 hours ago

          Well, if I recall correctly, it was a person in need but they did not buy a car with the money. They bought drugs instead. Later on they asked for more money for a different car.

          But I do agree with you, at the end of the day we are all just trying to get by. I shouldn’t be pointing fingers.

          • Adkml [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
            16·
            22 hours ago

            Well, if I recall correctly, it was a person in need but they did not buy a car with the money. They bought drugs instead. Later on they asked for more money for a different car.

            And then were also donated a car. And then got it impounded within a week because they were intentionally antagonizing the people living in the house they were staying in front of.