After discussing this with the people most often using the mutual aid community and feedback here we will be making a single change.
Meta posts will no longer be permitted in !mutual_aid@hexbear.net critical meta posts must not be about specific users and posted in !feedback@hexbear.net at risk of removal.
We will change the mutual aid sidebar to remove the clause permitting meta posts, we will also ask that users post once a day so that everyone's post's can be seen but this is not a hard rule as it is pretty clear that removing posts is a last resort in that community. This joins the other community recommendations that users include currency, how much is needed, updating when a user has received funds, or updating/locking the post when the need has been met.
This will be unfeatured in about 12 hours
~~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~~
There’s nothing wrong with buying Taco Bell and “random bullshit.” I don’t think this attitude, expressed many times over in this thread, that homeless people have to live the most spartan existence in order to deserve help has any place here.
People here don't hold homeless users in contempt. They are limited in what they can provide. Yes, homeless people should not have to live the most spartan existence, but if the limited funds available to us on hexbear can either provide for two people sparsely, or leave one to starve while the other feasts, I think I know what we'd pick.
You made people feel helpless, and they disengaged from donations.
Trying to explain yourself over and over again isn't helping anything -- and I really really don't mean that in a cruel way.
The precariat getting mad at homeless people for eating Taco Bell and then turning around and calling it a "feast" is literal contempt. Taco Bell is corpo gruel slop with an ad campaign. Its ubiquitiousness is indicative of a diseased food system. It's usage as a "status symbol" or "luxury" because others are preparing the food is a right wing dog whistle. There only difference between Taco Bell and Chef Boyardee is that it comes out hot to the consumer at point of sale. This is an emotional and value based judgement.
If anyone here is gonna get mad at Taco Bell but not at the equivalent cash value of ravioli from the can, you should probably do some soul searching about your ideas about what you think homeless people deserve.
You are literally arguing for the ability to control how people survive homelessness through financial means. This is literally where these debates end up no matter if they start out with "drugs" or "random shit". These debates are always based not only in the idea that there is a "proper" way to survive, but the idea that you can reach financial independence on survival money. This is exactly how billionaires treat the precariat. They say you don't deserve better than what you have because you DoorDash your Taco Bell. This is an idea rooted in economic competition and in the class morality that those below must go to great lengths to prove to those above their financial responsibility despite clear and obvious abuse.
You are literally arguing about the luxury value and the "feast" that Taco fucking Bell is for a homeless person. This is gross and it is contempt.