Is it okay to beg for money on Mastodon?
-
Isn't the point of decentralization that there's room for servers that have a wide range of different policies, and for servers that have no policy at all?
@only_ohm yes.
I just noticed that there is no policy about this on mastodon.social for instance.
-
Is it okay to beg for money on Mastodon?
Every week I see accounts asking for money, often tagging me or others directly.
I support recognized aid organisations, but these direct requests make me concerned, because as a Mastodon user I have no way of verifying if the requests are legitimate, or some nefarious person is pretending to be a person in need.
So my question is, should Mastodon servers have a policy about begging, and if so, what should the policy be?
@randahl
If someone unknown would tag me (personally) begging for money i'd mute/block instantly bc of above reasons.
If that'd happen repeatedly i'd set up a filter or something.Don't think it should be a generalised policy of the fediverse. Generalised policies tend to "go to far".
One idea: Question/report to the admin of the beggingacount instance? "Verified/legitimate? Can you provide a source if?" But only if one feels like it could be real.
-
@bodhipaksa I fully understand your concern about the word begging. Do you have any suggestions for a more neutral term?
I am simply trying to find a well-known word to describe direct person to person aid (a citizen of Gaza requesting donations) as opposed to organised aid (e.g. Red Cross aid).
@randahl "Requests for financial assistance" is one way I might put it. Often people in the Fediverse call it mutual aid: so "mutual aid requests" would be another way to put it.
-
Is it okay to beg for money on Mastodon?
Every week I see accounts asking for money, often tagging me or others directly.
I support recognized aid organisations, but these direct requests make me concerned, because as a Mastodon user I have no way of verifying if the requests are legitimate, or some nefarious person is pretending to be a person in need.
So my question is, should Mastodon servers have a policy about begging, and if so, what should the policy be?
@randahl Good question. I have the same experience and noticed the same picture of starving kids in different profiles. Could be a potential problem for Mastodon if people finds it unsafe to be here. Just my opinion.
-
Is it okay to beg for money on Mastodon?
Every week I see accounts asking for money, often tagging me or others directly.
I support recognized aid organisations, but these direct requests make me concerned, because as a Mastodon user I have no way of verifying if the requests are legitimate, or some nefarious person is pretending to be a person in need.
So my question is, should Mastodon servers have a policy about begging, and if so, what should the policy be?
-
@randahl Good question. I have the same experience and noticed the same picture of starving kids in different profiles. Could be a potential problem for Mastodon if people finds it unsafe to be here. Just my opinion.
@Jonasdahl @randahl I skimmed the replies and I don't see that anyone mentioned this.
For Gaza in particular, there is a website for verifying the asker is really from Gaza. It's something like Gaza Verified. After being vetted, the asker puts a link in their bio that confirms.
There are however scammers claiming to be verified when they aren't, and I think some even use a fake domain name. So it's good to hunt down what the real site is before relying on this method. Should be able to search Fedi for info — they have an account.
Edit: This seems to be the real one. I'll dig a like deeper to be sure: https://mastodon.ar.al/@gazaverified
Edit: Yes, I'm confident that's legit.
There has been further discussion of this issue (specifically wrt Gaza and whether askers are scams) if you search "gaza verified" on Mastodon.
-
Is it okay to beg for money on Mastodon?
Every week I see accounts asking for money, often tagging me or others directly.
I support recognized aid organisations, but these direct requests make me concerned, because as a Mastodon user I have no way of verifying if the requests are legitimate, or some nefarious person is pretending to be a person in need.
So my question is, should Mastodon servers have a policy about begging, and if so, what should the policy be?
@randahl I do not respond to direct requests from unknown people, however dear to my heart their cause or circumstances may be. I may respond to people I know (or have been following for a while) either for themselves, or who personally know a person and share details. Like you, I donate to recognized aid organizations only, otherwise.
-
Is it okay to beg for money on Mastodon?
Every week I see accounts asking for money, often tagging me or others directly.
I support recognized aid organisations, but these direct requests make me concerned, because as a Mastodon user I have no way of verifying if the requests are legitimate, or some nefarious person is pretending to be a person in need.
So my question is, should Mastodon servers have a policy about begging, and if so, what should the policy be?
@randahl I ignore the requests. I don't have a way to carefully evaluate the requests and I don't havce the time.
-
@only_ohm yes.
I just noticed that there is no policy about this on mastodon.social for instance.
-
Is it okay to beg for money on Mastodon?
Every week I see accounts asking for money, often tagging me or others directly.
I support recognized aid organisations, but these direct requests make me concerned, because as a Mastodon user I have no way of verifying if the requests are legitimate, or some nefarious person is pretending to be a person in need.
So my question is, should Mastodon servers have a policy about begging, and if so, what should the policy be?
It's called 'mutual aid' and it is something accepted on Mastodon.
It's based on the idea that you may be able to help today, but also that you may need help yourself tomorrow.
-
Is it okay to beg for money on Mastodon?
Every week I see accounts asking for money, often tagging me or others directly.
I support recognized aid organisations, but these direct requests make me concerned, because as a Mastodon user I have no way of verifying if the requests are legitimate, or some nefarious person is pretending to be a person in need.
So my question is, should Mastodon servers have a policy about begging, and if so, what should the policy be?
@randahl As long as it doesn’t drown out other content, I would not introduce rules.
-
Is it okay to beg for money on Mastodon?
Every week I see accounts asking for money, often tagging me or others directly.
I support recognized aid organisations, but these direct requests make me concerned, because as a Mastodon user I have no way of verifying if the requests are legitimate, or some nefarious person is pretending to be a person in need.
So my question is, should Mastodon servers have a policy about begging, and if so, what should the policy be?
@randahl I agree that a policy is needed because I get the same thing and I suspect scams are part of this
-
Is it okay to beg for money on Mastodon?
Every week I see accounts asking for money, often tagging me or others directly.
I support recognized aid organisations, but these direct requests make me concerned, because as a Mastodon user I have no way of verifying if the requests are legitimate, or some nefarious person is pretending to be a person in need.
So my question is, should Mastodon servers have a policy about begging, and if so, what should the policy be?
@randahl I get these messages too, I do feel bad that I can’t tell if they’re legitimate or not. However, I have come to the realization that if it is legitimate they will ask the whole family of mastodon for help with a hashtag, or be a part of an organization as you said. I do think that having this kind of resource is a good thing, but we should treat “direct messages” as potential scams. Obviously, if you know this person irl, then you can always verify that you wanna help and how to do it.
-
@randahl "Requests for financial assistance" is one way I might put it. Often people in the Fediverse call it mutual aid: so "mutual aid requests" would be another way to put it.
@bodhipaksa I appreciate the suggestion. I was actually editing the post right now, but I ended up cancelling the edit, because I am not sure readers will understand precisely what I mean using your term.
I need to reflect on this.
-
Is it okay to beg for money on Mastodon?
Every week I see accounts asking for money, often tagging me or others directly.
I support recognized aid organisations, but these direct requests make me concerned, because as a Mastodon user I have no way of verifying if the requests are legitimate, or some nefarious person is pretending to be a person in need.
So my question is, should Mastodon servers have a policy about begging, and if so, what should the policy be?
@randahl I mute or block accounts who do that because I don’t have extra funds to share, some of them ask far too often (IMO), and I have no way to verify their claims even if I had something to give them.
I don’t have an opinion on what Mastodon servers should do about this issue other than that they should be very clear about whether or not it’s allowed.
Other than that, I mind my own business. It’s hard to know what’s really happening in other folk’s lives.
-
Is it okay to beg for money on Mastodon?
Every week I see accounts asking for money, often tagging me or others directly.
I support recognized aid organisations, but these direct requests make me concerned, because as a Mastodon user I have no way of verifying if the requests are legitimate, or some nefarious person is pretending to be a person in need.
So my question is, should Mastodon servers have a policy about begging, and if so, what should the policy be?
@randahl It’s strange that they’re tagging you directly, though. I think that’s way too much pressure.
-
It's called 'mutual aid' and it is something accepted on Mastodon.
It's based on the idea that you may be able to help today, but also that you may need help yourself tomorrow.
I boost "mutual aid" toots when I see them.
Despite having over $12,000 USD in debt and being homeless? I don't beg.
Many years ago I set up a GoFundMe when things were even more dire; it did not reach anywhere near its goal to get me out of debt then either, but some folks were generous. An old coworker/boss kicked down $1000 which was immensely helpful even though GoFundMe and the check cashing place combined probably devoured > 10% of that.
Another colleague donated $10,000 to me once, via PayPal, years ago in hopes it would avoid alleviate my debts and it really did! For a time at least. Though, the rigamarole I had to go through with PayPal to actually get access to those funds was extensive.
I've pretty much given up on asking for financial help online.
If I had a capitalistic entrepreneurial spirit? I would probably already be running some sort of business selling Thneeds like most people engaged in business? I don't. So I keep applying to jobs and grants and hoping, maybe someday (hasn't happened yet in 50 years as a human incarnated on Earth) I will find this mythical "livable wage" job with no more than a 40 hour work week that so many in unions supposedly fought and died for before my time.
I also don't beg on the street (most places where I am in California, that is illegal, though it happens all the time anyway. I am never looking to put myself in more legal jeopardy, things are tenuous enough as it is.).
I think it would be totally reasonable for an ActivityPub/Mastodon/etc. instance provider to make a policy against such things too I guess?
Problematically, I don't think banning begging is really the solution though.
Banning the ultra rich via taxation and redistributing their funds into housing, frugivore food forests and other self-sustaining mutually beneficial programs OTOH? Might do wonders!
Dunno how to effect that level of change though. Doubtlessly, muting or changing federation policies with bits and bytes and such is a lot easier, if less effective.
CC: @randahl@mastodon.social
-
Is it okay to beg for money on Mastodon?
Every week I see accounts asking for money, often tagging me or others directly.
I support recognized aid organisations, but these direct requests make me concerned, because as a Mastodon user I have no way of verifying if the requests are legitimate, or some nefarious person is pretending to be a person in need.
So my question is, should Mastodon servers have a policy about begging, and if so, what should the policy be?
@randahl
You're asking your question as if Mastodon was a centralized social network with one policy. -
Is it okay to beg for money on Mastodon?
Every week I see accounts asking for money, often tagging me or others directly.
I support recognized aid organisations, but these direct requests make me concerned, because as a Mastodon user I have no way of verifying if the requests are legitimate, or some nefarious person is pretending to be a person in need.
So my question is, should Mastodon servers have a policy about begging, and if so, what should the policy be?
I mute them. There is absolutely no way for me to know if they're legit, and it's obvious many of them aren't.
It's not even like giving money to random people on the street, these could be organized criminals.
-
Is it okay to beg for money on Mastodon?
Every week I see accounts asking for money, often tagging me or others directly.
I support recognized aid organisations, but these direct requests make me concerned, because as a Mastodon user I have no way of verifying if the requests are legitimate, or some nefarious person is pretending to be a person in need.
So my question is, should Mastodon servers have a policy about begging, and if so, what should the policy be?
@randahl not all the requests will be genuine, but there's enough mutual aid and verified accounts that I think banning then would have adverse real world consequences for people who have to let recourse.
That said, I prefer to put my money into changing the system, in addition to being the individual. And there are organisations who do both.
