From the perspective of someone who sometimes has some cash to redistribute on here, I just want to provide some feedback on the semi-recent rule changes in this comm. I don’t think all of them are working and I think this comm needs just a little bit more attention to rectify the situation!

First, and I hope least controversial: the sidebar desperately needs to be updated to reflect the actual updated rules.

Second, similarly uncontroversial, the rules should generally actually be enforced. Not enforcing them consistently is worse than not having them in some cases. This ties into several other issues.

Third thing, clarity is needed on whether or not payment details are allowed in the form of not (immediately) personally identifiable usernames. The rule rn says PII/opsec leaks aren’t allowed and that payment links aren’t, but usernames seems more gray. I thought that usernames weren’t allowed at all until I re-read the post, and judging by the variety of different approaches to providing payment details in recent posts, I’m not the only one unsure.

Fourth thing, I think that strongly encouraging people to update their posts when they receive aid is a good thing for helping spread the community’s limited aid resources around more where they are needed most. That’s good guidance and I wish everyone did it!

Fifth, and to me personally, one of the most important, I am less likely to send money, if I have to effectively dox myself to the poster to do it, and when I have to ask for payment details over DM, that’s basically what I’m doing (its trivial to correspond who I am by timing and payment method, even if multiple people do send them money, doubly so over multiple different posts over time). It’s one thing for them to know my name or my venmo or whatever, but when they can tie that name to a specific hexbear account I start to go from “keeping the risk in mind” to “I don’t think that’s a risk I’m willing to take”. So while I can understand the urge to not have posters dox themselves, the reverse is also true.

Sixth, as a result of having to DM for payment details (both because of the doxing risk and just the extra steps for both parties), mutual aid posters are currently incentivized to violate or skirt around grey areas of the rules if they want to get more aid. Combined with the lax enforcement/unclear rule, this creates a really sucky situation where people in need are punished monetarily for trying to follow the rules.

Seventh, related to #2/maybe #1 and others, I am of the opinion the comm probably needs another mod or two, it’s pretty active and can be a fraught topic when there are disputes, and currently there only seems to be one active mod?

A further revision of the rules to explicitly allow non-doxxing payment methods to be published, followed by an update to the sidebar, would be greatly appreciated tbh. Or something like that. I appreciate all the work done to keep this site safe and functional and such, but these little issues have been nagging at the back of my mind for months now and needed to get out.

Thoughts?