This. If its a silly request, I can mock it as well as the next person but it would be nice to know in advance what type of thread I am opening. Prayer and related threads are almost always clearly titled as such and that is good. But when you are looking at getting in my wallet I would almost call it a must.
(Don’t know so much that I like the idea of putting them all in the Pit but has anyone considered putting donation threads in the Marketplace?)
Can you show me where anyone said only positive replies are allowed?
Non-Pitty criticism of the OP and tough questions are fine. The thread is not just open to those who agree. But threadshitting and behavior reserved for the Pit is not allowed. Just like in any other MPSIMS thread. Or as Idle Thoughts said upthread:
I will have to agree with this. There is not a hard and fast rule on labeling these types of threads and there really doesn’t need to be. For the most part their purpose is clear. That is not the case with this thread. The title is not at all descriptive. I will be changing it.
I still don’t get it, to be honest. Isn’t it the mods job to make calls, all day, every day, on what gets in and what doesn’t? But if begging money for your kids holiday in Europe, then suddenly all judgement is suspended? What? Isn’t your judgement, making calls, your exact job? Seems utterly silly to me.
An unwillingness to ‘make a call’ on this, isn’t exactly going to refect well on your decision making, in my opinion.
I have no problem if you want to leave it to the masses to decide, but at least put it in the pit so people can openly address it, and speak their feelings.
Noted.
calling it
Queen For A Day.
We do make the call. We just have a lower threshold than you would and allow posters to make their own decision on the matter. Where that line is will always be a point of contention. Everybody’s line will be different. On a personal level my threshold for giving money to a cause I can not 100% verify is extremely high. I have voted to OK requests that I would never consider donating to. I think it should often be left to the individual to decide if they want to donate. If you think you shouldn’t have to make that decision without the guidance of a Mod you can always just not open it.
You can speak your feelings. I know I would have no problems speaking my feelings while staying within the forum rules. If your particular writing style is only suitable for the Pit there is nothing wrong with making a Pit thread. You can even link to it in the original thread so people know about it.
There has been a Pit thread opened about the thread in question so go have fun. Say hi to Miller for me.
I think it’s advertising. Advertising is a no-no right?
I think all we need from the mods is to determine that the request is not a scam. Asking for money to send a teenager on a European vacation is a pretty lousy scam, we can all determine for ourselves whether or not it’s a worthy cause (it isn’t).
Now if “you know who else wanted to take a trip to Italy” starts asking for money the mods might shut them down for failing to meet a low bar, or if I started asking for money to run the Michigan mail truck scam on bottle deposit returns then they could shut it down as a scam. But if you want to ask for money so you can buy a giant screen TV I don’t care, I just won’t give you any money. As it is I won’t donate money to any cause unless I can make payments directly for something myself just to prevent scamming. But there’s no need for mods to try to draw a fine line between worthy and unworthy causes. Allow donations or not, but outside of scams, illegal activities, or unquestionable immoral causes if donation requests are allowed then mods shouldn’t be judging the worthiness of the cause.
But isn’t “drawing a fine line” the very definition of your job?
Just sayin’. I think y’all come off looking kind of silly with this as your rational, to a group of people who should be encouraged to respect your decision making.
So, so silly.
The problem is that there’s a huge fuzzy line on what a scam is. The Bottle-Deposit scam is clearly a scam, but what about that kid who was a known mooch and incredibly irresponsible? Recommending him for a job could put one’s own job in danger. Or (and I’m not naming anyone, but the incident is part of board history. I strongly encourage everyone NOT to mention names) what about the poster who needed money for AC because his house got so hot. Um. But it wasn’t him, it was his bunny-rabbits that would get hot. Um. And he actually had money, but it was in–I dunno–a savings account or retirement account or something…etc. It took a bunch of posts (with a lot more leeway than is allowed currently) to ferret out those scams.
I do not understand why so many posters on this board wish to be so protected (and on so many topics it is so frequent to see this type of discussions in this forum)… So long as there is not a deceit it should be free to ask, so long certainly as it is free for people to point out some relevant information.
We have drawn a fine line. You don’t like where that line is. Your objection is noted.
Link to the 2004 “mooching” thread".
Ha! And in the same vein, the current debate about “Warn people in the existing thread/Warn people in a separate Pit thread debate” was there too. So everything old is new again.
As it is we have no way to verify if a request is a lie. I can’t tell if someone has cancer or is going to lose their car from an email. Any request could be an outright lie (just like any post really). So permission to post is never an endorsement. We leave it up to the individual to decide if they want to donate.
I’m not sure where you get that you don’t have leeway to question the OP in the MPSIMS thread. People are questioning the OP. It is allowed. She is able to answer those questions or not as she sees fit. I don’t see why legitimate questions can not be asked under MPSIMS rules. Does you inquiry have to be made in an insulting manner? Is that the only way you can communicate? If you have legitimate questions ask them. If you are so worked up about it that you can only post with venom do it in the Pit.
I don’t know about the moocher incident, but mooching is not a crime. It may be unsavory but if there was no promise to pay back the money then it’s not a scam. I recall the rabbit guy could have been a little clearer that he was asking for money to keep his rabbits cool but it wasn’t outrightly deceptive. Perhaps mods should make sure the request is very clear about what the money is for, and I wouldn’t object if mods rejected a request because it had a bad odor, but simply asking for money even for frivolous purposes is a common occurrence in everyday life. Politicans are out requesting money every day, as well as religious leaders and questionable charities. Make your own decisions about who you want to give money to, but there’s no reason to stop people from asking altogether, or setting an incredibly high bar.
Apparently it’s very hard for some who hold disdain against the OP just for asking.
People request permission to advertise projects they are involved in, charitable activities, job openings. We ask that they seek permission first before they post and to indicate that they have received permission.
As a (new) mod, I don’t yet have a lot of experience in this area, but I saw nothing wrong with the request being discussed. One person’s worthy cause is another person’s trivial matter. As long as everything is upfront, as far as we can tell, I can see no reason to not approve such requests. They are generally few and far between, so I don’t think this is an ongoing problem.
People value this board for it’s community environment. How many times have dopers reached out to help people, give advice, make connections, and even donate money and celebrated the fact that we do this? I do not think that there is some objective right or wrong on what it’s ok to reach out to your community for and what is not ok. If you think a particular request isn’t something you’d support, then there is no obligation to do so. But on the off chance someone sees this as a great opportunity to help the kid out, why not?
Okay, thanks for noting my post, Loach. I do appreciate the respect and consideration it received. Can you please answer some of the questions in it?
What is the point of setting up the Marketplace if it’s actually possible to advertise one’s products or other money-making strategies elsewhere on the forum? I thought that was the whole raison d’etre of that space anyway.
So why can’t all advertising of “gimme some money for ____” (slightly-used porn, funding for trips to Italy, new published books, jewelry made out of butterfly wings, etc.) type posts go in there? This way the only filter that’s there is “are you a paid-up member of the SDMB?” and y’all are free to do whatever else you’re meant to be doing as moderators, with only the occasional complaint to check up on?
Guests too chintzy to pony up the $15 can suck it. No advertising for them. Seems a small requirement if you ask me.
(Another benefit of the Marketplace forum is that images are allowed there. So people do reap rewards for posting in that section.)