I’m not sure this is the intended “point”, or if it’s been articulated as such already ('cause…freely admit, I skipped the middle of this thread entirely) but having people ask the mods before they post a request for money helps prevent an utter flood of requests. People self-monitor when they have to go through a step involving perceived authority. It’s like putting up a sign next to a jar of money asking them to take appropriate change. They assume they’re being watched, so they act more honestly. They assume they’ll be rejected if their request isn’t “good enough” or they don’t have the social standing to ask. If nothing else, it just takes more time to make them jump through a hoop, and that alone will discourage people who don’t need/care enough to hoop jump.
Is it going to weed out every selfish request? No. But it’s likely to stop the place from becoming overrun with newbies *only *posting to beg. Even if we don’t have a strong vetting process, they’re going to assume we do. They become their own vetters, as it were.
It’s become very clear to me that the Mods/Admins use the word “Vetting” very loosely around here.
For crying out loud Mods, when some unsuspecting ‘Joe’ reads in the very first sentence of a “gimme” thread: “First off, I got permission from the Mods to start this thread.”:
One could easily, (and rightly) infer from that; that it is indeed an endorsement from the Mods of said chairity. Thus giving the reader a false sense of security.
Sure, all of this is covered in the official guidelines, but how many people on this board have the entire guidelines commited to memory?
This is not like someone is asking for a home loan or something.
They send us an email, explain their situation – some do a better job of it than others – and they ask if they can post that request to the board.
We discuss it in the mod loop. Who is this person, what are they asking, is it reasonable? Is this someone we know and if so, how so?
If it seems reasonable – and mostly they do – we say sure, go ahead, post it. If it’s a borderline case we tell them so. If it’s a situation that wouldn’t get any positive attention we tell them, gently, that it’s not a good idea.
We do turn people down but mostly reasonable people ask and mostly we say yes. By and large these situations tend to fall into two categories:
I want to publicize our bake sale / car wash / 5K / benefit concert / want to solicit sponsors for my walkathon … that kind of thing.
and
"I need help … "
The people that fall in under #2 are just people on the down side that need a kind word and a helping hand.
More of our cases are like this recent one:
I don’t know what else to tell you except help if you want to and don’t help if you don’t want to.
IRL I’m dealing with some serious health issues. I’m physically exhausted most all the time, among other things. I know the cause for some of it – hypothyroidism – the rest is still being sorted out as best I can do with no insurance and no money.
And I’ve just been told I need cataract surgery – both eyes – before I go blind. See above for no insurance and no money.
[NOTE: I am not asking for help. This is ridiculously large and insane. I’m just telling you.]
So yeah, I’m not as patient with people – especially people who are being unnecessarily picky and unreasonable – as I might be normally. Because I can see all the sides here, people who are desperate for help, people who are suspicious, people who are “compassion fatigued.”
I can also see people who are just plain ol’ messed up and mistaken and they shouldn’t be endlessly kicked for the mistakes they make.
Mostly people do the best they can, here on this message board and everywhere else. A kind word goes a long way. A helping hand is a blessing.
The community at the Dope has a long history of helping other Dopers in need. That’s quite an accomplishment in this wicked old world and it’s something that needs to be celebrated and not picked to death.
If your health and financial problems are that severe they’re impacting your administration and moderation of the board, then perhaps you should take a break for a while and hand it over to someone else.
It was clear in my initial post that the staff here had no opinion on the matter and that they were only allowing me to start the thread.
I specifically said that the SDMB staff held no opinion on the matter. If you or anyone else thought otherwise I’m sorry it was (clearly) not my intent.
As Marley said, it was controversial. So what? If it had been a ‘help this burned kitty’ charity I doubt I would have had to start a thread at all. But his was different and I did it because, A: I believed in the cause and B: felt others might too. I knew all along some would not see it my way and that’s okay. I fail to see how it 'left a seriously nasty taste" for anyone.
Maybe the community here could use a more specific policy regarding solicitation threads, I don’t know but I for one am still able to read them and decide for myself which I will and will not give money too.
Without getting into all the questions your post opens up (what are the mods’ criteria/is a poster’s longevity a flawed advantage/the mod loop consists of how many mods, really?) the one question that still has not been answered is this:
Why vet at all?
… make no representation that they have investigated or vetted charitable appeals, gift exchanges, and similar activities promoted on this board or groups or individuals associated with them.
But by your own admission, you DO vet charitable appeals.
TubaDiva, would you mind answering MsWhatsit’s original question, whether or not it’s now official policy that you can’t ask questions in a thread to get more details as to why a person needs money, what other resources they have, etc? Since that’s pretty much how the relevant information in the thread which cannot be named was ultimately revealed. And without that thread, this thread probably wouldn’t even exist.
ETA: Since if this is a community and all, I think we’ve got just as much right and duty to protect our fellow community members from getting scammed, or at least giving money under false or mistaken pretenses.
Just to set the stage before I get into quoting I don’t mind charitable appeals. I give to many although not yet on the SDMB and this conversation is an excellent demonstration of the reason why.
This point has been made a couple of times. If you’re not going to vet requests doing the small amount of vetting you do actually hurts things as it makes it appear that approval to post = mod approval of the request not just the post.
We don’t need you to vet things for us if we’re allowed to do it ourselves without getting warned for being mean or harrassing or a big poopy pants.
Bolding mine. After all of the discussion about how the mods do NOT vet the applications beyond a very high level smell test the attitude still comes across that vetting for yourself is being mean to someone in a bad situation. Which it might be, or it might be saving a bunch of dopers from being scammed.
I know this thread is turning into a hassle and I really don’t want to see these stopped altogether but some acknowledgement that being cautious and careful is not evil would be nice.
Honestly if you’re looking for a hands off solution a requirement that all donation requests follow a specific format will allow regular users to post them and drive by requests to be quickly deleted since they’re unlikely to follow those rules. This keeps the “Mods approved this post” message out and there should be an understanding that people are going to ask questions if you’re asking for money.
People will answer or not and people will donate or not. Easy peasy.
Suggested rules:
Thread title includes “Donation request - Short description of need”
Thread includes details, be prepared for questions.
This is getting ridiculous. At no time has anyone said or implied you can’t ask questions in response to charitable appeals, and I plainly stated the opposite a couple of times. This is based on a twisting of TubaDiva’s comment about being constructive and polite. Interpreting that as “Don’t ask question” is a huge leap and it was not a statement of board policy.
Like we could stop people from asking questions in response to threads about people’s finances in the first place. I hope that’s the end of this particular piece of ridiculousness.
I asked because it was a statement made by a board administrator and I wasn’t sure what she was implying. I don’t appreciate my question being characterized as ridiculous. Thank you for answering it, however.
Edit: And of course you could stop people from asking such questions. You can stop people from using particular words in the Pit, you can stop people from posting open spoilers in Cafe Society, you can stop people from posting information about how to obtain illegal drugs, etc. You set policy for this board. This wouldn’t even be close to the most arbitrary rule we have around here. But anyway, I’m glad to hear the answer and that’s good enough for me. I’m happy to be shut of this thread, trust me.
I don’t think the question is ridiculous. I think having to repeat this point based on a bizarre interpretation of TubaDiva’s post is ridiculous. I’d said a couple of times that you can ask questions about appeals and it’s kind of common sense that you can do that; certainly it happens often enough. TubaDiva never said you can’t, and she characterized her own post as a request. But I’m glad we’re on the same page and you’re satisfied with the answer.
I think the problem come from some people accusing/having problems with TubaDiva of applying rules very broadly and moding things that some members think are within the rules.
Now I have never had any problem. But from reading things here, I know she has that reputation.
So I understand when she says something that seems to go against what another mod says, people will have questions as to what the Hell the rule actually is.
Allow them all for all I care. I sure could use some money for replacing the carpets and doors in my house that my dog has destroyed, or the vet bills he’s built up destroying them.
Why don’t y’all just throw all the threads asking for money into Marketplace? It’s already dedicated to monetary exchanges, so put all the threads dealing with monetary exchanges there.
Yeah, this… seriously. You don’t seem to gain any joy of this board anymore, and you very rarely participate other than in to smack people down in here. Maybe it’s time to move on and just focus on getting better and improving your real life situation.