Since the BaileyDee fiasco, many people on this site have now got it into their heads that most people on mutual aid are scammers. This is obviously terrible news for people who really need help and may be wrongly thought of as scamming. So my suggestion is that if you want to post on mutual aid, you prove yourself privately to a mod. I don’t think you should have to publicly post your identity as many people have good reasons for not doing that. But if each person sent a photograph of proof to a mod, you could then get a “Verified” badge to post on mutual aid.

For instance I would not mind sending a PM to a mod with a photo of my disability benefit award letter showing I have a ridiculously low amount to live on and/or a photo of a medical letter verifying I’m having cancer treatment and recovering from a stroke.

Verifying yourself would remove scammers, cut down the number of people asking for aid, and donors could trust that their donations are being used for what they say they are.

Someone else also had a suggestion that to post on mutual aid you need to have been a regular poster for at least three months, that could be a good idea too.

  • Horse {they/them}@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
    13·
    19 days ago

    a few problems with this

    • this would put a lot of responsibility on the mods
    • this would require people who need aid to reveal personally identifying information to someone who is ultimately a stranger on the internet
    • how would they be able to verify documents they aren’t familiar with? if someone from say, Romania for example sent me a picture of a welfare letter, i would have no idea what one is supposed to look like to compare it

    • ghostsigns [none/use name]@hexbear.netEnglish
      4·
      18 days ago

      Exactly. Why reinvent in miniature the exact means-testing bureaucracy that causes social programs in capitalist countries to be expensive and inefficient and which justifies their dismantling?