Is it okay to beg for money on Mastodon?

Leeloo

@randahl
You're asking your question as if Mastodon was a centralized social network with one policy.

billy joe bowers 🗽

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.

Randahl Fink

@lydiaschoch they are hoping I will boost their posts, but obviously I would never boost monetary requests from something I cannot vouch for.

Ever.

Randahl Fink

@leeloo if you read the last line again, you will see I am talking about individual servers.

thedæmon (Clay Ayers) [he / him]

I find it weird and just ignore them honestly.

BSM (sw.s) 🇨🇭

@randahl I just block and report them.

Hiker

@randahl These accounts are practically all on "mastodon.social" and this monster instance don't have any functioning moderation, so reporting them will not help. The only option is to block them.

Furbland's Very Cool Mastodon™

@randahl the Fediverse’s #MutualAid network is one of the strongest ones I have ever seen, and it is something to be proud about, not concerned about. remember that not everyone is a (probably quite rich) political journalist like you. there are programs like @aral’s Gaza Verified to ensure the people asking for this stuff are reputable. how about you sit this one out, my guy.

Leeloo

@randahl
My point is that you're talking about one policy. The idea is that there will be as many policies as there are servers.

Kathmandu

@lydiaschoch @randahl

The messages that I've seen direct-messaging someone or replying to an un-related post were clearly spam.

If you start the 'report and block' process on a message, the software (on my server anyway) shows the account's other recent posts, and asks if they illustrate a pattern of spam. Usually all the account posts is begging messages, across every server it can reach.

If it's not a person you've known for some time, block and optionally report; assume they're scammers.

Big Kumera Energy

@randahl a good resource for understanding mutual aid is the book 'mutual aid' by dean spade which is available in its entirety here:

https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/dean-spade-mutual-aid

I don't know if you'll have a definitive answer to your question after reading but it might help. I don't have settled thoughts on direct individual requests from internationally distant strangers either.

newsgroup

@randahl This is a difficult issue, and it really requires thoughtful measures to address it properly. Charity is important and valuable, but there also needs to be a level of responsibility and common sense in how it’s handled.