New blogpost:
# "Mutual aid posts and the fediverse"
I am seeing an increasing number of posts from people asking for a bit of extra help, so I wanted to blog a few thoughts.
https://neilzone.co.uk/2026/10/mutual-aid-posts-and-the-fediverse/
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Yes, I suspect that filtering a relatively small number of keywords would do that.
@neil I have and continue to make small donations to people here but I'm far from flush with spare cash.
I also have an informal criteria of "people in the UK who are at most 2 steps away from me"
Part of this is pragmatic (avoid wasting money on transaction and conversion fees)
Part is minimise potential scam
Part is to minimise the guilt of not being able to help everyone (I do pay tax and have gaye for a few local and national charities too)
I assume you know about https://gaza-verified.org
@M0YNG Yes, I am mostly (not exclusively) UK centric, as far as I know.
@neil yep had a few. I donated to a few at first then they grew in their personal PMs to me asking for more. I give to charity on monthly direct debits and commit my time to causes appropriately over the month to protect my mental health, so sadly I just can't handle more of that in my "down" time in here, which I see as my escape from the world often, to hang with my mates. It's like the big issue sellers who come into a pub. I love the Big Issue but I won't buy it in that context.
@neil
This largely mirrors my thoughts.
I would, unhesitatingly, help someone with whom I have an existing relationship. There are others that I block.
Sorry.
I don't think there are many actual 'scam' posts, but many where the OP isn't (in my view) taking responsibility for themself and seems to assume the world owes them a favour just because they are in it.
I'm very much the child of Gen-X parents, and have absorbed the 'you are ultimately responsible for yourself' philosophy.
Yes, and there is plenty of room for nuance here.
In particular, I am mindful that I have grown up in a very privileged way, as a white, cis, het, man, who was lucky enough to have amazing parents, go to a great school, get and retain a good job, make decent money, have a strong safety net, and so on. And, sure, I have put some work in too, but boy did I benefit from an amazing head start.
I think that, over the years, I've become more attuned to exactly what that has afforded me.
@neil
I get that. I came from a working-class family. I was the first person in my family to get a degree and a professional qualification. Although my parents weren't privileged, they are archetypal 'aspirational working class'.
Yes, some people have advantages in their upbringing, but we are all ultimately responsible for ourselves. In my job, I see so many people failing to take responsibility for themselves and their decisions,
Charity matters, but so does personal responsibility.
@Jaimieserotica @neil My approach to this is helping the people I know, direct debits to structured charities or sometimes supporting creatives whose work I appreciate. Almost every time I get convinced into doing something outside of that I am almost always immediately left disappointed.
Yes, I enjoy buying from people here but, for the sake of this post, I was trying (and perhaps failing) to distinguish between commerce and mutual aid, although this is definitely a spectrum.
@neil @Jaimieserotica probably my fault for blurring the lines, sorry. The ones that are just straight up boosted mutual aid posts with no exchange, I just ignore.
If I get directed replies (twice) or DMs (not yet), I block. I don’t know them. I have no way of identifying if they’re even genuine or not. I have enough misery around me to work on.
@neil @Jaimieserotica I hope you have a very generous head start or escape route planned, sir 😂
Her threats of causing me bodily harm are like water off a duck's back.
@neil
I give a mean Chinese burn.
@interpipes
I knew that you were young, but I hadn't appreciated that you were seven...
@Jaimieserotica Yes, I can imagine that your work shapes your views here!
@neil I get a fair number of Palestinian aid requests, perhaps because I sometimes post on that subject. I don't engage with them, instead I donate every so often to UNRWA.
@neil I don't have a big presence or many connections here and I don't advertise myself, so when I got one of these replies in a bunch of my posts once, I was very suspicious of it being a bot/scam. I've ended up putting a filter on for them, but I'm not in a financial position to help anyways.
@neil I have not seen an increase in directed requests, but I have received a lot of follows from people with this in their profile, and I assume if I follow back I'll get a personal message.
I did mute various hashtags and hid boosts from people who boosted a lot about this a while ago though, so I suspect that has filtered out the vast majority (it was dozens each day on my timeline).