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Does this sound like something worth doing? This poll is closed. |
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| Yes |
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53 | 94.64% |
| No |
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3 | 5.36% |
| Total: | 56 votes | ||
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tuluk posted:people wanting a invite to the hangouts chat should pm godholio, hekk, or cole for vetting. Mod Edit: To prevent the abuse of personal information by idiots, I moved the old thread to a place where it cannot be viewed. That said, the presences of a get help thread is very much a necessity in our community. I recommend anyone who needs to talk join the Google hangout. I started spitballing about this idea in the Vet thread, but thought it might deserve more attention and discussion. The idea is that we would create a web resource for vets that would be similar to the Get Help megathread that would link up vets who are thinking about hurting themselves with another vet to talk to. Setting it up offsite would allow us to keep email addresses and phone numbers private, but easily accessible to those in need with little danger of assholes being able to copy and paste them all over the internet. We could have searchable profiles for the individuals willing to talk with info like branch of service, location, times available, a short blurb about issues they have dealt with in their personal life, etc. We could have an email server that acts as a relay between messages so both parties are kept anonymous. The same thing can be done for phone numbers using a service like google voice. Hopefully this would encourage more people to post their info and be a willing ear since they wouldn't have to worry about some rear end in a top hat doxing them or some bullshit. I have been doing django websites professionally for a little bit, so I'd be willing to program the site, setup the database and a VPS to host it on. What I could really use help on is creating content, giving the site a name/logos/etc, and getting volunteers to sign up as people to talk to. Some issues worth discussing: Should we require registration prior to sending an email / making a call for help? Pro: Helps prevent abuse Con: Delays or could prevent someone from getting help Should we require some sort of military service verification for people who register as someone to talk to? Pro: Help to prevent fakes/abuse Con: Cumbersome, not sure of a good method of implementing, could prevent people from signing up to help others Are there people interested in collaborating on the programming and should the site be open source in a public git repo? Pro: Possibility of faster development and more secure code Con: Could expose security vulnerabilities to those interested in exploiting it I've started work and will post more topics as they come up. Somebody fucked around with this message at 19:05 on Dec 31, 2014 |
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Nov 1, 2014 17:03
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| # ¿ May 22, 2024 19:24 |
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What I'm thinking for anonymity is to have the server relay all email messages back and forth. That will allow for 100% anonymity for emails unless the server gets hacked. Messages would not be retained in the database or on the server for longer than it takes to send the message. As for phone calls I'm not sure of a way to get 100% anonymity, but using the google voice method will at least protect the volunteer's telephone number from ever being revealed. I believe it will let the helper know the caller's number though, but I need to verify that to be sure. It might just give the volunteer google's number in the caller id. If you aren't familiar with how google voice widget works it is as follows: Visitor click an adobe flash link on your website that says Call Me Now. It prompts them to input their telephone number, then google calls them. Once they have the visitor on the line, google then calls whatever number is connected to your google voice account. That way the visitor never gets the actual phone number connected to the call me widget. As far as verifying prior military service, I am open to suggestions for methods. The only thing I can think of would be to verify .mil email addresses and for people that don't have them anymore they would have to upload a DD-214 and driver's license and be manually verified. I think this would be a good service to have open to the general vet population, but we could have a goon exclusive group that would just match goons up with each other inside it as well if people want. Potentially we could have custom groups so other smaller vet communities like ours could have their own exclusive groups. The way I am envisioning it now is someone who needs someone to talk to would visit the page, and could either get matched up immediately with someone or could search the database for someone with a similar background. Each of the volunteers could create a short profile like what branch of service, whether they are still in, some personal issues they might have went through if they want to post it, and what times they are available to talk or if they are only available via email. No one could see their name or contact info, just a username or first initial. Also by putting in times they are available to talk we can make it so if someone isn't available at a specific time they won't show up in a search for someone who needs to speak to someone right now. That will hopefully help people get connected immediately instead of trying someone and giving up when they don't get an answer. I am building the database models for volunteers right now. What information do you think we should require or allow people to provide? So far I am thinking: First Name/Initial/Pseudonym <-- Public Telephone Number <--- Hidden from other users Email Address <--- Hidden Zip Code <--- Maybe. If we did this it would be optional and could be used if people want to be matched up to another person nearby Gender? <--- Maybe some people only want to talk to someone of the same gender? FYI I am not putting in a slider. Perhaps Male, Female, Other?  Then the following would all be public viewable and used to help match make people who might have had similar experiences: Branch of Service Current Status - Active, Retired, ETS Been Deployed Combat Action Personal Background/Story Days of the Week Available Office/Enlisted? Grade? How does this sound? Are there other fields or criteria we should add to this? Delizin fucked around with this message at 23:41 on Nov 1, 2014 |
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Nov 1, 2014 23:09
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As far as hosting, I am planning on putting it up on a Virtual Private Server on Digital Ocean. That is quite a bit better than some shared host. It also will give us much higher performance for less money. I am thinking a $10/month plan should keep us fast even if it gets a bit of traffic. The domain name will be about $15-$20 a year and the SSL cert will be about $50 a year. I'll go out of pocket on these expenses to get us up and running. Maybe after deployment we can add a paypal donate link or something to help with expenses down the line. Here is a link to Digital Ocean and the server specs for interested parties: https://www.digitalocean.com/pricing/ 1GBMemory 1 CoreProcessor 30GBSSD Disk 2TBTransfer I have a few VPSes on there already and it has worked great for me in the past. Linode is also a good choice, but I've been preferring DO lately. Delizin fucked around with this message at 23:31 on Nov 1, 2014 |
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Nov 1, 2014 23:26
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Reverand maynard posted:while on the subject whats the GIP irc? Used to be #milgoons, but MOTD there says it was moved to #koolkrew on Synirc. Anyone got some photos they wouldn't mind sharing for the website? I am looking for stuff that is free/public use and acceptable for the general public to put on the front page to get across the message of helping vets. Delizin fucked around with this message at 00:34 on Nov 2, 2014 |
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Nov 2, 2014 00:26
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Just want to let everyone know that I am still programming away. It will still take a bit until I get to the point where I can present a demo. I figure I'll present the demos in stages to get peoples input and we can make some revisions before moving onto the next stage. What I am gathering from everyone's input so far is that at least initially we'll make everything private and goon only. All members will have there military service validated by uploading a redacted DD-214. Once validated you will have access to the community. I think the google hangouts is a great idea and should definitely be done as well.
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Nov 2, 2014 17:38
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I am still making progress. Working on the registration and military service verification method right now. I think I've got a pretty decent setup that will be tough to fake through. I wanted to see if there was interest in adding some additional utility where once you have had your service verified you could link it to SA account by temporarily putting a key in your SA profile, then it would generate a publicly viewable page that would just have your SA username and a statement that you are or have been a member of the military with no other info. Just a way to root out fakers. It would be very little work and would be optional. If there is an interest in it, I can throw it in.
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Nov 3, 2014 03:34
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Hekk posted:I would love to help with this but I don't feel comfortable linking my SA account with my real name and details. I say dumb poo poo on the internet sometimes and I'd hate to make it easier to link me to this account. Yes, linking will be optional, but the plan is to keep everyone as anonymous as they want to be. The way I am implementing this right now is that you provide a couple things to verify that your military and that is kept private and stored separately from your profile. As soon as an admin clicks on the verify button, all of that private info is permanently deleted along with anything you uploaded. Email addresses are required, but there is an option if you want it viewable to other verified members. If you want to be able to send and receive mail without sharing your email address you still can with the server acting as a relay to keep email addresses anonymous. Telephone numbers are optional and there is the option to make it viewable by verified members as well. If you want to keep telephone private then you just need to provide a google call widget public api key and there will be a google call widget on your profile page that people can click to connect with you. Delizin fucked around with this message at 15:18 on Nov 3, 2014 |
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Nov 3, 2014 15:14
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tuluk posted:delizin website thing: it sounds very overkill/designed as more of a global get-help system than the lowkey Don't loving kill yourself/loving call someone in GiP to talk you down if you feel suicidal we need to avoid another Schneider event. Yeah that is kind of what I was thinking when I first started, but after looking into it more and trying to listen to what people want here, I've shifted direction into something that will be more of an extension for the GiP community to be able to connect with each other. Most of the planned features will require people to register to keep out the riff raff, but there will be stuff to help people such as links to crisis and suicide prevention hotlines and link to the Get Help forum post when it gets the PII removed and is unhidden. I am getting closer to having a demo available then people can get a look at it and we can discuss what kind of things we want to be able to do with it. I've just finished the registration process and am working on user profiles now. After that I will post the demo and work on the Get Help functionality. Hopefully when the demo is posted I can get some good criticism and we can start refining what we all want from this thing.
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Nov 4, 2014 20:36
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Quick update: I am still working on the GiP website. Got held up with a lot of poo poo last week so I didn't make as much progress. Gonna get a little bit of free food on today, then will be back to work.
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Nov 11, 2014 16:13
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Just wanted to throw out an update on the GiP site. It hasn't been abandoned or forgetten, but development slowed down a bit since there isn't an urgency with Google Hangouts working out well. I just finished closing on a house and have been very busy and without internet. I will be busy for about another week or two then will be able to get back to finish up the site. If I'm not moving fast enough for you guys, if there is a django programmer that wants to start plugging away at this stuff let me know and I'll hook you up with the git, otherwise I'll keep you guys posted.
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Nov 26, 2014 03:13
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| # ¿ May 22, 2024 19:24 |
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Isaac Asimov posted:Or tell me how the free VA healthcare works for private therapists. VA doesn't offer one-on-one counseling in Colorado, so I'm trying to find a therapist in Denver. I don't really know how to ask the questions I need answered, like: Can I pay $5 instead of $100 because I'm poor? I know Colorado has a low income program for healthcare. Dunno if it applies to therapy, but I assume so. It might help you out if you happen to fall within the program guidelines. We got a friend who works at our primary clinic that helps people get setup with the program and it seems to help a lot. https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/hcpf/colorado-indigent-care-program
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Feb 6, 2015 06:41
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