Taima posted:

Sorry I don't mean to be a downer and it sucks to even bring up, but this feels kinda bad overall (to me, and my opinion doesn't matter to be fair). This guy hasn't even been around for a year on a website where the average poster probably starts at 10 years and goes up to 20+ years...

Everyone deserves help, and things are really hard right now. Honestly times are harder for literally everyone, just the way things are right now, but I really feel like this could be something truly special if it went to help users who we know; who have been here for a very long time, with a very long track record.

For example if Nooner rolled by with a sob story and needed a few bucks- just as an example of someone who has constantly contributed visibly since forever (his efforts in this thread notwithstanding, it's just an example)- I think enough people are posting buddies with Nooner that the money would flow in no problem. Nooner has posted 7 posts a day on average since 2011, and no one is going to top that really, but the general sentiment of giving money to known quantities makes sense to me.

By helping specific users with a long track record on the forums, people would imo be so much more willing to help and it would be a big leg up for the fund. And don't get me wrong, the people who do help the goon fund are amazing people, especially since in a lot of ways it's kind of just throwing your money into a hole without any real safeguards of note that I can see. Maybe it's just someone who posted in the WWF wresting thread for the last 7 years or something. That's fine. Just some consistent long term community activity.

This post really sucked to write and it took me a while to put pen to paper on this but at the end of the day I want people to be helped and just as importantly, I would love if people could donate to people who they are familiar with instead of this whole "just kind of write about how you're in trouble and you get money" that appears to be happening, especially since in the OP it is specifically condoned that you can ask for money for other people who aren't even goons, which sounds good on paper but is just absurdly easy to abuse and that alone is a huge wtf to me honestly.

Or have a system where users can petition for help, and then the donators themselves can weigh in with comments and money about the situation. I don't know, I'm no brain scientist, but nothing about the goonfund as it currently exists makes me feel good about throwing money into the system.

Does this make sense to anyone? Maybe it's just me, which is fair... but here is what I want to see for what little it's worth:

1) Long time community members receive funds, not new users. What constitutes a new user is up for debate, maybe it's not based on years of posting but instead activity, or a combination of both, that would have to be workshopped.
2) I want to be able to direct my money directly to those users, not throw money into a pile that is distributed on a top level.
3) Under this framework a user could request more than $125 because they are a known quantity. That doesn't mean they will get it, but it can be requested.

Idk man. I just want the fund to be successful my opinion doesn't mean jack poo poo so ultimately who cares what I think, but I don't think this format maximizes donations.

And for the record the existing system could stay and run in tandem with one that was focused on helping veteran community members so I'm not saying throw out the current system; just allow people more control about who they donate to, and why, and keep that direct pipeline for those who want it or require it in order to feel ok about giving their money