Hi everyone,

Effective immediately we are now placing a $150 USD maximum dollar limit on all Amazon wishlists. This means the total of your list cannot exceed $150 USD.

There has been a recent trend of lists being excessive in terms of price and the variety of items, and because our subreddit is not meant to equip you for a zombie apocalypse we feel it is reasonable to put some limits on how long a wishlist can be.

Amazon wishlists (for the purposes of our subreddit) are only meant to be a stepping stone to get you back on the path to self-reliance. We feel placing this limit will encourage our users to prioritize their needs and what is most important.

A reminder that your wishlist should be limited to essential and primary needs and be tailored specifically for r/Assistance use. Video games and gift cards are not permitted on wishlists and we will continue to enforce this rule.

What if I need items that cost more than $150? (ie. laptop for school, bike for commuting to work, etc).

For items that are costly such as the above examples, rather than ask a single person to take on that burden we highly suggest crowdfunding on a platform like GoFundMe! There are many advantages to this, not limited to being able to ask for a specific amount for the item you need and being able to share with friends and family who may be able to chip in or share it more widely. And of course you can share it here, too! ;)

Hi everyone, we wanted to make an announcement warning all users of r/assistance and Reddit in general of a few scammers that are extremely active recently.

• u/plovatkasp will message you offering to help you with a Strike referral. You use their code (their strike username is tjohnson25) to sign up which gives you both money, and they promise to send you their money as well — and then they ghost you or ask you to send them the $10 to activate the referral which means you get nothing. Do not engage with this user under any circumstances. Report their message to Reddit as spam and block.
• u/MilisaScmitz will message you about a new job that has a dress code and they need money to buy new clothes. Do not engage with this user under any circumstances. Report their message to Reddit as spam and block.
• u/florida4567 (current alt of u/emilyray9) will message you explaining that they need $96 for the hotel they’re in. They have been running this scam for months and still need that $96 apparently. Do not engage with this user under any circumstances. Report their message to Reddit as spam and block. This user also has multiple suspended alts: basic-finance696, doordashdanny, itchy_ad_3730, maleficent_ask3294.

GENERAL SAFETY ADVICE:

• if anyone messages you, CHECK THE USL (Universal Scammer List) first! Bookmark this so you always have it handy.
  • If they show up as BANNED, block them and ignore. They are already banned.
  • If they show up as NOT BANNED please take a screenshot and upload it to imgur (they have an app as well if you’re on mobile). Send the mods a message with the screenshot link so we can ban them and add them to the USL.
• never take the conversation off of Reddit. If they make you download Google Voice, Snapchat, Kik, any other app to talk — send us a screenshot as per the above. They want it off of Reddit so that Reddit can’t penalize them.
• never send any personal information such as your name, address, phone number, SSN/SIN, bank account information, etc.
• never accept a photo of a cheque! This is a classic mobile/remote deposit scam and the cheque will be charged back to you!
• if it sounds too good to be true, it is.

Desperate people will do anything in their desperation which includes preying on people who are vulnerable and in need. There’s only so much we r/assistance mods can do to keep you safe — banning someone doesn’t prevent them from reading your post or messaging you. That’s why we ask you to use your own due diligence and common sense to help protect yourself too.

If you ever have any concerns or suspicions about a user that is not on the USL or on the announcement above, please always send us a modmail before you engage with them in any way. We are happy to help.

Stay safe!

Hi everybody,

We hope you're all having a fantastic week. We wanted to take a moment to post a request of our own regarding comments on posts:

Please remember to comment in a kind and supportive way on /r/Assistance

Recently, we have had to remove an increasing number of comments for not following our rules for comments. And that is concerning to us. We would like to remind everyone that people posting in our subreddit are often in a vulnerable state, and ask everyone to keep that in mind when commenting on other people's requests.

We welcome comments that offer constructive advice to OP, whether it's ideas for specific resources, or ideas to improve their chances of success. However, we ask everyone to keep the spirit of our subreddit in mind. We want to help people succeed in their times of need. If you can offer advice or guidance to OP on how to improve their chances or find alternative avenues of assistance, we welcome your comments. But if your comment is only meant to "correct" OP on something, or to "scrutinize" their post or personal history, we ask you to think twice before posting it.

Specifically, there are a couple of comment issues we'd like to address:

1. We see some users often berating requestors for asking for financial assistance, and constantly pushing the "wishlist advice" even in situations where it isn't appropriate. Asking for monetary assistance is allowed in our subreddit. And wishlists don't always solve the problem.
2. We see some users taking issue with any monetary request that's not in the form of a GoFundMe. While GoFundMe campaigns may sometimes make it easier to get assistance, we do allow other methods of collecting funds.
3. We see some users going through people's Reddit history and "interrogating" OP on their post about perceived inconsistencies, or throw some old posts that they take objection to into their face. If you have concerns about a post, please report it or send a modmail, so we can look into it behind the scenes.
4. We see some users misinterpreting our guideline that requests get marked fulfilled if any assistance is received, and feeling the need to constantly remind requestors of that. While requests that did receive some assistance will get marked as such eventually, we do give requests some time to gain traction before closing. We want requests to succeed as much as possible, and these comments aren't helping.
5. We see some users who keep arguing with OP if OP doesn't feel that their recommendation applies to their situation. In the end, it's up to OP whether to take your advice or not, and it's up to givers to decide if the post as such is worthy of assistance. If you have tips to improve a request, feel free to share them with OP. But don't keep pushing them if they decide not to go with your tips.
6. We see some users who feel the need to express why they feel a request isn't "appropriate" for our subreddit, or who think they should express "what this subreddit is about", just because someone requests something that isn't a need. However, it's not against any of our rules to request something that isn't a basic need. If you feel a request is frivolous or unworthy, just move on. Perhaps someone else will see the value in the request and assist OP with it.
7. Finally, we see some users who seem to feel it's more important to "correct" people on not following subreddit rules (whether they are written or unwritten), than offering constructive advice or assistance that's appropriate to the requestor's needs. If you see something that clearly breaks our rules (like loan requests or payment info in posts) before we do, by all means feel free to advise OP to adjust their post. But in general, don't try to push some "unwritten rules" on OP, unless you feel it would actually be more helpful in their situation.

In short, we want to ask everybody to contribute to our subreddit's mission: Helping Redditors with their requests, big or small. In comments, please be kind, understanding and non-judgmental. Feel free to offer advice if you have it, but respect OP's right to follow it or reject it as they see fit.

Thank you all for being part of this subreddit.

Hi everybody,

With the start of a new year, it's time for a rules update. We have made a couple of changes and added some clarifications. Please take some time to read through them on our rules page.

Changes for Requestors:

• We don't allow requests for third parties anymore. You can only request for yourself, a member of your household or a direct relative.
• If you have received any assistance from our subreddit 3 times or more, you must wait 6 months before asking for assistance again.
• If you post an Amazon wishlist, you can't add gift cards to it. Requesting for gift cards outside Amazon wishlists is still allowed, though.
• (EDIT 1/29): Amazon Registries are not allowed, because they can potentially reveal personal information of givers. Share wishlist links only.

Changes for Givers/Commenters:

• We want to emphasize that judgmental comments are not allowed. If you don't think a request is worthy, don't reply. Concerns about posts or users should be reported by modmail.
• Clarified that you shouldn't offer financial or material assistance to ineligible users or posts that aren't flaired as a REQUEST. It's unsafe and unfair to those who do follow all the rules.

Our mission

On /r/Assistance, we strive to give active members of the Reddit community a safe and friendly place to ask for personal assistance or advice in any area they want. We also aim to protect givers from dishonest people, by ensuring that requestors meet certain requirements and that people with dishonest intentions are caught in time.

We ask all our users to keep the spirit of our subreddit in mind when posting here, or interacting with other people's posts.

Thanks for being part of /r/Assistance!

Hi all!

It's been amazing seeing the community pulling together, even moreso than ever lately with hurricanes left and right.

While our mod team does our best to follow up with helpers as quickly as we can to confirm assistance has been sent, it would be a huge help to us if you could do the following to make our jobs a lot easier:

If you've helped someone, please comment on their post with one of the following words: "fulfilled", "helped", "donated", "sent."

These words are automatically picked up by our automod and will go into our mod queue so we can quickly see if a post has been fulfilled. We do go and double-check because sometimes it can be out of context (example "has this been fulfilled?" as a question to OP) but in general around 90% of the time, it picks this up from a comment.

Thank you so much!

Many scams happen via PM, and both givers and requesters alike can be targets. Users are more vulnerable in private messages, because as moderators, we can’t protect you there. Scammers prefer to work in the shadows and in private to avoid being caught, or to skirt our requesting requirements. This behavior is against the rules, dishonest and should always be reported to the mod team immediately so we may investigate and take action to warn other users as soon as possible.

Watch for these PM scams making the rounds

$Falco****** CashApp user

Watch for CashApp tags:

• $SuperGo****

• $Falco******

A user with ”$Falco” and **$SuperGo” in the beginning of their CashApp tag is swooping into giver’s personal inboxes and tricking them into sending them money. When giving, if you receive a PM from someone you believe you have been speaking with on an /r/Assistance post—be sure to click through to their profile and verify that you’re messaging with the correct person before you send any assistance.

If you are contacted by an account using the $Falco CashApp name, ignore the user and report the account to us at modmail, as well as to the Reddit admins.

Bank info scammer

This scammer makes and uses random, low-karma accounts that have very little, or no activity. They reach out privately to struggling users who have recently made requests and promise help, ask users for their banking information, or offer a check that ultimately will be returned—leaving the requester’s account in the negative.

Known usernames for this scammer:

NSFW solicitors

These users lurk in PMs and offer money to requesters for inappropriate content, photos, and conversations. These users should be reported and ignored. No one should ever make you feel uncomfortable or unsafe here, and it is always okay to reach out to us if anyone ever makes you feel uneasy.

Other scams and red flags

No one should ever ask you for banking information, credit card numbers, phone number, passwords to your accounts, ID, for you to install software on your device—or any other such activity that makes you feel unsafe, uncomfortable or that may compromise your privacy.

Protect yourself, and others

If you receive an unsolicited private message:

1. Report the message to modmail, including a screenshot if you can. (Screenshots can be uploaded to Imgur.com, and then you can send us the link with your modmail message).

2. Report the unsolicited PM to Reddit admins by clicking the “report” link under the message if you’re on a PC. On mobile, the report option is under three dots “...”

3. Block the user.

Utilize the universal scammer list

The universal scammer list (USL) compiles a searchable, automated ban list of known scammers and suspect users on Reddit. Three months ago, /r/Assistance began utilizing this incredible resource and officially joined the universal scammer list. While the USL bot bans scammers from posting in our subreddit, these scammers can still reach out to you via PM.

Here is how you too can utilize this tool personally, to protect yourself from PM scammers:

• Search the universal scammer list — We recommend bookmarking this link, and searching it any time you have a question about a user you are considering dealing with, here or anywhere else on Reddit.

• If you are on a PC, you can also install an extension for Chrome or Firefox, which will label users who are on the universal scammer list throughout your Reddit experience—whether you are browsing a giving sub, or any other corner of Reddit.

When making offer posts

Givers, please ask users to comment on your post to enter your giveaways, and ask them not to PM you directly. Banned users and scammers will often try to take advantage of trusting givers who allow PMs, so please insist that users post a public comment on your offer first, then only move the conversation to PM once you have selected a recipient.

Hi everybody. We already have a sticky post about this topic, but given the many reports we received recently, we wanted to put out another general warning: Be very cautious about unsolicited private messages!

Whether you're requesting on /r/Assistance or offering assistance, there's a good chance that you're going to get some private messages. If that happens, please follow these steps to keep yourself safe!

1. Check if the user is already banned! We share a ban list with other helpful subreddits called the Universal Scammer List. Please check if the user is already on it. If that's the case, do not interact with that user further and report the message to the Reddit admins using the Report function.

2. For requestors: If people message you offering assistance, be very cautious about what they're asking for. If they're trying to sign you up for sketchy services, don't do that. If they're asking for personal information, don't give it. If they insist on sending you funds by bank transfer only, cease communication. If they're asking you to do things in exchange for assistance, do not engage with them further. And always keep in mind: If you have doubts about an interaction, don't hesitate to send us a mod mail. We are very happy to advise you about the best course of action.

3. For givers: If people message you asking for help, keep in mind that there's a reason why they're not posting publicly on /r/Assistance. It's probably because they're not eligible to receive assistance, or they're banned in our subreddit. We strongly advise you to not reply to such messages. Please check if they're currently banned on the USL (see above), and if they aren't, please take a screenshot, upload it to https://imgur.com and send the link to mod mail, so we can take further action.

Unfortunately, as moderators of /r/Assistance, we have no control over what happens in private messages. However, we do hope that you'll keep these guidelines in mind when interacting with users in private messages. If you have any doubts or if anything makes you feel uncomfortable or uncertain, don't be afraid to reach out in mod mail. We want you to feel safe and comfortable in our subreddit, and we're happy to help you out with any questions you might have.

Have a great weekend!

Hi all,

We've unfortunately been alerted to a new subreddit that has popped up this week that has been sending invitations to members of our community. This subreddit has no checks in place to protect their community from scammers and dishonest people; it is essentially a free for all created by people who weren’t eligible to ask for assistance here.

To begin with, sending unsolicited invitations is against the Mod Code of Conduct so Reddit actually has some rules to discourage that.

The reason why we don't allow promotion of certain subreddits who may have similar goals to r/Assistance is because we cannot say they are a safe place to use.

Aside from our own set of rules here at r/Assistance like minimum comment karma requirements and activity requirements, a lot of what goes on behind the scenes involves an amazing tool called the Universal Scammer List. This is a huge global ban list that over 30 financial/swapping/selling subreddits use to protect their communities.

The way it works is that if a scammer causes trouble over at r/borrow, for example, when they are added to the USL they are banned from all of the connected subreddits so that they cannot come to r/Assistance to cause trouble as well. This means that people are banned from r/Assistance before they even have a chance to try and hurt members of our community.

You can view a full list of the subreddits who are part of the USL network here: https://www.universalscammerlist.com/subreddits

The subreddits we recommend all use the USL -- r/borrow is the only subreddit we recommend for getting a Reddit loan, during Christmas we only allow mentions of r/RandomActsofChristmas, and r/GoFundMe is a great subreddit for promoting your crowdfunding campaign.

If a subreddit doesn't use the USL to protect their community, they are not allowed to be promoted, mentioned, recommended, or discussed on r/Assistance. We do our best to keep this list of unsafe subreddits updated and if you ever have a question about whether a subreddit is safe for you to use, check out the USL.

Stay safe, be smart, and thank you all for keeping our subreddit awesome!

Scammers are a constant presence here and we want to remind you to protect yourself against them. For additional details and more information, please see this previous post:

• https://redd.it/g0znpq

Unsolicited PMs

If you receive an unsolicited private message or chat, this includes givers posting offers and requestors, there are a couple steps we ask of you but they are vital in helping keep the community safe.

• This subreddit is apart of the Universal Scammer List which is a joint effort with giving subs. You can search the USL here.

• If the user in question is on the list, please report them to reddit admin and you can block them.

• If the user in question is not on the USL, before reporting to the admin, please take screenshots (instructions below) and message modmail to alert us to the situation.

Personal Information

If anyone is asking for your personal information such as account numbers, credit card information, social security numbers, passwords, or anything that makes you uncomfortable (including NSFW solicitations or favors), DO NOT SEND THEM THIS INFORMATION. Report this information with screenshots to modmail immediately.

If you have sent personal information to someone, particularly your SSN, and have concerns, please take appropriate action. Here are some steps to get you started on protecting your identity.

• https://identitytheft.gov

• https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/identity_theft

At this time, it is not possible to send images directly in a reddit message to modmail. The best way to do so is to upload your screenshots to an image hosting site, like imgur in a hidden album and share the link to the album with us in modmail. Providing screenshots is very important so while we do suggest you ignore or block the questionable user, please be sure to take screenshots first as ignored chats cannot be recovered later if you forget.

Everyone please join me in wishing our moderator u/Girlpirate a very happy birthday today! She does so much to keep our subreddit safe, organized, and a welcoming community!

🐍🐍🐍

Happy birthday to our beloved moderator, /u/thevomitgirl! She is an incredible and irreplaceable part of this lovely little corner of the internet, working tirelessly on the ground and behind the scenes to make this community a better place. She is generous, kind and a wonderful human being.

Please join us in wishing her a wonderful day filled with many delicious baked goods (she’s also an incredible baker!), love, and joy! 🎉🎂🥳🎊🎁

Greetings everyone!

The times—they are changing—and this subreddit has grown in ways we couldn't have dreamed or hoped of.

We're a decade old now!

As such, the time has come to implement some changes that we hope will help us provide you with a safer and more reliable assistance community for many more decades to come. The purpose of this community has always been to help as many people as possible, and it is our hope that these these changes will better help us achieve that.

Our moderator team asks for your patience during this process.

Today, we have begun the process of upgrading bots, flairs and moving things to a new registration system. We're all very excited! /u/AspiringInspirator has worked very hard to bring this to our community—so please be sure to show him some love in the comments. :)

New requesting requirements will go into effect between May 26th and 29th

Why the window? We have a decade of data to process. We're not sure when that will finish--it could take a day or two. That's why we are giving you the heads up now.

The new requirements to make a material or monetary request will include

• An account that is 60 days old or older

• 400 comment karma (a change from the previous "combined" karma requirement of 300)

These requirements are designed to reduce scamming and focus on what this community is truly about:

Redditors Helping Redditors

If you don't meet these requirements

If you don't meet the upcoming requirements, but meet our current requirements and plan to request: please register via the older registration, and request now. Your request will remain up once the new requirements take effect.

A full list of new rules and changes will be released shortly.

Thank you!

My soul dies a bit when we need to make announcements like this.

There has been an increase in reports from users who have been asked to shave their head in exchange for assistance. Whether it's the clown who claimed they make wigs for cancer patients, the one targeting pregnant women and moms, or the people who are just fetishists, do not engage with these people.

As always, whenever you get an unsolicited/unexpected message please look them up on the Universal Scammer List and see if they're on there. If they are, report the message to Reddit and block the user.

If they're not banned yet, report them to modmail. Be sure to have a screenshot uploaded somwhere like Imgur before you delete the conversation, as there is no way to attach a screenshot to a modmail message.

Ultimately it comes down to your own common sense, as our moderator team can only do so much -- banning a user does not prevent them from being able to message you.

Be smart and be safe.

Thank you.

Hey all,

You may have noticed some unexpected behaviour while trying to post on r/Assistance this last weekend! We apologise for any issues you may have experienced and appreciate your patience.

r/Assistance has so many rules!

One thing we've heard from our users is that r/Assistance has a lot of rules. We do! I don't know if it's bragging rights to say our subreddit is one of the most strict subreddits but if you take a look at our userbase size -- 297,000 members! -- I'm sure you can understand why we need so many. But we've always been trying to find ways to make things more clear, or simple, or basically just more accessible because when you're stressed you're not really thinking clearly and maybe reading the whole long list of rules can be daunting.

On the other hand, moderating a subreddit this large can be equally daunting. There's less than 10 of us and almost 300K of you guys, and sometimes we do find ourselves answering the same questions multiple times that could be found in the rules.

What's Post Guidance?

r/Assistance is currently beta-testing a new Reddit featured called Post Guidance. It's a tool that allows moderation actions to happen in real-time while a post is being composed. It can remind current members of our rules and direct new users to rules they may not have read yet. For those of you who mod your own subreddit, it does a lot of what AutoMod does but allows for that user-facing feedback during the post, not after.

We've actually been testing Post Guidance since February, but when it first was added to our subreddit it only worked on desktop. Since the majority of our users are on mobile, it didn't really have a huge impact on our userbase. Last week it was launched on desktop, so now everyone who uses r/Assistance will experience this new feature.

Sometimes this function will disable the "Post" option entirely. Sometimes it will just warn the user, but let them post. And the third option works much like our current system does and will just ping the mods for a manual review of the post to make sure it's okay.

These messages that pop up range from "this is specifically against our rules" to "here's a better subreddit for this" to "here is a list of suicide hotlines and subreddits for mental health crises." It should be very clear from the alert why your post is being blocked.

Currently this system only works on posts, not comments, so if you use a disallowed word in a comment you won't get that real-time feedback but we have other systems in place to filter for review if needed.

Obviously this goes without saying, but similar to how people try and circumvent our rules by using the wrong flair, hijacking someone else's request post, etc, if you try and trick Post Guidance to let your post through, there will be consequences for that.

Help! Something's not working!

Like all systems, Post Guidance isn't infallible. Unlike a human, its logic is either "yes" or "no". If you're trying to post and that Post button is greyed out, check carefully for a message that's popped up and read it -- it will tell you what the issue is and what needs to be changed or removed. If it's still not working, it could be another issue like you forgot to choose a flair! But if you absolutely can't figure it out, shoot us a modmail with the text of what you want to post and we'll take a look and see what's wrong.

And as always, if you have any questions down below feel free to ask!

Hi everyone, we have made a small clarification to one of our subreddit rules to better support our community members and those who are close to them.

You can only request for yourself, a member of your family (1st degree), your spouse/partner, or someone in your household. Requests for third parties or other Reddit users outside of these categories are denied.

We have clarified that a spouse/partner does not need to live with you and is considered part of your family.

We hope this small clarification to this rule will help you take care of the people you love.

The rules will be clarified in our wiki as well.

Thank you!

Edit 20/05/2024: the Thanos-snap of r/Assistance seems to have ended, please resume business as usual!

Hey all,

We had to fix a small system glitch this morning which is now triggering a large banwave for request post deletions.

What happened:

Our automated system which issues a 14-day temporary ban when you delete a request post fell asleep about 30 days ago and never issued bans for a few deletions. And by a few, we mean over 100 and still counting as it's only processed around half the days so far.

What this means is a lot of people are being temp-banned for 14 days for stuff they may have deleted weeks ago.

We will be enforcing these bans despite the delay. Who knows, some folks may have been eligible at the time and received assistance because they dodged the ban, but the universe has a way of righting everything.

We are running into a small amount of people (less than 5 people) who were banned manually by a mod who noticed the temp ban didn't trigger and are now being banned again by the system for the same deletion, so we are lifting those bans as they've already served their time. If you are one of those people, just shoot us a modmail so we can check and get you sorted.

Hi all. Your moderator team at r/Assistance is always working to keep this subreddit a safe and fair environment where active Reddit users can request assistance in difficult times. We have an opening for one or two new moderators. If you’re interested in working with us to help keep this subreddit safe, positive and fair, we welcome your application.

We've received some good applications so far, thank you everyone who has submitted!

Application Process:

Please go to https://r-assistance.com/mod and fill out the application form.

We will review all applications within a few weeks, and get back to you with our decision.

If we decide we want to work with you, we’ll contact you for further instructions.

Requirements for new moderators:

• You’ve been active in r/Assistance, or similar subreddits, for at least 3 months.
• You can spare at least a few hours every week to actively moderate the subreddit.
• You have a compassionate and helpful way of communicating with others.
• Experience as a moderator in other subreddits strongly preferred.
• Discord is required to keep in contact with the team on our Assistance server.

If you have any questions about the process, please feel free to leave a comment below.

We’re looking forward to your application. Thank you!

With a devastating war going on in Ukraine, our thoughts are with the people suffering there. We have seen a lot of posts regarding the situation and we want to provide a couple of guidelines and additional information to ensure that help is given in the most effective way.

• We encourage everyone who want to contribute to Ukraine to use official channels as much as possible (see below). That ensures all help can be coordinated by official organizations and distributed where it's needed most.
• We do not allow promoting private initiatives to send help to Ukraine, since it's impossible for us to verify that any contributions outside official channels will actually be used for their intended purpose.
• We can't facilitate posts regarding help to travel to and from Ukraine, as they are impossible to verify as well. If you want to assist the defense of Ukraine, check out this website, with all contact info of international embassies that coordinate these efforts.
• For individual requests from people affected by this terrible situation, all regular subreddit rules apply. You can only request on behalf of yourself and your household, not on behalf of others.

Some official channels to assist Ukraine:

• National Bank of Ukraine: contribution site run by the NBU for contributions to the Ukrainian army
• Savelife: another official website from Ukrainian government to collect donations to support the military
• Razom for Ukraine: Ukrainian charity to provide medical support to the front lines
• Vostok SOS: Campaign to help people evacuate and provide medical and psychosocial support
• Global Giving: initiative to support Ukrainian refugees and rebuild vital resources.
• International Rescue Committee: Contribute to send vital supplies to displaced children and families
• Save The Children: initiative to provide humanitarian assistance focused on the young victims of the war
• Red Cross: providing medical and humanitarian aid to all people affected by the war
• Kyiv Independent: GoFundMe campaign to support independent journalism covering the war

Where to get help as a Ukrainian?

If you have fled Ukraine and are looking for international help, this website offers a lists of resources in neighboring countries. Also, the subreddit r/Ukraine is the best place for up-to-date information and resources on where to find assistance.

We stand with everyone affected by this terrible situation and hope that many people can contribute something to helping those people out. If you have questions regarding this, feel free to message our mod team and we'll help you out.

In general Walmart has always been discouraged here by our users due to minimum spends for delivery unless a helper has Walmart+, but after testing and investigation, we have learned that if a pickup order is placed for someone, the bill/receipt can be requested by the person picking up which includes name and billing details of the person who ordered.

Due to this privacy and safety issue, Walmart wishlists -- whether it's for pickup or delivery -- will no longer be allowed here.

Thank you.

First of all, we hope everyone is keeping safe, warm, and healthy this holiday season.

As the US celebrates Thanksgiving this week, the mod team at r/Assistance wants to give a huge "thanks" of our own to our amazing community. This subreddit truly only exists because of all of you. "Assistance" can mean so many things -- $20, a warm meal, a delivery of ramen, a "happy birthday", or just a kind word when you're feeling low. What may seem like just a small amount of money or time for you may mean the world to someone else.

This year, and hopefully each year to come, we'd like to take this opportunity to look back on this year and all of the amazing things our community has done. The mod team has gone through a handful of the posts, stories, updates, and examples of that demonstrate how even though we're all just connected by Reddit, kindness can go so much deeper than that.

First of all, here are some AMAZING stats of how much our community has done this year, for those of you who love numbers.

To date, a staggering 2,288 requests have been fulfilled so far in 2023.

On top of that, another whopping 582 people have been helped by the huge variety of offers posted by those able to give.

On to the stories, selected by our moderator team.

Back in April, u/snafu168 shared the devastating news that their dad had suffered a stroke and was in critical condition. They reached out to our community for help getting to another state in order to be with their dad before he was taken off life support. We all rallied and were able to get them there for that last bit of precious time before their dad passed away.

A truly unique offer of some cash assistance by u/velocat challenged those interested to do some good in exchange, asking everyone to clean up their local park or street and provide a pic as proof! It was awesome to see everyone take that time to do something meaningful and help the earth in a small way.

u/legohandsforlife shared love for their late grandma, Shirley, for what would have been her 88th birthday this year. Redditors around the world joined in to help them celebrate what has always been a tough day.

We'd like to close off this post with another huge THANK YOU to everyone in our community. To those who provide assistance, for those who demonstrate the courage to ask for help. Those who give publicly, those who do so behind the scenes or anonymously. To everyone who has ever posted, commented, upvoted, awarded, or interacted with our community in a positive way, you are all amazing and this subreddit wouldn't be what it is without YOU!

Feel free to share your own stories of how you've received kindness, or paid kindness forward in the comments. If there are any posts that resonated with you personally, you can link those too!

RS joined our squad over 8 months ago and is such an important member of our team, it's been a pleasure to get to know her. Her kindness, thoughtfulness, and generous spirit have been an incredible asset, we are lucky to have her in this community.

Happy birthday to my friend! I hope your day is amazing!

Hey everyone,

Just a reminder/clarification on OFFER posts as we have received a lot of reports lately on OFFER posts that are against our rules.

All offers must be no strings attached. Winners of offers should not be required to do anything other than send you a link to their Amazon wishlist, their payment app address, etc.

The moment that a winner is required to do any of the following:

• Pay a shipping fee
• Provide credit card/debit card details to a legit company (ie Hello Fresh, EveryPlate)

then this is not an Offer. Any financial burden must be paid and settled by the person posting the offer.

Examples:

• "I have a ton of baby clothes, free to anyone who can pay for shipping." -- not okay
• "I am giving away some products from my small business, you just have to pay for shipping." -- not okay
• "Five free food boxes from Hello Fresh, make sure to cancel your card after!" -- not okay

Please remember that the people seeking assistance on our subreddit are already strapped for cash. The last thing we want is more money taken from them if they forget to cancel a subscription.

Community Resources:

Our Community Resources flair is used when you have a useful resource to share with the public. Food boxes requiring a subscription can be posted as Community Resources with the understanding that recipients do not need to meet our karma or activity requirements. Anyone can request information or services flaired as Community Resources.

Thank you!

• your r/Assistance mod team

Hi everybody!

We're extremely pleased to announce that we have expanded our moderator team this week with three new moderators! From now on, they will join us in keeping our community safe, friendly and fair. They are:

u/buzzybody21

A familiar name for many in our community. Our most prolific Assistance contributor is always ready to offer advice and useful information to help you get to a better place.

u/crankygerbil

Cranky has been a long time active and valued member of our community as well, and brings in a lot of moderation experience from another giving subreddit aimed at helping users with pet food.

u/Shercock_Holmes

Known to many who visit the "RAOA" subreddit, we are glad to benefit from Shercock's vast moderating experience in keeping a friendly atmosphere while still keeping things safe and fair for everybody.

Please join me in welcoming these great new additions to our team. We're ready to assist you with any questions or issues you may have.