4 ms·

I 100% agree with your assessment. >They get dismissed as crazies and addicts who simply can't be helped. How can we identify which people are in which group?

I 100% agree with your assessment. >They get dismissed as crazies and addicts who simply can't be helped. How can we identify which people are in which group? Is it simply a matter of advertising a path out, and those willing to try will follow up? Obviously, this assumes someone has a functioning path out, which I don't.

DoreenMichele 7y ago
I think the best approach is make paths available, let people sort themselves by which path they prefer. I have a functional path out. No one cares and I can't get support for further developing it. I posted this to HN. It got no traction. https://streetlifesolutions.blogspot.com/2019/06/a-people-first-model-for-addressing.html https://streetlifesolutions.blogspot.com/2019/06/a-people-fi... I am actively working on developing additional resources, for example: https://genevievefiles.blogspot.com/ https://genevievefiles.blogspot.com/ Explanation: https://streetlifesolutions.blogspot.com/2019/06/lgbtq-individuals-are-at-increased-risk.html https://streetlifesolutions.blogspot.com/2019/06/lgbtq-indiv... I would like to also put together information related to understanding and resolving our current housing crisis (because that's one of the root causes of homelessness). I've made multiple stabs at starting a website to gather such data. The latest was started yesterday: https://americanhomeworks.blogspot.com/ https://americanhomeworks.blogspot.com/ But ad income for websites generally has tanked in recent years and I get endless excuses and justifications for why writing shouldn't get paid at all and I get told I should get a real job and stop whining. I don't feel like rehashing that in detail for the umpteenth time on HN. Short version: there are enough people here with money to spare that it really shouldn't be hard to adequately fund my Patreon for me to be able to blog full-time instead of spending time trying to come up with money to survive doing writing of a sort that people here decry as "ruining the internet," but almost no one wants to put their money where their mouth is. They are all too happy to watch the world burn while loudly decrying how it can't be fixed and once in a while patting me on the head for making my life suck less but not actually taking me seriously as someone with anything of real value to offer cuz Reasons. Meanwhile, I'm nearly broke as usual and wondering how the hell I'm going to get through the rest of the damn month because doing low paid writing for clients is harder than doing quality writing on my own sites, but developing my sites mostly doesn't pay. Too bad, so fucking sad. It sucks to be me.
- citboin 7y ago
  Writing/ blogging might simply be the wrong approach to get your message out. Have you tried YouTube or Podcasts? Interviews of the homeless and/or activists? Photos of them on instagram? Add all of the Tools of social media marketing to your toolset and you might have more impact.
  - DoreenMichele 7y ago
    A. I'm medically handicapped. A lot of that is simply out of reach for me. B. My writing is good enough to sometimes make the front page of HN. It still doesn't pay, not because I'm doing anything wrong, but because the world expects content for free. Most YouTube channels, etc, also don't really support their creators. Plus you are de facto asking me to abandon something I've spent years getting good at in order to start over from scratch with something else. The subtext there is "Of course writing doesn't pay! It never will! Just quit!" This piece (below) by me made the front page, got substantial upvotes and generated substantial conversation. It made not one thin dime. https://raisingfutureadults.blogspot.com/2019/01/the-hand-licking-incident.html https://raisingfutureadults.blogspot.com/2019/01/the-hand-li... I've been on HN a decade. I've read and participated in numerous discussions pertinent to this problem space. A tldr is people don't approve of any means whatsoever to pay content creators. Ads are evil. Tip jars are "panhandling the internet." Patreon is seen as "begging for charity" rather than a legitimate means to monetize your work in a world where people aggressively use ad blockers and bitch and moan about the evils of ads. Selling something else as a product and writing related content -- aka content marketing -- is another form of evil ruining the internet. Doing low-paid writing, such as product descriptions and content marketing pieces for hire, makes me part of the problem that is ruining the internet. People on HN actively look for and promote means to get around pay walls. There is zero means to monetize online content that doesn't get decried as evil, evil and more evil. Reflecting that back as "So, basically, you think writing should be done by slave labor" offends the high paid, high minded types that find it an affront that writers want a middle class life. Meanwhile, they also bitch and moan about there not being enough good writing and utterly dismiss the idea that making it impossible to get adequately paid for writing has any bearing on how journalism etc is going to hell. I'm exhausted and tired of saying the same things over and over and hearing the same tired argument that I'm just doing it wrong, I'm just too stupid to figure out the right way and some random internet stranger can fix my life with a paragraph or two of advice if I will just dutifully listen. I already said I don't really want to rehash this. I still don't really want to rehash this. It's amazingly aggravating and pointless.

DoreenMichele 7y ago

I think the best approach is make paths available, let people sort themselves by which path they prefer. I have a functional path out. No one cares and I can't get support for further developing it. I posted this to HN. It got no traction. https://streetlifesolutions.blogspot.com/2019/06/a-people-first-model-for-addressing.html https://streetlifesolutions.blogspot.com/2019/06/a-people-fi... I am actively working on developing additional resources, for example: https://genevievefiles.blogspot.com/ https://genevievefiles.blogspot.com/ Explanation: https://streetlifesolutions.blogspot.com/2019/06/lgbtq-individuals-are-at-increased-risk.html https://streetlifesolutions.blogspot.com/2019/06/lgbtq-indiv... I would like to also put together information related to understanding and resolving our current housing crisis (because that's one of the root causes of homelessness). I've made multiple stabs at starting a website to gather such data. The latest was started yesterday: https://americanhomeworks.blogspot.com/ https://americanhomeworks.blogspot.com/ But ad income for websites generally has tanked in recent years and I get endless excuses and justifications for why writing shouldn't get paid at all and I get told I should get a real job and stop whining. I don't feel like rehashing that in detail for the umpteenth time on HN. Short version: there are enough people here with money to spare that it really shouldn't be hard to adequately fund my Patreon for me to be able to blog full-time instead of spending time trying to come up with money to survive doing writing of a sort that people here decry as "ruining the internet," but almost no one wants to put their money where their mouth is. They are all too happy to watch the world burn while loudly decrying how it can't be fixed and once in a while patting me on the head for making my life suck less but not actually taking me seriously as someone with anything of real value to offer cuz Reasons. Meanwhile, I'm nearly broke as usual and wondering how the hell I'm going to get through the rest of the damn month because doing low paid writing for clients is harder than doing quality writing on my own sites, but developing my sites mostly doesn't pay. Too bad, so fucking sad. It sucks to be me.

citboin 7y ago
Writing/ blogging might simply be the wrong approach to get your message out. Have you tried YouTube or Podcasts? Interviews of the homeless and/or activists? Photos of them on instagram? Add all of the Tools of social media marketing to your toolset and you might have more impact.
- DoreenMichele 7y ago
  A. I'm medically handicapped. A lot of that is simply out of reach for me. B. My writing is good enough to sometimes make the front page of HN. It still doesn't pay, not because I'm doing anything wrong, but because the world expects content for free. Most YouTube channels, etc, also don't really support their creators. Plus you are de facto asking me to abandon something I've spent years getting good at in order to start over from scratch with something else. The subtext there is "Of course writing doesn't pay! It never will! Just quit!" This piece (below) by me made the front page, got substantial upvotes and generated substantial conversation. It made not one thin dime. https://raisingfutureadults.blogspot.com/2019/01/the-hand-licking-incident.html https://raisingfutureadults.blogspot.com/2019/01/the-hand-li... I've been on HN a decade. I've read and participated in numerous discussions pertinent to this problem space. A tldr is people don't approve of any means whatsoever to pay content creators. Ads are evil. Tip jars are "panhandling the internet." Patreon is seen as "begging for charity" rather than a legitimate means to monetize your work in a world where people aggressively use ad blockers and bitch and moan about the evils of ads. Selling something else as a product and writing related content -- aka content marketing -- is another form of evil ruining the internet. Doing low-paid writing, such as product descriptions and content marketing pieces for hire, makes me part of the problem that is ruining the internet. People on HN actively look for and promote means to get around pay walls. There is zero means to monetize online content that doesn't get decried as evil, evil and more evil. Reflecting that back as "So, basically, you think writing should be done by slave labor" offends the high paid, high minded types that find it an affront that writers want a middle class life. Meanwhile, they also bitch and moan about there not being enough good writing and utterly dismiss the idea that making it impossible to get adequately paid for writing has any bearing on how journalism etc is going to hell. I'm exhausted and tired of saying the same things over and over and hearing the same tired argument that I'm just doing it wrong, I'm just too stupid to figure out the right way and some random internet stranger can fix my life with a paragraph or two of advice if I will just dutifully listen. I already said I don't really want to rehash this. I still don't really want to rehash this. It's amazingly aggravating and pointless.