Not sure how many people were around four years ago for the original drama, but @storyofrachel@hexbear.net was a banned user from early on the site's history, and I've seen quite a bit of speculation recently that a current frequent poster in c/mutualaid is an alt of hers due to having a similar MO and personal details (such as them both living in the same city)
For context, u/storyofrachel was an unhoused trans woman, who frequently solicited money from the community and had problems with substance abuse. She eventually made a post bragging about scamming money from users here (I myself was one of the users who sent her money) and blowing it on drugs (with a picture of the drugs in question) and a
bunch of homophobic slurs (TW: homophobia, self harm).
She later claimed that her account had been hacked, which frankly I did and do not believe. She was unbanned but later banned for other shit which I don't recall and am unable to reconstruct from the modlog and came back on a bunch of different alts, all of which were banned.
If there's any truth to this, it is deeply fucked that this person is still here, evading her ban and scamming people four years later. As one of the people who was taken advantage of previously (and, possibly, again with this current user!), people should at least be able to make an informed decision with all available context. If we want this community to function, and I say this as someone who has sent hundreds of dollars to people over the years through this community, we should be able to guard against bad actors who are trying to take advantage of the compassion and generosity of our user base.
Edit: There's an Instagram with both usernames on it, publicly available. It's 100% the same person. Not going to post it because I don't want anyone to get doxxed but yeah.
Edit edit: I'm going to go touch grass now. Anyone who is being willfully obtuse about why I made this post can read it again or any of my other comments in this thread
I've never donated to either user (as far as I can remember, at least, but it has been like 5 years) but I'm not gonna say she should be banned if they are one and the same. I think this post was worth making if it helps keep someone who may be also struggling & is unaware they're likely fueling a drug addiction from giving if they don't feel like they have to. Basically I'm not saying that you're in the wrong or anything for doing so. If they are storyofrachel, then I do think they should probably at the very least, DM you an apology for the slurs and general scam.
But...
Isn't the whole concept of mutual aid centered around giving without a ton of expectations? I'm talking purely 21st century mutual aid and not like, the French peasant 'I'll give you some milk and bread if you help clear the stables' mutual aid that Kropotkin wrote about. Who is to say that the $5k they've received from kind users didn't keep them alive to some extent? Yeah that's probably largely bullshit, and a huge amount of money to have received from kind strangers; but I personally think its probably better to think (or at least, hope) your money brought them some level of momentary peace rather than get mad because they're still asking for help which may or may not ultimately be used on drugs rather than getting them out of a hard place.
I just think shitting on them in this thread & banning them isn't going to really solve anything. I've never donated to either user, so I don't really have a stake in this, but I do think (or at least, hope lol) that anyone who HAS donated to anyone in this comm probably is doing it because they're a good person - not because they're expecting the recipient to be telling the truth or otherwise.