I care a lot about my friends. Sometimes, I see someone going through a Real Normal Time on the on-line, and many people will try to tell them to Log Off and Go To Bed, It Will Be Easier To Deal With This After You've Gotten Some Sleep. This often does not work because randos on the internet don't have enough of a personal connection to communicate with someone who's having a bad time, and because the fediverse isn't built to be a real-time chat platform. This sucks! Your friend's having a meltdown online for hours and cutting off their communication could VERY POSSIBLY make it worse!
I'm asking for an optional and strongly suggested field for an emergency contact as a mod - who is someone that you trust to take care of you if you're having a rough night, and how can I, the mod, reach them if I need to? I would like to see this field presented at account creation and available in the user profile for edits. This field would not be visible to anyone except mods and the user. Ideally there might be some kind of 'please review your contact info' every once in awhile, but that's asking for a lot I know.
I have a mockup here for the user side, open to wording the name of the field and companion text.
Mockup for admin display panel
Motivation
While I could ban them or limit their account, that is not enough to actually care for this person who I care about. Also, I do not want to call the cops for a wellness check on my friend, even if I happen to know where they live because we exchanged gifts one time. That could cause my friend MUCH MORE HARM. I want to call a friend of theirs for a loving and caring check-in, tuck in my friend to bed, put their phone to airplane mode, make sure they're hydrated, etc.
This will allow admins to have a contact of a person that the user thinks is trustworthy, instead of me making some guesses and trying to piece together who would be someone good to call about my friend.
Pitch
I care a lot about my friends. Sometimes, I see someone going through a Real Normal Time on the on-line, and many people will try to tell them to Log Off and Go To Bed, It Will Be Easier To Deal With This After You've Gotten Some Sleep. This often does not work because randos on the internet don't have enough of a personal connection to communicate with someone who's having a bad time, and because the fediverse isn't built to be a real-time chat platform. This sucks! Your friend's having a meltdown online for hours and cutting off their communication could VERY POSSIBLY make it worse!
I'm asking for an optional and strongly suggested field for an emergency contact as a mod - who is someone that you trust to take care of you if you're having a rough night, and how can I, the mod, reach them if I need to? I would like to see this field presented at account creation and available in the user profile for edits. This field would not be visible to anyone except mods and the user. Ideally there might be some kind of 'please review your contact info' every once in awhile, but that's asking for a lot I know.
I have a mockup here for the user side, open to wording the name of the field and companion text.
Mockup for admin display panel
Motivation
While I could ban them or limit their account, that is not enough to actually care for this person who I care about. Also, I do not want to call the cops for a wellness check on my friend, even if I happen to know where they live because we exchanged gifts one time. That could cause my friend MUCH MORE HARM. I want to call a friend of theirs for a loving and caring check-in, tuck in my friend to bed, put their phone to airplane mode, make sure they're hydrated, etc.
This will allow admins to have a contact of a person that the user thinks is trustworthy, instead of me making some guesses and trying to piece together who would be someone good to call about my friend.