Getting annoyed at virtue signalling on Facebook local groups

[Floogal]

Ignoring the fussing questions everytime a police helicopter is on patrol or fireworks. Where I live it's usually the same thing. Always along the lines of;

" I've got a lot of old tat but want to donate it to charity"
" I brought the homeless guy on the high street a coffee and had a chat with him"
And, this " how many homeless people are there in town? My (photogenic well dressed) twin daughters want to give out Xmas packages" obviously hoping to appear on the local news or "and finally...' on ITV news. Usually the 'ooooh aren't you wonderful' gushing replies. Gives me the raging arsehole.

I’ve noticed that our local groups seem to lurch from sentimentality (aw, someone’s knitted a hat for the postbox xx) to brutality (KILL THE SCUMBAG WHO WAS LOOKING AT OUR VAN) almost seamlessly.

@CharlotteGoldenblattYork

My DH runs a business that only deals with a very specialised, industrial element of a trade. Let's say it's plumbing. He originally trained as a plumber. One woman that I vaguely know from the kids' school has got wind of the fact that DH originally qualified in this trade and literally tags me in any post that anyone makes wanting a tiny plumbing job done in their home such as a new tap putting on. DH's company doesn't do those jobs as a)they don't do domestic work and b) people on the local group usually want those things done for free.

It annoys me so much as she tags me constantly no matter how much I tell her that DH doesn't do those types of jobs.

This give me the rage. I've posted asking for available plumbers etc (small area with limited tradespersons that work by word of mouth) hoping that a plumber might respond with 'yes im in your area call me' and all I get are about 10 people tagging others in it What are you supposed to do with the info? Go messaging John that mavis tagged in the hope he's seen a tap before?

We just get a lot of 'brought (sic) these jeans but they don't fit. Just want what I paid for them $40 plus I paid $8 postage. Need gone today'
Why the fuck would anyone buy jeans from a random for the same price you can buy new?

Grr you're right OP.

I bristle at the 'my son (aged 4 months) told me he wants to donate this toy so another child doesn't go without this Christmas. DM me if you are in need.'

My lord- give it to a charity! Directly! They will know who is in need and ensure it gets to the right person in a respectful and helpful way. It is also a hell of a lot more dignified for the recipient's parent to receive it that way, than to have to contact a stranger on the internet with their hand out, describing the way in which they are 'needy' and unable to afford to buy toys for their own children.

Also- toys are relatively cheap now! The gifts I see are usually plastic tat. If you want to help the disadvantaged, your second hand paw patrol tower isn't going to cut it. Give money to people who know what they are doing.

"My son/daughter/Insta wants this to go to the needy not the greedy"

@Slowfoxfast

My Next Door is full of people claiming that a cat seen in their garden must be lost/starving/injured and then trying to catch them to take them to the local cat shelter. Usually accompanied by a picture of a perfectly healthy looking cat and no understanding that cats can and will roam their area and if you feed them they will eat the food just because it's offered not because they are starving. Don't feed cats that aren't your own, people.

The other one that drives me mad is the postman has delivered a letter meant for number 42 to their house and does anyone know them. Just walk to No 42 and stick it through their letter box like anyone else would.

This happened on about the 23rd on mine. Was all "I would hate to think someone didnt get a Xmas present that they need....PM me if you know this guy" and the first post was "He lives on your road dickhead, just knock on his door"

It was so funny! And oddly enough....got deleted shortly afterwards!

We have loads recently on freecycle. Toys being given away 'only to those who cannot afford any Xmas gifts at all'.
So how exactly is she going to police that? And of course no word on what tat she's actually giving away.

Not virtue signalling, but did make me laugh: someone wants a load of large sheds suitable for keeping animals in. But they don't drive so are expecting them delivering. They haven't offered to help with the dismantling or delivery costs either, surprisingly.

i have a woman on my local group who asks for food parcels, toys, white goods etc. practically every day, despite there being a heap of resources locally that provide these things to the needy ( I am not in the UK). What she really wants is cash because she is a well known local meth head. Still people give her stuff all the time, despite moderators warning them, its amazing! It inevitably ends up on the buy sell groups, but people never learn.

I've had people on mine wanting to give away a spare turkey or joint of meat to the 'needy'....god i hate that word...how bloody patronising.

Yes. 1000 x yes. I send cards every year as I’ve not got a huge family and love sending good wishes. The old ‘will be donating to charity’ post is pants. A) I believe it when I see the receipt and b) the whole thing just tells me you think cards are a hassle and cant be bothered. Actually if I was I was running a charity I would set up a website where you could send a virtual Christmas card in return for the donation……

I agree regarding people keeping hold of lost things. Madness. One the other day though did put a picture of what they had found but said where handed it in. Made sense to do that.

I hate this. In our group I went mental on them once. A friend of mine took his own life at home, and was found by friends. Obviously police and ambulance come out and the friends were then asked to stand outside. Cue the group taking pictures of the emergency vehicles along with a question of 'what's going on? There's people outside crying, I hope no one's hurt'. Who the fuck asks these sort of questions?! And for gods sake whose that thick to think with the emergency services and people crying, it's going to be happy news.

@YouCantTourniquetTheTaint

The ones that get on my nerves is the people that say "oh I found a purse in Sainsbury's I've taken it home, if its yours message me the contents and you can come and collect" or "I found a bankcard outside Costa if its yours bring ID" and I say, why didn't you hand it in to the shop, and I get piled on by huns saying "she's trying to do a good thing" and shit like that.

Piled on by huns...🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Our local one is full of "found a bank card belonging to Mr X" along with a blanked out photo of said card, as if none of us know what a bank card looks like 🙄

Lockdown was the absolute worst for people wanting to get rid of their crap and being outraged because charity places were closed for donations because lockdown! Then they’d try to offload it to the ‘needy’ via fb. I’m in Australia and after our bushfires a couple of years ago people were collecting for those whose houses burned down and the entire suburb emptied their old shite stuff on to their driveway until they had to beg people to stop being so ‘generous’. FFS these people have lost everything, they need clothes and food and a roof over their head not rusty bikes and a bloody gigantic Barbie dream house with the roof half off.

We had a flyer through the door about joining NextDoor, fortunately I checked it out first on Trustpilot, the flyer went in the bin

This was a few years ago, but I still remember the morning of Cat stuck in a Tree. This was not in the UK, but a country with a massive feral cat population.

Person posted there was a cat in a tree outside their house.
Quickly identified as a registered feral rather than a pet, who didn't like humans. Advised to leave it.
Then the other "animal lovers" got involved. Advice on leaving food etc...
Then the "comedians" joined in with offers of air guns (note... they had no intention of this!)
The animal lovers turned on the comedians, accusing them of not taking it seriously, the cat would starve to death etc.
Meanwhile cat climbs further up tree to escape mad humans on ground.
Then its suggested to call fire brigade. People point out this is ott. AS call them cruel and uncaring.
Fire Brigade is called. And comes....
Cat leaps to another tree, runs down it and out in the bondu, away from crazy humans.

This was over several hours and really showed the crazies in the community.

I’ll defend myself on the not sending cards announcement - I posted that I would only be sending cards to family & people I don’t see regularly ( I didn’t want anyone to be offended if, for example, they had sent me a card & I hadn’t sent them one). Also it’s not about not being bothered, it’s the cost of postage. And the charity thing isn’t to look virtuous in my case. I donated to The Parkinson’s Society because my Mum has Parkinson’s.

So true. But remember that most people do give quietly, without advertising on their local Facebook page. I think most people see through that self-promotional shite.

We have a hugely attention seeking so goodie on our local page who posts every couple of weeks something like this. "Things have been hard lately and I'd like to cheer myself up by buying a local a gift card for X café. Please comment below"
Cue 40 posts begging for voucher or praising OPs "selflessness and generosity"
😂

About the helicopters, I am actually always quite interested to know what is going on! What is boring is that usually no one knows but loads of people post "funny" comments argh.

I work with disadvantaged families and they are short on SPACE not TOYS.

When I do home visits there are often piles of broken toys in a small living space.

Some hun 'gifting' a Frozen themed plastic jeep missing the doll to a family like this does no good at all.

I could not get worked up about this! I'll actually save my raging arsehole for real life problems

I got fed up with it yesterday and left the local groups

Oh yes! Sadly my favourite recently has been:

Found this debit card. Includes pic with full card details.
Commenter - what’s the numbers on the back?
Poster - 123 456 and posts pict of back of card.

🤦🏻‍♀️

But loads of people pile on saying to delete the post because theft (meaning anyone could use bank card now online…) posters friends jump in saying she’s not a thief. Just trying to do a good thing.

Oh the virtue signalling on our local FB group is insufferable. Particularly the “My kid suggested we give food packages to the homeless” posts with a photo at every stop. I mean, it’s one thing to teach your kids to consider those less fortunate than themselves and to help the needy, quite another to teach them that it’s only worth doing if you shout about it on social media in order to get a pat on the back!

Oh and the “I’m donating to charity instead of sending Christmas cards this year” posts. It’s almost like every single charity in the UK DOESN’T have their own range of Christmas cards, isn’t it?? I mean, if only you could buy a pack of Christmas cards from a charity, write them and send them to your loved ones! Not only would the charity receive some money, but the recipient of each card would also be made aware of said charity’s existence. It’s such a pity such a thing clearly doesn’t exist and we instead have to announce our intention to donate to charity instead!

And finally the “dog napper” posts. I run a pet care business and I’m forever having my business name tagged in “look at this dodgy van” posts with various local citizens asking me to share the post to my business Facebook page to “warn” my customers. Ffs, sorry Sheila, no I’m not sharing a blurry photo of a generic-looking white Ford Transit parked outside the local McDonalds just because it’s your opinion that the driver must be a dog napping criminal mastermind. It doesn’t seem to matter how many times I tell people that the provenance of the post is what matters (i.e. if it’s come from the page of the local community policing team, I’ll share it. If it’s come from Sheila’s personal Facebook page, I won’t!), people don’t seem to get it! I’m not giving my business a bad name and scaremongering potential customers just because “Trial by Facebook” appears to be an acceptable method of determining whether or not someone is guilty of dog theft.

Gah, it makes my piss fizz it does! If it wasn’t for my business, I’d come off Facebook altogether really.

NextDoor should be named nextdoornutters

I left after a while, it is a bizarre website that sucks people in & possible makes them nutters