Please don't prey on the goodness of others...

EDIT: Thank you EVERYONE for all of your kind and thoughtful words. I'm not quite as jaded feeling as I was earlier. Again, thank you all!

OP:

A couple of months ago, I reached out to this amazing community for help and was blessed by a few wonderful people who helped get myself and my kids the things we needed.

I always said I'd pay it forward as soon as I could. Today, I saw a post asking for money to buy some food. It was a doable amount for me, so I got in touch with the poster and we worked it out. That felt amazing and I'm so happy to have been able to help them.

But now I'm being inundated with random people DMing me asking for money. They say they can't follow the rules of the sub for various reasons. I've been follow the guidelines in the sub rules and sending screenshots to the ModMail every time.

This has started to seriously sour my feelings towards posting here as a Giver ever again. The rules are there for a reason and it's to protect EVERYONE involved. Also, just because someone can offer a small amount of help to one person does not mean they can help 828588573 other people, too. I don't know about anyone else, but it hurts that I can't help AND it feels so predatory.

Everyone has struggles- I literally did just a few months ago. If you follow the rules, it works. Please don't prey on the kindess of strangers.