Ask Me Anything
Ask Me Anything (AMA) Community Rules and Guidelines
This is the lemmy.ca AmA.
Welcome to the Ask Me Anything (AMA) community! This is a space where individuals from various backgrounds come together to engage in open and informative discussions. To ensure a respectful, enjoyable, and inclusive experience for everyone involved, we have established the following rules and guidelines:
-
Be Civil and Respectful:
- Treat all participants with respect, regardless of their background, expertise, or opinions. Personal attacks, insults, or derogatory language will not be tolerated.
- Engage in constructive conversations, even if you disagree with the person answering the questions. Focus on addressing their responses or providing alternative viewpoints without resorting to hostility.
- Remember that the participants are sharing their knowledge and experiences voluntarily. Appreciate their time and effort.
-
Practice Politeness and Courtesy:
- Use polite and considerate language when asking questions or engaging in discussions.
- Be patient and understanding if the person answering takes time to respond. They may receive a high volume of questions.
- Avoid spamming or repeating the same question multiple times. Give others a chance to ask their questions as well.
-Use NSFW and trigger warning TW in brackets if you talk about sensitive subject.
-
Respect Boundaries and Privacy:
- Do not ask personal or invasive questions unless the participant explicitly invites such queries.
- If a participant declines to answer a question or requests to move on from a topic, respect their boundaries without pressuring them for a response.
- Avoid sharing personal information or disclosing sensitive details about yourself or others.
-
Be Inclusive and Stand Against Discrimination:
- Respect diverse perspectives and backgrounds. Discrimination, including racism, homophobia, and transphobia, will not be tolerated.
- Foster an environment that welcomes individuals of all races, genders, sexual orientations, religions, and identities.
- Be mindful of your language and the potential impact it may have on others. Avoid offensive slurs or derogatory terms.
-
Avoid Spam and Irrelevant Questions:
- Ensure your questions are relevant to the participant's expertise or field of knowledge.
- Avoid posting low-quality or repetitive questions that add little value to the discussion.
- Respect the purpose of the AMA and avoid using it solely for self-promotion or advertising.
-
Engage in Meaningful Discussions:
- Prioritize thought-provoking and insightful questions that foster engaging conversations.
- Be open to different perspectives and use the AMA as an opportunity to learn and broaden your understanding.
- Jokes are allowed as long as they are respectful, appropriate, and do not target or marginalize specific individuals or groups. -If you are sarcastic, we recommend to use /s to be sure there is no confusion about your intention. Fake sarcasm will be found.
Remember, these rules and guidelines are in place to ensure a positive and informative environment for all participants. Failure to comply may result in 3 strikes warnings, temporary restrictions, or permanent bans at the discretion of the moderators.
in the future, a mod check and balance system might be implemented . Subject to change : [You might appeal your ban by contacting a special appointed moderator to judge if the ban was abusive.
Special appointed mod can create jury like conversation with randomly chosen users with jury votes to decide if bans are legit or not.]
Thank you for being a part of the Ask Me Anything (AMA) community. Let's engage in enlightening discussions, share knowledge, and create an inclusive space that values respect and diversity!
Friendly communities :
view the rest of the comments
In what ways is it godforsaken?
Oh, I could go in details, but I don't currently have time, so I'll be short: politics, corruption, air polution, environment polution, inflation, salaries, prices, comodities... there's a lot more. Feel free to ask about any of these in particular, I'll answer a bit later in the evening π.
Interested
Well, let's start with the political issues. Almost every politician here claims that they've never taken a cent from the state, when in fact, they have bluntly stolen, and in some cases, they don't even hide it. This goes regardless of left and right wingers, they're all the same, just different flavors of the same thing. What's worse, they have the courts in their pockets, so their cases never even make it to trial... or if they do, they're given a slap on the wrist, nothing more. Corruption rules here. You don't ask "when can I schedule an MRI scan" because you'll probably be dead by the time your number comes up, you ask "how much do you want to schedule my MRI in the next week".
Next, we analyze the people. There were truly intelligent people here, people that you could make interesting conversations with for hour Unfortunatelly, one of two things happened to them. They either died or moved abroad. Basically the only ones left now are the party cock suckers, cuz they get to be on roll to get a state job (you practically can't get fired from state employment here, you'd have to burn down the office building or something like that to get fired). As you probably presume, these people are not very bright and mostly care about the basic animal needs: eat, sleep, get fucked once in a while, have kids, raise the kids, make small talk with your neighbours, etc. While there is nothing wrong with being like that (many people are), the problem is, there can never be enough critical mass to actually start doing something about the oligarh politicians and try and overthrow them. Plus an oposition is not really an oposition if you're basically the same as the other guy, just with a somewhat different mind set (I say it's dark gray, you say it's blackish). So, it's a perpetual problem that has no solution.
Basically, most of the other problems just boil down to bad leadership and 30+ years of it. Not everyone on the Balkans has those problems. Take Slovenia for example, it's doing great π. But, while the rest of us down south were under the Ottoman empire for 5 centuries, Slovenia was under Austro-Hungary. It's just not the same... we were blinded during the renesans, Slovenia had front row seats. I'm not saying nothing is our own fault, it most definitely is, but I'm just trying to give a little perspective of why things turned out so different for Slovenia and (mostly) Croatia.
I'm in the group that escaped. Never been happier. Almost everyone who are still in the balkans are those "party animals", but there are few who just can't leave. Maybe because of bussiness, maybe because of money. But I feel bad for them all.
I can't leave π. Life decisions that I regret to this day.
But, things are what they are, might as well make the best of it, right π€·.
Damn man that sounds rough. Having to bribe someone to get a medical appointment sounds like hell :(
I'd like to add that there are problems with me, that either just didn't got found, or haven't been done anything about until I move out. of the balkans. So even if you get an appointment, don't expect much healthcare.
Yeah, that too.
So it's basically a bribe for the appointment, a bribe for the doctor, a bribe for the person interpreting the results... it never ends π.
Yeah, what about bribing someone to get a new vehicle license (the old one was about to expire). Happend to me. It's my right as a citizen to have one if I passed the driving test, right? Yes, it is, but you're gonna wait 5 months to get it done. Why? Well, we just don't have that plastic that the licenses are made out of. Why don't you get some more? Yeah, see, that's a problem... the prime minister owns the company that imports those for us, but we haven't updated the agreement cuz he didn't like the ammount of extra cash for nothing on the annexes, so... yeah, we're kinda low on those.
In the end, I just bribed someone to get my license in a week instead of waiting for 4, 5 months.
The problem is, this is the norm. It's not an exception, it's the norm.
How much do you usually have to pay for a bribe?
Depends on what the favour is, how hard it is to obtain (taking into account the way this system works) and how important it is to you or your wellbeing.
Fo administrative stuff, anywhere between 50β¬ and 200β¬. For medical stuff, usually a lot higher. I had to bribe the doctor that was leading my wife's pregnancy to get "extra care". Basically, she doesn't throw you under the rug like the rest of the patients (quick checkups, reschedules checkups quite frequently, does a 30 second ultrasound, done deal) and really takes care of the person in question and the baby. That cost me 500β¬. It may not look like a lot to most westerners, but for comparison 500β¬ was my monthly salary at the time. So, yeah, that is expensive for people that live here.
Other procedures like surgeries usually cost a lot more. Depends on the surgery and how complicated it is, so anywhere between 1Kβ¬ and 15, 20Kβ¬. Again, this is expensive for our standard. People usually sell aprtments or houses in order to cover these "bills".
Can I ask what country youβre in?
Macedonia.
Thank you for sharing!