DECOMMODIFICATION AND SOCIAL MEDIA

The Lakes of Fire Facebook Page observes the Burning Man principle of Decommodification, along with the other ten principles (we include Consent).

We define posts involving commodification as anything that mentions a currency amount discusses money, or has a direct link to the sale of anything, including a class offering or a ticket to a burner event.
This definition encompasses many kinds of posts. Some examples include:

Artist self-promotion

• “I’m a DJ with a gig coming up! Tickets are $XX, Here’s an EventBrite link.”
• “I’m teaching a flow workshop this weekend, $XX at the door – here’s the address.”

Stuff you can buy on the Internet“Here’s a FB Marketplace link to a fire truck for sale in Santa Monica. Somebody, buy it.”“Look at these glow-in-the-dark tent lines on Wish.com!!!”

Direct help to community members

• “My house is going into foreclosure if I don’t raise some money. Please help!”

… Combinations of the above

These examples illustrate other good principles at work besides Decommodification – certainly Communal Effort, Civic Responsibility, and Participation. Our social media admins are often in a tricky position of refereeing the balance of these priorities when money is involved. To that end, we ask you to help us finesse that balance when you have a post involving commodification.

For MOST posts involving commodification of some kind, we ask you to:

1. Explain why what you’re asking for/announcing is personally important to you. This helps newer and less-familiar members of our community see you in the context of Lakes of Fire and other Burns. Context counts for a lot when money is involved.
2. Remove any currency amount from the original post
3. Remove any direct link to a funding page, item for sale, or class sign-up from the original post
   You are welcome to note in the original post that you are including a direct link or “other information” (code for currency amount) in the comments.

We will remove, with or without explanation, depending on our volunteers’ energy and time:

1. Any post that doesn’t follow the above instructions
2. Personal GoFundMes, even from the community—these belong on Burners Helping Burners
3. Ticket offers that say pretty much anything other than “I have a ticket for [insert specific Burner event], please PM me”—These belong on the various ticket exchange pages including the Lakes of Fire Ticket Exchange Page
4. Items for sale with a direct link and/or currency amount — These belong on Burning Man Classifieds

Here are the exceptions we usually allow, especially if you ask first:

1. Class offerings that are from known members of the Lakes community (example: Ellen Dancer’s belly dance classes, though Ellen generally does not include a direct link in the original post, as a courtesy to the community)
2. Charity fundraisers run by camps that specifically benefit disadvantaged communities affected by burns (example: The Comfort and Joy fundraiser for the Pyramid Lake Paiute Band)
3. Discussions of money as a philosophical concept

All other requests for exceptions should be directed to the Lakes moderator team.

When reaching out to us, please remember that everyone involved in Lakes is an unpaid volunteer with many other life obligations and probably a humanoid just like you, even if they crash-landed their spaceship here.

Thank you!