I agree that this is an important issue we may have to deal with. I think it will be important to separate doing things for the community from doing things for individual members of the community. For example, encouraging people to bring food to a pot luck or volunteer at solstice is different from setting expectations that you help someone with their webpage for work or help out members of the community who facing financial difficulties. I’ve been surprised by how many times I’ve had to explain that expecting the community to financially support people is terrible on every level and should be actively discouraged as a community activity. This is not an organized enough community with high enough bars to membership to do things like collections. I do worry that people will hear a vague ‘Huffelpuff!’ call to arms and assume this means doing stuff for everyone else whenever you feasilbly can—It shouldn’t. It should be a message for what you do in the context of the public community space. What you choose to do for individuals is your own affair.
I agree that this is an important issue we may have to deal with. I think it will be important to separate doing things for the community from doing things for individual members of the community. For example, encouraging people to bring food to a pot luck or volunteer at solstice is different from setting expectations that you help someone with their webpage for work or help out members of the community who facing financial difficulties. I’ve been surprised by how many times I’ve had to explain that expecting the community to financially support people is terrible on every level and should be actively discouraged as a community activity. This is not an organized enough community with high enough bars to membership to do things like collections. I do worry that people will hear a vague ‘Huffelpuff!’ call to arms and assume this means doing stuff for everyone else whenever you feasilbly can—It shouldn’t. It should be a message for what you do in the context of the public community space. What you choose to do for individuals is your own affair.