Helping people out

Today, Hyde published a great post about the movie “Pay it forward” from 2000 in which a boy to make the world a better place by helping three strangers while those would then in turn also help three others and so on. He also asked if that wouldn’t be something social networks could help with:

On social networks, and Mastodon to be more precise, I’ve seen toots asking for money for people’s rent. It would be nice to help other too once they get any kind of help, don’t you think?

Could a pay-it-forward page on your blog or a #PayItForward hashtag be a way to launch a movement to help people about anything? Questions about vim, self-improvement, donations, legal stuff, a relocation or basically everything.

While I truly think that everyone should help others wherever possible, I think we have to be careful how much we share about this support. If you help someone it should come with “no strings attached”. The recipient must never get the feeling that you expect something in return. A donation or any kind of support should also never be usable for others to put pressure onto the recipient, urging them to give something back.

This is the main reason why, if someone asks for help, I try to provide that help in an anonymous fashion. At the same time I want encourage others to also help out. So, if I donate money to an organisation or personal through something like Patreon, GoFundMe or others I usually at least share that campaign with others.

You can also find this post linked to from the following pages: