How to be altruistic without feeding beggers

[csb]

Most people like to help others. People like to be useful, appreciated, and feel like they make a difference to others. Of course, the easiest way to do this is to give away gold and items to lower level players. But, is this the best way to "give back" to the community?

Some acts of generosity may not be beneficial. For example, helping a new player reach level 50 in record time may not be a good thing unless this is a RL friend and you want to take some time to explain how to play the character class, explain equipment options, stats, and skills.

Take the butterfly, for example... If you see a butterfly struggling to get out of a cocoon, and decide to help, the butterfly will die. If you decide to take out your pocket knife to aid the butterfly in escaping the cocoon, it will emerge too weak to survive. Sometimes, good intentions result in unintended consequences.

Here are some ways to be altruistic without feeding beggers. I'm sure other people have additional ideas.

(1) If a nice item drops for another class, check if someone of that class in the group wants the item.

(2) If someone wants to complete a level, take some time to complete the level rather than rushing off to start a new xp run.

(3) Like #2, if someone needs to kill a boss for a quest, then help with that rather than rushing off to start a new xp run.

(4) Use your high level mage to help lower levels in places like Frozen Nightmares. (not for xp runs, but to keep them alive so they don't quit in frustration).

(5) Join or create a guild, and take some time to create activities or help guild members.

(6) Sell your items cheap to guild members that need them, rather than giving them away free to random people. Getting a discount for being a guild member is not the same as getting a handout from a stranger.

(7) If your group can't kill a boss, then take some time to explain how to defeat the boss instead of shouting "noobs" and quitting.

(8) If you see someone in your group using an ineffective weapon, then start a conversation about weapons and stats. Try to be helpful. Once my seller was holding a torch just for fun, and someone said, "torches are lame and your stupid". I don't think that was helpful.

(9) Explore all the maps, and offer to show people the other maps, team play, or pvp (whatever you are familiar with). A lot of players keep doing the same thing over and over and don't know about other options.

(10) If you play a mage, then your heals are appreciated. If your a tank, then your taunts are appreciated. (note: Lately I don't get heals from mages, so if you want to consider heal and rev as charity, then please give, thanks.)

If anyone has more ideas, then post them here. I think it is possible to be charitable, without creating a culture of begging.