our rules are like any other set of rules. they were created either because enough members asked that they be created, or because too many members behaved in ways that made them necessary. we know we can never please everybody.
each of us reacts in her/his own way to public requests for freebies. we have established standards that determine who is and who is not eligible to post requests. the standards were developed based on member input. once a person is eligible and puts a request on the board, each of you should give or not according to your own feelings.
there is a difference between public posts asking for handouts and the spamlike pms we've seen lately. nobody should send you a pm asking for anything unless the two of you have already established a friendship.
the bigger we get, the more attention we attract among the unsavory characters that surf the net in search of tender hearted suckers. please protect yourselves. these are almost certainly not from genuine members. report all unsolicited pms from strangers asking for free this or that or offering to sell you things, just as you would report suspicious spams to your regular email services.
the hacker who spammed several members asking for selvages has been blocked. (actually, "hacker" is the wrong term. she didn't break into the board. she just signed up and exploited the opportunity to make a manual list of people to pm. i would normally have used a different word to describe her, but i don't think that kind of language is appropriate here. :lol: )