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As part of their Get2Gether Challenge, the Center [for a New American Dream] put together this video on how to start a time bank. Essentially a neighborhood exchange program that allows people to connect and trade their skills, time banks work by providing a system through which neighbors perform tasks or services for each other—anything from DIY to accounting to gardening skills—and earn "hours" in the time bank (everyone's time is valued equally), which they can then trade with other neighbors for other skills.
Not only does it get neighbors talking and trading together, and therefore create tighter social bonds, but it also keeps people trading skills, goods and resources locally. Why pay for an organic tomato from California when you can have your neighbor teach you how to grow your own? The other plus side of time banks is that they can help low income people, or folks who may not be able to work full time, by providing a way to supplement their income and get out in society on their own terms, without the need for start-up capital or formal business knowhow.
Science Fiction writers often explore alternative economies. Kim Stanley Robinson did a lot in his Mars Trilogy. Would you participate in a Time Bank? The ability to tell people, "Have you tried turning it off and on again?" could make you the king of the neighborhood Time Bank.
Original Submission
(Score: 2) by frojack on Saturday June 27 2015, @04:48PM
Really, its just people helping their friends. Maybe expecting reciprocation, maybe not.
Its never going to extend to or include that asshole down the street.
When you touch your neighbors stuff, even with the best of intentions, you somehow acquire all future blame. When your neighbors touch your stuff, they somehow acquire all your tools.
In their twisted world view, it almost seems like a fair trade.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Marand on Saturday June 27 2015, @10:37PM
When you touch your neighbors stuff, even with the best of intentions, you somehow acquire all future blame. When your neighbors touch your stuff, they somehow acquire all your tools.
Not just that, you acquire blame for unrelated things with stuff you didn't even touch or go near. Happens with paying gigs, too, because it's just a "some people are assholes" thing. I've lost count of how many times I've gotten blamed for something breaking after helping a friend, relative, or someone I was working for -- weeks, months, or even years after. Usually, it's just assholes making an excuse to get more free work out of you.
I've done minor work for someone, then gotten a call over a year later accusing me of breaking their machine and demanding I fix it. The problem? They fucked it up with a virus. Obviously related to me setting up a new modem or whatever the hell it was I did...
I had one guy...I added some RAM to his system and helped him set up his email client (he'd changed hosting recently, supposedly), then a day later he called me and started accusing me of "hacking" him and ruining his business reputation. The reason? He'd been trying to send emails for over a year without a working smtp server, so when he finally got working settings, the client dutifully sent all those old emails out. Not only did he lie to me about how long he'd been without a host, he'd gone over a year without one because he wasn't paying for it, but was still trying to send mail from the unpaid host...
Not surprisingly, that same guy decided paying me was also optional not long after that, so I quit doing work for him. Then six months later he contacted me, pissed that I hadn't continued maintaining all his shit despite six-month overdue bills and lack of communication on his part over said bills. Then demanded I teach him how to do the work himself -- for free of course -- so that he wouldn't have to deal with a "useless piece of shit" like myself any more. When I refused he even threatened legal action as an attempt to coerce me into doing more free work. (Never actually acted on the threats, though; he knew he owed me money and wouldn't get anywhere.)
TL;DR: There's always going to be that guy and all you can do is learn who it is and avoid dealing with him or her in the future. Though it does seem to happen more often with computer stuff because people still seem to think of them as magic boxes.