Seriously: I’m happy to answer questions, and give advice freely, even if they draw on my expertise, provided that the person asking them does so well; doesn’t expect me to be their personal search engine, and in the hope that they will “pay it forwards”.

I ask questions of others on the same basis. Over all, things should balance out. Sure, there will be a few who leach from others, and some who put in more then they get out, but such is life, and the cost of worrying about that would be greater then the cost of answering a few additional questions.

where the boundary i think lies is in expectation – if you post in public a request for help, any & all may choose to answer as they see fit. or you may not receive an answer at all. if you expect an answer, then you should expect to have to pay for it.

if somebody happens to know the answer & it takes them about five minutes to post the reply (or refer you to the location on the interwebs where they know the answer is), then it’ll probably be more effort for them to raise an invoice than it was for them to answer in the first place ! but if that somebody is going to have to spend an hour or more on something unique to your query, then it’d be ace for them to say ‘put your money away, son’, but it’d probably be for the best if you considered some form of payment.

but ultimately, remember – none of us who do technical things with the internet have learned all we know solely from paying for training courses, buying books, & hiring contractors; every one of us has gained a significant amount of our own knowledge from the free advice which has been offered freely by others. it’s imcumbent on us all to pass some of that advice on for free as well.

Be the bridge, ask the questions, put names to your boss but remove yourself from the decision making process. Your friends will benefit from an open door, but have to stand on their own two feet. That’s as fair as you can get in this situation!