[circuit]

It's called having boundaries. I volunteer on the weekends and some weekdays at a local homeless shelter. I volunteer at the local library. I will be volunteering at our local food bank to help support food insecure families. It's a good way to get grounded in your community and impart some real positive impact on your fellow neighbors.

What I will not do is be exploited for free labor by the USGS who can absolutely afford to pay someone to do the contract work they are asking for. But by all means, if you want to, go for it.

[arrakeenrevived]

Your boundaries aren't the same as someone else's boundaries, and just because someone else has different boundaries doesn't mean they don't have any at all.

Some people wouldn't want to spend their weekends working at a homeless shelter unless they were paid for it, but would happily spend time in a national park without being paid for it, and don't see it as being "exploited". You have different values/interests, and that's fine, but I don't know why you're trying so hard to be condescending to people that just have different interests than you do.

[stephenr]

> if you want to, go for it

They described a high of 4°c as "mild". Fuck that.

But that isn't my point: people do all sorts of things to volunteer for others/organisations. Just because you wouldn't do it unpaid doesn't mean it isn't volunteering.