[danielparks]

Sure, there's a lot more pain than just the cost of replacing the laptop itself.

That said, the laptop cost is a big expense for many people (especially students), so it's helpful. Also it's a nice gesture. (“Look, the community cares about you.”)

[larrys]

I think this is close to a "teach a man to fish" situation. If the community really cares shouldn't they be proactive in some way to work to prevent this from happening instead of reacting? And it seems that (from what others have said) from the behavior of participants (someone who replied to a comment I made) that this could easily happen many more times as the crowd increases in size.