If I had an extra hour or a few hours a day when I had free time, I wanted to help people online, something like support or something like that.
Why do I want this? The answer is: It brings me pleasure when I manage to help someone at least a little. And also when I listened to people on the Internet, just random people, they didn’t even ask for help, I somehow instinctively felt that they had some kind of problems by the tone of their messages, and in the end I managed to cheer them up at least a little.
Depends on your interests:
As far as some sort of one-on-one support service, I’m not too sure of online services for that (beyond helping out in specific forums when people ask questions).
You can help out with a variety of different research projects over on the Zooniverse:
https://www.zooniverse.org/You can help by contributing to the map around your area: https://www.openstreetmap.org/
Help out with research on wildlife in your area:
https://www.inaturalist.org/Contribute to Wikipedia:
https://www.wikipedia.org/If you feel passionate about consumer rights, you can contribute to the wiki here:
https://consumerrights.wiki/w/Main_PageIf you like to tinker with electronics, check out Fulu Bounties and get paid for helping to get around DRM on refrigerators or on an Xbox. This has the potential to help a lot of end users as well as prevent E-waste. https://bounties.fulu.org/
Good thing to do! My tip: volunteer off-line. Help people live in the real world.
For me personally, this is much more difficult than it seems: I help people a little with small things on the street or in the store, for example, I sometimes give money if they do not have the necessary amount, but I am terribly ashamed to do it offline, and one funny incident happened; I tried to help the old man, he replied that it was not necessary and he would cope on his own, then I tried again, and he yelled at me.
And on the Internet, it’s much easier, at least you have time to think about the answer.
An organization with some structure might be a better fit.
Community theater? They always need stagehands, set builders, etc.
Same for community bands and orchestras. A librarian or personnel manager for a group like that is as good as gold.
Conservancy? Help protect your local wild lands?
Find a cause you care about and an organization that works for its benefit and call them to offer some of your time.
Don’t take it all out on one event. Sure, it’s tough, but it’s also tough to accept help. If it’s not appriciated, well In any case you did your best and tried. That’s enough.
If you’re technically inclined you could support some free and open source software project.
