It sometimes amazes me that despite all the debates about any "decline in quality" and despite the continuously expanding community, when the chips are down we can still band together.
I just went through and upvoted everybody who offered concrete help or advice.
My point is not that the community isn't great. It's just that upvotes are the main currency I have to meaningfully reward individuals for their contributions (which is why you've received plenty of mine over the years).
Have someone that has been around for few years but just has 100 of karma post a similar call for help and see how many upvotes will receive.
Hey but let's hope we won't have to find out, huh? :)
Watching this happening was amazing. HN, respect!
Fortunately we haven't "declined" so much that we're no longer able to see the difference between endless complaining about something relatively inconsequential and a genuine call for help :)