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Usually, I receive responses to my post like "hey your answer does not work", or "thank you, but..." and it seems natural (as it is serious business for OPs).

Just recently I received a generous offer that I can get paypal (although I had not contributed much). Too good for me, and my family said no. But "what if"?

I could not find any particulars in Code of Conduct about the payment over our Q&As. My take is that this SE sites are meant for future readers, though.

Sorry for this ambiguity (and lack of language skill). To be short, what is possible response, without hurting someone apparently sincere person? I am hoping there is something written that it is not allowed.

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    What you can also do is take it the conversation outside of the stack exchange sites to exchange information (like twitter/facebook) but that is up to you. – Mapperz♦ Mar 5 at 14:46
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    Thank you AndreSilva and Mapperz now I feel I am more responsible about how the response should be. – Kazuhito Mar 5 at 15:08
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    I'd worry about advance-fee fraud and all sorts of other scams in this context, including money laundering. I think your family was wise to keep you clear of this. – Vince Mar 6 at 21:03
  • Yes @Vince my family did tell me cyberfraud cases. But still, I was so foolish enough to click on the link to a spam page (the OP clearly mentioned it was spam)...happened yesterday... learning lessons now. – Kazuhito Mar 7 at 9:54
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There is a related post in Meta Stack Exchange: Is it acceptable to solicit money on a user profile? and the top scored answer says:

... . As long as it is not against the Terms of Service, anything goes on personal user profiles.

The second top scored answer says pretty much the same. So, it is ok if you have a venue in your user profile to receive $ if someone wants to give you to.

Personally, what I would do is always to respond OP (yes/no) if someone asked me, but never be the first one in the conversation to talk about about business ($). The status quo in Stack Exchange is that we are all volunteers (except employees, of course).

On the other hand, Vince makes a good point about being precautious with potential scams (spams, advance-fee fraud, money laundering, etc).

And there is also Mapperz advice, which I agree:

What you can also do is to take the conversation outside of the Stack Exchange sites to exchange information (like twitter/facebook) but that is up to you.

Last, be aware of Michael Stimson's wise advice: check own current employment contracts (if any) to verify potential clauses conflicting with engaging in out of company paid work.

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    Another interesting point to consider, as a GIS professional I have in my employment contract a clause forbidding me to undertake paid GIS work directly but nothing about contributing to a community unpaid. If someone says 'hey I like your code, would you like to write a module for me for a few bucks?' I must direct them to my client manager as a potential client of the company I work for or risk termination of my employment... many others may be in the same situation so before accepting remuneration for a weekends' work read your employment contract/terms carefully. – Michael Stimson Mar 12 at 2:03

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