Why do people answer others in the internet forums?

I'm totally unfamiliar with forums and am very impressed by all that people helping others on forums.
Why do they do so?

Because we are all here to help each other out because all of us have been in their shoes and what a better place to get advice is from people that have been in the same shoes.

Why not? Information is power.

Because when you help others it also makes it easier to get help from others when you need it.

It is also just a nice thing to do - share your knowledge and learn from others at the same time.

so they don't make the same mistakes I did (or if they do, they were warned!), to vent, to share our experiences with others.

I respond to threads mainly because I enjoy helping people work their way out of debt and through sticky financial situations. I also have learned a lot hanging around this site and researching subjects found on this site via other resources found in a number of places.

When I was in desperate need of help, I searched and searched for help. I found it on this and other forums. If it hadn't been for the warm welcomes and solid advice that i received, I would have gone insane and been swindled by a really crooked CA. It really made me sick to my stomach to see how few Americans know their legal rights when it comes to credit reports and dealing with CA's so I made a commitment to myself to give back what I got and a whole lot more.

Some people have a knack and a love for helping. I originally came here with problems of my own and during my time here I gained a lot of information through others and self study relative to federal and state statutes. After seeing that everyone else was going through situations similar or far worse than my own I decided to put my knowledge to use as helping is in my nature.

There are other forums on the internet where people are helping other people, there is a forum where my wife participates that helps people with life problems in general, kind of mental health based. She is on the sites crisis intervention team and has even stopped a couple of people from taking their life and getting the help they needed through behavioral health facilities.

I came to this site by accident looking for the address of an online payday lender. I am so thankful because this site helped me deal with these crooks. Since I was helped by this site, I felt like I should share my experiences to help others.