Signposting

[chrisgraham]

I think a good positive behavior to add would be to talk about effective signposting.

Often maintainers will be overwhelmed with people requesting things from them, and not able to individually provide what people need.

For a long time personally I did not know how to deal with this. It seemed that I had to either ignore people (bad), or tell people I could not help (usually creating an argument).

This is common, with maintainers just coming across as unavailable or grumpy.

Eventually I realized that it is not a binary thing about whether you can or cannot fully help someone, it's a matter of whether you can set them on a path by providing a signpost for them.

For example, if someone comes along and asks how to implement such-and-such, it might be best to show them a similar existing example, or to talk to someone else who has recently implemented it but is not so busy.
While this has not directly addressed someone's query, it has still helped them, and builds positivity and respect.

So, I'd simply add another positive behavior to the existing list:

Work to nurture those from the community who approach you in good faith. Perhaps through mentorship, or perhaps just making a simple effort to direct people to alternative sources of help.