The note is correct, freely given, freely given away. But it's up to the recipient of the gift to determine that.
True! And it's up to the giver of the gift to quit giving further gifts ... lol
We can not know until after at least 7 days when someone first starts posting for fp if they will give back to the cause or not. But after the first week, we can stop voting and resteeming. Mark's posts are partly to explain why some people may start to see their posts no longer receive "gifts" from our community.
So you are correct, that nobody has to do anything. They do not have to give back. But then that separates them a bit from the community part of who we are. If you do not give back to whatever community you belong to in real life, the community will start to notice.
We will of course have the occasional "visitor" who makes only 1 or 2 posts about this issue and never planned on continuing on as part of our community, and that is all well and good.
It is mostly those who wish to continue to stay involved, and wish to continue receiving support that Mark is speaking too.
My wife received a gift for her post and her husband (me) converted it all to SP. I didn't realize at the time that a portion was about to be donated. I got in the way of her generosity. But she hasn't forgotten. We both want to support the community and really appreciate what you guys are doing. @ironshield