It's been a while since I posted an honestly legit meditation.
Before I answer your questions, a recurring thought(feeling):

Unless a question is on a topic so broad, it requires a book to begin comprehension, don't reccomend a book. I absolutely love to RTFM and really really hate it when people suggest "acquire a copy of *insert perl book here*". Learning about "free" things should be free. Learning "advanced topics" about free things, should also be free, but a book'd be fine;)

"How much is too much?" Where do you draw the line between being a homework troll and trying to offer help? Is it as simple as whatever I feel like at the time and more importantly have time for?

Very little is too much.
Try to judge the effort being put in (be as loose as possible), and the sincerity.
If it seems trolish then, don't reply.
If you don't have time, don't reply.
If you're not in the mood, don't reply.
If all you have to say is "add code tags", don't reply.

If the person, like drewboy, lacks basic comprehension, like what to do with code to get it to run, kindly instruct him to RTFM, and more importantly, point him to the FManual, otherwise, don't reply.

There are a lot of people out there who don't have a clue, and that is fine, but this is not the place to learn everything. If you're that lost, get a dummies book. There are a lot of resources out there, and you can't always have a monk hold your hand to guide you. If by some chance you do get a monk to guide you, don't do it in SOPW (seek alternate communication method like the F chatter box).

 
___crazyinsomniac_______________________________________
Disclaimer: Don't blame. It came from inside the void
perl -e "$q=$_;map({chr unpack qq;H*;,$_}split(q;;,q*H*));print;$q/$q;"