I find that do unto others as they do unto you is generally best. But then again, I am weird, and nobody likes it when I treat them in the manner that I want to be treated...
Chances are, if two people meet in the street, and one says "Oh, its you." and the other says "what have you been doing?" they would both be happier if they had met their own speech...
I just thought of something:
"Do unto others as you would like done to you. Unless you're a masochist, then don't."
Like I said, "Do as done" is a reactive personality. A justified attack by repetition of personality or method of doing in "return to sender" format, of course, in your style.
Basically, you hit me, I hit you in return in my way. You scratch my back, I scratch yours. Chances are, the impact you would deliver can be better/worse than what was delivered to you initially. Something to keep note of. Not all people react good to good things, not all react bad to bad things. Sometimes I even take a direct insult as a compliment.
To prevent being a complete asshole with that, there's the occasional proper quote following instead of this method. But these days, charity is only given provided the tragedy is a public matter. Reason anyone would react to those would be because they want to keep an image they put out as a charitable being, even if in reality, they are not. To save face is a motivator for most people to be charitable these days.
Simply, in manner of troping,
Humans are bastards.