Re: Help Vampires: A Spotters Guide -- Why I Like OpenBSD and Its Community

[Aaron Poffenberger]

Interesting article but hardly applicable to most of the people I see 
posting to the @ lists. I don't believe in such entities but even were 
it the case energy vampires truly exist and in some natural or 
supernatural way suck the psychic force of others you'll note that they 
feed on the weak.


If you can demonstrate to me that the OpenBSD lists in particular or the 
user population in general are psychic weaklings then we'll talk. 
Otherwise your reply is pointless.


If you think I'm wrong, then contradict the post with useful facts. If 
you think I have no right or standing to address such an article to 
other OpenBSD neophytes (and I do include myself in that list), then say 
that and backup your assertions.


If you're just offended then learn to deal with it. That's the upshot of 
my post. OpenBSD appears to *me* to be a system and community aimed at 
mature people who take responsibility for themselves and wouldn't let an 
"energy vampire" suck them dry.


Cheers,

Aaron

Peter Philipp wrote:

Before you go looking for or spotting Help Vampires perhaps you should analyze 
yourself whether you are an Energy Vampire.


URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_vampire

Willing or not, pointing out to people what annoys them is downright depressing.

Cheers,

-p

Help Vampires: A Spotters Guide -- Why I Like OpenBSD and Its Community

[Aaron Poffenberger]

I found this practical blog entry by Amy Hoy on her blog, 
slash7.com .In the post Amy 
describes how to identify Help Vampires how to reform yourself if you are one, 
and how to quit enabling them if they show up in your community. She writes:


"It's so regular you could set your watch by it. The decay of a 
community is just as predictable as the decay of certain stable nuclear 
isotopes. As soon as an open source project, language, or what-have-you 
achieves a certain notorietyits half-life, if you will*they* swarm in, 
seemingly draining the very life out of the community itself.


"*They* are the Help Vampires. And I'm here to stop them."

Amy offers the following tips for identifying Help Vampires:

   * Does he ask the same, tired questions others ask (at a rate of
 once or more per minute)?
   * Does he clearly lack the ability or inclination to ask the
 almighty Google?
   * Does he refuse to take the time to ask coherent, specific questions?
   * Does he think helping him must be the high point of your day?
   * Does he get offensive, as if *you* need to prove to *him* why he
 should use Ruby on Rails?
   * Is he obviously just waiting for some poor, well-intentioned
 person to do all his thinking for him?
   * Can you tell he really isn't interested in having his question
 answered, so much as getting someone else to do his work?

Rather than advocating putting a stake through the heart of Help 
Vampires, she offers practical guidance for helping them reform. What I found 
particularly interesting about her advice is how this community already 
practices what she suggests:


  1. Create resources for Help Vampires (and regular folks) to help
 themselves.
  2. Cease all behavior which enables Help Vampires' vampy behavior.
  3. Meet Help Vampires head-on.

Which brings me to what I like about OpenBSD. I've recently switched
to OpenBSD. Despite a fare amount of experience with Linux, OS X and
Windows like anything I've had to find my legs with OpenBSD. The OS
and the community have made that almost painless. The man pages are 
up-to-date and useful. The online FAQ address practically everything a 
new user will run into or ask. And the mailing lists are mature forums 
for serious folks to learn about and/or help others learn about this 
powerful system.


I mentioned Amy's post because I've noticed several others who've
joined the community around the same time I did are having some trouble
acclimating themselves to such a serious and professional community. 
I suggest all new members take a few minutes to read Amy's post,
especially focusing on the self-help section. I think we all will find 
that the terse answers and sharply pointed requests to fead the FAQ, 
use google or provide useful debugging information is the reasonable

request of helpful but busy people helping us help ourselves to become
self-reliant and perhaps even expert users of this awesome OS. And
if that's too much to ask then perhaps we should be looking for a
different OS and community to participate in.

Thanks to everyone who make OpenBSD and the community a joy to use and 
participate in!


--Aaron