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Help Vampires: A Spotter's Guide

slash7.com — You've seen them around, you may even be one, a help vampire! Turning helpful productive communities on the net into the kind of place you don't want to be anymore with repetitive questions that are either unanswerable or easily googleable. Amy Hoy writes on how to spot these creatures, what to do about them, and how to help them help themselves.

Who dugg this? Made popular Mar 24, 2006

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  • lakeshost, on 06/27/2009, -0/+1An excellent analysis of an all too common problem with some great advice for curing "Help Vampires".
  • RobotDeathSquad, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Amy Hoy contributes to the Rails community in so many great ways, this article is a great resource, not just to Rails but to the OpenSource community as a whole.
  • Xalior, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Well written, easy reading and a good mix of humour and helpful advice. Well worth the time to read as both a technical/open source community member/supporter and as a plain old help-seeker too....

    -Dx
  • Zelpus, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Good stuff :-E
  • staronova, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Well said. The vampire metaphor is great -- I've long wanted a term to distinguish them from plain lusers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luser). The advice is useful not just for on-line communities but also for the folks at work who act helpless, basically trying to dump their work on you.
  • oDin420, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1i blame AOL for the vampires. actually, i blame AOL for all the stupid/rude/ignorant users out there.

    bad AOL bad!
  • sfegette, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Brilliant. Well done!
  • MacNTT, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0This is *so* very true. Well written, thoughtful and addresses what to do with Help Vampires.
  • ubuntulistener, on 03/19/2009, -0/+0Happily slay...
  • Feydakyn, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0One thing I never could stand about forums, all the damned vampires..
  • evanmonroig, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0I like this article ! Very nice writing ^^.
  • jonmagic, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0this article is right on...
  • andrewthrice, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Well written - very creative.
  • charlesdavid, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Its a very well witten article, I have digged it.

    http://www.charlesdavidshoes.us/
  • si618, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Nice one!

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