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“Good artists copy, great artists steal”Pablo Picasso
Cargo cults
Community anti-patterns:Best Practices Run Amok
Cookie licker
Symptoms
● Community member volunteers for tasks● Progress reports are infrequent & vague
● “I'm working on a draft”● “It's nearly ready to go”
● When it's suggested someone takes over, the task owner resists● “I'll make time next week”● “I've almost finished”
Causes
● Desire to have things done well● Best community members always over-commit● Truly believes they can make time● Once committed, handing off task is admitting
failure
Treatment
● Set deadlines on tasks, and reassign when they run over
● Make failure OK
HelpVampire
Treatment
Good newbie docsEncourage recent newbies to answer newbie questionsTeach newcomers how to search for answers
See also:RTFM
Command and Control
Symptoms
● Joint Copyright Assignment● All committers from one company● No public roadmap, unannounced
features arrive regularly
Justification
● Have a company to run● We need to own the code for our business
model● The company paid for it, we should be
special● Community contributions are small
anyway
Treatment
● Define policies for community access to project resources
● Public roadmap process● Exchange influence for control
Headless chicken
Bikeshed
Leadership
Mob rule
Beware Dunbar's Number
How do your communitymembers self-identify?
Culture ofDoing
AvoidSmokeFilledRooms
TheWaterCooler
Fear ofcommunity
Work in a glasshouse
Open Design!=
Design by Committee
Black Hole
“Ironically, since I started working onSyncEvolution full-time beginning of this year, I seem to have *less* time leftcompared to the previous years when Idid it in my spare time"
Patrick Ohly
“I'm too busy to spend time answeringquestions on the mailing list”
OpenWengo developer
Treatment
● Ensure “doing things in the open” is part of the job description
● Train managers & engineers in community development
● Document who is doing what publicly – and explicitly leave some thing on the roadmap clearly marked “Not us”
Broken window
Symptoms
● Off-topic/bikeshed threads on mailing list● Wiki vandalism/decreased article quality● IRC Signal to Noise ratio decreases
Treatment
● Document Best Practices● Remind offenders early● Spread policing load around
Broken record
“I'm the bad guy??? How did thathappen? I did everything they told me to.”
Michael Douglas, Falling Down
Treatment: Don't be that guy!
(A gentle reminder is usually enough)
Final thought:Communities are emotional places
Community goal:Create a fun, friendly environment
where people feel safe sharing
