Poisonous Programmers

ABSTRACT

Dear KV, I hope you don't mind if I ask you about a non-work-related problem, though I guess if you do mind you just won't answer. I work on an open source project when I have the time, and we have some annoying nontechnical problems. The problems are really people, and I think you know the ones I mean: people who constantly fight with other members of the project over what seem to be the most trivial points, or who contribute very little to the project but seem to require a huge amount of help for their particular needs. I find myself thinking it would be nice if such people just went away, but I don't think starting a flame war on our mailing lists over these things would really help. Any thoughts on this nontechnical problem?

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  A. General Literature
  A.m MISCELLANEOUS