THE THREAT:

  - scarcest resources are ATTENTION and FOCUS.  Protect them!

    Poisonous people can
         - distract
         - emotionally drain community
         - can cause needless infighting

  - avoid PARALYSIS.

      -- OCD people can derail forward progess
           - perfectionists
           - people obsessed with process

      -- even nice guys can do this unintentionally!
         ("perfect as the enemy of the good")
           [ANECODTES about julianfoad]


FORTIFYING AGAINST THE THREAT

  - build strong community based on
       - politeness
       - respect
       - trust
       - humility

  - Best practices for this:

       - mailing list etiquette
           - don't rehash old discussions, read archives first
           - don't reply to EVERY message in a thread, reply to summary.
               [ANECDOTE about filibustering on svn list]

       - document project history  (don't be condemned to repeat it!)
           - of design decisions
           - of bug fixes / changelog
           - of mistakes!

       - have a well-defined release process
           - bug backports
           - testing/releasing tarballs

       - institute healthy code-collaboration policies
           - send commit emails, encourage email reviews
           - do big changes on branches, for easier review
                -> power plants slow progress!!
           - be liberal about giving people branches to work on
           - don't allow names on files
                [ANECDOTE about date guy]
           - increase bus-factor on components

       - have well-defined process for accepting/reviewing patches

       - have a well-defined system for admitting new committers
           - goal:  culture becomes self-selecting / self-propogating
                [ANECDOTE about Duncan's absence]

       - have a voting system as last-ditch for resolving disputes
             (if community is healthy, you should almost *never* need it)


DETECTING POISONOUS PEOPLE

"warning signs", a.k.a. 'bozo bit'

  * communication annoyances
     - silly nickname
     - multiple nicknames in different communication mediums
     - overuse of CAPITAL LETTERS, and excessive punctuation!!!!!!!!!

  * general lack of clue
     - inability to pick up on the "mood" or common goals of the
       community.
 - incessant RTFM questions

  * hostility
     - insulting status quo, rather than questioning it
     - angrily demanding help, rather than requesting
     - attempts to blackmail
     - attempts to deliberately rile people
     - paranoia:  accusations of conspiracy

  * conceit
     - refuses to argue with other opinions
     - makes sweeping claims about project's future success
     - re-opens topics that are long settled, without re-reading archives

  * lack of cooperation
     - willing to complain, but not help fix
     - unwilling to discuss design
     - too insecure to take criticism


DEALING WITH INFECTION

  * Assess Damage

     - Ask yourself the TWO CRITICAL QUESTIONS:

         - Is this person draining attention and focus?  If so, is the
           person really likely to benefit the project?

         - Is this person paralyzing the project?  Is the dispute
           likely to finish soon?

     - Use statistical analysis to persuade others that someone is poisonous
         [ANECDOTE about filez:  eager, but attention sink]

  * DON'TS:

    - Don't feed the energy creature! (old usenet adage)
    - Don't give assholes "purchase"!
    - Don't engage them!
    - Don't get emotional.

  * DO's:

    - Always pay careful attention to a newcomer, even if annoying at first
    - Look for the fact under the emotion
    - Extract a real bug report, if possible
       [ANECDOTE about esr 'shame on you']
    - Know when to give up and ignore person
       [ANECDOTE about tomlord trying to derail]
    - Know when to forcibly boot person from community
       [ANECODTE about filez]
    - Repel trolls with niceness!!
       [ANECDOTE about irc guy who fails to rile us]


MORE ANECODOTES/EXAMPLES

  * uncooperative person:  malloc vs. pools guy

  * 'perfect as enemy of good':  gcc in search of perfect SCM

  * community with no humility, politeness, or respect:  Avalon

  * community dominated by a tyrant:  GDB, until recently