Mike
Well-Known Member
Some people are unaware help vampires actually exist. But let me tell you, they do exist, they are cunning, little creatures and they are notorious for sucking the very life-blood out of vibrant forum communities.
Not to be confused with the vampires that actually suck blood, help vampires specialize in sucking energy from active members of communities. They prey on forum members who are kind-hearted and willing to help others. Sadly, these help vampires leave stacks of bitter and exhausted Samaritans in their wake.
You might think it is hard to identify help vampires, but with a bit of help and a lot of online experience, you will be able to pick them out of a crowd at 1,000 yards.
Here are some identifying traits of the common help vampire -
Examples of the Impossible Question on this forum include (but are not limited to) -
The common, ordinary help vampire is a drifter. They come into a community, ask every ridiculous question imaginable and then drift away, never to be seen again. A community that has suffered these kinds of attacks is always left with members whose spirit has been broken, who now lack enthusiasm and this all leaves the entire community to suffer a slow death.
The things to watch for, to see if this is happening within a community is when the most active and most engaging members of a community start circling the wagons and requiring a password and secret handshake, in order to join them at their campfires. These individuals not only shield themselves from the help vampires, but they also segregate themselves from the rest of the community, which results in expert help drying up in the community.
The last, but certainly not least, identifier of an infestation is the amount of helpfulness in a community. Look at what kind of questions are getting the most attention. Are the majority of questions the kinds of things toddlers can suss out for themselves, whilst moderately-difficult questions are going unanswered? If so, then there is a serious infestation.
I really do not want to start answering members' questions with curt admonishments to, "RTFM!" I mean that, sincerely. If someone comes here with a legitimate problem, if they can elucidate the problem, and if they can take on helpful suggestions, then I call that a good day.
But let me give you an example, to show you what I am talking about.
As some of you are aware, I started using a new Linux distribution, Antergos, which is based on Arch Linux, back in late-March. I had always wanted to try Arch, but the learning curve is absolutely vertical, so I always shied away from it. I've run a couple-dozen other Linux distributions, but Arch just looked to be out of my league. Finally, I decided that I had to know if I could actually set up Arch, so I dove into the deep end.
The good news is that I was eventually successful in setting up Arch, but make no mistake about it, Arch is not for the Linux newbie. If you're going to sit at the Arch table, you better be sure to bring your A-game. I learned a lot about Linux that I had never known, even after using it for 7 years. Arch humbled me, in nearly every way possible.
The Arch support forums are pretty big and contain a wealth of information. As of this writing, they are boasting 1.395,167 total posts. And there have been days when I felt like I had read all of those posts. Twice. I definitely needed all the help those support forums could give me.
But look at my Arch forum account profile -
I joined that site almost two months ago, and I am telling you, I joined out of sheer necessity. I needed help.
But look at my total post count. Zip. Zero. Never posted a single word.
Part of that is because I know how to search a forum for the information I need. But part of it is also because the Arch forums are absolutely ruthless. Don't believe me, then take a look at the Arch Wiki and see what their expectations are for forum members. I kid you not, if you make the mistake of asking a question the wrong way, over there, they will toss you out onto the street, but only after making sure you understand what a sub-human life form you really are.
We're not going to climb down to that gutter level of forum operation. However, I do think it is time that we start setting up some reasonable expectations for this site. I think it is time for everyone to understand we have countless members who can offer a bit of advice for nearly any T-Bucket problem, but if people cannot do a bit of research on their own, and if they cannot provide complete details about their problem, then they need to take said problem down the hall. I have seen some questions asked here on this site, that only required common sense to answer. I cannot tell you how many times I have felt the correct answer to some of those questions would have been to suggest selling the car. Trying to build and operate a custom vehicle on public roads should have some sense of automotive knowledge as a prerequisite.
On the other hand, I also think we always need to hold ourselves to a high standard, when helping others. We need to be sure we know which end is up, when we try to help, and that we need to provide our own details, when making suggestions. Nothing is gained by giving anyone a bum steer, simply because we are talking about a vehicle being operated on public roads.
I am going to be giving this a lot of consideration, in the coming days. I've watched countless forums come and I've watched a lot of them go. But I have also seen large numbers of them succeed, and that is where we need to be. I want to see this forum continue to grow, rather than being consumed from the inside by help vampires.
Not to be confused with the vampires that actually suck blood, help vampires specialize in sucking energy from active members of communities. They prey on forum members who are kind-hearted and willing to help others. Sadly, these help vampires leave stacks of bitter and exhausted Samaritans in their wake.
You might think it is hard to identify help vampires, but with a bit of help and a lot of online experience, you will be able to pick them out of a crowd at 1,000 yards.
Here are some identifying traits of the common help vampire -
- Does he lack the ability or intention to actually read through the forums, trying to find an answer for himself?
- Does he lack the ability or intention to use the site search tools, to find an answer for himself?
- Does he refuse to take the time to ask his questions in a way that will allow others to help him as easily as possible?
- Is he waiting for some well-intentioned sucker to come along and do all his thinking for him?
- Does he leave you thinking you, somehow, owe him an answer?
- Does he leave you thinking that helping him should, somehow, be the high point of your own day?
- Do you feel he is really more interested in getting someone else to do his work, than he is actually seeking help?
- Does he take offense when you ask him for additional details, or provide him with a working solution?
Examples of the Impossible Question on this forum include (but are not limited to) -
- What stall speed should my torque converter have?
- What size carburetor should I use?
- What size camshaft should I use?
- What is the best carburetor?
- What is the best camshaft?
- They are trying to identify the weakest member of the herd, knowing full-well there is no reasonable answer to their Impossible Question.
- They are trying to remove the weakest member of the herd from the safety of the other herd members.
- They are trying to confuse the weakest member of the herd, so they will not notice the vampire inserting that length of -6 stainless, braided hose into their ear, with which the vampire will suck out every last bit of intelligence, energy and life.
The common, ordinary help vampire is a drifter. They come into a community, ask every ridiculous question imaginable and then drift away, never to be seen again. A community that has suffered these kinds of attacks is always left with members whose spirit has been broken, who now lack enthusiasm and this all leaves the entire community to suffer a slow death.
The things to watch for, to see if this is happening within a community is when the most active and most engaging members of a community start circling the wagons and requiring a password and secret handshake, in order to join them at their campfires. These individuals not only shield themselves from the help vampires, but they also segregate themselves from the rest of the community, which results in expert help drying up in the community.
The last, but certainly not least, identifier of an infestation is the amount of helpfulness in a community. Look at what kind of questions are getting the most attention. Are the majority of questions the kinds of things toddlers can suss out for themselves, whilst moderately-difficult questions are going unanswered? If so, then there is a serious infestation.
I really do not want to start answering members' questions with curt admonishments to, "RTFM!" I mean that, sincerely. If someone comes here with a legitimate problem, if they can elucidate the problem, and if they can take on helpful suggestions, then I call that a good day.
But let me give you an example, to show you what I am talking about.
As some of you are aware, I started using a new Linux distribution, Antergos, which is based on Arch Linux, back in late-March. I had always wanted to try Arch, but the learning curve is absolutely vertical, so I always shied away from it. I've run a couple-dozen other Linux distributions, but Arch just looked to be out of my league. Finally, I decided that I had to know if I could actually set up Arch, so I dove into the deep end.
The good news is that I was eventually successful in setting up Arch, but make no mistake about it, Arch is not for the Linux newbie. If you're going to sit at the Arch table, you better be sure to bring your A-game. I learned a lot about Linux that I had never known, even after using it for 7 years. Arch humbled me, in nearly every way possible.
The Arch support forums are pretty big and contain a wealth of information. As of this writing, they are boasting 1.395,167 total posts. And there have been days when I felt like I had read all of those posts. Twice. I definitely needed all the help those support forums could give me.
But look at my Arch forum account profile -
I joined that site almost two months ago, and I am telling you, I joined out of sheer necessity. I needed help.
But look at my total post count. Zip. Zero. Never posted a single word.
Part of that is because I know how to search a forum for the information I need. But part of it is also because the Arch forums are absolutely ruthless. Don't believe me, then take a look at the Arch Wiki and see what their expectations are for forum members. I kid you not, if you make the mistake of asking a question the wrong way, over there, they will toss you out onto the street, but only after making sure you understand what a sub-human life form you really are.
We're not going to climb down to that gutter level of forum operation. However, I do think it is time that we start setting up some reasonable expectations for this site. I think it is time for everyone to understand we have countless members who can offer a bit of advice for nearly any T-Bucket problem, but if people cannot do a bit of research on their own, and if they cannot provide complete details about their problem, then they need to take said problem down the hall. I have seen some questions asked here on this site, that only required common sense to answer. I cannot tell you how many times I have felt the correct answer to some of those questions would have been to suggest selling the car. Trying to build and operate a custom vehicle on public roads should have some sense of automotive knowledge as a prerequisite.
On the other hand, I also think we always need to hold ourselves to a high standard, when helping others. We need to be sure we know which end is up, when we try to help, and that we need to provide our own details, when making suggestions. Nothing is gained by giving anyone a bum steer, simply because we are talking about a vehicle being operated on public roads.
I am going to be giving this a lot of consideration, in the coming days. I've watched countless forums come and I've watched a lot of them go. But I have also seen large numbers of them succeed, and that is where we need to be. I want to see this forum continue to grow, rather than being consumed from the inside by help vampires.
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