How to deal with assholes

From Google Summer of Code Mentor Wiki

What kinds of assholes do we deal with?

 * Good developers, but bad with people
   * Scare away new contributors
 * Time Sinks
   * Lots of questions from the same person, or don't let a thread die

How can we deal with this?

 * Community managers
   * These people can manage communication between different projects, and also among members of the project
 * Mailing list roles
   * Could we patch mailman in such a way to make it seem like a post is made, but then it isn't delivered.  (Archived, but not delivered, to prevent trolling)
 * Foundation to manage resources
   * Free Software Foundation can help provide support for situations that require legal and/or personal responsibility threats.
 * How to deal with someone opening attacking a project?
    * Problem with posting facts is that there are people who don't understand the situation.
       * Responding smear campaigns, historically, with facts is that it doesn't work very well
 * How to deal with people attacking the project from the outside?
    * Try to balance overall community, but it's difficult to shut down these types of assholes, even with police/legal intervention.
 * What about forking the branch to remove trolls?
    * gcc tried to go around an asshole by forking the core project, to try to create a new maintainership
    * X.org fork is another example

How to deal with people who just won't leave the project?

 * Block on mailing list, they resubscribe - can deal with this by creating another mailing list for developers
   * But, if these people can influence the project, they have power.  We don't want to give these people power.

What about other interactions in the community?

 * Sending thank-yous, or giving compliments for good things can make huge differences
 * Could call people on the phone to discuss things
 * Make personal contacts with people, in order to defuse conflict ahead of time
 * Compliment people in public, criticize in private
 * Reward enthusiasm with responsibility - give those people who simply criticize a chance to prove others of their views

General strategies that people have found helpful

* Use multiple ways of communicating when there is a problem
* Help the asshole by assisting them with a fork, or finding someone that will work with them on a side project
* It's hard to be mean to someone that you know in person - "paper tigers" or mailing list trolls might be much nicer after simply meeting other developers in person
* Publish an "official way to bribe/influence developers" for your project that encourages positive behavior