Jerks Are Killing Your Projects
summary
Shows concrete cases where a few toxic members stall or shrink projects: Gen2/Gentoo contributor counts plateau until toxic developers are removed, glibc contributor growth jumps after a difficult lead leaves, NetBSD forks and contributor growth follows. Cites metrics and tools—OpenHub and sentiment analysis with ChatGPT—and gives numbers: negative interactions are five times worse; about 50% of targets consider quitting and ~12% of witnesses consider leaving. Recommends codes of conduct with rapid response SLAs, cohort/retention tracking, and occasional in-person meetups to rebuild trust.
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chapters (16)
- 0:00Intro
- 1:30The barrier to entry
- 2:50The virtuous circle
- 4:15Its not about one person
- 6:26Case Studies
- 15:13How many good interactions does it take
- 16:53Gender stereotypes
- 18:37Total cost of ownership
- 21:39Cascading effects
- 24:51Social Behavior Technical Ability
- 26:16How Do You Fix This
- 29:15Preventing
- 31:42Expectations
- 32:05Conclusion
- 32:30Recommended Books
- 33:13Questions
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