help vampire

English

WOTD – 12 October 2021

Etymology

From help +‎ vampire (“person who drains one’s energy, money, time, etc.”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌhɛlp ˈvæm.paɪ.ə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌhɛlp ˈvæm.paɪ.ɚ/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: help vam‧pire

Noun

help vampire (plural help vampires)

1. (chiefly computing, derogatory, informal) A person who requests answers and solutions from a community while giving nothing in return.
   • 2006 December 22, Amy Hoy, “Help Vampires: A Spotter’s Guide”, in Slash7‎:

     Help Vampires are found in every public online community, from those nearest to our hearts to those furthest from our principles. Instead of consuming of ill-gotten hemoglobin, these vampires suck the very life and energy out of people. By nature they feed on generous individuals who tend towards helping others, and leave their victims exhausted, bitter and dispirited.

   • 2009 May 21, Matías Flores, “Rails Mentors”, in Bridgefoundry Google Group‎:

     Personally, I see this ratings/feedback thing only useful for mentors to know if a student is abusive and/or a help vampire, if he is willing to learn and put some effort on the process or not, etc, to be able to dedicate mentoring time to someone who will really appreciate it and will benefit from this.

   • 2013 November 29, rusto…@gmail.com, “Managing Google Groups Headaches”, in comp.lang.python‎ (Usenet):

     All kinds of people hop onto the list. In addition to genuine ones there are spammers, trolls, dicks, nuts, philosophers, help-vampires etc etc.

   • 2013 December 3, Ethan Furman, “Python Unicode Handling Wins Again – Mostly”, in comp.lang.python‎ (Usenet):

     Mark, I sympathize with your feelings. jmf is certainly a troll, and it doesn't feel like anything has been, or is being, done about that situation (or for that matter, the help vampire situation … although I haven't seen any threads from that one lately – did he give up, or has he been moderated away?). […] And, to be clear, the coddling of trolls and help-vampires also makes the list an unfriendly place to be. Terry, would it be appropriate to share some of what the moderators do do for us on this list and the others? And what does the Code of Conduct have to say about trolls and help-vampires?

Translations

person who requests answers and solutions from a community while giving nothing in return

Swedish: hjälpvampyr (sv) c