SymptomsEdit

A Help Vampire is a community member who is so happy to be part of a helpul and friendly group that their first reaction when they have a question is to ask it in a public forum. An inability to use Google effectively or read any documentation are symptoms.

ExampleEdit

TreatmentEdit

The solution to help vampirism is to answer questions with pointers to the answer rather than the answer. For example, "Googling with the search terms 'open source conference software' turned up some interesting results" or "Did you have a look at (link to user manual chapter in question) the user manual?" This condition is curable, for the most part. The "Let me Google that for you!" search page is a tongue in cheek approach, which adds some humor to it.

Related patternsEdit

For its polar opposite, see RTFM.