The content hereunder was originally written as a guide for (potential) software project managers / co-managers, but I suppose it could apply to any number of other situations.

My Policy

Well, when I see five weirdos, dressed in togas, stabbing a man in the middle of the park in full view of a hundred people, I shoot the bastards, that's my policy!

But Seriously...

... with regard to what you may have read here:

• Try to keep and/or develop the mentality that if you like the idea, chances are that someone else does (or will) too. The odds of you being the only one in the world who likes any given idea are slim-to-none (about a 0.000000015% chance -- not in your favor) ;)
  
  • Translation: go for it!

    It's better to ask forgiveness than to ask permission.

    Admiral Grace Hopper, Ph.D., United States Navy, who discovered the first computer "bug" in the 1940s (literally -- she found an actual insect)

• Ask questions. And if anyone else -- especially other co-maintainers -- criticizes you for doing so (with regard to any project(s) I manage), I will personally terminate that person's status as co-maintainer and/or furthermore take the necessary steps to rectify the situation.
• On the same token, if when someone asks you a question, or when offering technical support, writing documentation of any kind, etc., please:
  • Remember where you came from. Not everyone is as intelligent/educated/"brilliant" as you (think) you are, and you my friend, weren't born that way. Everyone has to start somewhere, and everyone includes you.
  • Also, try to use plain English and assume that whomever you're communicating with knows nothing. If they then inform you otherwise, then great -- use all the big words and acronyms you want. But until then, talk in a manner that people can understand.
• If you retain only one thing from what you've read here, please let it be this: there's no voice inflection in a typed document.