I've been getting some messages from a few teams that one of their members is inactive, not doing much, disinterested or otherwise unproductive. I guess it's time to address this now in public.
While I would hope that each team can stick together to finish their project, it clearly is not always possible or realistic. And to keep the competition fair for teams that are disadvantaged this way, I've set up a policy for replacing team members. I've already communicated this to the teams that were involved so far, but to make it official now, it is as follows:
- Team members who are concerned about the (lack of) productivity of a teammate can send me a message (forum PM or IRC private message) about the problems they have with the team member in question.
- I will try to communicate with the problematic team member in question and see how they feel about their activity or the team situation. Depending on how this goes, I may approve of making an official team change.
- While I do the above, the remaining team members can find a replacement teammate. If they have found a replacement, both remaining original team members as well as the replacement need to message me to confirm the team swap. Then, depending on whether or not I approve in step 2, I will make the team change official.
That said, I'm hoping I won't need to execute this policy any more than I already need(ed) to.