"Welcome Back My Friends to the Show that Never Ends! We're So Glad You Could Attend. Come Inside. Come Inside."
This diary is an invitation to engage in the sort of snarky, FAIL pic-filled behavior that used to greet troll diaries. This one is purely for nostalgia's sake. If you miss DK3, then please use this diary to work out your frustrations. I invite you to play in the sandbox. It is my pleasure to offer up a chance to engage in witty one-upsmanship.
From time to time on the internet, disagreements between thinking people will happen. As long as everyone manages to stay polite and recognize room for disagreement, these things blow over. From time to time, however, we get the knock-down, drag-out, no-holds-barred flame war.
That's when things get fun. Hyperbole, innuendo, and insinuation get to come out and play for a little while. You just need to remember a few things. Consider this a survival guide of sorts.
The ideas in this diary are merely my reflections on the internecine fights that seem to crop up on community-moderated websites. If I myself have failed, then flame me for it. I am just another member of the community. All I ask, if you decide to flame me, is that you do it creatively.
Do you remember this sort of fun? Do you have fond memories of this sort of behavior? Show 'em how its done!
hint
First, the Ground Rules:
Before You Go Any Further:
Read The Tao of Troll Rating by Hunter.
From Hunter's diary:
We are all guests here (each other's guests, if you want to think of it like that), and behaving respectfully towards other posters is not optional. Arguing is fine, even verbal slapfights are fine, but at the end of the day, if a poster is doing nothing but fighting, they're wasting their time, and your time, and my time, and distracting from the efforts to contribute things of actual substance and value here.
Hunter again covered the subject a few years later
... and now, without any further ado,
Step 1: Recognizing the Flame War
A diary with hundreds of comments may or may not be the location of a firefight. Read the title carefully. Does it refer to a hot button issue? Is the title itself inflammatory? Does the diary take the opposite stance from another diary, possibly on the Rec List? These could all be signs that a comment thread is a danger zone.
This is not a hard and fast rule though. Sometimes a diarist has come across something that draws out large numbers of Kossack. Sometimes the diarist is well know with lots of followers. Sometimes the issue hasn't been addressed anywhere else and there is some pent up need to comment on it.
As with most things in life, its not easy to draw a hard and fast line between what is and is not the site of a flamewar. There is this, though.
from Sychotic1
"When I see 98 comments and less than 10 recs, I know I am about to step in something stinky."
These handy tips should help you navigate away from unnecessary pain and anguish. Accidentally entering into a flamewar without proper flame-retardent gear can be extremely harmful to your mental health.
Flaming: frequently the result of the discussion of heated real-world issues ... or of issues that polarize subpopulations. see pie fight
Flame wars often draw in many users (including those trying to defuse the flame war) and can overshadow regular forum discussion if left unchecked. Although, it seems to me, that the fights seem to subside on their own on DKos. There are just so many issues that Kossacks care about. There is always the next thing.
Deliberate flaming, as opposed to flaming as a result of emotional discussions, is carried out by individuals known as flamers, who are specifically motivated to incite flaming. Flame wars often draw in many users (including those trying to defuse the flame war) and can overshadow regular forum discussion if left unchecked.
Deliberate flaming is never cool. Often, deliberate flamers come to this site in order to sow discontent among the libruls. Sometimes, they come to plant a thread that can be used by Fox News™ to impugn the left. Sometimes, they are simply unhinged folks that like to "stir up the pot". Either way, reaction to a deliberate flamer should be measured and judicious, IMHO.
see also
Troll: someone who posts inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community.
and
Spam: Spam is the use of electronic messaging systems (including most broadcast media, digital delivery systems) to send unsolicited bulk messages indiscriminately.
Step 2: Wading Into the Fray
Don't! Stay away! I don't care if this is your #1 issue.
Unless you can get into the comment thread early, you will just be piling on, adding to the wreckage. (Note: replying to the Tip Jar to be early in the thread is also considered uncool, I think.)
Participating in a flame war does you no good. In fact, it may make you a few enemies. You don't need to go around pissing people off unnecessarily. Go slow. Be easy.
You could post your own diary on the subject. This is an option. But be careful. I don't recommend going the route of titling your diary as a direct refutation of another. This is dangerous. I don't recommend calling out another user in the title of your diary either. Doing this, in title or in comment, will likely result in trouble.
Step 3: Making Fun of the Trolls
I recommend recipes or pictures of pooties and woozles but be careful. From Hunter's diary, "Don't post recipes or pictures or other retaliatory humor if it's going to disrupt an otherwise informative thread. If it's a bona fide troll diary, knock yourself out, otherwise, it's best to ignore the attempt to derail the thread, not assist the effort." In other words, a little goes a long way.
Sometimes, a more experienced Kossack will spot a troll diary at ten paces and post a comment "outing" the troll. This will suffice. Don't bother writing anything else. The troll diary will die a lonely, quiet death.
In simpler times, the first Kossack on the scene would spot the troll and declare "Open Thread Fun Time". At this point, it would become open season on the diary. Users could get snarky with it. They would post jokes. They would interact with other users in a funny and or humorous way. The purpose? To point out the stupidity of the diary.
The most important rule in this type of situation was to just have fun.
Sally Forth:
Write your diaries. Make your comments. Tip, rec, and HR if you must. Don't say that I didn't warn you.
The final piece of advice, from ...soothsayer99,
"Listen..Read more -- Type Less..
would go along way around here"
... except for the following comment thread, where I invite you to type away, share your favorite FAIL pics, etc.