Good link for forumites

[Shadowman]

I stumbled upon these today, interesting reads:

http://members.aol.com/intwg/flamewars.htm

http://members.aol.com/intwg/trolls.htm

Possibly a candidate for required reading for any forum or newsgroup.

 

[melipone]

Nice links.

"Flamebait" (sometimes rendered "Flame Bait") is a subject that people feel strongly about and which almost always causes causes sharp divisions in viewpoint. In general, these topics involve sex, religion and politics. Here are some examples of topics that are considered flamebait:
Abortion
Atheism
Capital punishment
Gun control
Legalization of drugs
When flame war veterans see one of these topics come up, they often restrict their reply to something like, "This is flamebait; I'm not touching this topic." Inexperienced users, on the other hand, blithely charge in, and the same tired arguments are trotted out for the millionth time. Nobody changes their position and everybody gets irritated."

Oops think I got 2 of those in 1 thread

I don't quite agree 100% though, because IMO things like this only degenerate into flame wars if the people involved are the types of people that can't control themselves. If you just put across your opinion people from either side of the argument can learn new things.

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[malkav07]

Definitely required reading. Especially the troll thing -- the old phrase that comes to mind is "Fighting on the internet is like running in the Special Olympics..." (you know the rest). A well-meaning and interesting debate is enjoyable to read, but when emotion gets involved I just close the damn thread.

On a related topic, the other thing that I would add to these: it's very easy to misconstrue the intentions of a forum post/email etc. If you were talking to the person, you'd notice a trace of sarcasm in their voice, or the funny body language. Since you don't have these to rely on when posting in forums, a couple of quick suggestions: be careful in the way that you phrase things. Make posts a suggestion, not a demand. DON'T TYPE IN ALL CAPS (it feels like you're shouting at everyone -- and most arguments involve shouting, don't they?).

There's more, but I'm at work so I should really stop posting on forums . Basically, re-read your own post just before you hit the 'Submit' button. Think of the way someone else might respond to it. It really ain't that hard.

Mal

 

[{YBBS}Sage]

Nice links.

"Flamebait" (sometimes rendered "Flame Bait") is a subject that people feel strongly about and which almost always causes causes sharp divisions in viewpoint. In general, these topics involve sex, religion and politics. Here are some examples of topics that are considered flamebait:
Gun control
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Hmm, I'm a member of a forum where there's a whole SECTION for that topic.

(For the record: gun control = putting all shots on-target. Legislative gun control = retarded.)