Flame War Stories

[cyphrx 0]

I think this message board is great. I mean that, it took me forever to find a message board where I feel comfortable posting items. For years I was apart of boards where nothing would get discussed except for arguments and petty differences. I wanted to start a subject that talks about these flame war stories and where they ended up in the...uh end. Here's my tragic tale....

 

Back in the days of the Aol message board, there use to be two forums. A Star Trek forum and a Star Wars forum. Each forum had their own message board and chat room, where they were free to discuss anything they wanted. But soon there came a day when the boards crossed over in a very negative way.

 

I don't know where it all started exactly, or who shot the first shot. Let's just say that one person decided to go to the other board and make fun of the other guys sci-fi genre. That's where people started flaming the internet communities. Soon each board was filled with "vs" post. A "vs" post is where one genre side pits whatever character, ship or empire against the others. Here's an example, "Who would win The Enterprise-D or an Imperial Star Destroyer?" Now don't get me wrong, these post seemed harmless, but when they get out of hand...they really get out of hand.

When the "vs" post became apart of each board, trek fans would go to the wars board and argue, while the wars people would do the same at the trek board. All it really boiled down to was a person getting in the last word. I was a prime example of how bad it got. I was absolutely certain that Han could not best Kirk in hand to hand combat. My logic wouldn't even correspond to the subject either. I would say stuff like, "Kirk would win because you're an idiot!"

 

This was only the tip of the iceberg after the "vs" board got too formal to make fun of the opposing team. Each side would invade other subjects that had nothing to do with the confrontation. A message could be talking about "Best of Both Worlds" when all of the sudden a Star Wars poster would come in and call us geeks who are too caught up with a tv show.

 

I started posting in my sophmore year in highschool and pretty much ended all that around my freshmen year of college. When I started, I have to admit, I was an angry teenager and no one was going to stop me from defending the genre I cherished (which wasn't entirely accurate because I was a fan of Star Wars, but sided with Trek since it was my first love.) Because of this flame war, as well as some others, I was very discouraged to post anything ever again. Fast foward years later I found this board (and some others), where you need a password to get in. This discourages a lot of flame wars since the aol posters just needed an account to go in any of the community boards and wreak havoc. Also it doesn't seem (so far) that anyone wants to get in some lengthy discussions on who would win in whatever....which also works for me. So now I'm older, a little more mature and learned you can't get a lot done by calling the other side "idiot."

 

Well that's my lengthy story, does anyone else have additions to the Flame War Journal?

[captainfreeman 0]

I am involved in a flam war at the moment,on the message board of one of my Yahoo fantasy football teams' league sites.Some jerk,calling himself "Pittsburgh Pete" just decided to start insulting me every time I posted anything (my good luck post to everybody,my open-ended trade proposals,etc),and I have hammered him right back.I have messaged Yahoo numerous times about this jerk,since he is violating the terms of use sportsmanship agreement,but Yahoo has not responded once in these past 2 weeks.I'm starting to think,they will not.And virtually nobody else in the league ever posts.So it has just been he and I trading jabs every few days.I have already faced this guy's team (and pasted them by more than 70 points in week 1).I'm considering simply ignoring him from here on out,but part of me feels that this would be a retreat.I'll message Yahoo again tonight.His latest post was just a flood of vulgarities,with no real message or point.

Edited September 23, 2003 by captainfreeman

[Sirius 0]

Flame War stories?Well,I have been attacked for my personal beliefs,political positions,and for various comments I have made at many message boards.I tend to ignore the abuse and concentrate on whatever topic is being discussed.There are times,however,that the other party is just so immature or ridiculous that I am drawn into a response of,"I can't believe a rational adult would say that!Or think that!etc,etcetra."If the site's administration is lax,I'll just leave.Or if the moderation is a bit biased,or mean-spirited,I'll leave,too.You run into all thse things from time to time,unfortunately.

[barry 0]

I go on the Yahoo pool alot as Baz1472003 and I get the people who come in and start hurling the insults and the swearing,there is no need for it I just want to play pool not read all these insults to me,I enjoy the natter with all the sensible people while playing. One bloke came into my room and I clicked start for the game and said Hi to him,and he just started all this swearing at me for no reason at all,so after the game I told him what I thought of him then booted him out,then reported him to Yahoo.

I swear myself but not to people for no reason like he did.

[Red Shirt Volunteer 0]

Check out the following forum for the ultimate in people in need of anger management:

 

Steampowered

Edited September 26, 2003 by Red Shirt Volunteer

[Admiral Kirk 1]

My God RSV! I read one thread and had to get off of the site. I've never been in a flame war to date but I almost got into one a month ago at Star Wars.com. A fellow poster who's not a moderator took it upon himself to post on my thread that my thread was not relevent. Plus he made a remark that in his opinion you should have 100 posts before you should be allowed to open a thread and called me a newbie even though I joined before he did but I just couldn't post over 700 times in two weeks as he had done . I'm a very laid back guy and started to ignore this but the more I thought about it the more it pissed me off. I posted and asked are you a moderator? And if not who gave him the right to decide what's relevent on this Forum? I wouldn't have minded if he would have respectfully told me that my topic had been discussed recently. I think there is a way to do things. Since that time I really don't vist the site that much. I guess its sad when one buthole can ruin it for you.

The war did not start because a mod jumped in and prevented it. I hated that because I was ready to fire it up.

[therabidirishman 0]

My God RSV!  I read one thread and had to get off of the site. I've never been in a flame war to date but I almost got into one a month ago at Star Wars.com.  A fellow poster who's not a moderator took it upon himself to post on my thread that my thread was not relevent.  Plus he made a remark that in his opinion you should have 100 posts before you should be allowed to open a thread and called me a newbie even though  I joined before he did but I just couldn't post over 700 times in two weeks as he had done .  I'm  a very laid back guy and started to ignore this but the more I thought about it the more it pissed me off.  I posted and asked are you a moderator?  And if not who gave him the right to decide what's relevent on this Forum?  I wouldn't have minded if he would have respectfully told me that my topic had been discussed recently.  I think there is a way to do things.  Since that time I really don't vist the site that much.  I guess its sad when one buthole can ruin it for you. 

  The war did not start because a mod jumped in and prevented it.  I hated that because I was ready to fire it up.

I know exactly what you mean.I once posted at starwars.com,and my very first post was jumped upon by some jerk who had a problem with my being a "newbie".Although that forum's moderator put him in his place,and apologized to me,the whole situation left a bad taste in my mouth and I never went back to posting there.

[Red Shirt Volunteer 0]

My God RSV! I read one thread and had to get off of the site.

 

Tell me about it. I won't give away my ID there, but let's just say I'm one of the people who posts more often there. There's a lot of useful information and there are a lot of people who know a great deal about computers and the software in question. They're also good at helping people. I'm afraid the site is plagued by people who think they're superior to everyone else and often for no good reason, people who live to flame and others who just repeat the same topics that have been discussed like a 100 times before (this is not an exaggeration, it's a rough estimate). Basically, if they disagree with you, they'll slam you as a nOOb and that's just the start. I have to laugh every time it happens and try to let it roll off but sometimes it just gets to be too much. I don't know where they get off slamming me when I run a server that some of them play on. Sometimes I just want to say to them "Hey, you're welcome. P.S. Don't come back."