Pondering the Flame War
Recently, I was in a few flame wars.
One was on a consumers' forum that got so ugly and nasty it was taken down by the site's administrator. The other was on a movie discussion forum that started out about the movie; but a week later, the movie didn't even come up anymore in our posts--it all came down to personal attacks and out-arguing the other person. Ultimately, the goal of a flame war is to win at any cost.
My two most recent flame wars began by me expressing an opinion about something (a movie, and in the other, a computer), which triggered some people to respond about how stupid and idiotic my opinion was...and how stupid and idiotic I was for having it in the first place. There are times when I just ignore people like that, which is definitely the more mature way to handle it. But sometimes it's just hard to hold back. Then I wonder, "Why the hell are we even arguing about this? It's stupid." (Although, I'm not going to ask that on my posts which may be misinterpreted as giving in and admitting defeat.
Despite the anonymity of the internet, flame wars can be upsetting (okay, sometimes they are. It depends on if I'm winning or losing). People don't talk so nasty to each other in real life. Maybe these are the things that people wish they could say, but don't because it would be socially unacceptable and might lead to serious negative consequences. But on the internet, it's become totally normal to release your pent-up rage and direct it at someone you don't even know.
To my surprise, I found that no one is immune to flame wars. Some otherwise mature and educated public figures have engaged in them. A few of the most famous are:
The Andrew Tanenbaum vs. Linus Torvalds Debate. This one was a little too high tech for me to understand exactly what was going on, but it had something to do with Linux. Wikipedia stated that, "Despite being designated a 'flame war', the debate is quite informative: it has been studied by serious computer scientists and researchers, and continues to remain recommended and even required reading in courses on OS design and implementation." Whether that's true or not, I don't know. I don't really trust Wikipedia as the best place to find factual information.
The Derek Smart vs. Bill Huffman Flame War. Arguably, the most famous of all wars, and if there was a Hall of Flame this would definitely have its place in it. Smart is a public figure who authored a computer game called Battleground 3000AD, which supposedly sucked ass. This war was nasty, nasty, nasty...and lasted 7+ years!
MSN's Dare Obasanjo vs. Google's Adam Bosworth Blog War. Not as long and ongoing as the others, but still worth mentioning because of the names involved.
Some Good Sites on Flame Wars:
How to Participate in an Internet Flame War - A humorous list of typical flame war tactics.
Andrew Heenan's Guide to Flaming - An instruction guide on the art of winning a flame war. Also very funny.
ROADMAP FILE: Flame War - Here is a copy of a flame war that began with a post about police radar guns and escalated into a heated argument on radio waves vs. microwave waves.
Flame Warriors by Mike Reed - Caricatures and a list of the many different types of flamers. What kind of flamer are you? Go here to find out.
Brawl-Hall.com's Forum - Ready to go up against the flaming pros? Need to hone your flame war skills? Or maybe you had a bad day at the office and need to take it out on someone. Check out this forum or better yet, see the Yahoo news boards.
