[META]Alright! Take it outside!
- Thread starter Torm
- Start date
Rel
Liquid Awesome
All things considered, I think it is a good think not to have a "Flame War" forum here at ENWorld.
I'm not a member but I am a long time lurker at a site called "The Straight Dope Message Boards" (spun off many years ago from threads devoted to answering questions along the lines of Cecil Adams, of Straight Dope fame). They have a whole board there called "The BBQ Pit" for people to flame each other or just rant about life in general.
The "ranting about life in general" part is fine and certainly gives people a chance to exercise some creative profanity but the "flame other posters" part of it doesn't solve many problems in my opinion. What usually happens is that somebody posts a link in the offending thread on the general part of the boards and says something like "Torm, you're wanted in the Pit." There they rip into the person with a moderate to large degree of vitriol, sometimes perhaps overstating things a bit just so the next person doesn't come along and say, "that was a pretty lame Pitting".
From here things go from bad to worse with more people popping in to say how they thought that person X was a jackass too or how person Y is a jerk for Pitting person X and this rambles on for a while, back and forth. Eventually one or both sides lose steam and the thread falls away. But I doubt the ill feelings every really go away after something like that and it is not unfrequent to see the same people on opposite sides of many a Pit thread time and again just because of animosity built up from threads past.
So, in other words, it causes more problems than it solves and for every pair that walk away saying, "Glad we got that out of our system. Now we can agree to disagree." there is another pair who will gladly snipe at each other every time they appear in the same thread from then on. I think the system we have here is workable and fine as it is, in some ways sounding a bit like two Victorian englishmen having a disagreement.
"You sir are being most disagreeable!"
"As are you!"
"Well I find your position ill considered and without support."
"And yours is just as malodorous as your game sessions must be!"
"Good sir, any escalation of your argument beyond that would constitute a personal attack! As they are forbidden her then I must bid you to cease!"
"Very well then but know that I shall continue to hold your position on this matter in the lowest regard!"
"And I yours!"
"See you at the Game Day Saturday then?"
"Indeed!"
"Cheerio then!"
"Pip-Pip!"
You know. That sort of thing.
And I'll note that the new addendum to my .sig never seemed more appropriate...
I'm not a member but I am a long time lurker at a site called "The Straight Dope Message Boards" (spun off many years ago from threads devoted to answering questions along the lines of Cecil Adams, of Straight Dope fame). They have a whole board there called "The BBQ Pit" for people to flame each other or just rant about life in general.
The "ranting about life in general" part is fine and certainly gives people a chance to exercise some creative profanity but the "flame other posters" part of it doesn't solve many problems in my opinion. What usually happens is that somebody posts a link in the offending thread on the general part of the boards and says something like "Torm, you're wanted in the Pit." There they rip into the person with a moderate to large degree of vitriol, sometimes perhaps overstating things a bit just so the next person doesn't come along and say, "that was a pretty lame Pitting".
From here things go from bad to worse with more people popping in to say how they thought that person X was a jackass too or how person Y is a jerk for Pitting person X and this rambles on for a while, back and forth. Eventually one or both sides lose steam and the thread falls away. But I doubt the ill feelings every really go away after something like that and it is not unfrequent to see the same people on opposite sides of many a Pit thread time and again just because of animosity built up from threads past.
So, in other words, it causes more problems than it solves and for every pair that walk away saying, "Glad we got that out of our system. Now we can agree to disagree." there is another pair who will gladly snipe at each other every time they appear in the same thread from then on. I think the system we have here is workable and fine as it is, in some ways sounding a bit like two Victorian englishmen having a disagreement.
"You sir are being most disagreeable!"
"As are you!"
"Well I find your position ill considered and without support."
"And yours is just as malodorous as your game sessions must be!"
"Good sir, any escalation of your argument beyond that would constitute a personal attack! As they are forbidden her then I must bid you to cease!"
"Very well then but know that I shall continue to hold your position on this matter in the lowest regard!"
"And I yours!"
"See you at the Game Day Saturday then?"
"Indeed!"
"Cheerio then!"
"Pip-Pip!"
You know. That sort of thing.
And I'll note that the new addendum to my .sig never seemed more appropriate...
Terath Ninir
Yog Sothoth loves you
Torm said:You aren't. That site is ... odd. It will require further exploration.
You're welcome there.
Torm said:
You would be surprised, actually. A large number of people have done just that over the years.
To clarify, Nutkinland (aka Nothingland, aka Dreadful & Sinister, currently Damnation Army) is a spinoff of Eric Noah's old boards. ENWorld is the sister site of Nutkinland/Damnation Army, actually. We're older and you young whipper snappers better remember that, no matter how many posters y'all have.
Desdichado
Hero
Ah, shucks. Nevermind.
Last edited:
JoeBlank
Explorer
Rel said:
I lurk on the SDMB too, small world. Couldn't agree more about the BBQ Pit, other than it seems to provide an outlet for people who just can't resist flaming, and keeps it confined to one forum. Since we have NKL/NTL/DA, we have the same thing in a sense. It does seem like the most recent evolution has gone a step further aware for the forum's roots, and I am finding it hard to think of DA as a sister site to EN World. Maybe it will grow on me.
Cyberzombie said:To clarify, Nutkinland (aka Nothingland, aka Dreadful & Sinister, currently Damnation Army) is a spinoff of Eric Noah's old boards. ENWorld is the sister site of Nutkinland/Damnation Army, actually. We're older and you young whipper snappers better remember that, no matter how many posters y'all have.
That's so not true!
Either both sites trace their lineage back to where they were started (in which case EN World and Eric's are the same board and predate NKL by a year or more), or neither can (in which case DM is about a month old). You can't use one rule for one and one for another!
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