Recently, I got involved in a couple of flame wars on the SMZ/CC forum (one of which was caused by my first editorial), and I sunk to new lows in regard to the civility of my posts.

It ocurred to me while all of this bile floated around the forum that people are saying things to other people on the forum that they would never say directly in front of them. I know I wouldn't say a LOT of the things I have said if the person I was talking to was standing right in front of me.

People have emailed me saying that they are tired of all of the fighting and will return to the forum when people "grow up". I basically told her, "wishful thinking."

Why do people act the way they do on forums?

Well, the first reason may be because the forums are again, a type-based mode of communication. There are no people within our general vicinity, yet it seems that they are still attempting to insert themselves into the various orifaces of our lives. It is easy to get offended about what we read...especially if the person we are reading is not RIGHT THERE to explain exactly what he or she meant.

Stemming from this is the idea that there is nothing to gain by being nice, and there is nothing to lose by being a total jerk. While there is such a thing as "rep" on the forums, you can't put it on a resume...and it is not tangible. Therefore, if one's rep gets damaged, the only thing that happens is that a person may have to deal with a few flames...

Then we come to the topic of Mr. Anonymous. What better demonstrates the "no holds barred" nature of the forums than the idea that a person can write whatever thay want, and then not post a nickname. While this is considered rude, it allows people to change their nicknames if they wish. It is like anything else on the forums...it is a priviledge, and things like that are often abused.

Then we come around to what I call the "dishonest cycle". Say you have a flame war going. People will insult and degrade each other, sometimes for days. Then you'll see some people complaining that the flames are dominating the board, and why can't we all just get along, and things like that...

...then as things die down, people will slam the flamers for having dared disturbed the peace of the forum, and they will bring up other topics...anything to get away from the subject of the flame...

...then we enter the peaceful phase of this cycle, where after a momentary lecture by a few of the more respected people on the forum, things settle back into a routine of peace and quiet...

...and then someone says something that ticks off someone else, and the cycle restarts, wiht virtually everyone taking sides.

The hypocrisy within the cycle is that the same people who complain about the flames are sometimes the same ones who will tell you that flames make the forum interesting...as if this was an on-line version of the Jerry Springer show and we're limited to an hour of flames minus commercials and the required final thought...

Another person emailed me to suggest a goodwill campaign. I told her that there is very little that can be done in this situation. On the forums, people will be people...with all of their flaws. And during a flame war, people sink to the lowest common denominator, and while I try to put out flames once they go too far, I really don't care to get rid of them altogether because I too like to tune in to see who is taking swings at who.

If you can't take the flames, stay out of the kitchen...at least until you can jump back in...

Artemis

(comments welcome - please email me at lunahq7@yahoo.com and I will post your comments here as well.)