October 16, 2006
Anatomy of a Flame War
If you’ve ever spent time around internet message boards, you’ve seen one or two of these. Depending where you’re at, sometimes it can be put out, but on a relatively unmoderated message board, it can get out of hand quickly.
I’ve watched it play out over the last few weeks. It’s no secret that Purdue had a very rough year last year, and when a team goes from 8 consecutive bowl games to a losing season, the boo birds come out. Well, when that same team starts playing I-AA and MAC competition, squeaking by them, the next year, the trolls started coming out on a Purdue message board I participate on. The board is owned by a newspaper, and there’s basically no moderation whatsoever on the message board.
For the most part, it started out fine. There are some people who felt like the program was slipping, and they believe that Purdue will only get better when Joe Tiller moves on, and we get a new coach. Others (like myself) saw 2005 as an aberration, and are excited about this season, with a team that plays together, a young and improving defense, and a big chance for upside the next two years. A situation like that caused a lot of disagreement, which tended to get heated from time to time. For the most part, though, people were respectful and actuallyl debated facts. But it all got crashed the day one guy showed up after the Miami (OH) game (where they took us to overtime).
The first sign is that there is little argument involved. The guy showed up, said Purdue looked horrible, probably wouldn’t win many more games, and Tiller should be fired. He didn’t offer any argument behind these statements. He declared it, setting out his bait, to see who would take it. Once people started arguing with him, he fired back. Did he offer argument, facts, or logic? No, he called the pro-Tiller folks “jackasses” and “f’tards” and “clowns”. He mocked and berated us for about two weeks, and during the whole time, he wasn’t offering anything resembling argument or logic. Just straight attack, attack, attack.
Now, in the real world, someone who acted like that would soon find himself alone, or considering some of the things he said, someone might have physically shut him up. But an interesting thing occurred… People took the bait. You see, even if 18 out of 20 are fed up with what’s occurring, if you have 2 who are willing to rise to the challenge, everything runs downhill. The troll involves himself in every thread on the message board, and everywhere he shows up, his new opponent follows. The attacks quickly became two-sided. It doesn’t matter where the attacks are headed, either. It can be someone’s upbringing, education, intelligence, ability to spell, their mother, sexual preference, sexual inadequacies, anything is fair game. And I repeat, anything. Although it rarely moves above a 5th-grade level, as evidenced by one pro-Tiller poster offering to take it out to the playground at recess, the offenders now start picking for anything that will pique their opponents ire. People looking for rational, intelligent debate have nowhere to go, as every message board thread becomes polluted with name-calling and attacks.
The odd thing about it, though, is that this is exactly what the troll wants. It’s an attention game. He’s trying to see just how much havoc he can cause. When people start taking the bait, they’re just feeding the troll. And as long as you feed troll, he sticks around.
What happens next is worse. A lot of people just drift away from the message board (as I did). Some of the people who aren’t interested in being a part of the flame war get themselves sucked into it. And this is where it gets really ugly. People who would never ordinarily act like boorish heathens find themselves lobbing personal attacks. When arguing with a troll, they’re going to do their best to drag you down to the gutter where they reside. The problem is, they’re a lot more used to being down there, and even if you “win”, which is an impossibility with someone who relies on vitriol instead of logic, you’ll still get mighty dirty.
To be sure, I’ve seen plenty of flame wars in my time, since I began getting onto online forums back in the BBS days of the early 90’s. I’ve learned two things. First, the only way to win is not to fight. Second, an unmoderated message board is almost certain to eventually devolve into flame wars. Most often, user-created and user-moderated boards are more-likely to survive, as the users have a vested interest in keeping the environment free from pests.
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A well-written thesis on flame wars of message boards. I see that you’ve offered a solution … of sorts (ignore the flamer), but I’d think that more analysis would be necessary. You’ve answered the question of “Why?” by listing that he/she wants attention or he/she wants to create havoc. But why does he/she crave attention? Why does he/she want to create havoc? And why do a few people take the “bait?”
I submit that this is all part of human nature as predictable as real-life war (though much less harmful). The World Wide Web is large indeed, and people will have conflicts. So as we Americans venture into far-away lands, we have to understand that we are not beloved by everyone. The same can be said of we Internet visitors.
There will be no world peace in our lifetimes unfortunately. And flame wars will continue in the message boards that give the most fredom of expression.
Too many people need to be right.