Flame Wars Hit The Blogosphere
by Frank Jovine on 09/27/2008 in Internet, Odd Stuff
I never thought that a flame war could actually happen in a blog, but it does. I remember running a very popular gaming fan site based on the game called Delta Force by Novalogic. Our web site was called DFWorld.com and we had thousands of active members and there were some huge flame wars in the forums and in the voice chat rooms.
Not all flame wars are bad as they provide controversy and debate within the community. I will admit that I do enjoy controversy as well as throwing in my own from time to time. It drives interest, interaction and excitement, but in a blog? I never knew that a blog would have a place for this type of activity.
I guess if your site has a form of interaction, than it’s possible for any site to break out in an all out flame war. Just recently we had one, but it was not nearly as exciting as the ones in the DFWorld forum. At least when people would get involved in a debate they knew the subject matter.
In summary, flame wars are not a bad thing.
If you going to start a topic and it has the potential of creating controversy, make sure you do your homework or you may look foolish in the debate.
Just my rant for the day!
Breezie
Sep 28th, 2008
Flame wars can drive traffic, there is no doubt about it, but the question is, do you really want that sort of promotion on your sites?
Frank J
Sep 28th, 2008
It all depends what kind of debate it is. If it’s constructive than yes, but if it is nonsense, than no.
HART (aka PetLvr)
Jul 7th, 2009
I think I agree with Breezie … flame wars are different in the forums … it’s never worth it in the blogs. I would just stop and nip it in the bud (delete rude comments, turn comments off, ban instigators, etc). However, I always like to forgive and forget // at least forgive anyway
// after a good night’s sleep and 24hrs later and believes everybody gets at least one second chance.
Sometimes .. it’s possible that you just get into a mood.
Frank J
Jul 7th, 2009
Hart,
It is awesome when you have flame wars once in a while, it makes for a good time.
timethief
Jul 7th, 2009
When it comes to my blog there are no flame wars. If a commenter violates ANY of my policy guidelines I delete their comment and that’s that. The bottom line is that it is my blog and it’s my call.
I know that how I choose to moderate the comments on my blog will affect who feels comfortable to participate on your site, and who will want to come back again and again. Every piece of content that appears on a blog site becomes a part of the makeup and the “brand” of that blog. I think it’s important for bloggers to look at it in terms of how the comment affects the brand.
I learned long ago that people will give you as much crap as you are willing to put up with. If you tolerate abusive commenters, they’ll just keep coming back. Well, I would prefer to the the bad actors off at the knees and preserve as safe and comfortable environment for all readers, so I delete all comments that violate my comment posting policy (no personal attacks).
As far as flame wars on forums go I don’t find them to be either entertaining or edifying. There are nut cases and trolls in the blogosphere and IMHO the best way to deal with them is to shun them ie. fail to engage them. I have recently witnessed how destructive they can be in social communities where I am attempting to promote my blogs and form relationships with other civilized and sane bloggers.
If members of any online community condone forum behavior of individual bad actors that they know isn’t proper, it will slowly become acceptable, and will become more commonplace, simply because it’s being tolerated. And if Moderators are not aware and willing to act swiftly when guideline and TOS are violated, then a single negatively focused and manipulative member or clique can create bad will that will have a lasting effect in an online community.
Frank J
Jul 8th, 2009
Timethief,
Your comment is awesome! You really spell it out well and I enjoyed the read. To me, in some cases, flame wars do boost traffic and get other members to interact to a thread because it is controversial.