Before it's too late

Posted by Jarocho on December 17, 2000 at 01:24:03:

I think that it's obvious that having a board free of charge and especially a board that can easily be replaced (i.e. this board) comes into play when a monger decides to flame. What I'm saying is that much of the information is not that gets posted or archieved is not as valuable as one might think; therefore losing the right to such information bothers a very few mainly because a new board would most likely replace the OLD one (so indeed very little is lost). We lost RedSnake and as a result vincemonger, tjhombre, and lakers gave birth to brand new boards with their own set of rules aimed to preserved peace in the community and avoid nasty battles amongst bored mongers. My observations tell me that the life of a forum is proportional to how the community within that forum decides to handle flamers. In the spectrum of handling flames we can clasified "angry" responses as the worst method of handling the situation. Take for instance at a flame a few posts below...even I'm guilty to respond to the flame (maybe it has become the norm?). The point that if one "attacks back," the flamer would do the same and before we know it, the board is filled with nastier flames that have the potential to end all postings within that forum (think RedSnake). Now, I'm not sure the best method to handle the situation. Perhaps the best response is not to respond; ignored the message and have the person look like the deserving loser he is. Again, just from my observations flames who gain very little or no attention would mostly likely packed it up and flame else where (sorry no examples because none can be drawn from this board). In reality what is the flamer going to do? respond to his own flame? Clearly, flamers WANT attention (duh), so keep this in mind before responding to the message (I will do the same). Ultimately, how long this board survives will heavily depend on how effiecient its community handles flamers. Your job is easy (well, maybe not as easy if the attack is personal)...suck it up and DO NOT RESPOND. Is there a better way to handle it without given the flamer a sense of self-worth? Feel free to correct me or add your ideas to lessen the number of times we have to discuss this issue. -Jarocho

Follow Ups:

Post a Followup