Flame Wars

Posted on August 1, 2003 in InterNet Debates Mailbox

I got an email about my Rules for Flame Wars from a fellow who thought they were great for the wrong reasons: he’s setting up a “flamers’s hall of fame” site. The idea is to preserve for all time those vitrolic spews which grind us into a fine powder. I’ve been guilty of doing it myself: self-examination and a healthy contempt for my excitable side led me to write the Rules in the first place.

The email-writer wanted to exchange links because he thought we were of the same mind. I told him that he’d misunderstood, that the Rules were written ironically. I ended by refusing him reciprocity.

It’s bad enough that we lose our tempers and start running off at the fingertips with such crap. I don’t want to encourage it as “an art”.

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Defense: it does not make me a hypocrite to fail and flame sometimes. Just so long as I don’t keep it up without self-examination, without making checks, without making apologies when they are due.