Small impersonal flame wars, thread hijacking and other forms of online entertainment keep messageboards of all types vital.

Nobody spends time on boards where there are no conflict, people get bored (no pun intended!).

Example: box_2005 is a Jew hating communist.

Psht, don't tell Krem

andaroo, I was talking about flame wars that turn into what essentially amounts to a shouting match where each side insults the other.

Krem wouldn't know world history if it came up and bit it on his extremely rotund ass.
:wink:

What are the things that make you gain/lose respect for another poster, or just plain piss you off (or please you)?


Just some for me personally:

DOs

Good writing: this is self-explanatory. In general, it's always better to read something by someone who is articulate and clear.

Concise Posts: far better than longer posts; if someone can pack a lot within a smaller amount of space, kudos to them, it's great. I wish I did that more often (this thread necessarily requires a long introductory post; the irony of this is not lost on me).

Nice Avatars: *cough*Ripper*cough*

A Unique/Productive/Useful POV: KJ has a lot of posters that really have unique POVs, which is useful when you want to know about something that's off the beaten road, e.g. foreign films, 1980s films, and so on



DON'Ts


Excessive Number of Spelling Errors: We all make mistakes, and often, but if it's all the time, on an annoyingly consistent basis, it does get on the nerve. You know it's bad when it interferes with one's ability to understand what the other poster is trying to say. Exceptions abound.

Competition for Thread Creating: A huge turn-off personally because I was stupid enough to get into it over at BOM last summer; this is a big no-no for me. My advice: don't do it. You'll only appear selfish.

Closing of Too Many Threads: this only encourages the above-mentioned thread competition; no wonder if you're interested in a film and can't have a thread on it because it'll get locked. Thing is, what if someone doesn't wish to participate in a thread created by some poster- Too bad, eh? Just some piece of advice ahead of the 2005 releases. Don't lock WOTW threads, any of them :wink:

Ugly/Disgusting Avatars/Images: Self-explanatory. Huge turn-off

Flame Wars: I hate them. And I don't care much for those who start them. Urgh. Worst: LOTR/SW, and what the LOTR nuts did to The Passion over at BOM in March/April was absolutely pathetic; on online-terms, it's unforgivable, really. How can you say you love a film when your online display of affection is by belittling other films in relation to it, so as to make it stand out? I hate Shrek 2, but not because I like The Incredibles, or vice versa. I have a hard time seeing anything that would relate those two to begin with. Shrek 2 is bad on its own, made worse in respect to TI only in that TI is an example of a good CGI film, but the two films are essentially indepedent of each other.

Not Understanding the Diff. Between a Film's Box-Office and Your Opinion of it: Denying The Passion and F9/11's tremendous success because you dislike them, or belittling Star Wars' success by pointing to LOTR's WW Box Office. I loathe Shrek 2, but I've never denied that it is a huge success; it's in fact a phenom, like no other since TPM domestically (maybe SM1...). I'd have preferred for SM2 to have reversed roles with it, but there's no way to deny what a tremendous success it was. Etc.

Arguing For/Against Films by Means of Personal Attacks: There's no excuse for that, really. This is acutally called Ad Hominem, arguing against something by means of criticizing the person rather than the argument. This would easily get you an F on a philosophy paper, and no better a grade among your online peers, I'm sure.

Spoiling Films When Asked No To, Intentionally: Imagine not having watched The Sitxh Sense, and someone comes and tells you the ending when you were about to go and watch the film. Sucks, doesn't it?

Making Fun of Spelling: If it's good-natured fun, I understand. I once made fun of Francesca's spelling, and I still feel terrible about it



Ok, your turn!

Well, the flame wars you're engaged in are usually fun because you usually laugh it off anyways, right? I was more specifically talking about some flame wars around the time The Passion came out where no one had fun at all. It was just...stupid.

But I wouldn't want to live without your flame wars

Looking forward to some when King Kong opens

DOs

A Unique/Productive/Useful POV: KJ has a lot of posters that really have unique POVs, which is useful when you want to know about something that's off the beaten road, e.g. foreign films, 1980s films, and so on

Don't type in all caps, all italics, or all bold...its grating to read :wink:

Most important one:

Whatever do's and don'ts that are mentioned, exercise them in moderation.

DO not always engage in the dos, do not always abstain from doing the don'ts

:!:

its true

Most important one:

Whatever do's and don'ts that are mentioned, exercise them in moderation.

DO not always engage in the dos, do not always abstain from doing the don'ts

The derailing has gotten better lately, less of it. We have a thread "look at the size of that anaconda" and a thread "I just got rear ended" and nary a sex joke.

Oh Dear God NO! I'll have to go in asap and investigate what the hell could have possibly gone wrong.