What is trolling and flamebait?

[AlexMax]

So maybe you were involved in the little Farscape (http://www.armageddongames.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=75379) discussion. Maybe you weren't. But I think everyone should read this log where we explain to Gerudo what flamebaiting and trolling are, and where he went wrong in the farscape discussion.

I would repeat everything we said there in this topic in a concise, clear form, but to be quite honest, I'm too tired to do so, and I would also like higher up opinions before I make an 'official pointer' or anything like that. Plus, who knows, we might even introduce anti-troll and anti-flamebait rules. For now, just take this as friendly advice when you start having trouble with 'the usual suspects'.

For now though, I think that something can be learned from what happened in that thread. Download the attached file and reply in this thread if you think anything is unclear.

I don't think this is worthy of a sticky, as I usually consider sticky stuff to be more 'official' and 'set in stone' than this.

EDIT: Right Click and Save As... and open in Notepad instead of left clicking. IE doesn't seem to handle the formatting of this .txt file right, for some reason...

[Gerudo]

um, im all for an example of show what the stuff means, but im sure there are parts of that you couldve omitted...

and dont make this out to be a 'geru learns a lesson' type deal either, even though this was a public chat or whatever, i wasnt asked nor did i agree to this being posted...

as far as 'official anti-flamebait' rules, stand by what i said that there is flamebaiting in almost every thread...

edit: actually, re-reading that, i dont think it proves any points.. i fail to find reason for it being posted at all, because you try explain why i act the way i do, and try to get me to stop, but other than that... wtf...

alex, just paint it in black and white for me, please...

[AlexMax]

My apologies. I thought that Starkist and I was enough. I was using you as an example, but not in a bad way. I thought that because you had managed to see our points, that perhaps anyone else who was unclear on the subject could read the logs and figure it out too.

And I can't really say anything that is set in stone, as I need other staff member's input on it. However, in the meantime, I'll provide you with my interpertation of flamebait. Flamebait is a comment, negative in nature, that doesn't provide any explination behind its negativity.

From the logs (out of order)...


( %Starkist ) There is a new thread about baseball in GD
( %Starkist ) If someone went in and posted "baseball sucks! and people who like baseball are dorks! and i like cheese!!"
( %Starkist ) That's trolling... posting in order to get a reaction, a bad reaction

However, lets say that in response to the farscape thread, I had pretended that I had not liked Farscape and said this...


( +AlexMax ) What if I had posted something similar to "I just dont see what the fuss about farscape is about <goes off into five or six paragraphs as to why it didnt appeal to me>. Still, I realize that you must be sad about your favorite show being off the air. It would be like if they took Adult Swim off of Cartoon network."
( +AlexMax ) Starkist: Wouldnt you agree that would be more appropriate
( %Starkist ) Sure Alex

See the difference? One was just a jab in the ribs, the other was more constructive to the conversation. The jab in the ribs is the flamebait, as it is just begging for a backlash.

Now don't take this as my definitive guide. This still doesnt break it down into a few sentances, something that would probably be more useful. I'm asking for staff input on this as we speak. If you want, I'll remove the logs Gerudo. But I was going to post the log as a service to those who didn't understnad why people kept getting pissed off at them. It wasn't intended to pick on you.

[Gerudo]

i see what you mean now...

for pure example purposes, go ahead and keep it there ;)