Scratch

Now, don't misunderstand the title and flag me. I am not going to try to teach you how to start a flame war(although it is pretty obvious). What I AM going to do, is to try to teach you how to deal with them

***Table of contents***
What is a flame war?
Why flame wars are not allowed
Consequences of being caught participating in a flame war
What to do when someone tries to start a flame war



What is a flame war?
A flame war is when a lot of people argue over something. Usually, these people take sides. For example, there was a recent flame war where the 2 sides(Artists and Programmers) where arguing over whether Games or Art is better, the most famous and heavy-hitting result being that [removed], a popular game creator who believes that games instead of art should be on the front page, got banned(he is currently unbanned). I do not know who won the argument, but I think the mods stepped in eventually. However, do not mistake a flame war with trolling/flaming. Trolling(or flaming)is when a rude user insults something specifically, and there is only one of them. A flame war is when several users argue over something, and is usually pretty big and may even leak out to other topics, setting of mini flame wars in them. Once, I even saw a topic dedicated to "hosting" the Games V.S Art flame war! These are the differences of Flaming and a Flame War.

A typical troll response to a topic would be something like tl;dr. By BladeEdge

Flaming:
"Hey, your project/gallery/name/country/etc is stupid/annoying/useless/etc!!!"
*Comment/Post get's flagged*
*User gets banned and Comment/Post is deleted/edited*

Flame War:
"I think that we should have PMs on Scratch"
"Don't talk nonsense"
"Oh yeah? I think PMs are perfectly reasonable!"
"I agree with _____. What's wrong with PMs?"
"Well, PMs are ________ and _______________."
"That's a stupid reason."
"You're stupider than the reason"
____________3 Days later_____________
Hey, isn't that similar to the PM suggestion? What do you think, everybody?
*Flame War restarts*
____________2 Days later_____________
"Wow, the PM flame war is quite big! I should create a host topic!"
*Flame War increases in intensity*
*Mods step in and start banning people*


As you can see, Flaming and a Flame War are quite different.

Why flame wars are not allowed
If you actually read the comparison between Flaming and a Flame War, you will notice that both have negative consequences, with the Flame War affecting the most people. AlConso, flame wars are rude, usually include swearing and makes it very difficult for the rest of the rule-abiding Scratch community to read the forums. Thus, flame wars are not tolerated at all and may get you banned.

Consequences of being caught participating in a flame war
If you get caught being an active member of a flame war, you will most likely be banned for a few months. If you were an active member but has since given up on it, the ban period will be about a few weeks. If you are the person who started the flame war or is a leader of a side(often dubbed "General" because of the "war" in "flame war"), you will probably be banned for life. Yes this means that you will never ever be able to use Scratch again, unless you create another account, but you'll be treated as a newbie, you can't have a signature, and so on. And if it's really really bad, you'll be banned by IP Address, meaning that you can't create another account unless you're visiting another person's house, or you move house.
Also, don't think you can get away just because you're famous or friends with a mod, as proven when the almost-legendary 30+ time-front page hitting [removed] himself got banned.

What to do when someone tries to start a flame war
To tell if someone is trying to start or even posting an innocent and well meaning comment but that has the potential to start a flame war, look out for these telltale signs:\

Is discriminating against Age,Race,Religion,Style of using Scratch or anything else.
Has attracted both positive and negative attention from many people
Is obviously going to burst into flames(get flamed very badly).

If you're sure that a flame war is brewing,KEEP CALM.even if you feel like participating or arguing, remember what can happen to you if you do. Try to calm down the sides too. However, don't go,"Guys! Stop this idiotic madness! Calm Down, peoples!" This will only aggravate more flaming and you may even start a second flame war! Instead, go,"Hey guys, is it that important whether RPGs or Platformers are better? I love playing both of them myself, and they are completely different genres of games, so I think you should stop arguing about this." That will almost certainly calm down, if not stop outright, the flame war. If you DO manage to stop it, you will be respected as "the person who stopped a flame war" and may even be offered a chance to be a moderator or curator! 


I hope this post was useful to the Scratch beginners who don't know much about trolling and stuff around here. If you find the term "Scratch Beginners" discouraging or rude, remember:I'm one too! And if you think that young teens will almost certainly try to start a flame war, I would like to remind you that some young people are mature! Here's a little something that might suprise you if you think that way:The guide you have been reading for the past few minutes was made by a boy turning eleven this year!

Last edited by helltank (2010-06-07 07:35:45)