From: bm665@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Jay Robert Hauben)
Newsgroups: alt.amateur-comp
Subject: Re: Famous flame wars, examples please?
Date: 24 Dec 1992 20:57:09 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA)
Reply-To: bm665@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Jay Robert Hauben)
NNTP-Posting-Host: hela.ins.cwru.edu


I am reposting this message from alt.folklore.computers. It is a guide
to the important phenomenum of Flame Wars. The second half of this
message suggests a taxonomy of Usenet News participants.

In a previous article, eugene@wilbur.nas.nasa.gov (Eugene N. Miya) says:

>In article <BywBLt.99E@NeoSoft.com> claird@NeoSoft.com (Cameron Laird) writes:
>>Proposed taxonomy:
>>I.  Usenet-specific disputes:
>>    A.  renamings [multitudinous]
>>    B.  "N shouldn't F, because of the no-commerce rule"
>>    C.  "What I write is {im,ex}plicitly {,not} copyrighted."
>>    C.  other arguments
>>        1.  what is usenet:  oldtimers vs. pups
>>        2.  other
>>II.  Political correctness
>>    A.  gender issues
>>        1.  having a gender ...
>>        2.  homosexuality
>>    B.  ethnicity in Amurrica
>>III.  Sports
>>    A.  "Ed Lor doesn't have the facts"
>>    B.  other
>>IV.  Cranks
>>    A.  Scientific
>>        1.  pyramid builders
>>        2.  perpetual movers
>>        3.  planet re-aligners
>>    B.  Ethnic haters
>>        1.  Turks
>>        2.  anti-Turks
>>        3.  other
>>V.  Fundamental rudeness
>>    A.  spelling
>>    B.  your mother
>>    C.  anything involving *.psuvm.edu
>>VI.  religious differences
>>    A.  emacs vs. vi
>>    B.  UNIX vs. VMS
>>    C.  Microsoft vs. anyone
>>    D.  assembly language vs. fifth generation
>>    E.  H. Rubin vs. 21st century
>
>I like this taxonomy.  Keep reposting it from time to time.
>
>One of my favorite flame wars from net.space/SPACE-digest mailing list
>from 1982 on is the toxicity of plutonium.
>
>just passing thru.....
>
>--eugene miya, NASA Ames Research Center, eugene@orville.nas.nasa.gov
>  Associate Editor, Software and Publication Reviews
>  Scientific Programming
>  {uunet,mailrus,other gateways}!ames!eugene
>Seeking Books to buy:	Bongard, Pattern Recognition
>			3 down 1 to go.
>
>
>The CA DMV News posting quiz
>
>Test your news skills (answer T or F).
>
>Beginner (reader)
>	Can deliberately (not accidentally) invoke mail, news, bbs, or notes.
>	Can get out of said system cleanly (without issuing an interrupt).
>	Might be able to read news.  Can't post or send mail
>		(probably because it invokes a foreign editor).
>	Blown away when .newsrc (or .notesrc) starts up with 2245 lines (e.g.).
>	Can't understand strange symbols.
>	Strictly a lurker.
>
>Intermediate (user)
>	Beyond the beginner stage.
>	Can read news groups sequentially.
>	Can post follow-ups.
>	Capable of invoking the system help command.
>	Incapable of skipping articles.
>	Not necessarily capable of article or group searching.
>	Selectively reads news groups.  Ignores the rest.
>	Expects others to post and generate articles like a magazine.
>	Does not understand flame wars.
>	Recognizes smilies 8^) [I have glasses.], maybe makes ASCII graphics.
>	Lurker, sometime poster.
>
>Advanced (poster)
>	Beyond the intermediate stage.
>	Can read news groups or posts in any order (random access).
>	Can skip news articles.
>	Can search a news article or new group.
>	Can unsubscribe/subscribe from news.groups at will.
>	Understands the differences in terminology (e.g., doesn't freak out
>		when seeing the words notesfile, BBS, or discussion group).
>	Knows how to use Followup lines.
>	Can use Kill files.
>	Can understands and edits .newsrc, .notesrc, .signature, etc. files.
>	May understand the news.hierarchy.
>	Can set up FAQs.
>	Understands flame wars.
>
>System Admin ()
>	Beyond the advanced poster stage.
>	Can set up a news system.
>	Can decipher UUCP Paths.
>	Can clean a news system when the file system gets full.
>	Understands (read and edit) headers.
>	Knows where articles actually sit.
>	Understands or can set up news gateways.
>	Understands accounts like root, system, postmaster, etc.
>	Can control flame wars. ( rm -r /usr/spool/news/fav.news.path 8^)
>	Not without a sense of humor.
>	Able to piece together and understand deliberately obscure FAQ postings.
>	May know how to forge postings.
>	May moderate a news.group.
>
>Explain the initials DMV in this context?
>
>

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