Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re:  Famous flame wars, examples please?
From: alien@acheron.amigans.gen.nz (Ross Smith)
Date: 13 Dec 92 11:47:18 GMT+12
 <BywBLt.99E@NeoSoft.com> <1992Dec10.222641.16976@nas.nasa.gov>
Distribution: world
Organization: Muppet Labs

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

If I wanted to start a flame war here, I'd point out that IMHO people who say
"gender" when they mean "sex" are themselves suffering from possibly hazardous
levels of PC :-)

But I don't, so I won't.

>    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

You forgot

     F. PC vs Mac vs Amiga vs...

There's also a good one going right now in comp.sys.amiga.programming
about hardware documentation, but unfortunately it's probably too
platform-specific to be of any interest to a.f.c at large. And there's
an example of the "one brave nut vs the universe" variety in
rec.arts.animation, started by a guy named Maximus who's obsessed with
the word "slut" ... but I digress :-)

There's a thought -- how about classifying flamewars by "type" as well as
subject? I haven't been on the net long enough myself to attempt a full
taxonomy, but it might start something like this...

Classification by newsgroup distribution
   1. Restricted to one newsgroup
   2. Cross-posted to a small number of related newsgroups
   3. Cross-posted to completely unrelated newsgroups by some idiot
   4. Cross-posted all over the net

Classification by population
   1. One person vs one person
   2. Small clique vs small clique
   3. One person vs all and sundry
   4. Large number of people vs large number of people
   5. One complete newsgroup vs another

Classification by life cycle
   1. Short-lived (a few weeks), then sinks without trace
   2. Long-lived (several months)
   3. Short-lived in any one incarnation, but keeps popping up again
   4. Immortal

Classification by outcome
   1. All participants convinced of one side's point of view (rare!)
   2. Most participants convinced apart from a small but vocal minority
   3. Inconclusive, nobody convinced of anything (except that there are
      a lot of idiots on the net, which we all know already)

I leave it to the net.experts to expand on this...

--
...... Ross Smith (Wanganui, NZ) ...... alien@acheron.amigans.gen.nz ......
   Mine is the ship bound for Alpha Centauri
   We must be out of our minds
   For though we are shipmates bound for tomorrow
   Everyone here's flying blind                          (Crystal Gayle)
--

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers