Help Academia Understand This Whole "Flame War" Thing

I think it's safe to say that we know a little something about virtual conflict in this bloghood. Some conflict is inevitable; some is meaningful, even productive, educational, transformative. However, it does seem like some forms of online conflict are decidedly unproductive, at times hurtful and unhealthy. Can virtual conflict be managed and minimized by implementing best practices and online community-building strategies?

We're still finding our way in the new media realm, figuring out what works and what doesn't, figuring out what kinds of virtual communities and activities enrich our lives and reward our participation, and which ones end up simply being draining.

Professor Black Woman recently remarked:

In the past week, I have read no less than 5 meltdowns on blogs in which the blog owner has stated unequivocally they are sick of infighting, monitoring comments, and are thinking of quitting. I wrote one myself and it was not pretty. And now, there is one from a radio DJ that has officially received enough hits to become a wordpress “hawt [sic] post.” So is it in the water wires?

I tend to think that discussions are inevitably going to get heated, passionate, intense, angry, personal, when dealing with the kinds of issues we deal with on anti-racist anti-imperialist anti-oppression sites. Then again, the strange thing is that online communities of all stripes — not just political blogs, but forums about seemingly innocuous topics such as HTML or bicycles (as Tom once said) — seem to exhibit similar dynamics of conflict escalation degenerating into personal attacks and bitter exchanges.

Where am I going with all this? I'm plugging a research project on managing virtual conflict being conducted by my dear friend Zoe for her NYU graduate studies. She's collecting survey data for her thesis; it's confidential and doesn't take long, so if you've got a minute please fill out the survey and help academia better understand this whole "flame war" thing!

Comments

[prof bw]

ok Kai . . .:D remember I concluded that post by saying it is people with too much free time (myself currently included). Let's see if your friend discovers it is something else.

[ilyka]

Done. Good luck, Zoe!

[Kai]

Prof BW, true, you boiled it down to "Boredom + Depression (economic or social) + Too Much Free time (schools out) = Snarkfest". Which gave me a good chuckle. I don't know that free time is a variable in my friend's thesis but ya never know, maybe it'll eventually work its way into these studies...

Thanks, Ilyka, and yes, good luck to Zoe!

[nezua]

i'll definitely hit that bro. its a topic of innarest, actally.

[Sylvia/M]

Done and done! Now let's see if we can come up with the ultimate ClueBat 6000 for trolls and flamers of all internecine sizes.

[Changeseeker]

Done, too. Thanks for putting it out there so we could participate. And I'm with Nezua about the Cluebat (great term!).

[Changeseeker]

Er. I mean Sylvia's Cluebat. I can never figure out who posted what on this kind of format.

[Kai]

Nez, Sylvia, Changeseeker, thank you! Yeah ClueBat 6000 sounds nice...but I'm also okay with the simple KickYourCluelessAssOffMyCloudBat. It all depends, ya know. ;-)

[Jack Stephens]

I'm gonna take that survey. Thanks for the heads up. I myself don't have too much troubles with flame wars as I find them funny or I just don't fire back at people that attack me through e-mails or comments (as I can just delete those); of course, it would probably be worse if my blog got like 10,000 hits a day.

[Kai]

Thanks, Jack. Yeah I don't have many problems with flaming or trolling these days either, and when it does happen I end it quickly; it's a huge benefit of maintaining a low-profile blog and not reading or linking mainstream blogs teeming with the stupid. ;-)

[ZC]

Thanks to everyone who has contributed so far. Your input is much appreciated! I'll be happy to share the results with any who are interested. In my final writeup I'll see if I can fit in something on the Cluebat in the section "recommendations for future research" :)