Line #64 PlayingWith/FlameWar


1	'''Basic Trope''': An angry argument between several persons that begins on the Internet or Internet-based social media, which can be over matters entirely serious or entirely silly.
2	* '''Straight''':
3	** Someone insults or [[InternetJerk threatens]] another person's comments or the person themselves in an online dispute. Other people join in and the fight begins.
4	** Alternately, a {{Troll}} posts something sufficiently inflammatory enough to get people arguing.
5	** [[InnocentlyInsensitive An ordinary poster posts something that, while they didn't assume it to be inflammatory, is very much so]].
6	* '''Exaggerated''':
7	** The Flame War is ''literal,'' as in, people fighting with fire or pyrotechnics in a meatspace BarBrawl.
8	** The Flame War shuts down the place where it took place forever, spreads across anything even tangentially related to the subject, or otherwise gains far more notice than a localized dispute.
9	** The Flame War actually involves meatspace lawyers or law enforcement at some point.
10	** Even the moderators of the site start getting into the war.
11	** ''Actual civil wars'' [[SillyReasonForWar result from the original Flame War]].
12	** The said Flame War [[BeyondTheImpossible caused International Warfare]] and '''literal genocides (including Nuclear Holocaust)''' simply because it causes people to insult each other's nationalities and ethnicities.
13	* '''Downplayed''':
14	** Someone laughs off the attempt to start a Flame War, and the person who tried to do it doesn't persist.
15	** The FlameWar consists of maybe five posts before the moderators handle it.
16	* '''Justified''':
17	** The issue that causes the Flame War is actually SeriousBusiness to some degree and people will obviously have very polarized feelings on something where no agreement between the sides ''can'' be reached. Good (or bad) examples here are most if not all religious and political and cultural {{flame war}}s, because agreement between the sides (as opposed to tolerance of the other's differences but continuing disagreement) would mean one or both sides giving up issues of deep principle or culture to reach a compromise.
18	** A discussion or place online devoted to trolling, insults, intentional FlameWar, or the like.
19	** The Flame War is fighting back against [=Trolls=] or others such as the {{Spammer}} using invasion tactics on a person or discussion venue.
20	** The discussion is "Worst Flames" or "Start A Flame War" or similar.
21	* '''Inverted''':
22	** A discussion or place online where help, useful advice, or some other form of cooperation or useful assistance is far more predominant than fighting.
23	** A discussion or place online where the people are all pacifists with the occasional TechnicalPacifist or MartialPacifist moderation to deal with trolling and not in the sense of arguing over pacifism - in the sense of putting it into action.
24	* '''Subverted''':
25	** A discussion that by all reason should start a FlameWar ''doesn't'' start a FlameWar.
26	** A [=Troll=] posts some inflammatory message that actually doesn't upset anyone, and no one even ''responds'' to it.
27	* '''Double Subverted''': A discussion that would never seem to possibly be anything anyone could become sincerely angry over starts the biggest FlameWar in history and then to ''offline'' MemeticMutation. One good example of this happened some years back when a Japanese Youtube user posted [[TalkAboutTheWeather video of a thunderstorm]]. By the time the war was over, everything from religion to the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki had been fought over in the comments...
28	* '''Parodied''':
29	** The Cake vs. Pie Flame War.
30	** [[MemeticMutation INTERNET FIGHT!!!]]
31	** It involves fire.
32	* '''Zig Zagged''': A moderator sees someone flaming and bans them. Things quiet down, but then people who are friends of the banned user realize what happened, and begin to flame the moderator in the thread, reigniting the Flame War, but over the ban rather than the original topic.
33	* '''Averted''':
34	** Flame War just doesn't happen.
35	** Moderators and admins put in very strict rules to prevent Flame War from beginning and starting or getting involved in one is an instant ban offense.
36	* '''Enforced''':
37	** Platform/FourChan, and some other places where the intent is to be as offensive and assholish as possible.
38	** [[ForumSpeak G.I.F.T]]
39	* '''Lampshaded''':
40	** PassThePopcorn!
41	** [[SarcasmMode Just what we needed, another]] [[DieForOurShip discussion]] of which is the real OneTruePairing!
42	** "''SNIFF SNIFF'' something's burning..."
43	** "[[MemeticMutation But what are your thoughts on]] {{yaoi}}?"
44	* '''Invoked''':
45	** "Atheism vs. Christianity, which one's better guys?" posted almost anywhere.
46	** "What does your religion say about sex?" posted almost anywhere.
47	** "So I'm having problems running Game X on my Mac..." posted to anywhere that isn't a Mac-specific community
48	** The posting of a hit piece or outright {{Demonization}} of a community or group anywhere many members of that community or group frequent.
49	** Political discussions posted almost anywhere.
50	* '''Exploited''':
51	** Starting drama and Flame War for attention or to make one look more like an expert than one is.
52	** Starting a Flame War to distract people from something more important.
53	** Reverse trolling: after an incident of abusive behavior, for example, where all the activity was via private message or deleted before anyone could act, a mod or an ally of the attacked people flame baiting the trolls/flamers into an attack on them - and then banning them and/or screencapping the proof of how pointlessly abusive they are.
54	* '''Defied''':
55	** People ignore the [=Troll=] or respond intelligently and calmly to the inflammatory post.
56	** The combatants decide it's not worth it to have another flamewar over the same subject with the same people and walk away.
57	** A discussion venue ''dedicated to'' politics, religion, sex, or shipping debate has no flamewars or no real flamewars.
58	** Moderators delete the inflammatory comment before a flame war can break out.
59	* '''Discussed''':
60	** Moderators, admins, or owners discuss what topics will not be allowed for discussion to prevent inevitable FlameWar.
61	** "This is beginning to look like a FlameWar, people really need to calm down."
62	* '''Conversed''': Fandom Wank or similar communities that exist to comment on FlameWar and those involved in it.
63	* '''Implied''':
64	** "Whatever you do on that board, do NOT bring up whether Alice should be with Bob or Carol."
65	** A thread exists - but with a ton of deleted or removed posts and/or a lot of banned users.
66	* '''Plotted A Good Waste''':
67	** InUniverse, a Flame War is depicted to show the pettiness or stupidity of those involved.
68	** InUniverse, a character has to deal with Flame War repeatedly, and this establishes why that character has such a misanthropic view of the internet/of humanity in general.
69	* '''Deconstructed''':
70	** There's NO way to "win" a Flame War. Sane people eventually realize how silly they are being and stop... Leaving only a bunch of stubborn jerks to fight over the ashes of a dead horse.
71	** Because the flame war is so heated and disruptive, the moderators will not simply stop it, but temporarily, or worse, ''permanently'' block many users from ever continuing the flame war, locking and deleting the topics that have it, and warning the others, leaving the remaining users very hesitant and thinking carefully about which topic they should bring up, and their unawareness will no longer be excusable in the future the next time a flame war starts. Instant or eventual bans will happen and some of them did get banned.
72	** The Flame War eventually leads to the death of the forum as membership plummets due to a combination of bans and non-involved members [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere ditching]] the forum for a less abusive venue.
73	* '''Reconstructed''':
74	** While there is no way to "win" a Flame War, the subject was of some importance and some of the posts did serve to convince some of the less strident individuals to open their minds.
75	** In a similar way, the point of the Flame War or the angry response to the {{Troll}} isn't out of seriously trying to convince that person of their own error, it is to demonstrate to anyone looking on that their conduct is unwelcome. If someone is saying insanely bigoted things or singling out individuals for personal abuse, for example, flaming them may be seen as a way of discouraging such behavior.
76	** Similar to both of the above and the justified example with the {{Spammer}}, it is known that one side of the "debate" is operators of the SockPuppet or an AstroTurf attempt. The FlameWar in this case isn't intended to actively convince the sockpuppeteers or astroturfers - which is likely impossible - but to combat the sockpuppeting or astroturfing ''itself'' and to make those doing it go away.
77	* '''Played For Laughs''': A silly intentional FlameWar where everyone is in on the joke and no actual offense is intended.
78	* '''Played For Drama''':
79	** The Flame War invokes RealLife consequences in some way.
80	** People chase down those involved in the Flame War elsewhere online to harass them, becoming [=Trolls=] or stalkers because some debate on some forum somewhere has become [[ItsPersonal very personal]] to them.
81	----
82	U think that? [[FanDumb Ur st00pid]] and [[YourMom ur mama]] [[BestialityIsDepraved did it with a dog]]. [=Gb2=] FlameWar!

Context PlayingWith / FlameWar