Flame Warriors ~ View topic

*Last edited by GreenLiquid on Mon May 09, 2005 8:37 pm; edited 1 time in total*

There are two extremes a forum can reach: the Dark Ages or the Golden Age. First off, the Dark Ages.

Unfortunately, any forum can have a Dark Age. A Dark Age(s) is where the forum is pure chaos. There may be no/not enough moderators, or maybe they're slacking off. Regardlessly, it's pure Anarchy. People flat-out flame each other to kingdom come and know that there will be no punishment. People spam the forum and just do whatever. This often occurs if the forum gets to a bad state and the Admin doesn't want to push the Button on his forum. Dark Ages can become so chaotic that they will never cease, but if stopped early in the process, the forum can be restored, however, it will never reach the level it was once at. Try not to mistaken a Dark Age with a black hole, there are several differences.

1) Black holes are just idle conversation, but Dark Ages are like pure chaos. There's flames, pure spam, hack threats, and anything going on. A real world "Dark Age" would be if all laws and police forces were removed from service.

2) Black holes are near impossible to restore. Dark Ages usually end.

Eventually, after realising that the mods aren't ever going to return (or do anything about it), some orderly forumers will try to take things into their own hands. If they form a large enough group, they can restore the Dark Age back into its former forum.

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The forum is flame-free, happy, an abundant source of knowledge and simple chat, with lively debates and lots of kind forumers like Eagle Scouts. The forum is growing and the community continues to strenghten and learn more, and newbies always get the info they need.

That type of forum is in its Golden Age, a utopia state of forums. There are two types of Golden Ages:

Golden Age- The best time of the forum. The time when the forum was the most productive. Even if this time wasn't very productive, if it's the highest level the forum's seen, its the Golden Age. Ents will often remember the Golden Age and sigh in happiness.

Utopia- The description used at the beginning of the Golden Age segment is a utopia. It's a near perfect forum society.

All Golden Ages do end, though. Here's how:
(from best to worst)

Time- With time, all things end, including a Golden Age. People may get sick of the Utopia and begin to lower in productivity, or perhaps a lot of the best Netizens on a forum are leaving.

Newbies- Some newbies may not be as productive, unflaming, or informative. If they are not, the forum's productivity decreases. This can cause a Golden Age to end.

Godzilla Attack- As quoted from the description, It was a peaceful and productive forum; lively, congenial and a bounteous source of useful information. Then one day, completely without warning, Godzilla arose from the depths and blew his scalding breath on everything in his path. A lot of times, Utopias are huge Godzilla targets. They are generally quite fragile, and a huge flame attack will likely tear the Utopia into bits, possibly turning it into a Dark Age. If a Godzilla attacks a near-Utopia or a Utopia, the forum will never regain that status again. Usually.

Question: How come I can never find a Utopian Forum?

Answer: Because if you could, it probably wouldn't stay that way for long.

Oftentimes, the main way for a forum to become a Utopia is by being hidden/hard-to-find. That's because two possible ends for Utopias (Godzillas and Newbies) are from people finding it and joining. Most of the times, Utopias are private or privately owned forums, maybe ones you can't find on a search engine. Meaning that getting a new forumer will be a very rare occurance. Death to these hidden forums often occurs when a foolish member thinks it would be cool to see some new faces, and maybe posts a link in another forum. This is like heaven opening a portal to earth, now all these imperfect (flaming, attacking) people rush in and unwittingly tear it to bits. Either that or a Godzilla shows and wittingly tears it to bits.

Utopian Collapse

A Utopia can collapse into itself in time. This is known as a Utopian Collapse. Let's say that irritus and theognome are the mods and E-male, myself, and grim squeeker are some normal folk. Due to the secluded nature and nice people of the Utopia, there is little flaming or spamming. So, moderaters, out of boredom, may give up the role. So theognomes calls moderating quits. Irritus is the Admin, but out of boredom, he begins to not really care that much and spends months away from the forum. As you saw in the Dark Age section, this is a primary cause of a Dark Age. A forumer, noticing this, posts a spam thread, just as a joke. So lets say E-male posts a spam and notices he can get away with it. Everyone else notices, and they realize as well. Without any law, even the kindest, most diciplined gentlemen can get out of line, and you can guess what occurs after awhile. That's right- a Dark Age.

After the forum is sufficently Dark Aged, Irritus returns from a long break, and to his horror, the board is gone wild with flame or spam. Nobody wants to be a mod, and help destroy this anarchy they seem to be enjoying, so by himself, he realizes it is hopeless. He'll either at this point just push the button or leave, never to return.
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Evacuating a burning building is a wise idea.

Rambler Joined: 05 Apr 2005 Posts: 1690 Location: Misourri

I've seen this. Here's a link.
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There are three kinds of people: Those who can count, and those who can't.

I like the sound of a Dark Age Very Happy

Rambler Joined: 05 Apr 2005 Posts: 1690 Location: Misourri

Long winded, but this Green Liquid seems quite perceptive. I can already tell who's gonna hate this guy.
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There are three kinds of people: Those who can count, and those who can't.

What?! Why are you looking at me like that?
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Rambler Joined: 05 Apr 2005 Posts: 1690 Location: Misourri

Seriously, a Dark Age isn't really very common at all. The set up would need to be an admin so utterly inept that he actually just ran off in terror rather than pulling the plug. I suppose that can happen, but I've never seen it. Most start handing out more "free mod/admin cards" than kids do them stupid pokemon things and such.

The only other way I can conceive of this event happening is if an Admin actually manages to gather a group of warriors together and forms an concious alliance on the forum. In this scenario, no one would ever be online that is a moderator or admin. They also don't answer your calls or mails. They just flat don't exist. This situation is one of courage, not cowardice.

Think for a long moment folks...

This is a battlecry. Are we up to it?
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There are three kinds of people: Those who can count, and those who can't.

Rambler Joined: 05 Apr 2005 Posts: 1690 Location: Misourri

...For those who cry, "To Arms!", I'd like to say this:

If the crew votes "Aye", I'd no longer be much active in invasions. We'll need to instruct cyberspace that you don't come here; we'll take the flaming to you. This IS the pirates cove, and not even a ship-of-the-line would dare fire upon this place. Until that reputation is firmly established, I'd suggest Big Dog, Kung-Fu Master and Tireless Rebutter stand watch here. Our resident mods would have to turn in their credentials, of course.
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There are three kinds of people: Those who can count, and those who can't.

The same thing at the WC, we have the Rebutter and two Big Dogs to take care of people who try to inavde us. This isn't a two way game, you stand your ground on your home forum and wait for the horde to arrive.

Counter-attacks should be greeted with stonewall defense.
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Rambler Joined: 05 Apr 2005 Posts: 1690 Location: Misourri

Also, we've got to do a better job of picking targets. So far, every invasion I've taken part in was with a non-aggresive forum. Why would you use a nuke to attack Upper Zudanthia? how the hell would they even ever pose a threat?

Candy from a baby. We need to be wading into hornet's nests, not birdbaths.
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There are three kinds of people: Those who can count, and those who can't.

Though to answer you call to arms...

YAR!!!!
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Rambler Joined: 05 Apr 2005 Posts: 1690 Location: Misourri

Hells Kitchen Enforcer Joined: 16 Feb 2005 Posts: 655

Suffice to say, I'm always good to go.
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Dasn't mess wi' me or I`ll rip yer horkin' hade off.

Rambler Joined: 05 Apr 2005 Posts: 1690 Location: Misourri

I think that there's more than enough real talent around here to pull it off. It will take some time, though. We've got to work out a lot of details before we can really achieve Golden Age, on both boards, and there's quite a few folk that haven't sounded off yet. We've got time to think and plan and train. I'm sure that the poster of this thread will be watching carefully.

I've had a few folks PM me lately asking a particular question- why would the site admin here really be involved in this forum? This question has come from two different perspectives:

1. He already finished the site, he's a busy guy, so why should he care.
2. He's not a warrior, he's an observer. He wouldn't step into the fray here, but would forever lurk with a drawing pencil in his hand.

Well, I'd say that there are two reasons he would be very involved:

1. This is his art. His love like a fanboy. He's the only site admin in history with the balls to actually step away for the sake of the art- remove admin, and what kind of warriors will show up? He's addicted to flame wars. You couldn't keep him off this forum if he were in prison.

2. It's hard to get a good picture of someone's mind without interating with them. How could he possibly draw more warriors if he didn't try to get in your head?

Sometimes everyone needs to stop and remember that this site is hosted by a flame warrior buffer than anything you've ever seen. Too bad I'm not an artist- I'd love to draw him.

If you're gonna hang around this forum, you'd better be able to hang around that kind of caliber warrior and not make an ass of yourself. If you can manage that, WC might have a place for you if you're here to flame.
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There are three kinds of people: Those who can count, and those who can't.

I personally veiwed the mincing of the little fellows as a warmup for when we took on greater foes.

If we move to the biggest enemies, count me in.

Rambler Joined: 05 Apr 2005 Posts: 1690 Location: Misourri

This forum has potential to be a Golden Age forum, though due to its popularity I'm not as sure regarding Utopias.
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Evacuating a burning building is a wise idea.

Rambler Joined: 05 Apr 2005 Posts: 1690 Location: Misourri

It may be achievable if we combine popularity with reputation. I doubt that this forum could keep the Utopia stable for extended periods, but could likely hold it for a few months at least. Then the current regime will topple, darkness follows, and the cycle begins again.
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There are three kinds of people: Those who can count, and those who can't.

Would I be going off topic if I said I saw a Dark Age a long time ago? Embarassed

However, I think the terms "Dark Age" and "Golden Age" may depend on who you ask. I mean, to those who are causing the chaos, a Dark Age would be their idea of a Golden Age.
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Whoever told you to just be yourself gave you bad advice.

Clueless Newb Joined: 19 Feb 2005 Posts: 48

Clueless Newb Joined: 19 Feb 2005 Posts: 48

I'm Old Ralph over at WC, so feel free to weigh my actions on that board as to your selection. Cool

[/shamless brown-nosing]
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-Eviler Clown

Verbal Juggernaut Joined: 06 Mar 2005 Posts: 981

Being in a secret internet club makes me feel oh-so-special. It's so nice to be about to jump those idiot crimmers again.
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KILL IT WITH FIRE!

They had it coming. It's what they get for bragging about their combat prowess to us. It was like they were begging for us to attack their forum.

Though the one they really need to blame for this is that fucktard Thistle Queen of the Witless flames and non-existent plots.
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Clueless Newb Joined: 19 Feb 2005 Posts: 48