Help Academia Understand This Whole "Flame War" Thing
Jess
Sent to you by Jess via Google Reader:
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!
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