Originally posted by DomeBase
This thread has received nearly 400 hits... and all of the visitors now have DNJournal firmly engrained in their brains... with a host of different extensions! Why is it that I get the subliminal feeling that this thread is already serving as part of some collusive marketing agreement between Duke and Izopod! LOL :laugh:
Domebase your are wise beyond your years (and considering all those years that is pretty wise
)
Let me warn you people - I started writing this post and it just turned into a full length article. Maybe I'll polish it up and use it in DNJ later as a piece on flame wars. If you're interested read on, if not - sorry for taking up so much space!
There was no advance collusion between Izopod and I, but I will have to admit that I understood early on in the battle that the mounting pages views were very beneficial (our Alexa numbers took a big jump during this). I don't think that fact was lost on Izopod either. Did you notice how he rushed the link to Algebra.us into his sig in the middle of the fray?
Keep in mind that both Izopod and I were strong supporters of Greg's and we picked up a few tricks from the master, who has publicly stated that occasional flame wars could be very beneficial to a forum by igniting page views. Greg even took it to the extreme and touched off flame wars in OTHER forums to promote this site!
I did feel bad today when Peaceful seemed genuinely upset and wanted us to snuff it out. How can you not feel bad ignoring a guy named Peaceful who just wants a little peace! Dome I could ignore, Peaceful was harder
I am a bit surprised that a flame war really upsets some people. Well, not really surprised because after all, Bidawinner did say some really bad things about Izopod.
You have to understand that a lot of it is just show biz (oops , I used that damn word biz
). I know from the outside it looks like, as Peaceful described it, "we are tearing each other's faces off". People figure two guys saying such such awful things about each other will be locked in mortal combat from now to doomsday (maybe disrupting the whole forum in the process). It is rarely anything that serious.
Speaking for myself at least, the combatants are usually looking at it as a game - an interesting mental exercise. It's like chess, you look for a weakness or opening you can exploit. You have to use strong language and imagery because words are the only weapons in the game. I could tell by the way he played that Izopod understood the game very well. I only get into these maybe 2-3 time a year and when the game is over I have never seen either side hold a grudge - and to the contrary my opponents often end up being a good friend. Look at Izopod, he's advertising for me now!
Another example: I got into a flame war with TimeChange over at Domain State. We got along great after that and a month or two later he was my biggest ally when I was attacked in a thread by someone else.
The whole thing started Sunday night when I was already in a bad mood with the auction being wiped out again. Izopod had posted some things that annoyed me so I just decided to take him on. It was a good way to let off some steam and at the same time take people's attention off the auction situation. As with all flame wars it kept escalating until Izopod made a very clever move. Using my own greed against me, he played the free promotion card.
When he first made the offer it sailed right over my head and, on autopilot, I issued the next flame. Then I thought - hey wait a minute! I missed something there. So I went back and thought - that's not a bad deal - and it also started all the business wheels turning in my head. I had no interest in dnjournal.us as a defensive registration as I don't make those. But then I thought a completely separate edition of DNJ devoted only to .US news and developments might really be worth doing in the not to distant future. All of the sudden, registering it made sense to me.
That shows some good things that can come out of a flame war. What if a .US edition of DNJ becomes popular a year or two from now? I'll have to thank Izopod for that (and I'm sure he would never let me forget it.
). Also, his signature promotion plan gave me another idea (reinforced by a free signature link DomeBase gave me at DState). Platinum members have two hot clickable links allowed. If you are not using them, why not sell them for DNF bucks (or some other consideration) - another use for the forum's currency? I'll gaurantee you they are effective (especially when used in the sig of a guy who posts a lot like Izopod).
So, I congratulate Izopod on a very good battle and an exceptionally creative closing tactic that I have never seen used before. What many people don't realize is that the guy ending the flame war first and doing it tactfully ends up looking best, so he beat me to the final punch - the lousy weasel!
Of course none of this means we won't continue to disagree on things from time to time, but having gotten this out of our systems we are likely to be more civil at least! Still, I have to feel a little sorry for Izopod - he still has to deal with Bidawinner! Oh well, if Bush can tackle Irag and then move right on to Syria, no reason Izopod can't go for the Daily Double too. :laugh:
