Introduction: How to Not Flame Online

About: msn messen_er : aketch_m _ liv_.com

you came too closed to the tree. i have no option other than sending boa at you whispered mowgli

i dont mind it said tom. me and huck are gonna explore this in a straight line

prepare for trouble shouted jessie. and make it double added james

expeliarmos ! yelled harry

are you familiar with those folks ? you should be. they all (and many others) live within you. they all live within each of us. they influence our behaviour in the real world

sometimes they go kaboom and make us blast as well - scattering online everything they had in their imaginary emotions

Step 1: End Task !

in this instructable we'll see how to hit our internal alt ctrl del and click end task to the flaming character

this instructable was made to include some conclusios from what happened in the comments of How to Survive Rocket Attacks instructable

Step 2: PChu and PiMACkchu

pichu

chu

pchu

*steam*

pchu pchu

sometimes we call it flamewars when all we see is steam. difference is - steam is not offensive.

an example is windows vs mac wars. most of them are not to insult but to show how the other systemn sucks. dont judge each other by your computer os and youll be fine. just keep it friendly

Step 3: The Taboo Recycle Bin

he's a human. he sure wants to kill baghira and take me to their cities

lots of subjects can be called provocative or offensive - from porn and to the conflicts in the middle east

does this mean we shall throw those subjects into the taboo recycle bin and never look at them again ?

the taboo recycle bin is a high voltage capacitor. the one that charges to thousands of volts from just existing there

it may be hard to overcome the immediate wish to throw everything into the recycle bin forever

but there is one thing to understand. instructables are posted by simple human beings just like us. simple human beings dont try to offend intentionally. even if not obvious from outside - deep inside we all want to end things right away and not keep charge

believe that everything can be taken easy and for everything a solution can be proposed and tried. and from all places instructables is THE one where solutions are to be proposed and tried - and not dumped away

dont keep any subject in the silence. dont join the taboo. if you come to a subject - speak it freely. allways

Step 4: Fight Fire With Water !

water type is better over fire type. but hey i've got a fire extinguisher

now that we understand what not to do lets see how we stop existing flame wars

would you two extinguish if some1 dumped a bucket of cool water on you ? try it !

raise a direct question : what are we trying to get here ? maybe we can get it another way ? maybe we are just burnin' without anything we can ever get from it ?

remember those lil' characters inside ? this question can wake up someone else who'll show to steaming calvin what a jet of fire extinguisher feels like

now add something to direct the flow to its new destination

Step 5: Silence

not saying anything (aka dont feed the troll) is the best solution to flame wars that hold on

do it unless you can actually make something better with your next reply

if you can - hold on

Step 6: Team Rocket Is Blasting Off Again !

you were awesome aipom. return to the pokeball and have a great nap

maybe you won or lost the battle. maybe you stop the battle to early to have results

in flame wars that does not matter !

when you post the last message you dont want to continue the war. but sometimes you feel that ignoring the reply or a please stop just does not make it

thats the case when you have to say the last word on the topic

conclude your points briefly and clearly in the beginning of the post. only conclude. dont prove. then write something like

here are my points. i got yours. we wont get anywhere in this topic. lets leave it

chances are this post will remain the last one and not replied to. and if not - it gives you the ultimate excuse to not reply any further

Step 7: The Empty Platform 9 3/4

i dont know. there is no train and all clocks are stuck from yesterday. maybe we missed it or maybe it just did not come yet

did you allready post ? come back. maybe you'll see your words in another light when they appear outside the edit box

a posted comment is not necessarily a read one. even after few hours your comment may well be unread. you still did not miss the train ! if you posted a comment on a hot subject come back after a while and read it again. maybe youll decide to change its contents or to just remove it

hit F5 right before you hit delete to make sure nobody replied to it while it was open in another tab. or you may have to resort to other ways to end it in a better way

Step 8: But You Left Me in the Rain

did your flames get lost under many new comments by others ?

great ! leave it as is

but dont delete everything that was allready said and replied to. there is nothing to hide after things said and read

by leaving things as they are we acknowledge that we all make mistakes and are not shamed of acknowledging them. its a very important step in becoming better

only delete your comment if the other side did not read it yet (see step the empty platform 9 3/4). we dont want to leave a nice red reminder to the other guy on his you page