Flame War/Playing With

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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.

• Played Straight:
  • Someone insults or threatens another person's comments or the person themselves in an online dispute. Other people join in and the fight begins.
  • Alternately, a Troll posts something sufficiently inflammatory enough to get people arguing.
• Exaggerated:
  • The Flame War reaches Internet Backdraft levels.
  • 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.
  • The Flame War actually involves meatspace lawyers or law enforcement at some point.
• Inverted:
  • A discussion or place online where help, useful advice, or some other form of cooperation or useful assistance is far more predominant than fighting.
  • A discussion or place online where the people are all pacifists with the occasional Technical Pacifist or Martial Pacifist moderation to deal with Trolling and not in the sense of arguing over pacifism - in the sense of putting it into action.
• Justified:
  • The issue that causes the Flame War is actually Serious Business to some degree and people will obviously have very polarized feelings on something where no agreement between the sides can be reached.
  • A discussion or place online devoted to trolling, insults, intentional Flame War, or the like.
  • The Flame War is fighting back against Trolls or others such as the Spammer using invasion tactics on a person or discussion venue.
  • The discussion is "Worst Flames" or "Start A Flame War" or similar.
• Subverted: A discussion that by all reason should start a Flame War doesn't start a Flame War.
• Double Subverted: A discussion that would never seem to possibly be anything anyone could become sincerely angry over starts the biggest Flame War in history, ascending to Internet Backdraft status and then to offline Memetic Mutation.
• Deconstructed: No one "wins" Flame War. Everyone realizes how silly they are arguing on the internet and stops.
• Reconstructed: Yet we still have way too many a Flame War.
• Lampshaded:
  • Pass the Popcorn!
  • Just what we needed, another discussion of which is the real One True Pairing.
  • "SNIFF SNIFF something's burning..."
  • "But what are your thoughts on Yaoi?"
• Parodied: The Cake vs. Pie Flame War.
• Averted:
  • Flame War just doesn't happen.
  • 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.
• Enforced:
  • A certain Image Board, and some other places where the intent is to be as offensive and assholish as possible.
  • GIFT
• Invoked: "Atheism vs. Christianity, which one's better guys?"
• Defied:
  • People ignore the Troll or respond intelligently and calmly to the inflammatory post.
  • The combatants decide it's not worth it to have another flamewar over the same subject with the same people and walk away.
  • A discussion venue dedicated to politics, religion, sex, or shipping debate has no flamewars or no real flamewars.
• Discussed:
  • Moderators, admins, or owners discuss what topics will not be allowed for discussion to prevent inevitable Flame War.
  • "This is beginning to look like a Flame War, people really need to calm down."
• Conversed: Fandom Wank or similar communities that exist to comment on Flame War and those involved in it.
• Played For Laughs: A silly intentional Flame War where everyone is in on the joke and no actual offense is intended.
• Played For Drama:
  • The Flame War invokes Real Life consequences in some way.
  • The Flame War begins to hit serious Unfortunate Implications with racist or sexist or homophobic slurs or threats.
  • People chase down those involved in the Flame War elsewhere online to harass them, becoming Trolls, the Garbage Post Kid, or stalkers because some debate on some forum somewhere has become very personal to them.