Internet Backdraft/New Media


 * Mention Encyclopedia Dramatica anywhere. Especially on any website that has an article. If you can't invoke Convection, Schmonvection, you'd better RUN!!!
 * The exact definition and proper use of the term Mary Sue. It gets especially bad when applying it to canon characters.
 * The January 2006 dispute between Ebaum's World and YTMND over a Lindsey Lohan gif resulted in such horrid flamewars that "Ebaum" became a banned word at GameFAQs.
 * Give an opinion on Slash/Yaoi (other than "it exists") on any fiction forum. It got so bad Fanficrants put a permanent ban on topics involving the Boys Love that isn't strictly canonical. It's gotten to the point where "These are my thoughts on yaoi" has become shorthand in the snark communities for "I'd like to start a fight" and is often used (usually facetiously) in place of "I don't mean to offend, but..." or "I'm about to talk at length about something that may bore you."
 * Wikipedia Edit Wars. Among the more notorious examples are the spelling of the chemical element with the symbol Al, and the name of the port located at the mouth of the Vistula.
 * Also on the Wiki: How reliable of a source it is, the credibility of its admins, the Biographies of Living Persons policy, the Oversight function, so-called "Office Actions", and so-called "attack sites", especially critics of the Wiki like Encyclopedia Dramatica and Daniel Brandt who post the real names of certain suspicious editors.
 * Copyrighted images. If the Wiki doesn't accept Fair Use images, there will be flames about allowing them. If it does (such as the English wiki), the number of images and how they'll be used is Serious Business.
 * The "Disputed Prison Convictions" list/articles. So much so it doesn't exist anymore. Likely due to heated "Neutrality" disputes.
 * Saying positive things about David Gonterman in a non-ironic fashion. Especially if the forum has ties to the Sonic the Hedgehog, Sailor Moon, or furry communities. Saying you liked Sailor Moon: American Kitsune (or even just that it's not as rampant Canon Defilement as one would believe) on a Sailor Moon forum will most likely get you IP banned for life.
 * This may be partially caused by irrational suspicions that David is writing said non-ironic positive things himself.
 * The Version 6 interface of deviantArt polarized just about every user registered on the site within the first 24 hours. There seems to be absolutely no middle ground whatsoever.
 * Every version of the site causes controversy, even so much as altering the categories system. Do not, however, mention Jark's firing.
 * Anytime someone goes onto DA's music message board, and writes "So, who here likes [name any mainstream pop-punk band]? They're amazing, aren't they?"
 * DA "Raptorization", which is when one draws fanart of a kaiju (such as Godzilla) in a more "realistic" manner. Many a debate and flame-war has occured because of this. On the one hand, you've got people who simply want to try a different and (somewhat) unique approach to kaiju fanart. On the other, you've got people that go "OMG! All ou did was add Godzilla-esque spines to a T.rex". It's best just not to ask what various Godzilla fans think of "Raptorization".
 * There tend to be many topics that bring up debates that eventually turn into flame wars. Among these include artistic nudity vs. pornography, anime/manga vs. any other cartoony style (and sometimes vs. realism), and whether or not fan art is truly original. These arguments tend to spring up anywhere you can post on the site, from the forums to the chat rooms and even in the comments section of artworks.
 * Never, never, NEVER bring up wolves for any reason on DA. Even if you casually draw and/or mention wolves, you're bound to stir up some "Wolves are the most beautiful and misunderstood animals on earth" VS "Wolves are overrated" flame wars.
 * Likewise, there's Sparkledogs/Sparklewolves (Drawings of canines that are often brightly colored). Either you'll be praised for your "creative artwork" or you'll be criticized harshly for "being unable to draw a dog/wolf correctly".
 * DA Stamps (Small rectangular images often reflecting the artist's viewpoint or interests). Either they're a great way for an artist to express themselves, if a bit simplistic at times. Or, they're just a lazy over-done fad that has taken the popularity away from "real" art. No two people will agree.
 * Also, any stamp about any topic. It will cause a flame war, even if it has no opinion at all.
 * Demotivational Posters. It's best not to ask if they can be considered photomanipulation or not.
 * Never, never, NEVER mention "Tracing" at all on DA. NEVER! The flame-filled cries of "IT'S ART THEFT!" VS "It helps artists practice different styles" would be enough to reduce the internet to ash.
 * Also, the idea of using references of any sort. Either you're just someone who is practicing a new style and using a screenshot as a learning aid, or you're a thief who is "copying" someone else's work out of "laziness". There is no middle ground it seems.
 * Draw a character, any character as a pony. Good luck not inticing a flame war.
 * In general, it's a bad idea to ask if people should disable comments or not. These usuall escalate into flames shouting "They just can't handle criticism!" VS "People should have the right to censor comments they don't like!" VS "They're just over-sensitive" VS "People won't stop trolling!" and variations thereof.
 * In general, never mention you have autism/Asperger syndrome (or that you know someone who does). Otherwise, you'll just bring up the old flame war of "Autistics are people too!" VS "Ass-Burgers is just an excuse to be a jerk!".
 * Pretty much any disability falls under this, unfortunately. Especially due to the sheer number of trolls that lurk about DeviantArt that just love to post Anti-(insert disability here) images just to incite flame wars.
 * Clubs in DA seem to be specifically centered around these lately. For every Pro-(insert topic here) club, there's about 20 Anti-(insert topic here) clubs created just to incite flames, and vice versa.
 * Likewise, never make a club about a specific artist (regardless of whether you like them or not). Chaos will ensue no matter what.
 * The "Daily Deviation" (Images selected by the higher-ups at DA as being their "personal favorites" they've seen that day). True works of art that should deserve the praise they get, or over-hyped trash that takes the attention away from "true" art? It's best not to ask.
 * Especially when the "Daily Deviation" in question is fanart of any sort.
 * Three words. Axis. Powers. Hetalia. Simply mentioning this show anywhere on DA is bound to create an unstoppable inferno.
 * Thanks to a few high profile cases, mentioning Something Awful anywhere, or that you're a "Goon", is just an invitation for very opinionated people to declare the place as the bane of the interbutts.
 * And even the Goons look down on the people who inhabit certain nameless imageboards.
 * Here's a fun one! Go to any Fan-Fic site, forum, or community, and ask if anyone considers Shotacon or Lolicon to be pedophilia, sit back, and break out the weenies to roast over the flames. Bonus points if you mention the great strikethrough on LJ.
 * Go to any dolling community and say anything about traced bases, preferably using a proxy. There'll be the tracers, the anti-tracers, and the anti-basers. Watch it carefully. The discussion's tone manages to get so immature it's amusing. But then, it's known to have been lethal, or, at least, numbing.
 * Bring up the matter of posting other people's artwork on the internet, and you can pretty much polarize everyone on that little section of the internet. It may not have the bang to destroy Tokyo, but it will level a few towns in the carnage.
 * Subeta's Longcat and EnderBSD's incident. Well, even mentioning the word Subeta at some places may be a good way to make yourself crispy.
 * Got to 4chan. Enter /b/. Bring up any topic. Roast marshmallows.
 * Saying that you like 4chan or even find it useful will get you so much flaming hatred in anyplace other than the site itself. Expected to be immediately deemed a troll, have your intelligence and/or sexuality questioned and other things. More than once has that site been called "the asshole of the internet".
 * Bring up nagas, especially those drawn by Snapesnogger. The heat that you will generate could cause a small forest fire.
 * Whatever you do, never use random Japanese words like "Kawaii" or "Chibi" or whatnot in your journal entries/comments/etc. That is, unless you want to rekindle the "Shut up weeaboo! U don't know Japanese!" VS "People can say whatever they want!" flame wars.
 * Likewise, many a flame-war has occurred due to some poor innocent sap who drew fanart of certain Western Animation characters in manga/anime style and decided to show it to his/her friends online. Be prepared for rekindling of the flames of "That is so cute/awesome/etc." vs "Anime style sucks! Any so-called "artist" with no real talent can draw that!" or "How dare you ruin (insert cartoonist here)'s art style with your over-used garbage! You only draw anime style because you can't draw the characters the right way!"
 * Don't ask whether or not editing screencaps counts as fanart. Just don't.
 * Likewise, there's the whole debate as to whether not tracing (of any sort) should be considered Art Theft. On the one hand the person is simply copying off of a screen-cap (or whatnot)...On the other, it does technically count as a fanart drawing (even if it's not 100% original).
 * Never, ever, ever, ever, EVER even VISIT the website Pony Island. Sounds like a nice place, sounds happy and good...but the second you pay for your account (it's not even an Allegedly Free Game, it's a pay-to-play) and step through the forum door, YOU WILL BE ABSOLUTELY BURNED. If you are suicidal, bring up that you think the community is a bad place. In about five seconds, the mods will have banned you.
 * Weight Gain (also known as WG), or "Inflation Art". Even if you were to draw a character as "slightly chubby" or write a WG fanfic purely for humorous purposes, chances are, people are going to flame you for "having a fetish" (even if the artwork in question is of a non-sexual manner) or flame you for "making people believe that it's ok to be fat" (prompting further flaming from people who already have this opinion).
 * Likewise, even saying you find overweight people to be attractive (or unattractive) is enough to cause this.
 * Ditto, artwork (particularly photography) using extremely thin women. A flame-war will inevitably start between people accusing the poster of oppressing all women by presenting unrealistic beauty ideals, those who pity the model or claim she is ugly and/or unattractive, those who think she is just naturally thin and the posters are just fat, and so forth.
 * Try stating you prefer WG artwork of one sex over another. You'll soon be flooded with flames crying out "Double Standard" before you get through the first few replies. For bonus points, state that there's only female WG/Inflation art and that male weight-gain is underappreciated.
 * Likewise, try stating one form of inflation is "True Art" and that anything else is "vulgar pornography". The flame wars will be inevitable.
 * Heck, Weight Gain Art VS Inflation Art has been known to incinerate whole forums with a poorly-timed discussion over which is preferable.
 * And, on the subject of Inflation Art, "Breast Inflation VS Butt Inflation". Yes, there are flame wars over this. No, you really don't want to start one (even unintentionally).
 * On DeviantArt it's usually the other way round. There's a significant weight-gain subculture, and this type of artwork attracts mostly positive comments; anyone who dares criticize it tends to get attacked.
 * Ballet videos on youtube invariably set off flame wars. For one thing, there are a bunch of different styles and every poster thinks the way their teacher taught them is correct or better. For another, while the dancers are usually pretty healthy, the posters will invariably start fighting among themselves on whether the model is too skinny or fat or just right. If the girl has a little muscle tone (the sort you'd associate with broadway or acrobatic dancers) the fighting will get even worse, with different parties arguing that she is both too skinny and too fat.
 * Sean Malstrom. Well-researched video game blogger, or self-aggrandizing Troll?
 * The BioWare Social Forums. You have to feel some sympathy for the moderators and Bioware employees who regularly post on the boards, because the epic amount of flamebait and arguing that goes on over there would kill lesser mortals. Some notable examples:
 * Any announcement of DLC content for any Mass Effect game (especially alternate costumes for the supporting characters) will be met with, "Why doesn't (character x) have armor yet?", "Why haven't you fixed Legion's armor?" and "Bioware sucks for releasing this instead of story-driven DLC." When story-driven DLC is announced, people yell, "Why isn't the Virmire survivor in this DLC?", "This is too expensive and I can't afford it - you suck", and "2 hours? TOO SHORT!!!"
 * Go on the Dragon Age II boards and mention any of the following: that you think Sony Secu ROM DRM is needed in modern games, that hack-and-slash games are pretty good or that you thought the Metacritic score for the game was way too low. Prepare to be thoroughly roasted by overzealous users who think DAII is the worst game ever made and has caused the death of Bioware.
 * Mention Facebook or Twitter on any site that considers itself "independent" (like indie media sites, alternative news sites). Watch how everyone tries to up each other on how "different" they are, by how much they don't use Facebook/Twitter/don't watch mainstream movies/don't have a TV.
 * The Valve Software Forums. Basically, holding any opinion on any Valve game is likely to get you roasted by someone who holds the complete opposite view. Classic examples include going on and stating that Left 4 Dead 2 was innovative and unique, the length of time it takes to complete either of the Portal games (which will get you called as a newbie if you took too long to play the game) or asking about the release date of the next Half-Life episode or game.
 * More specifically, the great "Portal 2 Potato Sack Fiasco of 2011" was an Alternate Reality Game that was announced for the then-upcoming release of the game. A site launched (based on GLaDOS' computing mainframe) with a countdown window of four days. In order to accelerate the timer (and get the game to be released early), Steam users could purchase "The Potato Sack", a collection of 11 indie games which had Portal 2-related content in each of them (which included potatoes that could be pooled by Steam to speed up the computing process). Naturally, members of the Valve message boards complained that they had to pay to support indie games (even though they were under no obligation to buy the pack), and that the countdown timer was moving too slow for their tastes. When the game was finally released early (a few hours ahead of schedule), said users that started a massive flame war criticizing Valve for a pointless waste of time. In an effort to appease their fanbase, Valve gave everyone who completed all 11 indie games the Valve Complete Pack (which had almost every single game the company released) - naturally, this wasn't enough for some people, who complained that they already had all the games and couldn't gift them to their friends. This can still cause flame wars to this day.
 * Go to the Site Feedback forum on Gaia Online and suggest that Gaia should tone down obscenity in items, or that you think certain items should be taken off the site. Your thread WILL quickly be flooded with users who oppose your opinion and are very vocal about it. When an item ban actually DID happen, all hell broke loose, with everyone protesting in the forums, boycotting the real-money items, and making obscene avatars. (with the joke that they were okay "as long as they weren't smoking", as the ban got rid of smoking-related items) The few people who were in support of the item ban were swarmed with comments about how items shouldn't be banned based on moral reasons, though to be fair, it's hard to justify banning cigarette items for moral reasons while still permitting items featuring alcohol, violence, or sexual themes.
 * Although it takes some doing, mentioning certain things at That Guy With The Glasses will trigger flaming, if not IP banning. Some of these include:
 * Bringing up the Nostalgia Critic/AVGN feud. It was played for laughs, but not everyone sees it that way....
 * Stating or implying that Obscurus Lupa may be a racist.
 * Stating or implying that Iron Liz is at all Bifauxnen.
 * Whether or not The Nostalgia Chick side project "The A Word" is a legitimate film. Even worse would be bringing up the topic at its core.
 * Mentioning Daniel "That Aussie Guy" Rizzo.
 * Bringing up the Nostalgia Critic's infamous Let's Play and the accompanying Retsupurae. Want extra heat? Take any side; whether the LP was atrocious and deserved the riffing, if Retsupurae should stay on Youtube, or even if you like or dislike both of them.
 * The Irate Gamer. Seriously. Just bringing up his name anywhere WILL start a flame war. There's a reason his main TV Tropes page is locked.
 * Because it's well known that Tropes Will Ruin Your Life, link to or mention this wiki at your peril.
 * On the subject of Retsupurae, mention the SSoHPKC RP around his fans. Then step back. Waaaaay back.
 * Kony 2012. Oh, where do we even start? The campaign is an attempt to get notoriously Ax Crazy Joseph Kony to justice, and many responded to the video they posted positively. But then people started doing some research... it turns out that Invisible Children(the charity behind the campaign) only donates 31% of the proceeds to actual help, the rest going to themselves and their filmmaking business. The money that does go toward Africa goes towards the corrupt Ugandan government, especially their army. The video began getting some serious Hype Backlash from experts, criticizing the misleading and outright false information, and the outright insulting way it treats victims, such as giving more representation to a toddler than any victim. A screening in Northern Uganda was a disaster, and bringing up the video anywhere is not advised.
 * And then, this happened. Invisible Children's credibility is practically gone after this little incident.