Flamers at NowPublic.Org
October 11th, 2007, 5 Comments »
I just received an email announcement from NowPublic, the Vancouver citizen journalism startup. The message was about NowPublic’s new flaming policy:
And why, you may ask, do we take our time finding Flamers is and weeding them out, instead of just ignoring them? Well, flaming doesn’t just hurt the individual being flamed—it hurts the entire community. Flamers tend to end conversations by entering them; they create a hostile, circuitous environment where real discourse is quashed in favour of insults and abuse. We won’t stand for it.
It’s plainly written, and if not for its verbosity (it’s 2200 words and suitably located in the ‘fine_print’ directory), it would be an outstanding example of anti-flame guidelines. I guess they’re covering their bases. I’d be curious to hear more about the reasons behind the new policy, given my recent interest in debate within online communities.
The reason I’m writing this post is that, without any apparent irony, the email concluded thusly:
Please don’t hesitate to email flamers@nowpublic.com if you have any questions.
Cheers,
NowPublic editorial staff
Am I the only one who finds that a little funny?