h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Keyboard Warriors – An Idiot’s Guide to Trolling and Flaming - A46343298
Author: Psycorp Six-Oh-Three (This bit goes in the brackets) - U219983

My latest Stretcher entry.
I thought I'd stretch the question and myself with a bit of satire on something that winds people up in these parts and perhaps shouldn't...

Edit - title changed as I don't actually mention flaming...

Can you unmangle this sentence
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Bloody re-wrote that twice. Looks like I didn't pay attention either blinking time.

Good catch!

Tremendous fun!

In fact, I might just go and... no, no - I couldn't possibly...

Nice work, Psycorp

Ms GB

Cheers guys.

Amusing and well-written.

No problems with seeing this in the Edited Guide as it stands...

...but, purely as you're a very talented writer and this is part of a competition, I think I'd like a little more depth - particularly into the underlying causes. Is trolling perpetuated by inadequate and immature individuals (as I believe you imply), or are we all trolls to some extent? Is this a stage we all go through when we join an online community? Do trolls eventually develop, in time, into pillars of the online community? Can you leave us with a sense of hope?

Icy

I was waiting for this point to be raised Icy - and believe me I did agonise over it last night before I put this version live.

There are three reasons that I didn't go into the depth I could have done. Hopefully they're good reasons, but I'll let reviewers be the judge of that.

Firstly, when I looked over the "trolling and flaming" article I link to, it looked like a prime candidate for adding some theories on the causes of trolling in a future update - and I've kept my notes aside to try and update that entry when I have chance.

Secondly, my favourite entries around here are the short, breezy and entertaining ones. By adding a section on the sources of trolls it would have made a much denser, more serious entry. I ended up stripping out a few hundred words before posting this submission, as I wanted to keep it lean, amusing and focused on my main aim...

...which is my third reason. I wanted to see whether I could get a piece of satire into the EG. Read straight, this is an entry which shows you how to become a bloody nuisance. However, I tried to work in the sarcasm just under the surface (which you've all been bright enough to spot right away) which sends up how ridiculous trolls are - and touch on how ridiculous it is that people in these parts will get into circular arguments with them time and time again whilst claiming to be "sane and welcoming".

If I was to go into depth, or add that sense of hope, it'd take the bite out of this - so I may well have to stand my ground on this.

Very amusing, Psycorp.

I tend to agree with you about the depth of the entry, also. It would ruin the humour and as you've linked to the more in-depth entry, I think it's fine as it is.

Cheers Magwitch, that's reassuring. As I said, I did agonise over that decision, and in the end I decided that competition or no, I'd rather submit a piece I liked than one I thought the judges would prefer.

I'm glad this is satire!

You've just conjured up in my mind a whole army of imbeciles with nothing better to do than destroy someone else's hobby or interest...
And I bet they're all men

Whether the judges will be impressed with this or not, I don't know.

To be honest, judging by the reception this entry's had so far, I won't be too dismayed if the judges don't like it. A fair few other people do!

Great idea, well presented.

I did enjoy this. I liked the style and I loved the kitten example. I'm afraid that had me sniggering into my cup of tea.

I did feel that the allen key eg didn't work quite as well. I was imagining someone doing that in Ask and getting swamped by people saying 'But no! It is the absence of chocolate ice cream/ biros/ wollen mittens'. I rather thought someone coming along and saying how tasteless it all was might be the one accused of trolling.

You could specify that that example were to be posted on somewhere committed to deadly serious discussion of the issue, of course.

Anyway. I did have an entertaining 15 minutes imagining what would count as advanced trolling on the kitten site, so thank you again!

WEll done on creating an enlightening and interesting piece

Now for the nitpicks

Be careful not to use repetition

The first letter of 'entry' should be capitalised

In my opinion, when highlighting a word/s it is only necessary to put single quotation marks round the word/s

I shall perhaps rework the Allen Kye bit - it was a thinly veiled dig at some circular arguments that take place in these parts. I'll try and think of a better metaphor...

Done a few quick tweaks. Changed the Allen Key bit to keep the kitten theme running through.

hmm.

I thought the satire was a bit thickly spread myself - but that's the eye of the beholder.

Good luck with it

We'll see how it goes.