First Shot Callout

The idea is to respond [FS] to the first nasty statement on a HB idea post that was up till then light hearted, friendly and fun.

When flame wars are in full force sometimes it gets lost who started them, this is a way to call that out and possibly avoid them.

So somebody might post: "Happy Smile Shaped Donuts" and somebody responds "Sounds like the kind of crap a particular politician I hate would eat, same for his fat disgusting followers."

Rather than either ignoring the troll, which backfires often times because they take that as a victory, or fighting back, which reduced this place to a nasty mess, you just call it out for what it is, the first shot of a war that nobody necessarily wants. You type [FS] and leave it.

This would also serve to protect people who are merely responding to the other person's call for war because defense is moral, offense is immoral. Often times the defenders get blamed for flamewars they didn't start. This would prevent that. Put it on the record who started it. It would also call out flame warriors who act like victims when they start losing flame wars THEY started.

Wonder if that might be a tool to make our beloved HB a friendlier place. It might remind the person posting the nasty anno that they're starting something they might not even be cognizant of.

Hey, I wouldn't mind somebody tapping me on the shoulder and reminding me that a statement is gonna fire some people up. I'd hopefully just say "Oh yea, oops." and take it down.

And note, this doesn't apply to annotations and bones criticizing an idea, it's only for very nasty personal insults, ad hominem attacks or obvious calls for a flame war.

ADDENDUM: Per scad's idea, good followup to [FS] would be [NRF], "not returning fire".