Halfbakery: Troll
First Shot Callout   (+4, -1)  [vote for, against]
First nasty anno on a post gets reaction of [FS] standing for "first shot".

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".
-- doctorremulac3, Jun 13 2022

only vaguely related ... Arch-enemy_20Matchmaker_20Service
[normzone, Sep 18 2024]

Maybe it was a car backfiring.
-- pertinax, Jun 13 2022


Between saccharine overload and a hell of spiteful sniping there is a happy medium of spirited, friendly debate. [+]
-- Voice, Jun 13 2022


Total agreement, debate is great, personal is… something bad that rhymes with personal.
-- doctorremulac3, Jun 13 2022


Great idea, though after reading through the title, subtitle and first 3 paragraphs, I was starting to mentally prepare my rebuttal. Up to that point, it sounded like you were just trying to document who started the argument so you can blame them (also paragraph 5). I think it would be better to emphasize that the purpose is to avoid a flame war (paragraph 4), and that this avoids something unintentional becoming a flame war (paragraphs 6 and 7).

Towards that end, could this idea be refined with a flag change? [FS] "First Shot" implies that there will be or has already been a second shot. A single shot followed by silence or an apology (the ideal we're aiming for) is a single shot, not a first shot. [FS] states that the other person intentionally fired the shot. It also implies that the second shot is righteous self defense, which invites arguments about whether that was a real first shot or a car backfiring.

How about [NRF] "Not Returning Fire", meaning that the above comment was something that could (rightly or wrongly) cause me to fire back, but I am refraining. Also good because shooting back with a NeRF gun is a lot safer.
-- scad mientist, Jun 13 2022


So what you're saying is that you love Hitler?
-- Voice, Jun 13 2022


I suppose one MIGHT interpret my annotation that way.
-- scad mientist, Jun 13 2022


Lol! It’s jokes like that that bring me back. Hey, that rhymes. And I like the [NRF] a lot. Perfect companion to this.
-- doctorremulac3, Jun 13 2022


//ad homonym attacks// I am SO keeping that. (Or something that sounds just like it.)
-- lurch, Jun 13 2022


Correction made. Thank you.
-- doctorremulac3, Jun 13 2022


I didn't even know that Nyms could become gay...
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Jun 14 2022


Think it's clearly time for this too.

You're minding your own business, somebody takes a shot at you, you mark it. [FS] (first shot) then either respond or better yet, just put in a "[NRF]".

Won't stop the trolling, probably actually encourage it, but at least they couldn't get way with this "You started it! Boo hoo!" nonsense.

Take the high road out of the whole Hatebakery thing.
-- doctorremulac3, Aug 28 2024


I guess I'm willing to try the NRF thing. Maybe it would help to make it explicit that you're showing restraint rather than just accepting a comment.
But why not just write it out? There's no particular reason to add an opaque acronym - it just makes it more likely to be misunderstood or ignored.
-- Loris, Sep 18 2024


Not Really Feelingit
-- normzone, Sep 18 2024



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