C|Net says blogging is now 10 years old, dating its birth to the launch of Scripting News by Dave Winer. (Picture from Jeff Pulver’s blog.)
Fair enough. I like Dave. But I have another anniversary to celebrate which is just as important.
It’s now been 20 years since my first flame war.
I remember it like it was yesterday.
It was on the old GEnie service, an X.25 service which, since it was commercial, was freely accessible to those who, like me, didn’t feel like lieing about our supposed ties to the federal research budget in order to get Internet accounts.
Besides, I had a free account. Newsbytes, the news service I’d begun working for in 1985 (when it was on The Source) had moved to GEnie, for (I supposed) more money or the promise of same. I got a free GEnie account for my Newsbytes work, and used it to explore the service.
It was on a political forum. I started writing my opinions cogently, clearly, as I had at places like PARTIcipate. But the welcome I got this time was quite different. It was abusive.
I soon found myself in something like The Argument Clinic, only without the friendliness and without the punchline. Pretty soon my attackers seemed to have personal information on me, and started tossing facts few knew.
It was frightening. It kept me awake at night. I struggled to get through my working day, which at the time was pretty intense, given we were expecting a child early the next year. (Picture from Ishbadiddle.)
Finally my darling wife told me the answer. Walk away. Don’t go there any more. Avoid them. What have they won? Who cares?
Once I did walk away, I gradually felt a gradual release, and a liberation. I continued to gain in flame wars for some time, because I felt great anger over the politics of that time, but each time I did it, I walked away feeling lessened.
At some point I resolved to always go online under my own name, and to try to live as though every move I made could become public. It felt good. It still does.
But I guess you always remember your first flame war.
