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You are reading an article written by a citizen of eRepublik, an immersive multiplayer strategy game based on real life countries. Create your own character and help your country achieve its glory while establishing yourself as a war hero, renowned publisher or finance guru.

The eCanada Climate is hot, Hot, HOT

Day 1,169, 10:27 • Published in Canada Australia

• by McMatty

The eCanada Climate is HOT HOT HOT!

The current climate of eCanada is hot, hot, hot at the moment. Hot, meaning the flaming by the trolls is at an all time high. Actually in hindsight, claiming it is at an all time high may be a misleading description, it may be more astute to say, the flaming is still consistently maintaining its all time high.

What are Trolls and Flaming ?

For those of you who are not “internet literate”, flaming is the deliberate act of posting or writing messages on forum posts and comment sections that have the intent of insulting or creating dissent within a group of supporters. A flame is often filled with coarse language and personal insults and is meant to hurtful, get a certain group of people fired up, and attempt to move the current conversation onto a different issue and provoke a negative response in return.

Sometimes, the people who perform these flames (called trolls), intentionally practice flaming to provoke a person or group of people. This may be merely for the purpose of annoying a group, or may be an attack aimed at a person or group who have an interest not shared by the troll. In a political article regarding elections or a certain eRep group, a troll may “insert” themselves into the comment section and deliberately flame the conversation to disorganize the efforts of the other side. Piles and piles of messages that divert the group’s interest from their initial intent can follow and feed the flame.

Why Do People Enjoy Being Internet Trolls?

Some people theorize that flaming is common on the internet because there is relative anonymity in a post or comment. Trolls are not that likely to actually insult people in person and the internet offers a degree of protection not likely to be afforded in a face-to-face conversation. In short, you won’t get punched in the face for talking trash about someone’s mother.

Characteristics of Trolls

1. Trolls enjoy using shock-value statements to get angry responses from others.
2. Trolls gain energy by you insulting them.
3. Trolls gain energy when you get angry.
4. Trolls are immune to criticism and logical arguments. True trolls cannot be reasoned with, regardless of how sound your logical argument is.
5. Trolls do not feel remorse and take delight in other people having hurt feelings.
6. Trolls consider themselves separate from the social order.
7. Trolls do not abide by etiquette or the rules of common courtesy.
8. Trolls consider themselves above social responsibility.
9. The only way to deal with a troll is to ignore him, or take away his ability to post online.

Results of Trolls

It is obvious that a troll’s true intent is to personally insult a person or group of people who believe in something beyond their own views. They go beyond the conventional and proper means to reach what they perceive to be the justified end. The side effect to this is that good points that may have been made by the troll are being brushed aside and all the general public can see is the flaming. A wide majority of people see this flaming, treat is as spam and respond to it by clicking the close window button. This same feeling also forces individuals, who are not flaming, from posting their own comments and providing their own ideas. They may have the greatest idea in the world and could solve world hunger at the same time, yet won’t share their thoughts due to the fear of being brought into the flame war and getting bombarded.

In relation to the eRep world, it could be hypnotized that this same flaming is a strong contributor to the lack of activity and the overall decline in population. Young up and comers have respect for some of the older players, but when they see the older players constantly attacking each other personally, the drive for a rookie to step up to plate is non-existent. Why would a normal person, most of who are just learning the game, subject themselves to this. It can also be said that this is not just related to the younger players, older players tend to get sick of tired of the same old trolling arguments and either walk away or not even try to participate in the original discussion.

A troll may be right in their argument or wrong, it is irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. Trolling is seriously hurting our eCountry and will continue to do so until we can all be civilized and have worth while discussions while ignoring the flaming from the trolls.