History Main / ForumSpeak

* Website/FourChan

'''Fannage''' is a [[WikiTropes wiki phenomenon]] where things relating to pop culture get more attention than mundane topics, even if the more mundane topics are more relevant to real life. It gives generalised wikis like Website/{{Wikipedia}} a poor reputation by making their userbase look like a bunch of hopeless nerds who prioritise fiction over reality.\\\

Website/{{Wikipedia}}'s extensive fannage is famous, what with its ridiculously detailed television synopses (even the ones with NegativeContinuity). Although it's frowned upon there, it's tolerated through the [[FanDumb sheer persistence of the editors]]. People will complain that the $12,000 funding drives seem to be going mostly to rewriting the ''Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse'' in encyclopedia form. Fannage also overlaps extensively with what Wikipedia calls Fancruft, where articles for mundane things are injected with the subject's appearances in popular culture; Wikipedia is less tolerant of this and will boot such users to the myriad of other wikis that exist for documenting those things.\\\

Other places have some fun with the phenomenon, such as the [[http://www.dailykitten.com/ Daily Kitten]]'s use of the term "Pounce!" Places like Website/FourChan, never particularly content with "rules" and "moderation", will have long tangents based simply on the response to the contentless first post. Website/{{Fark}} is probably the most prolific at having fun with it, employing a word filter to change "first post" to "Boobies" and "first comment" to "Weener", which has the added benefit of causing some ribbing if you ''actually'' use the word "boobies". If Fark detects these terms in the actual first post of a given thread, it will also move the timestamp to 12 hours into the future, which for many threads means it will be the ''last'' post in the thread.\\\

A related phenomenon is the '''ninja post''', where someone takes the time to respond to something, only for someone else to have responded more quickly in the time between the first user reading the thread and submitting their own post. This causes a break in the conversation where one person responds, then the next post appears as if the previous one didn't exist -- which is especially confusing if it refers to "the last post" when it really means two posts ago, or it complains that no one's mentioned something when the ninja post ''did'' mention it. This is one of the disadvantages of a slow internet connection. Places like Website/FourChan have the variant known as the "ComboBreaker", where a group of posters tries to complete a sequence one post at a time (like spelling a word or posting pieces of an image), only for two users to post the same image in succession because one ninja'd the other, or for a user to post something irrelevant because they weren't paying attention to the "combo" ([=4chan=] finds things like this [[TheGadfly hilarious]]).\\\

A '''doublepost''' is a comment that's accidentally been added twice in succession. It's usually a result of a software bug; often, a new post is slow to show up due to server lag, so the user thinks it didn't go through and makes it again. Or maybe there's a bug when the user clicks "Add Post" a few times too many. This kind of thing is especially common on UsefulNotes/{{Usenet}}, where the nature of NNTP sometimes causes a substantial lag in the propagation of new posts.\\\

A '''doublepost''' is a comment that's accidentally been added twice in succession. It's usually a result of a software bug; often, a new post is slow to show up due to server lag, so the user thinks it didn't go through and makes it again. Or maybe there's a bug when the user clicks "Add Post" a few times too many. This kind of thing is especially common on UsefulNotes/{{Usenet}}, where the nature of NNTP sometimes causes a substantial lag in the propagation of new posts.\\\

First coined on Creator/{{HBO}}'s forum for ''Series/TheSopranos'', the term is a {{Portmanteau}} of "impetus" and "plonk", the latter a UsefulNotes/{{Usenet}} onomatopoeia for the notional sound made when someone is "killfiled", a reference to a Usenet-era ignore list.

"Me too!" was particularly associated with the UsefulNotes/EternalSeptember, when AOL subscribers got access to UsefulNotes/{{Usenet}} and flooded it with posts like this (among other {{Noob}} behaviour). In the mid-1990s, "AOL!" became a mocking shorthand for "Me too!" on the site.

* Website/{{Facebook}}
* Website/{{Tumblr}}

* Website/{{Twitter}}

* Website/{{Yahoo}}.com (the main page that features news articles).
* Website/YouTube

The rise of social media networks like Website/{{Facebook}} and Website/{{Twitter}} is forcing some reevaluation of this theory, though. People have been found to be just as obnoxious, rude, bigoted, and abusive while posting under their real identity as they would be if they were anonymous -- in fact, [[https://theconversation.com/online-anonymity-study-found-stable-pseudonyms-created-a-more-civil-environment-than-real-user-names-171374 there are studies]] suggesting that legal-name environments might be ''worse'' than true anonymity, while the most civil spaces are those with "stable pseudonyms" (i.e, user handles such as those on Website/ThisVeryWiki). This means it's not really the anonymity that drives the phenomenon; it's the lack of consequences. Turns out people will rarely get thrown off a social media site for noxious behaviour, nor will most people's teachers or employers scour their social media accounts -- sites which use pseudonymous handles, on the other hand, ''are'' usually willing to ban the trolls. The only real threat to a legal-name-based identity in this case is the ''Internet Detective'', who will trawl basically anyone's social media history to look for something even ''slightly'' objectionable, and the prevalence of GIFT provides them with some positive reinforcement.\\\

However, there are a couple of accepted uses. For instance, some boards will automatically close a thread after a certain number of posts, and participants in a thread nearing that limit who want to break it earlier will agree to flood the thread with meaningless posts to get it locked. Threads involving voting for something will often be filled with posts like this, because all that needs to be said is whether the user agrees or disagrees. On Website/{{Twitter}}, the phrase was used as part of the "[=#MeToo=] movement", where women who were victims of sexual harassment (or [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil worse]]) would simply post the hashtag, and the sheer volume of users who did this (particularly high-profile women like actresses -- there's a reason for the HorribleHollywood trope, after all) would draw attention to the scale of the problem.\\\

* Website/DeviantArt
* Website/{{Pixiv}}, thanks to its recommendation feature being a little ''too'' good, tends to induce {{Wiki Walk}}s. Heaven help you if you start to browse for fanart of one of the more popular series, like ''Franchise/TouhouProject'', ''[[Webcomic/HetaliaAxisPowers Hetalia]]'', ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'', ''Music/{{Vocaloid}}'', or ''VideoGame/InazumaEleven'', each of which will get you over 150,000 hits. Though the effect is lessened somewhat, as a large part of the website is in Japanese.

* Website/FanFictionDotNet. The good ones at least... and [[SoBadItsGood badfic]] too, arguably. This also applies to most well organized fanfic sites like, say, Website/ArchiveOfOurOwn.

This is not only impolite (it eats up your victim's bandwidth), it's almost always a really bad idea. A hot linked item may have been removed by the original host (this is a big problem with Website/YouTube links). The original host can be undergoing a performance problem. The original host may have changed its linking policy. The original host may no longer exist... The list of possible badness goes on and on.

[[quoteright:350:[[Website/CollegeHumor https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/metoo_response_irl_v2.png]]]]

The '''Website/YouTube War Expert''' is a self-proclaimed expert in all aspects of war studies. They've never actually ''fought'' in a war, [[MilesGloriosus nor even joined any branch of the military]], nor observed any military training regimens or conducted formal study of any historical military campaigns. But they did read a book once. Maybe several!\\\

Since a lot of Internet discussion revolves around who would win a hypothetical fight between two sides, this type of Internet persona shows up frequently. They're particularly difficult to avoid on Website/YouTube, where it's practically impossible to post a military-related video without ''several'' of these guys flooding the comment section. It usually devolves into an argument where the "expert" insists that one side would ''obviously'' win because of a myriad of technical and cultural specifications that they alone had considered.\\\

The rise of social media networks like Website/{{Facebook}} and Website/{{Twitter}} is forcing some reevaluation of this theory, though. People have been found to be just as obnoxious, rude, bigoted, and abusive while posting under their real identity as they would be if they were anonymous. This means it's not really the anonymity that drives the phenomenon; it's the lack of consequences. Turns out people will rarely get thrown off a social media site for noxious behaviour, nor will most people's teachers or employers scour their social media accounts. The only real threat in this case is the ''Internet Detective'', who will trawl basically anyone's social media history to look for something even ''slightly'' objectionable, and the prevalence of GIFT provides them with some positive reinforcement.\\\

* InternetMimic

* WebOriginal/OrionsArm, hoooo boooy.
* Wiki/{{Uncyclopedia}}

Website/{{Wikipedia}}'s extensive fannage is famous, what with its ridiculously detailed television synopses (even the ones with NegativeContinuity). Although it's frowned upon there, it's tolerated through the [[FanDumb sheer persistence of the editors]]. People will complain that the $12,000 funding drives seem to be going mostly to rewriting the ''Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse'' in encyclopedia form. Fannage also overlaps extensively with what Wikipedia calls Fancruft, where articles for mundane things are injected with the subject's appearances in popular culture; Wikipedia is less tolerant of this and will boot such users to [[TheWikiRule the myriad of other wikis that exist for documenting those things]].\\\

Some particularly rabid newbie-haters will accuse the Shepherd of being a ''White Knight'', and in a broad sense their motives are similar. But a genuine Shepherd is a GoodShepherd who really wants to grow the community, whereas the stereotypical White Knight wants to make a big show of "saving" the newbie and is hoping the newbie is a hot girl who'll fall in love with him.

This phenomenon has been studied academically, and by all accounts, the comic's satirical analysis is spot-on; normal people become more aggressive when they think their behavior carries no real-world social consequences. They think that TheInternet makes them anonymous, and they can thus behave as [[WhatYouAreInTheDark shamelessly and self-servingly as they always wanted]], because they'll never have to answer their parents, spouses, teachers, employers, or [[TalkToTheFist challengers]]. (This isn't always true, by the way.)[[note]]To elaborate, most Internet users' data and metadata are quite accessible. IP addresses and other identifying information can be found using relatively basic tools. And many active users on social media platforms will happily reveal information about themselves without thinking. All this means that someone who ''really'' wants to know the identity of an "anonymous" user can often find it out.[[/note]] It's related to the phenomenon of BathroomStallGraffiti; they'd never do it in their ''own'' bathroom, but they'll happily do it in a public place when they think no one is looking and they don't have to clean it up. The whole phenomenon [[OlderThanFeudalism was identified]] by Creator/{{Plato}} in ''Literature/TheRepublic'', where he recounts the myth of the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_of_Gyges the Ring of Gyges]], one of the original InvisibleJerkass stories.\\\

->'''You:''' I didn't think ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' was too bad, [[GuiltyPleasures if you don't think too hard about it]].\\

The most common threat is one of violence, evoking the image of a weakling who fancies himself to be a tough guy but could never convince anyone of that in RealLife. The second most common threat is of a lawsuit, which would [[FrivolousLawsuit be immediately thrown out of court]] if they ever tried it for real. Those threats often invoke the U.S. Constitution in places where it doesn't apply, especially where [[WeAllLiveInAmerica the forum isn't even owned by Americans]]. But there are other, more subtle variants, like the user who claims to be close to the forum moderators and threatens to get their adversary banned, or the user who notices that their opponent is a minor and threatens to call their parents.\\\

These guys nearly universally have no military experience, but in many places (particularly the U.S., which [[WeAllLiveInAmerica has a lot of Internet users]]), they can actually purchase weapons for themselves, including firearms. They'll then brag about their weapons, describe them in lavish detail, and fantasise about all the scenarios in which they may have to ''use'' said weapon, none of which will ever materialise because they live in {{Suburbia}}. These guys are also often called '''mall ninjas''', after [[http://lonelymachines.org/mall-ninjas/ an internet discussion]] involving someone who behaved like this and claimed to be a mall security guard, who [[PoesLaw may or may not]] have been {{troll}}ing.\\\

'''Derailing''' is when a discussion goes off on a tangent, a subject irrelevant to the main point of the discussion. Sometimes it's done by accident; other times, it's done deliberately by a {{Troll}}. Like a [[TrackTrouble training leaving its tracks]], it's difficult to get back on track again. That's why forums tend to have strict rules about staying on topic.\\\

-->''"You got to love an encyclopedia that has a longer article for the lightsaber than they do for the printing press."''

-->''"Today, I could take a photo of my butt and put it online within five seconds, and while this is objectively a good thing (at least in my case, because I have a sweet butt), it comes with the side effect of making trolls lazier. Most raids now involve flooding sites with gore, porn, or various combinations of both. While you can't argue with the effectiveness of this method, there's zero effort there. Where's the love for the craft? What amusing story did you get out of this experience that you'll tell your grandchildren eventually?"''

-->''"What proof is there that [Hitler] is an atheist? In ''Literature/MeinKampf'', he actually seems to be a believer."''\\

-->''"And posting 'Me too!' like some braindead [=AOLer=]\\

-->''"Rewrites every story, every poem that ever was''\\

-->''"Show newbies the ropes! If we see a user we've never met before make some mistakes on the wiki, instead of berating or ignoring the user, we'll hunt them down and hang them. No one was a perfect wiki editor straight off the bat, but if you're dumb enough to get caught, you deserve to die."''

-->''"We have lots of points that we debate to death and beyond. Raise Dead is a 1st level spell on these forums."''

-->'''Police Sergeant Deegan:''' Ah, this reminds me of Vietnam...\\

The jargon used to describe Internet fora and online discussions such as {{Blog}}s. While some concepts overlap with {{tropes}}, on Website/TVTropes we do not usually catalogue this terminology in the form of individual articles but only as a large glossary. For TV Tropes-specific terminology, see Administrivia/TVTropesGlossary. Some concepts discussed here are also mentioned by ''Website/FlameWarriors''.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dickwad_0_5.png]]

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dickwad_0.png]]

-->'''You:''' I didn't think ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' was too bad, [[GuiltyPleasures if you don't think too hard about it]].\\

* [[TestosteronePoisoning Hilariously masculine language]]. The YTWE will drop terms like "blitzkrieg", "Alpha strike", "lethality radius", and "maximum overkill". If they know anything about the slang of real-world military branches, they'll use it at every opportunity. They often double as an ''Internet Tough Guy'' who will threaten you as if they were at war with you, often saying things like, "How 'bout you say that again when I come to your house and point a [weapon of choice] at you?" See also the JustForFun/NavySealCopypasta.

See also the JustForFun/NavySealCopypasta, an example of an Internet Tough Guy whose threats and claims of military experience are so outlandish that it [[MemeticMutation became a meme]].

Other times, the publicist insists on {{Astro Turf}}ing the blog by posting as the celeb, turning it into a {{Flog}}.

* [[http://www.fstdt.com/ Fundies Say the Darndest Things]] i.e. an ''[[ArchiveBinge immense]]'' archive of all the insane things [[TheFundamentalist fundamentalists]] have said in this contemporary age. It even has [[https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Fundies_Say_the_Darndest_Things an article]] on Wiki/RationalWiki.

A '''doublepost''' is a comment that's accidentally been added twice in succession. It's usually a result of a software bug; often, a new post is slow to show up due to server lag, so the user thinks it didn't go through and makes it again. Or maybe there's a bug when the user clicks "Add Post" a few times too many. This kind of thing is especially common on Website/{{Usenet}}, where the nature of NNTP sometimes causes a substantial lag in the propagation of new posts.\\\

A '''doublepost''' is a comment that's accidentally been added twice in succession. It's usually a result of a software bug; often, a new post is slow to show up due to server lag, so the user thinks it didn't go through and makes it again. Or maybe there's a bug when the user clicks "Add Post" a few times too many. This kind of thing is especially common on Website/{{Usenet}}, where the nature of NNTP sometimes causes a substantial lag in the propagation of new posts.\\\

First coined on Creator/{{HBO}}'s forum for ''Series/TheSopranos'', the term is a {{Portmanteau}} of "impetus" and "plonk", the latter a Website/{{Usenet}} onomatopoeia for the notional sound made when someone is "killfiled", a reference to a Usenet-era ignore list.

"Me too!" was particularly associated with the UsefulNotes/EternalSeptember, when AOL subscribers got access to Website/{{Usenet}} and flooded it with posts like this (among other {{Noob}} behaviour). In the mid-1990s, "AOL!" became a mocking shorthand for "Me too!" on the site.

The jargon used to describe Internet fora and online discussions such as {{Blog}}s. While some concepts overlap with {{tropes}}, on Wiki/TVTropes we do not usually catalogue this terminology in the form of individual articles but only as a large glossary. For TV Tropes-specific terminology, see Administrivia/TVTropesGlossary. Some concepts discussed here are also mentioned by ''Website/FlameWarriors''.

* Wiki/{{Wikipedia}}

* The Wiki/SCPFoundation can do this, as some of the most popular articles include experiment logs involving other [=SCPs=]. The site is trying to minimize this, however. Just watch your step, because you're walking through a minefield of really [[NightmareFuel/SCPFoundation terrifying stuff]].

You have just finished writing an article. More specifically, it is the masterpiece that Wiki/TVTropes has been waiting for. When you suggested the idea in [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/tlp_activity.php Trope Launch Pad]], the number of replies was astonishing. Seriously, this article would move any troper to ''tears''. it's so good!

'''Fannage''' is a [[WikiTropes wiki phenomenon]] where things relating to pop culture get more attention than mundane topics, even if the more mundane topics are more relevant to real life. It gives generalised wikis like Wiki/{{Wikipedia}} a poor reputation by making their userbase look like a bunch of hopeless nerds who prioritise fiction over reality.\\\

Wiki/{{Wikipedia}}'s extensive fannage is famous, what with its ridiculously detailed television synopses (even the ones with NegativeContinuity). Although it's frowned upon there, it's tolerated through the [[FanDumb sheer persistence of the editors]]. People will complain that the $12,000 funding drives seem to be going mostly to rewriting the ''Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse'' in encyclopedia form. Fannage also overlaps extensively with what Wikipedia calls Fancruft, where articles for mundane things are injected with the subject's appearances in popular culture; Wikipedia is less tolerant of this and will boot such users to [[TheWikiRule the myriad of other wikis that exist for documenting those things]].\\\

On wikis, the term refers to someone who makes a single edit to the wiki and never responds to requests for clarification of what they did. Wiki/TheOtherWiki has [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hit-and-run_posting a whole article]] on the phenomenon. Here on TV Tropes, though, we call this a [[Administrivia/TVTropesGlossary Drive-By Updater]].

Here on [[Wiki/ThisVeryWiki this wiki]], we deal with derailment by [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=365rl6gt9w6vijv1envyi76j&page=1#11 thumping]], our method of removing a post. The post is still there, but its content is replaced with a message that the post was thumped. It's usually self-explanatory (and you're free to ask a mod about it in case it's not). Users whose posts are thumped are given a PM about it, and accumulating several thumps can lead to a suspension.\\\

A '''browser narcotic''' is a website that uses up hours of your time with little effort. Like Wiki/ThisVeryWiki, which is well known for [[JustForFun/TVTropesWillRuinYourLife its capacity to ruin your life]]. Unlike an ArchiveBinge, which is linear in nature, a browser narcotic allows you to go in any number of directions, often ending up on a WikiWalk. The defining feature of a browser narcotic is the ''tab explosion'', a browser with EleventyZillion tabs open at once.\\\