Why, oh why do I get drawn into flame wars?

I spend a lot of time on the social networking site Plurk. I recently got myself involved in a nasty spat between two Plurk friends (now ex-friends.)

Basically what happened was that “A” had visited “B” in person. There was some alleged behavior from A that B did not approve of. B then apparently unfriended A, and A posted (plurked) griping that B had unfriended her without any warning. There were some other comments by A’s friends, and then B showed up in the thread. Oh man, he went ballistic, using the “F” work rather liberally. Not only did he totally trash A, but her friend “C”, telling C to shut his f***ing trap.

Some time later, I pointed out that he should’ve had the guts to tell A in private (as opposed to posting it in public) and that he should shut his f**king mouth.  Well, naturally, he tells me to f**k off and that he did nothing wrong.

My final words (so far) are that he is a bigger liar than GWB (I should probably have used Dick Cheney or Satan as an even better comparison).

The sad thing is,  that I really enjoy this flame war! I don’t know if it’s over, but I’m thinking “Bring it on! Tell me to f**k off again, you asshole!” Why do I like this so much? Maybe I should’ve been a lawyer…

My most interesting conversation on the Internet

I’ve been spending a lot of time plurking lately. It is similar to twitter, but is much easier to get into conversations with other users because the plurks and responses to plurks are threaded.

The website plurkmania.com has stats on each user.  There are over 52,000 plurkers, but over 34,000 described their relationship as “Not saying”. The next most frequent answer was “Single”  with around 4,900.

I somehow got into a sociological conversation on plurk last night about why so many people (including me) declined to state their relationship status. Is it, as I thought, because it’s really none of other peoples’ business? But then, why throw yourself into the world of social networking if you value your privacy?

I can understand why many divorced people would decline to state their status, but why do so many single people do so? Is it because there is a stigma attached to not being married or in a relationship (which was another possible answer.) I went out on a limb and guessed that this might be more of an issue for women, who may still have to answer to being an “old maid.”

Of course, I really don’t have the foggiest idea why people would decline to state their relationship status, but it was the most interesting conversation I’ve ever had on plurk.  So many questions, so few answers…

Edit 7/9: Fixed spelling of “plurkmania.com.”

My new Internet obsession

I recently joined Plurk, which is best described as Twitter on a timeline. The more frequently you use it (by making posts (plurking), inviting friends, etc.), the more “karma” you get, which can earn you various upgrades on the site. However, your karma can also go down for various reasons, including posting too infrequently or by losing friends.

My work blocks social-networking sites so I can’t access Plurk at work from my computer, though I can mobile Plurk via my cell phone. When I got home after work today, I noticed that my karma had gone down from 29.47 to 29.31.  The first thing I said to myself was “DA*n!”

This is an obvious indication that this could become an addiction. If I spend more time plurking, I may be spending less time blogging, which could be a good thing for readers of this blog 😉