The Internet Flounce

[Lace Neil Singer]

Otherwise known as "Screw you guys, I'm going home!" or "Bitchy leaving thread". I've seen quite a few on various message boards during my years online, and it still really bugs me. Especially since most people who perform the internet flounce do not, actually, leave and never come back. They usually return to read their thread and flame anyone who's not posting, "Aww, come back! We love you!".

[Rapscallion]

Mmmm, good one! Could do with something akin to coming back under a new name to cause problems, or even report their death under a new name. Bit too wordy to fit in easily, though, and expands the parameters a bit too much.

Rapscallion

[patiokitty]

Ohhhh...I love that! I have seen at least one example of each of those over the years I've been on various message boards and LJ comms. I'd easily have a black-out by now even if I just used the examples from boards I have been an admin or mod on.

Whenever I come across a flounce all I can do is laugh and shake my head because invariably the flouncer will come back one way or another. On one board I was on a member got caught saying something in her LJ concerning how she was going to copy and paste everything another board member said so she could twist it and use against the member she had issues with. Well, needless to say that didn't go over very well...she promised to never come back after getting caught.

But we all know what happened next right?

Yeah, obviously she came back but due to her threats nobody could trust her. And after another scathing LJ post about the member she had issues with and what she was going to do to make this person's life hell, it was finally decided to perma-ban her.

Naturally, after that she posted the whole 'woe is me, I'm such a victim' post on her LJ. And promptly got laughed at. No, not publicly on the message board but on chat. Oh, we know she's tried to come back but we check the IP addresses of all new members - she gets deleted at least once every two weeks now.

Either way, she did her flounce with epic style and dragged it out much further than it needed to be. And she lost a lot of friends as a result of her stunt.

Btw, I was the member she had issues with because I politely requested that she reword one of her posts as it could be considered inflammatory. I was doing my job as a mod, especially after most of the member base had reported that particular post. The board owner/admin was the one that found the LJ post with the threats in it. If it wasn't an obvious attack she would have just been put on moderation...but it was too difficult to ignore.

However, I may be tempted to copy that bingo card and post it the next time I see an internet flounce somewhere...it's just too damn perfect!

[Andara Bledin]

You need to add a sparkly colored shape over/around whichever one they go with to go with the bingo theme.

^-.-^

[Lace Neil Singer]

I couldn't believe it when I found it on google; it's perfect! XD

Of course, internet flouncing is to me the internet equivilent of SCs who scream, "This is the worst store ever! I'm never coming back!" and then return the very next day.

[Rapscallion]

Oh, we know she's tried to come back but we check the IP addresses of all new members - she gets deleted at least once every two weeks now.

Heh - I never understand why people do that. A mate of mine does the car racing on an amateur basis and I'm his pit monkey. The forum for the series is something the series owner has declared he'd like to do away with - he's a bit of a technophobe, and I suspect the fact that he's a fairly bad speller is something to do with it.

They moved to a better server where they could install forum software instead of relying on free forum hosting, which is a bit naff. Much better all round.

However, in the early stages I - when I was already registered and posting - I noted that he had something in the new guidelines to say that he was restricting posting to drivers only. You know, the people who wouldn't get there without two or three people getting their cars and equipment there, setting off at stupid o'clock in the morning and all that fun stuff. I posted immediately after his that I'd like clarification. I got a PM saying that it was people on the forum who weren't drivers who were causing 'trouble'. Actually, there's a lengthy bit of politics there, but in short it's not from my viewpoint. Anyway, he said if I wanted to be active on the forum he needed my address and he'd send me a registration card for the club.

Less than a week after, I log in and find that I have a message saying I have a deleted message (my PM inbox actually told me I'd had a deleted message) and when I looked at the 'show my posts' button everything I had had been cleared.

The place is pretty much dead. I just simply don't go there any more. No flounce - just no participation.

Rapscallion

[Lace Neil Singer]

Exactly. There's no need to flounce; just leave and don't come back. I used to post on a forum that at one point was actually a good place to be. It was a splinter group from the old Kiss Asylum forum, which was the counter to the official and crapola Kissonline site. Both of these forums are dead now, interestingly.

Anyway, due to an admin who became drunk with power and basically chased a load of people off the forum, it became no fun posting there so I too bowed out gracefully and left. Eventually, the forum closed down cuz the owner couldn't see the point of paying out for the benefit of one admin and his four sycophants. Some of these tried to join the forum my friend started but left in a flounce after they realised they wouldn't be allowed to do what they wanted.

[HYHYBT]

Wonderful chart! I don't think I've heard it called "flouncing" before, but the name sure fits!

Mmmm, good one! Could do with something akin to coming back under a new name to cause problems, or even report their death under a new name.

I especially hate that one, because every once in a while it's *true* and people don't believe it. I've often thought about making arrangements so that the online communities I participate in would be notified if anything happened to me, but aside from not getting around to it, not being sure the best way, etc., I'd hate not to be believed. Well, of course I wouldn't be here to hate it, but still.

[lordlundar]

I'm guilty of the "deletes comments" a couple of times but I also do the inevitable "flounce bomb" of randomizing my password. I make it a point on if I leave on bad terms, I don't come back.

[Racket_Man]

DANG. now you are causing me to have bad flashbacks to Buzzworld Bingo back when I was in the Corp world.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bu...reenshot_2.jpg

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Well, you know, simply quietly leaving a message board one no longer enjoys for whatever reason lacks a certain level of infantile attention getting, so some people would rather do their little tantrum than just be a grown ass adult about it.

And, like the sucky customers that declare "I'm never coming back here!" in real life, can't understand that no one is sorry to see the back of them.

And also like sucky customers that declare "I'm never coming back here!", they always fucking do.

[Boozy]

Members come and go from Fratching and CS all the time, usually without any announcement or fanfare.

I'm sure that some of those members left because they don't like the moderation style, and I'm fine with that. Not every forum is going to appeal to everyone, so it's futile to even try.

The one thing that is set in stone is that when someone says, "Fuck y'all, I'm leaving and never coming back", they will absolutely try to come back. Someone who is genuinely ready to sever their emotional ties to the community never makes the announcement. They just stop logging in.

[Andara Bledin]

If I were to leave a forum out of some issue, I might take a moment to let someone in charge know of why I'm departing in a PM, but that would be the extent of it. Most of the time I just get distracted by something else shiny and stop logging in.

^-.-^

[Lace Neil Singer]

I remember a flouncer who left a message board, then returned after setting herself as invisible. How the mods and I laughed; the way the board was set, we could see all invisible people. XD I sent her a message telling her so; she then logged out and registered another account, unable to comprehend that we knew her IP so we knew it was her. XD

[mikoyan29]

I remember a flouncer who left a message board, then returned after setting herself as invisible. How the mods and I laughed; the way the board was set, we could see all invisible people. XD I sent her a message telling her so; she then logged out and registered another account, unable to comprehend that we knew her IP so we knew it was her. XD

People don't realize that the internet is not completely anonymous.