Now, if someone disagrees with me. Fine. It won’t change my mind. ;o)

But then, the next week, all of the à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“excerptedà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬  responses were from mega-fans essentially saying that the author stunk…. Plus it enabled the author to pretend that the responses were just mega-fans foaming at the mouth, and to ignore the more substantive comments.

That’s the main reason any spam campaign like this is futile and self-defeating in terms of actually changing the tenor of a conversation — you’re going into someone else’s sandbox, where they control the space. Any site owner can delete your comments, some can actually edit them, and of course the owner can put up whatever new front item they want. If the original owner is either hostile or defensive, spamming them only hands them a choice of ammunition.

But maybe it’s effective in the larger sense at increasing the noise about a contestant? People generally don’t post a lot about something if they aren’t getting input — you’d expect the Idol stuff to die off pretty quickly post-finale, until the albums start coming out. Fan-warring keeps the hits and comments coming pretty reliably, which could potentially lure bloggers into writing more.

It kind of makes me want to see someone do a love:crazy ratio tracker that would track the “yay woo” comments on positive articles/blogs about an idol, take away for the “boo hiss” comments on negative articles/blogs and the “no this one sucks my idol is BETTER” comments. It would be interesting and possibly drive fanbases to compete to up their “love” scores instead of their “crazy”. *g*

Mj, you run a helluva place here. This discussion today, and the ones still going on in the Taylor topics have been civil, and truly full of interesting content.

. It’s you guys. Ya all are pretty awesome.

it enabled the author to pretend that the responses were just mega-fans foaming at the mouth, and to ignore the more substantive comments.

That I think is the greatest problem with spam campaigns. People are not going to respond to what they would perceive as “bullying” or “censorship”. A person’s natural response to that is to fight back.

Since I’ve only been active in boards and stuff during this season, I can’t speak about the fanbases of the prior idols. But I saw the spam commenting in the Ellen boards when Simon talked about preferring David Cook there. I thought it was outrageous that people were censoring Ellen and Simon. And again so as not to unfairly paint a picture of the Archies, I am sure that some Cookies are guilty of the same behavior as well (i.e, the vitriol that is directed at Kimberly Caldwell).

I agree with the poster upthread who said that a lot of it has to do with wanting to feel validated. Unfortunately for many people, they get so invested in their “idols” that they feel it is their duty to rid the world of every single negative comment about their idol. It is pointless in the end, but for the time that it takes them to send that email or post that comment, they feel better about themselves. Sad, but true.

See SpenserJ, no fanwars today. Incredible. I like the idea of ranting and deleting. I think a poster does that here, and I often wonder what he/she is deleting. Would probably start an interesting conversation.

This show gives us all a bit of agita, and even more pleasure, otherwise why do we keep coming back most of us year after year? Maybe in a small part because of communities like these where we can exercise our compulsion and not drive our families crazy!

Well I am off to spam the comment section of some article……. j/k!

When mtv.com had that ridiculous essay trying to link DC’s win to everything that that author gates about red states, there were some fantastic responses, really gutting the point, complaining about yet another attempt to assert a wedge between so-called blue and red states, and also saying, geez, maybe (as you later claimed) you were trying to be tongue-in-cheek, but you failed. But then, the next week, all of the “excerpted” responses were from mega-fans essentially saying that the author stunk. And, you know, that assessment of the author might actually be correct, but it isn’t what you’d call persuasive. Plus it enabled the author to pretend that the responses were just mega-fans foaming at the mouth, and to ignore the more substantive comments.

Vent-rant-delete is my method.

Smartcookie, I used to do that one a lot at work LOL.

What’s the point of responding anyway? Do comments like “He’s the greatest ever. You’re an idiot” change anyone’s mind. When I see tons of comments, I start to wonder why the person needs such an big defense.

It will make you feel better but not make the person who wrote the piece you disagree with get all excited and triumphant that they got the response and the buzz and the attention they were looking for.

Vent-rant-delete is my method.

So far my only thought is – take a deep breath – wait and see if others respond first – and if it is necessary to respond – be witty, non-attacking, non-fangirly and try to add to the conversation with a fresh angle.

When you read one of those harsh, and perhaps innacurate articles, and the rage starts to boil up inside you, take a deep breath. And, instead of posting a scathing comment on that site, come here instead. Provided you stay within MJ’s guidelines, and post in a thread that is relevent to the topic, your MJ family will indulge your rant.

Some of us may read it and say “uh oh, she’s gone round the bend”, but we’ll still like you anyway. And, MJ will never use you as an object of ridicule like those reporters will!

I’m going to call this the step back, breath, then type in a friendly forum theory. And, I think I’m going to need a Patent attorney.

Nature of the beast, you know?