Brief Introduction to Intelligent Flaming/Propaganda

DeletedUser

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See, back in the day I wrote a nifty guide, and since that time I have encountered other moderately decent introductory guides, and explanations of how to intelligently argue and propagandize. I'll share my original post on the topic, and hopefully a collection of other nice threads on the topic in hopes that it spurs a bit of forum involvement. Flame away, I don't really care if you're so inclined. I felt that since the Propaganda contest is now halted due to a lack of participation, it is only fair to help people with ideas. To my knowledge, I never actually finished the guide, so in the next few days I'll try getting around to it. At the moment it is late, and I have a heap of Algebra and German homework I need to get done, so I'll leave you guys with a sampling to tide you over. I am posting the unedited original version. Again, if I find the time I'll edit it up a bit to further address the needs I've seen in these forums.


A Brief Introduction to Intelligent Flaming

A Brief Introduction to Intelligent Flaming/PnP

I tried talking myself out of it, I truly did, but this: http://forum.tribalwars.net/showthread.php?t=132889 ruined any chance of that. For this reason, I'm making an introductory lesson to flaming. Mainly because I have seen no one capable of arguing more than "epic fail lulz!", or "u haz liekz no lief d00d!"

That is preposterous. That is pathetic. That is foolish. That is dull. That... Well, I got my point across well enough methinks.

So without further ado, I'll go straight to it.

Flaming

Contrary to what popular belief seems to be, flaming is not insulting someone until they leave or report you. For some, it is an art. For those few, World 34 is like a rusty spoon shoved deep into the eye. Now the dilapidated state of propaganda in this world might be attributed to moderation, or as some claim, a lack thereof, but that is no excuse.

When flaming, one must decide what piece of the argument they're attacking. A few targets include, but are not limited to:

• Poster's Credibility
• Holes in argument
• Logic
• Lies
• Hypocrisy

DO NOT try to target a poster personally. This is a poor choice, and it will not earn you E-Peen. Generally people will hate you for it, and even side against you on it. Saying "You're fat and ugly IRL" is not flaming, it's insulting. To some mods, that's an infractable offense.


Now, I'll explain what I meant by each briefly, providing examples if able.


•Attacking Credibility... This is probably the easiest means of winning an argument. All one has to do is discredit the opposition and they've won. Once discredited, the opponent will be unable to rebutle, as they'll no longer be taken seriously. A slightly overlooked example of this can be found here: http://forum.tribalwars.net/showpost.php?p=3277394&postcount=16

No, I am not saying the delivery was the best. In fact is was very poor, but it still did as intended. Reaper was able to effectively discredit the poster and thus, their points from then on out were null and void. He was able to prove that the poster was foolish and incapable.


•Finding Holes... This is another effective tool for a flamer's arsenal. For the most part it's fairly self explanatory. You essentially seek the holes in your opponent's argument, and bring them to the surface. If they only give part of the story, but leave the parts they don't like out, or only cover a piece of the discussion, and ignore the rest, you can call them on it. You can also dig holes for you opponents per say. By this, I mean you can lure the opposition into arguing a statement with holes in it. For more details on luring, read beyond. A simple example of this would be asking for reports if someone claims to have cleared someone. If they are unable to provide said reports, then you have them.


•Logic... In rare circumstances, an opponent can make an illogical argument. If this is the case, simply attack that logic. If they try to make connections that do not exist, call them on it. If they say that by hitting an empty village means that the player they struck had no troops, that's an illogical statement. The defending player could have easily dodged their troops. To make that sort of assessment would be illogical yes?

•Lies... This is one of the easier ways to target someone, and also the simplest. If a player is lying, and you know it, you can handle it one of two ways. Either ask for proof, or prove them wrong yourself. Do not combat lies with more lies. That's a surefire way to lose. Ask for proof, or prove them wrong. That is the best way to combat a lie. When you catch an opponent in a lie, use that to discredit them, and effectively win the argument.

•Hypocrisy... This is a harder subject to target, as it can be open to interpretation. Essentially, you find the poster saying something and doing the opposite. In other words, if a known backstabber begins commenting on another player backstabbing, they're a hypocrite. Call them on it. Again, this can be used to discredit the opposition.



Now, how do you use these targets intelligently and effectively? Easy. Research, patience, and persistence.

By research, I do not mean that you have to look at every post the poster has made, but the search function can be very useful in proving the opponent wrong. Especially if they are a repeated poster. Finding a previous post of them making a mistake that they are now condemning, or finding a previous post of them contradicting themselves can go a long way in an argument.

By patience, I do not mean to sit around waiting for the opposition to make a simple type and then capitalize on it. By this, I mean one needs to wait for the time to unleash all of their evidence on the opposition. Wait for them to make sufficient mistakes, and then unleashing the bulk of your evidence on them at once. Generally this is what wins an argument.

By persistence, I do not mean constantly posting "you fail" or "you suck". Sometimes all it takes to win an argument is to consistently prove the opposition wrong, or to use the same argument in each response to force them to attone for their mistake.

Another mistake many make is to try arguing without some facts for support. This tends to be a mistake, as people can easily knock your argument out of the water by providing some sort of evidence to discredit you.

A lure is where you purposefully leave holes in your argument for your opponent to try to argue against. You leave these holes in your argument for the opponent to begin arguing something you know you can squash them at. Generally this is a means to get them to let something important slip, or to get them to make a major lapse in judgement that you can capitalize on.

Remember, you are not trying to get the final word. You're trying to get the public on your side. If you are able to effectively dominate your opponent, people will likely join in on your side, and make your points for you. If that happens then you no longer need to post.

Know when to flame, and when to remain silent. It may very well save you from a political disaster.

And that concludes my introduction to flaming. The rest you'll have to learn for yourself, as a lot is a tad bit harder to explain and/or a trick of the trade. Now I did not spend an hour of my time writing this for you lot to come insulting me for it. I am genuinely disgusted at the lack of intelligent flaming I've seen in this world, so therefore I am doing my part to help make the world a better place.

I know, I skipped the PnP part. I am out of patience ATM, I'll ninja the next post in the thread and reserve it so I can edit it in later.
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A Brief Introduction to Intelligent Propagandizing

The PnP Process

Since a great deal of people are interested in making PnP to succeed in Krieg's Propaganda Contest, I figure that this would be the better place to start for the time being. I'll try to walk through my process of writing a PnP thread. The example I'll use is Freak Out!

To start with, most good PnP has a catchy title. A big misconception is that one has to put [War], or (PnP) in the title. That is not the case. If you do it properly, people will be capable of figuring out what your thread is about. The thread's title should be interesting, and entice people to come read. In my case, it was a repeated phrase in the song I chose to base my PnP around. (That will come later). The title could really be anything, but the most important thing is that it catches people's attention. It should be short enough that people don't get bored by the time they read the end of it, but long enough that you provide a sense of intrigue. It is after all, the first thing that people see when looking at your thread. I came up with "Freak Out!" for this thread. The reasoning becomes rather evident once one reads the thread.

Okay, so you've got a cool title and you're ready to get into the meat of your Propaganda. Not quite yet. First you need an idea of what your propaganda's theme, or major elements are going to be. You should think about the best way to both entertain, and inform the audience of what is going on. In my case, I thought that the song Le Freak was a solid choice. It had some nice repetition that could be used to include my important links and what-not. It also rather clearly stated precisely who Jungle was going to war with. It was fairly easy to assume what was going on without overtly saying, "Jungle is going to war with Freaks".

So I've made it clear who the target is, and I have a relatively interesting hook to keep people interested. Now it is time to include some evidence to make people think my tribe is going to wipe the floor with them. One of the best ways to do this, is to include reports and evidence of enemy tribe's leaders (or members) making fools of themselves. In my case, it was both. I had ample evidence that showed the leaders "betraying" their tribe to save their own skins, and I had a large number of reports of Jungle members wreaking havoc on Freak villages. On a side note, people hate leaders that betray their tribes. Targetting a tribe's leaders is usually the best way to cause instability in the opposing tribe. After all, if the leader thinks there is no hope, how will they convince the members that they have a chance? The second best way is to make them think their efforts are useless, and their task seems too immense to succeed. For the sake of this explanation, I targeted the leadership.

By making the members of the tribe worry for their safety, and show them that their leaders could not be trusted, I established a a wall of distrust between the members and the leaders. This inevitably led to a total break down of the tribe. This let us mop up the individual players with little to no resistance from any sort of coordinated strike.

And that is about all I have to say about that. That is my process. The thing you need to take into account is entertainment vs information. You need a solid balance of both. Otherwise no one will read what you're writing, or no one will believe what you're writing.

I will likely edit and add some more later, but for the time being I have things of my own to attend to.
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DeletedUser

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The idea here is that you'll be able to find examples of solid Propaganda. It's a rather narrow view I think at the moment, but when I have a bit more time, I'll try finding some more.

Back To The Grave . . . - Pervis... Does Pervis really need an introduction? He is likely one of the most prolific and successful leaders and posters around. This was my first experience with really good propaganda. Worth sharing in my opinion.
The Antics Of The Inferior - Pervis... Your every day Pervis propaganda. Nothing particularly stands out to me about it, but it is also worth a read nonetheless.
Satisfaction Guaranteed . . . . - Pervis... And who doesn't love Random PnP? If anyone has better examples of Random PnP that aren't broken, I'd love to have them. This was the first one I could find off hand.
Another War announcement. - Jester... One of the first truly epic PnPs, it gives me ideas for propaganda every time I read it.
Team Canada - Dealing with misinterpretations - Lobster5... One of the few examples of a picture PnP done right.
[Breaking news] Today's press review - Thargoran... I believe the images may be broken, but perhaps Tharg can find them again? It was a very nice thread back in the day.
The FEAR Epidemic - Willovain... Not one of my best, but at the time it was my second thread on the forums I believe. It got fairly nice reviews. Even without mad graphical skills you can make a fairly neat PnP that serves its purpose.
Pie?! Caught In The Cookie Jar? - Willovain... Again, not one of my best, but it also serves a point. That is without a spy, and without any other information source other than TWstats. You can make your argument believable even without spies, trickery, and all that jazz.
UK3 Block Party - Willovain... An example of how to make effect picture popaganda. It has text associated with it, but the shopped image brings additional entertainment value.
 
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DeletedUser

Guest
Alright, here is to further reading. These are guides or threads about the topic. If someone has others I have missed, feel free to post them in here and I'll try to edit them in as I find time.

Tic Toc's Guide to Propaganda - Rather self explanatory, no?
What's with the Obsession with Pictures? - Not a guide per-say, but it is an interesting thread that does warrant a read for would be propagandists. A lot of good points were made in this thread if I remember correctly.
 

DeletedUser

Guest
Nice collection Willo
In my experience on the TW forums there really aren't that many people who care enough are able to produce PnP at the counterargument level or higher. The bottom levels are much more fun and far easier :D

q2ikp.jpg
 

DeletedUser

Guest
I didn't know that there is such thing as a Pyramid Chart for the Level of PnP.
 

DeletedUser

Guest
I hope I don't have to see willo's essays while I'm here. >.<
 

DeletedUser

Guest
Your Dr Horrible...

That's Master Horrible to you... It's called an alias. :p I am Willovain, this was my favorite name though, and Bad Horse was my evil sidekick on .net, therefore I chose my most memorable name for .us ...
 

DeletedUser

Guest
No, your not my Master...

And sucking up to the Forum Mods is not cool!
 
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