Why Only AOL Users Get Flamed?

There are a number of reasons that flame wars seem to be directed specifically against AOL users and not CompuServ, Prodigy, or Delphi users. Some of the reasons are pretty obvious; CompuServ only recently added Usenet newsgroups to its email offerings in November 1994 (PC Computing 1994) and Prodigy just introduced Usenet access this year (McGarvey 1994). Only Delphi has offered Usenet accessibility since its inception and reasons why Delphi users haven't incurred the wrath of other Usenet citizens are considered at the end.

More Users, More dummies

One of the principal reasons that AOL incurs the majority of the third degree burns is that AOL is the biggest and most popular on-line service. The absolute number of AOLers on USENET is incomprehensible. It's membership is estimated to reach 2 million by summer of 1995 (Gunn 1995). As one Usenet citizen put it:

Another issue is the sheer number of AOLers: If 1% of all users are boneheads, a site of 100,000 users (1,000 boneheads) will stand out far more than a site of 500 users (5 boneheads).

Taki Kogoma (quirk@unm.edu)

The definition of a bonehead is someone who continually disturbs the Usenet community and precipitates a flame-fest. Updating the numbers for this summer, the 1% approximation come to an estimated 20,000 bonehead users from AOL. With that many AOL boneheads out there, it's a good probability that a bonehead encountered on Usenet will likely be from AOL. Example of "stupid" things include asking brainless questions that are outlined in the FAQ, short for frequently asked questions. The purpose of FAQs are to save bandwidth by answering repeatedly asked questions. Another common newbie mistake is to post a message that only says "Me too" after a post or request. Other offenses include posting messages of a commercial nature which most often include get-rich-quick schemes.

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