Conversation on the Internet follows certain rules, similar to real communication. There are two, three or more opponents, they exchange opinions, share information, report useful information. And at this moment an outsider wedges into the conversation, leading the main thread of the polylogue in a completely different direction.
Flood comes from the English flood - flood, inundation. This is a kind of flooding of forums, chats and social networks with information. At the same time, it is mostly useless, deviates from the main discussion, does not carry a payload.
Varieties of flooding
In the usual sense, these are just useless messages, as already mentioned, not carrying a payload, but there are other forms
The flood has a lot of guises by which it can be classified.
- For example, the extreme type of flooding includes repetitions of the same type of symbols, phrases, letters, in the absence of meaning.
- You can flood with the help of nicknames - when the flooder picks up a lot of non-existent nicknames or bots in the chat. This is especially useful for IRC channels.
- Wipe flood - empty topics on forums.
- Emoticon flood - if a message from only emoticons is sent in the chat or on the forum.
- Micro-flood - named so not for size, but by analogy with the word "microphone". They are engaged in it in game chats, where there is an exchange of voice messages. This includes useless cues and sometimes the inclusion of third-party music on the server.
Why is the flood spread
It is believed that flooders are people with a lot of time, most often teenagers or insecure personalities. With the help of this kind of hooliganism, they simply try to kill time, attract attention, or to some extent compensate for their own complexes.
And the role of flooding is not limited to this. It also happens that it carries a certain meaning, usually negative. This can be a hidden or explicit form of advertising, insults to certain people, the pursuit of other deep motives.
What is not a flood
The flood situation is similar to the famous "Occam's Razor". Everyone has heard of it, but few know the real meaning and therefore use the expression in all convenient and inconvenient cases. Comparatively, flooding is often confused with
If you see that a person behaves inappropriately on the forum or in the chat, do not rush to accuse him of flooding - he may be a troll …
- Trolling - a game on the psychology of communication participants in order to obtain moral satisfaction from this kind of hooliganism.
- With a flame - a dispute for the sake of the dispute itself, when there is no attempt to find the truth and reach mutual understanding. Usually, the desire to argue is manifested in excessive argumentation, when the dispute itself no longer makes sense.
- Offtopic - just third-party messages "off topic", but without an obvious "flood".
In the Internet community, flooding is usually greeted negatively, and flooders are "banned". The first time is usually temporary for a few days. With further attempts to flood, a lifelong suspension from any discussions on the selected resource is possible.
