Why do we send them and what good do they do?

Flames. Everybody's gotten them at one point or another. Sometimes they're pointless, sometimes out right ridiculous. Flames are meant to hurt people and I really don't think that there are many good reasons to flame people, but of course, as to all rules, there are exceptions. I really think most of the flames on the web are from Sailormoon fans, webmasters, etc. There are so many vitriolic* Sailormoon fans it's sickening. I mean come on, unless you've been publicly insulted on someone's webpage or somewhere else, or some one has stolen something from your page (i.e.- information that took thought to write, original scanned pictures, etc.), there are no excusable reasons to flame somebody.

And just another thought, why are webmasters now displaying their flames they've recieved on their pages as if they were some kind of award? It's like saying: "Hey! Look this person hates me and everything me and my page stand for! Why don't you come and read?! You'll get a kick out of someone totally dissin' me!". Come on. And then there are those people who get really offended by flames and conform their pages (or whatever the subject may be) to the flamer's opinion so they'll never get flamed again, supposedly. Really, don't give in to those kind of people. If you worked hard on something, be proud of it, no matter what others think of it. It won't hurt to be an oddball. In the society of Sailormoon webpages, being the oddbal, in my opinion, is a blessing. This means you haven't been tempted to make a webpage with the same old stuff, same information, same layout that 50 bazillion other Sailormoon pages have become. It's like there's some mold that ALL Sailormoon pages have to conform to or your page won't be popular, you won't get many hits and so on and so on. Be creative. I know my page probably isn't the best example in the world because I'm not very skilled with html or graphic editing, but I am trying to make my page original, which is all that counts to me. I could really care less about how many hits I get, how many people have signed my guestbook (as of 8/10/99) 8 people have signed it. People will sign your guestbook and leave comments if they feel like it. I really hate those pages that have "Pleasssseee with sugar on top sign my guest book! I'll be your best friend!" Please, that line stops working after 1st grade. I really hope this little article or whatever you want to call it is of help to new webmasters out there. BE UNIQUE!!

*- vitriolic- adj.- bitterly critical (applies to a person's manner) Learn those helpful vocabulary words that make you sound smart!