Steering

Add pixplzkthnx to Steering Plz to be adding some pix now kthnx. Consult the image selection process for help, or just google up some pix. Plz remove this notice once there are plenty of pix.

Steering is a type of flame war which is named firstly for the practice of influencing the direction of a thing or group, and secondly for the dumb cattle ("Steers") which can have their limited attention spans exploited in order to stampede them in the direction that will cause the most damage.

Steering begins when Prima invents a negative image of Secunda, and ends when the entire community on which they post is convinced that it is real. It requires some patience, art and judgment but holds powerful advantages; not only does it genuinely ruin Secunda as a poster (and an IRL human being), but a sound victory can salt the earth, curse them with the Tigerwolf Effect or even both.

Parties Involved

Prima will require three separate entities to be perceived by the members of the community.

1. Himself/Herself
2. A first group of sockpuppets, installed a week or two before the flame war is put into operation, who pose as new users and post harmless material.
3. A second group of sockpuppets who will act as Anons but have names that suggest they are old hands of the group/forum. Handles like "Concerned Community Member," "A Number Of The Rest Of Us," "Lurker" or "Long Time Reader, First Time Poster" are good examples. "Admin" is more powerful, but can get you rumbled if the board is policed to any extent.

Tactics

Pavlovian Association

Prima chooses a topic relevant to Secunda's interests and characterizes them as an annoying obsessive who is using the group as their personal sounding board. Let us say, using one of the easier hypotheticals, that Secunda likes anime; whenever this is mentioned, Prima will loudly grumble that Secunda never shuts up about it. Alternatively, consider that Secunda is female - whenever she objects to anything said by another poster, Prima will roll his eyes dramatically and say "Well, of COURSE she'd pick a fight over it. She's the girl of the group, she's ALWAYS out to prove something to people." If nothing about Secunda is known, Prima can simply accuse them of being an attention whore: as all material posted to the internet is, by and large, a play for attention on some level, this can be tailored to fit anything.

It is unimportant whether this can be proven right or not. On the contrary it works in Prima's favor if his attacks on Secunda can be easily shut down, because Secunda will almost certainly reply to each attack at length, put him in intellectual checkmate and go to bed feeling pleased with himself.

From Secunda's point of view he will have won. What has actually happened, however, is a little more complex. The other users of the group, being what internet users are - largely unconcerned with anything outside their own sphere of consciousness- will have been mostly unaware of who Secunda was until now. The first time Secunda's name crosses their field of vision will be with regard to their alleged obsession with feminism/WTC/root vegetables/whatever. This first seed of awareness has now been planted.

As soon as Prima attempts to defend himself, his is sunk; he has now put himself on the forum's radar, and the more he does so the firmer the imprint will be.

Occupatio

A nasty little twist in the tale; using occupatio tactics on every single thread in which Secunda might post not only increases the chances that he lose his temper and make a fool of himself, but it also isolates him from any enjoyment he derives from the community. Example:

Poster: Hey guys, does anyone else think this advert is sexist?
Prima: *rolleyes* Oh great, here comes another fifty-post <Secunda> dramafest about feminism.

OT War

EVERYTHING that Secunda posts is either off-topic and a waste of bandwidth, or a play for attention and drama. This can usually be addressed with a URL or a dismissive reference to the same. Examples:

Secunda: Anyone know where I can buy a cheap graphics card?
Prima: Google is your friend. *sigh*

Secunda: God, I had such a lousy day at work today.
Prima: www.livejournal.com

Secunda: *yawn* Slow forum is slow
Prima: Go back to 4chan, we don't want your sort here.

Procedure

1) Conception

Firstly Prima must conceive an image of Secunda which he wishes to spread. It should be as simple and cartoonish as possible; something which the peanut gallery can seize upon with the absolute bare minimum of imagination. A wide-eyed liberal or a religious fanatic are good examples, but require too much thought and the right circumstances to be ideal. If Prima is part of a group which is traditionally marginalized on the internet - say they are a weeaboo or female, as in the examples above - then half of Secunda's work is already done.

2) Seeding

Using the techniques above, Prima's sockpuppets go to work. Group one will play the role of "Hi, I'm a new user. I've only been here for a few weeks, but I agree with the others - this guy <Secunda> really gets on my nerves!" Group two will present as "I've been here for a long time and I'm usually content to just read the threads, but <Secunda> is making the group unreadable with his constant arguing about <Issue>! Can he please just go away and stop spoiling things for the rest of us?"

This is the point at which the Steering strategy will be made or broken. If Prima is skilled - and lucky - then the campaign will have struck a chord with a few other members of the community. They might secretly dislike Secunda but have previously had no excuse to put the boot in without making themselves look bad. They may hate the group of which Prima has characterized Secunda as being a member. They may just be spiteful full stop. Whatever the reason, if all goes well then users outside Prima's wave of sockpuppets will chime in.

3) RAEP

Once independent members of the group have been "Steered" into posting "Me too," the trap has sprung closed. Prima is now free to wade in using his "Real" group identity and manipulate the whole affair without casting suspicion on himself. Not only this, but he he has carte blanche to make himself look as innocent as possible with comments such as "Sorry, <Secunda,> I've seen this coming for a long time. I've always kept my mouth shut out of friendship / respect for you / respect for the group / not wanting any drama, but I'm clearly not the only member of this community who's noticed your behavior."

At this point Secunda can kiss their peace of mind farewell. Any thoughts they had previously entertained that a sock campaign was being carried out against them are now blown apart, and the therapist's bills resulting from "What if everyone really DOES hate me?" begin piling up from here on in.

Fighting Back

Steering too hard can lead to oversteer.

The only way to reliably defeat a Steering campaign is for Secunda to recognize it as soon as it begins and ignore it, making Prima's sockpuppets look like a load of whining weirdos. If Prima continues under these circumstances then his socks will be asked "Who the fuck are you" and told to "GTFO, newfag".

As mentioned above, as soon as Secunda legitimizes the socks by taking them on, then he or she is boned. There are, however, ways around the situation and (like alcoholism) they all start with admitting that the problem exists and planning what do do about it.

• Cut Your Losses: Secunda identifies the source of the attack, abandons his identity on the board, plans revenge and waits for Prima to let his guard down.
• Smokescreen; Secunda begins impersonating Prima's sockpuppets and possibly inventing plenty more himself and attacking all members of the group indiscriminately using the same tactics. Before long nobody will be able to tell where the e-bullets are coming from and the regular posters will be so pissed off that all further efforts by Prima will be screwed from the word go.
• Giving Enough Rope: Secunda reacts to Prima's efforts but, does so in an nonplussed fashion that suggests mild irritation. Because trolls are given to make mistakes when they scent blood, Prima will falsely deduce that he is ticking Secunda off and that he is close to cracking them. In reality, he is being drawn out and will continue to overplay his hand until the other members of the community lose their patience and turn on his army. In a worst-case scenario for Prima they may even come down on Secunda's side, even if only by proxy by responding to any future trolling attempts with "NOT THIS SHIT AGAIN."

See Also

• Social engineering
• The Throw