As a somewhat prolific poster and an active participant in the recent Ranma 
threads of Honor/Shampoo/etc, I would like to put my observations and suggestions for 
the FFML.

	First of all, I would like to say that I really enjoyed these discussions as 
long as they didn't change into SPAM wars.  At first, the Shampoo thread was actually 
tolerable.  After a while, it was not.  Here's what I observed and believed to be the 
trend in these threads.

	Using the recent Shampoo thread as an example, here's what I believed to be the 
pattern:

1.	Person A writes that Shampoo is destructive and etc and etc because she tried 
to Akane and because of this and this.
2.	Person B counters person A's argument.  He/she either tries to prove person A 
is wrong or attacks the characters Person A is defending for (Akane in the Shampoo 
thread case).

	By the way, Person A and B doesn't necessarily refer to just one person.  
Rather, it should represent the sides of the argument.  Person A represents the 
anti-Shampoo side, and Person B represents the pro-Shampoo side.  At this point, 
everything is still under control.  In order to continue the debate, Person A and B 
needs to pull facts from Ranmaverse and try to convince each other.  However, even the 
Ranmaverse is only so big.  Eventually one of the person will run out of evidences to 
pull from, and a compromise will then be reached.  I've once debated with someone on 
Ukyou vs. Akane and eventually one of us ran out of evidence to pull from Ranmaverse, 
and agreed to a truce within less than 10 e-mails.  Here's what I observe to be the 
problem, though:

3.	Someone jumps in the argument and argues that Person B's argument is totally 
invalid because Shampoo deserves to die and that was that.

	That is what I truly believe to be the problem.  If you base your argument on 
valid facts the debate will not evolve into a SPAM war.  It is when someone simply 
condemns a character with no reason whatsoever that turns a debate to SPAM war.  Before 
you know it, someone will probably write back condemning Akane to be a kawaikunai tomboy 
and such.  Then, you have the stuff such as the Shampoo Lynching Society and people 
writing all the creative ways Shampoo can be killed.  Then, the whole debate degenerates 
into a senseless mess where people flame at each other and post a ton of negative 
criticism about either the character they don't like, or many times the actual living 
soul who is supporting that character.  

	So what I want to say is this.  Let's avoid the third step.  If you truly think 
Shampoo deserves to die, privately E-mail that person and tell that person so.  Publicly 
announcing these mass condemnation is only an open invitation for SPAM war.  We've 
already seen this before.  The worth-killing for grammar SPAM was caused because of the 
"Akane is/is not kawaii" question.  Shampoo SPAM was caused because of the "Shampoo 
deserves to die" question.  The Honor SPAM was caused by the "Ryouga is/is not 
honorable/brave" question.  Please, I'm not saying that we should completely stop these 
discussion/debates because I love them also.  However, it is pointless to see the ways 
Shampoo can be killed or people blasting each other back and forth for who they like.  I 
personally don't have a high opinion for Shampoo, but I definitely do not go around 
condemning every single soul that thinks Shampoo is the best babe in Ranmaverse.  Thank 
you for reading this.

Just my humble opinions

********************************************************************************
"RANMA NO BAKA!" Akane Tendo, Ranma 1/2

"Power only breeds war ... I wish I'd never been born." Celes Chere, Final Fantasy 3

Don Wang <dwang@sprynet.com>
RPG, strategy game, and Ranma 1/2 fan.