Q: Why do you think it is that half of the questions asked in the Nascar section of Yahoo Answers end up in a flame war between team Jr. and team Busch. You can look through the backlog, and probably find the same dozen people constantly arguing the same dozen points over and over and over.
A: it would be nice, but there aren't all that many rational people asking and answering questions on here, especially after a race and during the summer (school's out and the youngun's like to get on and flame away). and the reason that half of the questions end up in flame wars between junior's fans and rowdy's fans is three-fold: 1) many people are very immature, especially when it comes to talking about their favorite and least favorite drivers; 2) those two are the big news this year - rowdy for his behavior on and off the track and dale jr because, well, he's dale junior - whatever those two do is news. the funny thing is that there's far more of a rivalry between junior fans and rowdy fans than there is between those two guys; 3) people love to say the same things over and over and over again - believing for some odd reason that they are going to change someone's mind about their favorite driver. as for me and the people on my contacts list (and others i'm sure), we do our best to cheer for and/or defend our favorite driver without bashing other drivers or their fans as a whole. some people, however, are just sooo inflammatory in their questions and answers that it is near impossible to resist the temptation to fire back every now and then. at worst, i don't find needling the fans of other drivers or getting needled by them every now and then offensive, but the level of "hatred" that is often displayed on here amazes me. it's one thing to be a fan of a driver (or a team - basketball, football, whatever) and have a rivalry, but hatred, come on. and it is possible to act civilized - i myself have answered numerous "busch-bashing" questions, like helping someone find a "kyle busch sucks" t-shirt online, or videos or pictures of kyle doing something "negative." not like i'm the poster-boy for how to be civilized or anything, but i'm just saying it can be done... and to date, all attempts to try to get consensus for people to "stop the madness" have failed miserably and will continue to do so. it's the nature of the beast, especially on sundays. a six pack of beer, a bad finish for your favorite driver (or a good one for your least favorite) and a keyboard are dangerous things when combined. there should be a warning label or a usb breathalyzer attachment that a user should have to blow into and pass before entering the section - but that would take away some of the fun as well. most of the regulars on here are usually quite respectful. we all have our moments, and often those occur after doing nothing but reading inflammatory crap being written time and again bashing drivers or fans or particular individuals who don't deserve it. thus, many regulars avoid coming on here right after a race, especially if something happens to or by either rowdy or junior - win, lose, or wreck. the noise level just gets too great. even today, how many times can the same question be asked "how bad did nascar/goodyear/the race/espn suck today?" i'll bet there are dozens of such questions that could have been condensed into about a half-dozen question without losing a thing. and think of how boring it would all be if we all just got along... everyone singing "kum ba yah" and "for he's a jolly good fellow" at the end of each race, no matter who won. i know i wouldn't come back... ;-) ps. and then there's those windbags who can't seem to answer a question in less than a thousand words... man wouldn't it be great if something could be done about them... ;-)