Hope it's okay to use this as a sounding board for the other wank communities. Feel free to delete it or Internet shout at me or whatever if I've put it in the wrong place (and it'll be taken care of in the morning, because I is going to bed right now).

Anyway, I'm having a bit of trouble deciding about whether or not I ought to post something to otf_wank.

There's a rumor going around the Internets that people on Réunion Island are using dogs as live shark bait. It turns out to be mostly not true (basically it happened once recently, the dude was charged with animal cruelty, and it turns out that there have been cases of fishermen using already deceased animals as bait but there isn't this huge epidemic of it that the rumor mongers want people to believe). The (I'd warn against following this link if you're upset by pictures of hurt animals, because they have a rather graphic photo right there at the top of the page) Snopes page and the news story about it on National Geographic's site use a picture of a dog with a big hook through its snout, but apparently there's a strong theory that it's either a hoax or a miscredited picture of some poor dog that found bad luck all on its own. But somebody on the Dogs!Dogs!Dogs! group on Flickr gets hold of the story and posts a link to it, starting a huge fight about who the True Dog Lovers are and whether it's acceptable for people outside of the US of A to not hold American values (loud minority's opinion: no, it isn't) once someone else posts a link to the Snopes page on the story.

I find Flickr wank hilarious on its own merit, because come on, they're fighting about what people should think of pictures of someone else's pets on the Internet. And I think that the people who come right out and say "I know that this is probably isn't true, but I'm outraged anyway!" are funny. But when I find myself feeling the urge to warn people to be careful of the picture in one of the links, well...I'm not quite sure that "LOL Flickrers! But OMG, don't look at that picture" doesn't sway the balance more in favor of Your Thoughts on Dogs and Sharks and Reunions and Stuff than actual lulz.

If not that, how about the two-month long fight on the graves and cemeteries community about whether it's touching or tacky to leave things on graves?