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What Makes a War Story?

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  • What Makes a War Story?

    This is an issue that comes up a lot on CS.
    It seems, on a weekly basis, a member will post a long, drawn out or overly embellished saga with lots of thesaurus usage, and lots of drama and angst, and immediately, the nominations start to fly.
    Just exactly what constitutes a war story, though?

    To me, it's one of those stories that you read or personally experience, and then share with other people, even years later, when asked about customer service. In the case of another person's story, we throw it out there as, "I knew of this person once, who..." and from there the tale unfolds, and that person moves on to share the tale with another, saying, "You will never believe the story I heard."

    It is not necessarily a story that spans several posts or becomes a continuing saga. Lengthy tale does not a War Story make. It's not necessarily someone getting into a physical or legal fight with a customer, because those stories are a dime a dozen and can be found on the pages of many a fiction novel, or even in many of the backgrounds of numerous customer service workers. It's not someone being screwed over by a boss and resigning with copious amounts of over-written and unprofessional letters filled with legal jargon and personal observations. That, too, happens on a daily basis, and while it's not pleasant, it's a fact of life.

    It doesn't even have to involve a battle.

    It is just simply a story that epitomizes customer service, the perils of employment, or the suckiness of people, be they managers or customers.

    War Stories are very hard to define, and possibly are a subjective thing.
    As a result, unfortunately, many of our members are unclear on what should be nominated for that forum.

    Next time, before crying "War Story," simply because the post is of epic proportions, take a little time to actually read the post again and ask yourself, "Is this a story I will be telling as a punch line or anecdote several years from now?"

    If it isn't, then do us all a favour and leave your comments telling them how impressed you are by their writing skills, but forget the nominations.

    If it really is a story you believe in, then by all means, send a nomination, but be prepared to explain exactly why this story impresses you, and exactly what about the story makes you think it deserves War Story status.

    It has to be more than just "Great story. Well written."

    As always, the mod team has final approval anyway, but it just makes things easier if members use more thought in the nominating process.
    Too tired of living and too tired to end it. What a conundrum.
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