Re: [Air-l] Reflections on flame wars.

On Thu, 17 Jan 2002, jeremy hunsinger wrote:

I think that sometimes we might be thinking of flaming in a negative context though, it can be, but really for some it is a highly polished artform which has a variety of social purposes. It takes a certain skill with words to generate an applicable insult, and that should be appreciated for what it is sometimes, but also it can be appreciated as a way of normalizing a channel or newsgroup, etc.

I'm with Jeremy. I'd also add that the existence of a full-throttled flamewar can be evidence of an online environment's maturity. It takes a certain amount of committment (not to mention energy!) to flame. david silver http://faculty.washington.edu/dsilver/