Wouldn't a flame war have to include direct and indirect ad-hominum attacks? Conflict doesn't necessarily get personal regardless of the intensity of disagreement. I'd think that it becomes a flame war only if and when it devolves into attacks on the person holding an opinion and even then I'd hesitate to call it a flame war unless more than one participant engaged in ad-hominum arguments. Speaking of flame wars -- I'm sure many of you are familiar with the e-mail program Eudora. It has a warning/filter function that it calls "Mood Watch" which can be set to warn you if you are about to send a message that may offend people. Of course some of the filters are set to catch sex-related language, (like the preceding phrase), but it will also flag a message if it uses phrases like "you need help." The 3-stages of offensiveness are flagged with 1 to 3 chili peppers. The 3 chili message appears if the "message is on fire." -- Karla-Tonella@uiowa.edu________________________________________________ "The opposite of talking isn't listening. The opposite of talking is waiting." --Fran Lebowitz