Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, August 23, 1994 TAG: 9408240030
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By DAVID PLOTNIKOFF KNIGHT-RIDDER NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
It's terribly simple, really. You know you've arrived on Usenet - the global message network that serves thousands of computer systems both on and off the Internet - when you receive an electronic missive that sounds like this:
``Dear Clueless Idiot,
You obviously are far too dim to comprehend the subtleties of (fill in blank) ...'' The letter may go on to compare your extended family to a pack of swamp-dwelling East Indian gibbons, ask which planet you escaped from and suggest that you deposit questions, comments and suggestions in an internal drive. It will almost certainly tell you your continued presence on the Usenet system is about as welcome as a burst appendix. Often the letter will be posted for millions of readers around the world to savor.
Welcome to cyberspace, pilgrim. You have been flamed.
Flaming, the art of on-line verbal assault, is a celebrated and near-ubiquitous part of Internet culture. Out on the digital highway, a flame can be anything from the on-screen equivalent of a dirty look to a full-blown drive-by shooting. It may be base or erudite. It may be funny or devastating - or both. Throughout the on-line world - from research laboratories to junior-high classrooms - any post or letter that begins, ``I'm sorry, but you've apparently missed the point completely here ...'' is a call to arms, a gesture as universally understood as a fist jerked skyward.
Flames have been a part of Net culture since the first computer science geeks began zipping packets back and forth between university systems. G. Wolfe Woodbury (ggw acpub.duke.edu), one of the founding citizens of Usenet, recently posted this to the comp.society.folklore Usenet group:
``Nostalgia tinges the good old days with a sepia tone, and many of the details are no longer as clear as they once were. But don't kid yourself. Flame wars erupted on the net within a month of its real inception.''
It is widely accepted that a good flame (as opposed to a mere rant) is imaginative, novel, humorous and biting. Ideally, it will be short. The very finest flames are those that pack an important lesson about Net behavior or values along with the venom.
Virginia Shea, author of the on-line manners guide ``Netiquette,'' takes exception to flames only when they become personal attacks. ``If you're going to flame, make it fun, make it funny, don't be serious and don't be abusive,'' says Shea. ``Always be aware of the fact that some people are more sensitive than others. Be ready to pull back when it's time to pull back.''
But personal attacks are the most common, and often the funniest, of flames, which tend to fall into a loose taxonomy:
The ad hominem attack. For example: ``You are obviously a cretin not worthy of debate because you A) come from a low-status on-line service, B) are using the wrong type of computer, C) haven't been reading this group for 10 years,'' and so on ad nauseam. A common subset of the ad hominem attack is the ``newbie flame'' directed at neophytes who have the temerity to post innocent questions that have been dealt with a hundred times before.
The surgical-strike flame. A specialty item on many of the science, math and political areas of Usenet, the surgical strike methodically and mechanically refutes each tiny point in the previous post or e-mail. The on-line equivalent of disassembling your enemy's car one bolt at a time.
The spelling-grammar flame. Below the belt. English is not the first language of many Internet citizens.
The you-have-no-business-being-here flame. This is a stock procedural tool that says, ``We will not comment on the merits of your question-argument-comment because it has no place in this forum. Since it is outside our jurisdiction, remove it from our news group, mail group, etc., and stop wasting our time.''
The sneak flame. This appears at first to be a friendly, helpful posting. Sometimes it gets progressively meaner as it goes along. The best sneakers save the gauntlet toss for the last line: ``I'm not expecting you to be able to fathom any of this, so I'd suggest you get the one person down at the trailer park who did graduate from high school to read it for you.''
The anti-flame flame: Also known as the ``can't we all just get along?'' flame, it crops up right when it looks as though a flame-fight is finally dying down. Usually, some interloper wanders into the middle of the argument and makes a weak plea to the combatants along the lines of ``Can't you both just let it go? Can't we just drop it?'' The usual result is both combatants turn on the self-appointed peacemaker before resuming their electronic fisticuffs.
There also exists a small pack of twisted flame artists who post what is known as flame-bait - messages that beg for a flaming response. The practice is known as trolling. The following examples of classic flame-bait are courtesy of Paolo Valladolid (pvallado sdcc5.ucsd.edu), the moderator of an Internet newsletter called Digital Guitar Digest:
In the rec.music.bluenote (Usenet news group): ``I love Kenny G, don't you?''
In soc.culture.asian.american: ``I am a single white male looking for an Oriental sex kitten to make my dreams come true.''
In comp.sys.mac.advocacy: ``Why do you losers waste your time with such a trashy computer?''
A ``flame war'' occurs when flames are lobbed back and forth long after the original bone of contention (and often the original pair of combatants) has been forgotten. Like a cancer, flame wars can invade a previously healthy news group or mail group and drive away all benevolent participation. The so-called ``holy wars'' - on abortion, gun control, the commercialization of the Net, etc. - have been waged seemingly since time began in hundreds of forums. But there are also local flame wars, the on-line equivalent of small-town feuds that begin with a pig loose in someone's garden and end with the grandchildren of the original combatants settling up with shotguns
by CNB