Talk:Flaming (Internet)

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[edit] Wow

No sooner did I get this up than people start changing it. But thanks, my feeble attempts to define the verb "to flame" have fairly been deleted.

[edit] Unique or Not?

"Electronic communications do not easily transmit facial expressions or voice intonations which may serve to moderate the tone of a message": people always say this sort of thing, but it is essentially iditoic. Printed, or, usually, handwritten (it would be very rare that the handwriting could give someone an idea as to the "tone") text (in books and magazines, in letters, and so forth) has the same characteristics. To pretend this is something unqiue to electronic media is ridiculous. I think this article should be edited accordingly. --Daniel C. Boyer 16:28, 27 Sep 2003 (UTC)

You can't have a conversation in a book. Martin 17:08, 27 Sep 2003 (UTC)
It doesn't matter; the one-way message is subject to the same misinterpretations about tone. And in real correspondence there is no difference (with possible, very subtle exceptions) in the possibility of misinterpretation as in e-mail. I stand by what I wrote. --Daniel C. Boyer 18:19, 27 Sep 2003 (UTC)
You could argue then that it's not a single misunderstanding that gives electronic media this problem. You could instead say that the main cause of the problem is the speed of reply and commentary. I mean, we are talking about dense amounts of information being exchanged at rates comparable with face-to-face conversations -- it's not something we've had experience in until (relatively) recently.--T-Boy 17:12, 9 Jun 2004 (UTC)
Exactly; the 'feedback loop' is what creates the heat and anger; that's where Daniel C. Boyer's book analogy falls down. Heenan73 13:56, 17 Jul 2004 (UTC)
Also, most books and magazines are written by (somewhat) skilled writers and editors who carefully fine-tune what's written so that it expresses the message correctly. Most people who communicate electronically aren't usually the greatest writers, so messages are generally whipped up in a few minutes and not closely edited, thus making it easier to misunderstand tone. Mole 13:48, 20 Jul 2004 (UTC)
Computer mediated text has the same characteristics as typed media (except handwritten notes, where the structure of the writing can give the reader some context). Consider the scenario of people passing type-written notes under a closed door. The same stuff happens; but the author of the original quote above wrote especially for CMC (computer mediated communication). This really does not mean that the same couldn't be said about hard-copy text; but the point is rather trivial. —Kanodin 00:15, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Is fag-flaming about fags or about flaming?

Removed POV addition to article. POV segment added below: Flynn aka Brent aka Dopeman is a total retard and the joke of flaming community.

--

Would it be a better idea to separate 'flaming' in its computer forum context and 'flaming' in reference to homosexuality?--T-Boy 04:45, 16 Jun 2004 (UTC)

I agree; placing these two topics side-by-side is at best confusing. I've moved the homosexual flaming link to the disambiguity page - shouldn't this item be added to homosexuality or a related page, where I'm sure it will be absorbed appropriately?. This appears to me to be more a sub-set of 'handbags at dawn' than a spcial case of flaming, but I may have missed something ... Heenan73 13:45, 17 Jul 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Favorite Flame subjects

Flynn aka Brent aka Dopeman uses this term as they are known fag flamers. The late Scott Schmidt aka Stray Cat of Maineville Ohio was probably the most famous fag lamer of all. He could be found at such prominent sites as brawl-hall.com, social strychnine.com and digistalstrife.net spamming and trolling for young boys. He was jailed in 2005 where he died of aids a year later

[edit] Origins

Can it be fairly said that the origins of the word are likely the result of a "flame" icon appearing next to active and long threads in message boards (to indicate the thread is "hot") ? Or someone know of a documented "first-use?". — Ben 23:19, 25 Jan 2005 (UTC)

this is an interesting post --Froth 01:01, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Tragedy of the Commons

"Flaming is one of a class of economic problems known as The Tragedy of the Commons, when a group holds a resource (in this case, communal attention), but each of the individual members has an incentive to overuse it." This should be sourced and attributed at the very least. Its hardly obvious or non-controversial - it looks like original research or commentary. The 'tragedy of the commons' theory is itself disputed.

That sounds pretty obvious to me. There's nothing wrong with a little expository commentary, and it's certainly not original research --Froth 00:58, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] The Cause of Many Flame Wars

This article from Slashdot (posted by CmdrTaco) may offer some explanation as to the origins of many Flame Wars.

The Secret Cause of Flame Wars

A possible cause of flaming could be to use it similar to old greek ostrakism (450 b.C.)as a means to fight too powerful and, or misbehaving citicens. With this instrument people could ban by election one person for 10 years. Of course in the times of the internet 10 years is too long, but perhaps 6 months? Das Internet eine globale Agora --- Sign your posts!


There is an entry that I moved from the introduction section down to the "causes" section:

  • It is noted that Internet users are more likely to flame online than insult others in the real world, as the latter can lead to embarrassment and physical altercations, which online "anonymity" can avoid. Others urge against flaming, citing that people on the other side "have feelings too."

This explanation is interesting and intuitive, but the information came with no citation. Unless someone knows a reliable source for this, I will delete it in a few days. Kanodin 08:56, 24 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Redirect

The term "flamer", a common name for a flamethrower seems to redirect to this page. I think a redirect page should be created to streamline this.--Deepdesertfreman 19:28, 30 July 2006 (UTC)

Lamerz -- No mention of adotf. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 59.93.70.176 (talk • contribs) . :) Dlohcierekim 19:11, 2 August 2006 (UTC) Bold text


[edit] Fixed some vandalism

Someone had changed a header to "Andrew Christie is a flamer". I fixed it.

--Sapphire Flame 17:05, 31 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Is a personal attack always a flame?

"Similarly, a normal, non-flame message may have elements of a flame -- it may be hostile, for example -- but it is not a flame if it is seriously intended to advance the discussion."

My understanding is that a message is a flame if it contains a personal attack, even if other parts of the same message are seriously intended to advance the discussion. This sentence seems to say otherwise. I've looked elsewhere on the Web and, so far, haven't found any corroboration of the view quoted above, although there may be some I haven't found. Is my understanding different from the general understanding? If not, I suggest that this sentence be edited. Thanks for any help. James B. W. Bevis 17:27, 19 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Flame Reviews

Flame reviews are different to the definition of a flame in a regular conversation. So I put in a sub-section about them. I've tried really hard not to be rude or opinionated so if you take it out, please tell me why... Also I moved 'Holy War'. Just a little bit. It feels like a subsection to a type of flame, not its own portion. 86.17.163.37 15:36, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Flaming is like the Special Olympics, even if you win, you're still retarded.

Is this vandalisim? I think that this is a little uncalled for, but is a good quote nonetheless :-). Should it be moved, or just erased altogether?

Colacadstink 15:44, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Let me take a look at this... Dacheatcode 00:26, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

Since it refers to flamers, I think they deserve it. Harley Quinn hyenaholic 12:35, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Addition

I'm no good at editing Wikipedia pages, or what people really want to see form them, but I found this one random website whilst surfing the web that had this very long discussion, stemming from about 5 helpful comments and turning into a very intense flame war before the 10th comment. If you want to add it on as like an example or something, I enjoyed reading it because it escalated so quickly. However, I am not the owner of the page, nor associated with it in any way, shape, or form, so if you need permission, i'm not the one to go to. I just thought it'd be a good idea. The link is as follows: http://www.mania.com/53763.html. If you have any questions, or just want to flame me, you can e-mail me at ogwondermike@gmail.com.

71.204.163.80 03:11, 16 March 2007 (UTC) Mitch

[edit] not capitalised?

Isn't "Internet" a proper noun? Why isn't it capitalised? Reginmund 21:36, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

Yes, it should be capitalized. —Kanodin 23:56, 12 August 2007 (UTC)
And now it is. Only one of the many IP internetworks in the world is the singular, capital-I Internet, and that's the one that's relevant here. -- The Anome 00:05, 13 August 2007 (UTC)
Thanks The Anome. Maybe someday I will learn how to do that redirect trick. —Kanodin 00:17, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Daveman Rage-a-thon

Is this section really necessary? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.139.99.77 (talk) 22:21, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Definition needs an overhaul

What a ludicrous definition for flames -> "Most often however, flames are angry or insulting messages transmitted by people who have strong feelings about a subject." The phrase "angry or" needs to go away. The key component to a flame is the ad hominem - and it doesn't matter if it's projected with anger, or if it comes from someone entirely unemotional who simply does not give a crap. I suggest a much simpler definition, like "flame is slang for a personal attack (ie. ad hominem)".

[edit] Flamewar

Flamewar is a disambiguation page with one other link on it: a transformers character. I think that the vast majority of people that search for flamewar will be looking for the Internet phenomenon. I propose moving this page to flamewar or redirecting that page here, and creating a {{Redirect|Flamewar (transformers)}} at the top of the page. Any objections or thoughts? Delldot on a public computer (talk) 06:45, 12 January 2008 (UTC)