As this is not directly connected to any of the issues being discussed right now, but is a very important question that needs to be answered. I decided to make it a separate thread.

A flame will be removed by the mods. Repeated flaming will result in banning the poster. So it is important to know just what a flame is.

Is it something which the poster meant with bad intent? Is it something which the recipient considers an insult? Is it something which the moderator sees as being negative?

If you call me a "Communist", I will consider myself flamed. My girlfriend, a member of the Italian Communist Party, would not.

Indeed, years ago the courts decided that it is not libelous to call someone a communist, even if he is not. That decision was the result, in part, of an amicus curiae brief submitted by the American Communist Pary. They held that if it is libelous to call someone a communist, then the courts are saying that being a communist is bad.

Today, an OMNI post was edited by the mods because a poster had referred to IJK (another poster) as "Islamic Jihad Kid".

I would be furious if someone were to imply that I support Islamic Jihad. I do not know how IJK feels about this. He has consistently taken a pro-Arab position on every Israeli-Arab thread. I don't recall him ever condemning Arab terrorism. It is possible that he would not see being identified with Islamic Jihad as an insult.

Purely for the sake of argument, let us assume that IJK does not see it as insulting. The poster obviously meant it as an insult -- so is that enough to make it a flame? If IJK is proud of this identification, is it still a flame?

Conversely, let's assume that a self-proclaimed Nazi were to misread some post that I made and feel that I am a kindred soul. He then calls me a "Nazi" -- which he feels is a high compliment. He had no intention at all of flaming me, but I am disgusted at the very thought of it. Have I been flamed?

In a third hypothetical situation, John calls Bill a homosexual. The moderator feels this is insulting and removes it. John and Bill, however, are both homosexuals and neither one sees anything wrong with it. Is it a flame simply because the moderator sees it as one?



[This message has been edited by Dovster (edited Jan 23, 2004).]