It would, perhaps, been clearer if I had not used actual examples in this thread (IJK and ftomnibox).

On the other hand, by being able to look at these two cases we can judge the issue at hand (what is a flame and how should it be handled) without going too far off into Never-Never Land.

Perhaps as perfect proof of what I have been saying, I just received a piece of hate mail from ftomnibox. In addition to his venom, he included the statement that "Even
Randy agrees with me that you're a worthless extremist who has no place on FT." To "prove" his point, he forwarded a letter sent to him by Randy.

If I had not been able to read Randy's letter myself, I might believe that Randy actually does agree with ftomnibox. But because it was attached, I was allowed to judge for myself what Randy was saying and saw no indication that Randy held any such opinion.