On Sun, 30 Nov 2003 02:15:44 GMT, "Harry Gordon"
wrote in Message-Id:
:

someone replied and raked me over the
coals. Well, I said to myself, if that is what I am to expect, I would
rather spend my time in the books. It took a long time for me to work up the
ability to start posting again. In fact, if memory serves me correctly, it
wasn't until I finally passed my checkride that I began posting again with
regularity; and even now, do so with great caution.

When AT&T first studied public participation in usenet, they
discovered that the perceived shield of physical distance and relative
anonymity often emboldened posters to pen uncivil personal attacks.
These became known as flames.

See:
http://bianca.ctrl-c.liu.se/~ingvar/jargon/f.html#flame