Flaming

What Does Flaming Mean?

Flaming is a hostile online interaction that involves insulting messages, or flames, between users. Flaming may occur in the context of Internet forums, chat rooms, Usenet groups, social networks and game lobbies, where there is a mix of people with differing ideologies from different cultures.

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Flaming is also known as bashing.

Techopedia Explains Flaming

Flaming is fueled by the Web’s inherent lack of personal interaction and anonymity, which encourages hostility, and occurs during discussions about sensitive topics, such as religion, politics, philosophy, sexual orientation or anything that relates to subgroups and/or (seemingly) trivial differences.

There are many different theories about why flaming occurs, including deindividuation (mob mentality) and a general unawareness of the feelings of other people. Online conversations involve unique user motives and assumptions. Without social context, users are often unaware of the intentions of their counterparts.

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Margaret Rouse

Margaret Rouse is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical, business audience. Over the past twenty years her explanations have appeared on TechTarget websites and she's been cited as an authority in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine and Discovery Magazine.Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages. If you have a suggestion for a new definition or how to improve a technical explanation, please email Margaret or contact her…