Flame war

A flame war is a series of flaming messages in an electronic discussion group or message board[?] system such as usenet or mailing lists. There are a number of characteristics of electronic communication which have been cited as being conducive to flame wars. Electronic communications do not easily transmit facial expressions or voice intonations which may serve to moderate the tone of a message. Also, there is typically a lag time between the time a message is transmitted and the time a reply is read. These two characteristics can cause a "positive feedback loop" in which the emotional intensity of an electronic exchange increases to extremely high levels. Alternatively, flame wars may be instigated deliberately by Internet trolls.