What Is Flaming In Easy Language

Question: What Is 'Flaming'?

Answer: 'Flaming', or 'to flame', means to attack someone verbally online. Flaming entails insults, bigotry, name-calling, or any outright hostility directed at a specific person. Often, flaming is the result of a heated difference of opinions on a topic, and it has devolved into childish bickering.

There are cases where someone is a repeat flamer: he/she insists on regularly attacking others as a daily habit. If so, we then call that person an Internet troll.

Here are some examples of how you will hear about 'flaming' in an online discussion forum:

• "Why are you flaming me? All I said was that you didn't support your argument with any facts."
• "Look, there's no need to flame the original poster - he was just trying to make a poinit about the health care bill. Everybody just relax, and let's try to be civil again."
• "Ryan0844 just flamed LogDog really bad in the Open Forum. Somebody should talk to him about his temper."
• "Whoa. What's with the big flame war? This is supposed to be an adult community."
• "The moderators will not tolerate any attacks on members in this forum. Any flaming or trolling will result in suspended accounts. If you don't like these private forum rules, then please leave."