What may start as a sincere discussion of ideas can quickly turn in to a battle of words when one or more of the conversants feel they have been treated with disrespect. These angry exchanges are called flames .
Flames typically involve verbal abuse, such as insult and personal attack.
There are various theories as to why flaming is so prevalent in e-mail. I have noticed that flaming in a class e-mail environment is often preceded by types of comments that I call sparks . I believe that these ordinary comments tend to make some parties in the conversation feel that their views are being unfairly devalued. When that happens, a person may feel like striking back with words. And e-mail can be responded to so immediately that the anger carries the message.