Interesting observations, LH, about how the nature of flaming will vary depending on the people and situations involved. One online article about flaming is by Storm King ( http://www.grohol.com/storm1.htm), and Norm Holland also wrote about the "regressive" nature of internet behavior in general ( http://www1.rider.edu/~suler/psycyber/holland.html). Flaming also has a lot to do with transference reactions to computers ( http://www1.rider.edu/~suler/psycyber/comptransf.html).