also...
During the early days of internet use, flaming could be considered an inside joke, a group game or even a participatory artistic activity. This can still be the case on forums and message boards which have a small number of regular users who know each other well. In this situation, flames are exchanged without ill-feeling and especially clever and humorous insults may be archived for the future enjoyment of users. In the 1980s when Bulletin Board Systems were becoming common, small and tight-knit online communities would often treat flaming as a litmus test for potential new members. If they weathered the attack, or better yet, joined in and returned as good as they got, they were worth keeping. An excelent example of one such board would be the FYAD subforum of the Something Awful community, which engages in constant vicious flamewars for both comediac value and to intimidate new users from posting. Especailly humorous threads are archived in the FYAD section of the Comedy Goldmine.
Old-timers will sometimes lament that the art of flaming has been lost.
