Nearly everyone has seen an exchange of emails or online forum messages turn into flame wars as people grasp the wrong of the stick and wave it at everyone else.

I’ve just read a very interesting post on Lynn Gaertner-Johnston’s website about her encounter with a real life flame warrior. What it revealed was how the flamer picked up on tiny nuances in language and over-interpreted them.

I’ve written about the causes of flame wars before on this site.

I’m dealing with the consequences of someone who got an entire beehive in his bonnet over a tiny detail in a website I manage so I know that the consequences can be big and real.

It’s very interesting, very human and it made me realise how many members of my family and how many former colleagues have this kind of verbal hair-trigger. I know that in times of stress, I’ve been guilty too, but I hope I have the courage to back down when the red mist clears.

From a writer’s perspective the most valuable lesson here is that you need to get someone else to read important stuff before you unleash it on the world to make sure it says what you meant it to say.