I think just about any online forum, be that an audiophile newsgroup, cooking mailinglist, or knitting irc forum is full of these flamewars. The only difference with slashdot,is that you get to read cool news. If ESR would like to represent any online community the way he does with OpenSource (like a spokesperson for the Sewing Grannies Online) he would get just about the same amount of flame. It's simple, most people are stupid bastards. Zed