During the months of January and February, 1997, a large number of flame strings appeared in AGM. The posts were verbally abusive and violent. Some of the posts were followups of regular AGM posts, attacking the original poster. Others were original posts using language and content unacceptable in agm.

The flame war began when a newbie, i.e. new poster, whom I'll call Mark, posted to AGM, and also crossposted to other newsgroups. One of the newsgroups he crossposted to was alt.nuke.the.USA. Mark's crosspost attracted the attention of a group of posters to alt.nuke.the.USA, who replied to his posts with flames, and began posting flame posts, and flame followups, to AGM.

The flamers used various Aliases, and concealed their addresses. Some of their posts were listed as arriving from organizations such as: 'RobWho?', 'Dysention' and 'illegitimate productions company'. One of the flamers posted as: Evil Decan , a domain that I assume doesn't really exist, though I might be wrong about that.

One of the flamers, calling himself Metalbag, posted to AGM. Following are excerpts from his post which reveal some of his thoughts on being a flamer. Metalbag's post is quoted in italics, my comments are in regular letters.

#What I artfully typed;

Metalbag views his posts as a type of art.

>It'd be more fun to try wiping out a.s.t, as it doesn't contribute
>anything to Usenet.

    And agm does?  A bunch of idiots spewing hugs is no different from our
bunch of flamers spreading hate.  

Metalbag claims to be offended by the 'hugs' distributed in AGM, and compares them to hate mail. According to him, the hugs are as offensive as his flames.

#    Nope, break out your killfiles.  I, for one, am here for the
#duration.  agm needs to die.

Metalbag is aware of the use of kill files and filters, but intends to continue his flame war till AGM "dies". He sees the flame war as a battle, and seeks to kill the enemy, AGM. Metalbag cannot give up, because AGM "needs" to die. The existence of AGM is offensive to Metalbag, or so he claims, therefore he will continue the battle.

>...says a little juvenile delinquent who needs to get a life.  Badly.

    You claim to know my age.  Interesting.  Did you also happen to
notice my .sig?  It say's that I am fucking off while I am at work.  I
do not post from home as I have better things to do.  Surfing, mountain
biking, drinking, smoking, etc.  If you see a .sig from me with some
quote from a metal band you have never heard of, I have posted from
home.  K?  Got that thicky?

Metalbag seems to be aware of the fact that some people think that flamers wouldn't be flaming if they had something more interesting to do. He goes out of his way to make sure that people reading the post will think that he has a job, and hobbies.

This all started when the immensely lame mark invaded out illustrious
newsgroup.  agm is so fucking pathetic that I find it hard to leave you
alone.  The one thing I need to thank marq for is his introduction he
extended from his group to mine.  Isn't there some kind of search you can
do to see which grouops I post to?  I believe there is.  Something like
Veronica or somesuch.  Look into it and you will have proof of wether or
not I am a participant in ast.  

Metalbag wants to point out that he didn't start the war but was actually provoked. He will not take the blame for all that has happened, since Mark is the one who started the battle, by invading Metalbags newsgroup. Metalbag views Mark's crosspost as an "invasion", allowing him a fair retaliation. Metalbag claims that AGM is "pathetic" and "weak", and he therefore cannot resist going to battle.

It seems very important to Metalbag to prove that he isn't part of ALT.STORM.TROOPERS (A.S.T.), and suggests using one of the search engines to check his posting habits.

Till then, thank you so much for putting me in a killfile and admitting
it, it was just a small bit that made today a perfect day.  Of course,
going out with a beautiful blonde to a basque restaurant in downtown
Sausalito was a bigger bit.

Yet again, Metalbag goes out of his way to announce that he had a date, and is therefore a semi-normal person, following the previous mentions of a job and hobbies. Metalbag also mentions his pleasure in seeing AGM troubled by his posts. He views the mention of kill files as a signal of how bothersome he's become, which he takes as a sign that he is succeeding in his efforts to make AGM die.

>--PLH, flushing twice

    This is the stuff that makes my day.  To see an admission of defeat
from some loser who can't even defend himself.

Metalbag specifically say that any signs of AGMers being troubled, is an admission of defeat, which he enjoys.

       This .sig brought to you courtesy of METALBAG's work computer.
         Now you know how much I'm fucking off while making money.

Another mention of Metalbag's job.

There seem to be a few themes in Metalbags post:

1. he wants to be considered a normal active person.
2. he sees the attack on AGM as a just battle against a weak enemy.
3. any response to his posts is viewed as a sign of his victory.

The post above is one of the only posts that contain material of this sort. I could not find another post that gave as much insight into the flamers mind. It is interesting that, as AGMers claim, Metalbag sees any kind of attention as a sign of victory. Discussing being bothered by his flames, and/or discussing any actions to his post is seen as his victory. Metalbag also does not want to be thought of as a freak or an anti-social person. It is important to him to justify himself while at the same time also pointing out how many other things he has going for him. A side issue of this is that he specifically claims to be posting from work, i.e. not putting much effort into it, as if saying that this battle doesn't really take a real effort.

Some more examples of flame threads are the following:

1. "Scott needs OUR help to remember who he is..."
2. "So, am I really a dumbass?"
3. "FyRE in the hole!!!!!!"
4. "I've caught FyRE <chuckle>"
5. "C'mon Baby Light My FyRE"
6. "Quake!!!"