] This tension in outlook, between 'flame war as unexpected
] side-effect' and 'flame war as historical inevitability,'
] has two main causes. The first is that although the
] environment in which a mailing list runs is computers,
] the environment in which a flame war runs is people. You
] couldn't go through the code of the Mailman mailing list
] tool, say, and find the comment that reads "The next
] subroutine ensures that misunderstandings between users
] will be amplified, leading to name-calling and vitriol."
] Yet the software, when adopted, will frequently produce
] just that outcome.

Another good article out of Clay Shirky..

Shirky: Group as User: Flaming and the Design of Social Software