What Does Flame Mean?
Fandom CultureA hostile, insulting comment or review attacking a fic or its author — abuse, not critique. The verb is flaming; the senders, flamers; the genre, ancient.
Flame in Practice
Flaming entered fandom vocabulary from early internet culture at large, and FanFiction.Net's review sections made it a defining hazard of 2000s fic life — author's notes of the era ritually addressed flamers, begged 'no flames please,' or adopted the bravado of 'flames will be used to roast marshmallows.' The defining distinction, drilled into every fandom newcomer, separates flames from concrit: criticism engages the work to improve it, while a flame exists to wound. The term has receded somewhat — modern fandom says harassment, hate comments, or anon hate — but the concept and the marshmallow joke survive, and AO3's moderation tools are the structural answer to a problem flamers proved permanent. Old flame wars, fought in review sections and forums, constitute some of fandom's most studied archaeological strata.
Example usage
"Her first fic got one flame and forty kind comments, and guess which one she can still quote verbatim."
Related Terms
Concrit
Short for constructive criticism: substantive feedback on a fic's craft, offered to help the author improve. In fandom, whether unsolicited concrit is welcome is a long-running etiquette debate.
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Comment Moderation
AO3 settings that let creators control commenting on their works: holding comments for approval before they appear, restricting comments to registered users, freezing threads, or turning comments off entirely.
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Anon
Short for anonymous — a person posting, commenting, or sending messages without an identifying name. Fandom anons range from shy admirers to prompt-fillers to, occasionally, harassers.
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Fandom Wank
Spectacular fandom drama — feuds, meltdowns, and self-important blowups — observed with popcorn in hand. Named for the snarky LiveJournal-era community that chronicled such episodes.
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FanFiction.Net (FFN)
The veteran mega-archive of fanfiction, launched in 1998 and dominant through the 2000s. Abbreviated FFN or FF.net, and remembered as the formative home of a fandom generation.
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More Fandom Culture Terms
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