A woman posted a question asking for help. When she returned, her post was under a cruel attack by other forum users trying to destroy her reputation, her business and her ambition. Unusual? Not at all.

The truth is, personal attacks happen on Internet forums every day. Thousands of forum users suffer from verbal abuse each time they are trying to ask for advice. Many times you don't care about such episodes. Until it happens to you. And now your name or business is under a threat.

Why do people attack on forums? Many times it is because they have a strong opinion about a subject, and want it to be heard. But it only takes one such post to have others jump in and turn an innocent question into an ugly war that is very difficult to stop.

There is a great diversity of views online - many times I am surprised how different people really are in tastes, opinions and reaction! The one reason for debates turning into flame wars is that many people enter a discussion ONLY when they disagree and want to express their opinion. Many people will find a forum boring if everyone agrees. Controversial forums are much more fun and attractive to inquisitive minds of online users.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Can anyone be attacked on forum? Absolutely! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When I did a search on Internet looking for articles on subject of "flame wars", I found hundreds of forum messages instead. People are trying to fight flame wars. They complain and ask others to stop. Yet, no solution has been found.

Flaming does not only occur on forums. Discussion groups have their own problem - "trolls", a common term for a newsgroup bully. Most newsgroups moderators recommend ignoring trolls who once in a while spoil discussion with their irellevant and abusive messages.

Sadly, people want "blood". Someone even created a discussion group called alt.flame. It is a forum for every bully that you ever met in your school and if you decide to join, you are certainly not going to be called a "friend". Prepare to be crushed and humiliated. This group has been specifically created for flame wars and does not claim to be intellectual or informative.

Many forum users agree that a lot of good information and solid advice is missed due to misrepresentation. You start paying attention to WAY it is written instead of WHAT it actually says.

The Pew Research Center in their December 1998 survey showed that 45% of online users communicate with other people through online forums, discussion lists and chat groups. 5% of them post every day, and 17% post several times a week.

Online communication has turned our world around by allowing people of all cultures, abilities and means to feel equal and freely express their views. Yet it let out those who thrive on anonymity, abuse and pain. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Are There Solutions? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

While there no fool-proof solutions have been found, there are ways to stop or avoid a flame war.

1.In my interview with Dave Brzegowski who is handling abuse reports for Epix Internet Services, I found out that you may report such an attack to ISP (Internet Service Provider) of attacker which you can identify by their e-mail address. Such incidents are thoroughly investigated before any action takes place.

2. One way to minimize number of such attacks is to ask users to register. Every user will need his own ID and password to be able to post. Forum owners, however, are worried that traffic to their web site will drop because people don't like to go through registration process.

3. If forum owners are too busy to keep an eye on their forums, a good moderator is a solution. Of course, not too many people are willing to volunteer their time moderating forums, but it is a good chance for them to get their names out, and develop a relationship with their potential customers.

To understand who will become wealthy in Information Age, first we need to understand how Information Age differs from Industrial Age (born about 1860, died about 1989).

In fact, let's get a complete overview and go back to Agrarian Age.

In Agrarian Age, society was basically divided into two classes: landowners and people who worked on land (the serfs). If you were a serf, there wasn't much you could do about it: land-ownership passed down through families and you were stuck with status you were born into.

When Industrial Age arrived, everything changed: it was no longer agriculture that generated most of wealth, but manufacturing. Suddenly, land was no longer key to wealth. A factory occupied far less land than a sheep farm or a wheat farm.

With Industrial Age came a new kind of wealthy person: self-made businessman. Wealth no longer depended on land-ownership and family you were born into. Business acumen and factories were creating a new class of wealthy person. But it still required enormous capital to build a factory and start a business.

Then came World Wide Web (in about 1989) and globalization. Suddenly, everything changed again.

Factories (or real estate) were no longer necessary to run a business. Anyone with a website could start a business. The barriers to wealth that existed in Agrarian Age and Industrial Age were completely gone. People who could never have dreamed of owning their own business were making millions from their kitchen table.

Of course, Information Revolution didn't begin in 1989.

It began in 1444 when Gutenberg invented printing press in Mainz, Germany.

But printing press (newspapers, magazines, paperbacks) belonged to Industrial Age, not Information Age.

The printing press is a 'one-to-many' technology. The Internet is a 'many-to-many' technology. And that was what changed in 1989.

The Industrial Age was about centralization and control. The Information Age is about de-centralization and no control. No government and no media magnate controls Internet. This is crucial thing to understand about Information Age.

As we moved from Agrarian Age through Industrial Age to Information Age, there's been a steady collapse of barriers that kept one section of society wealthy and other section poor.

In Information Age, literally anyone can become wealthy.