Flamebait

Flamebait refers to a message posted to an Internet discussion group, such as a newsgroup or a [mailing list]?, with the intent of provoking an angry response (a "flame"). Various motives or explanations can be sought for this puzzling behavior; from a commonsense point of view, the practice seems usually to be a cry for attention.

Flamebaiting and flaming are an interesting psycho-social phenomenon that no doubt will be exhaustively studied within the next decades as the Internet matures.

See also Internet troll.