By 'flamewar' I mean the kind of internet discussion that gets angrier and shallower as it goes along, typically on divisive topics, typically repeating things that have been said many times before, with people trying to defeat rather than connect with each other. There's no intellectual curiosity in those arguments, so they're off topic here.

Also, they're tedious, except to the minority whose passions happen to be inflamed on that topic, and people tend not to know when to stop. These are the sorts of thread that make HN worse, and which all users are asked to have the discipline to refrain from. I know it's hard sometimes.

I'm sure that some of the replies you're getting are also breaking the guidelines, but we don't see all of those. Flagging them helps bring them to our attention. If there's anything particularly abusive you can email us at hn@ycombinator.com.