< messaging > A Usenet posting ostentatiously correcting a previous article's spelling, possibly as a way of casting scorn on the point the article was trying to make, instead of actually responding to that point (compare dictionary flame ). Of course, people who are more than usually slovenly spellers are prone to think *any* correction is a spelling flame. It's an amusing comment on human nature that spelling flames themselves often contain spelling errors.
[ Jargon File ]
(1994-11-22)