Trouble, is, LEJ, that it gets messy when we start expressing that scorn, no matter how justified that scorn may be. Flamers crave attention. Feed them by giving them attention, and they get worse.
Sometime this week, somebody posted a link to very interesting explanation of the people who disrupt newsgroups and forums like this. Most common are the flamers we've become so familiar with. However, there is a less common type of disruption can be worse - that's the disruption caused by trolls, people who invite flamers to attract them, and then generate prolonged, nasty threads by acting as martyrs once they've been attacked. Trolls may crave attention even more than the flamers do, and indignant or scornful responses to flamers are sure to generate that attention. If you wish to express sympathy for the victim of a flamer, whether that victim is a "troll" or not, it's best to do it in a private message to the victim, rather than exacerbating the situation by posting to the thread.
The psychology of the whole thing is fascinating, but it's too bad we have to deal with it here.
-Joe Offer-