Only to the participants. I actually find many of the arguments interesting, if repetitive. After you have seen the SAME arguments many times though it does get wearing.

Actually, the arguments can be useful to help get newbies try different programs/environments and you explore WHY you agree or disagree with various viewpoints. The emacs vs vi flames I read when I was first getting started caused me to keep trying to use vi, until I was finally able to understand why I found it so difficult. (I just cannot get used to its modes; I continually forget whether I am in insert, append, or command mode and have to go back and fix the goofs that causes.)

EDIT: I should have read down a little further before commenting; the idea of a wiki exploring the differing opinions is excellent from my POV.

The above was actually talking more about the "religious" wars than flaming as such. The best flaming site I have seen was Panda's Thumb back several years ago; they often had hundreds on comments with atheists, creationists, and religious-apologist atheists screaming back and forth at each other, but it was very entertaining, I've rarely read Panda's Thumb for the last few years since they've quit the flaming.