The Meow Wars was an early example of a flame war sent over Usenet where several newsgroup posters posted a large number of nonsense messages, effectively swamping on-topic communication in the groups with unwanted off-topic messages. They represent an early example of the attempted destruction of virtual communities. Meowers pioneered many disruptive techniques that have influenced the development of Web and other online forums. It also brought to light the weaknesses in early newsgroup servers.