> My experience is different, too. I've never experienced these racist/sexists IRC communities in the past either. Sure, there'd be the occasional asshole like everywhere else online, but they'd get warned (and banned eventually).

Would you be part of the target audience, back then? Or you were part of the main group and just remember that "nobody was harassing nobody"?

Disclaimer: White gay man here.

So, I experienced homophobia first hand at least.

I've never felt like the communities (any of the tech related ones) were anything but wholesome, though.

Bullshit was immediately called out, and in more severe cases handled by ops (as was I in a few channels).

Again, we are talking about COMMUNITIES. Not INDIVIDUALS.

So, I guess I was (somewhat) in the privileged white male group, but that doesn't mean I'm illiterate or can't reason and feel empathy.

I can't tell if your questions are genuine or not, since they seem passive aggressive. But I'll humour you:

They made a blanket statement about how all of IRC is a racists/sexists shithole. They obviously have some unresolved resentment, and I am not denying it seems from a bad experience; certainly wouldn't from good ones.

My comment wasn't meant to make them feel bad (maybe that's something you indulge in, given your comment etiquette).

It was meant to offer a different perspective—of someone who was a part of some of those large communities. And I was involved in a lot of technical ones on Freenode around 2000s. Those communities put a lot of effort into inclusivity (and was an operator in some) and generally making everyone feel welcomed.

So it feels a bit like a spit in the face to see someone going around talking about technical IRC channels being Xist.

I'm not sure when they added the EDIT to their original post, but the hypocrisy added another layer of annoyance, trying to invalidate any comment speaking about their experience and writing off authors as "omnipotent IRC Gods" when nobody here but them is talking blanket statement bullshit.

Edit: I'm not saying there's weren't racist/homophonic/whatever communities on IRC. I know a lot of shitty fandom channels I joined and promptly left to find better ones. So yes they were out there.

Edit 2: Also, I think I took their comment too personally, given I was there and I know how much effort was put into making it feel welcoming for everyone.

Also, I find it ludicrous you're trying to tell me off for commenting online—whilst you yourself are commenting online—and claiming my experiences don't matter, but another person's do, all in an attempt paint me as doing the same lol. But anyway, I digress.

The original comment I replied to:

"He’s completely, totally, and absolutely incorrect."

that's a very very bold comment to make about someone else's personal experience. what you're going on about seems very strange in this context. it's not like they said, "this person's experience is totally different from mine". No, they said the guy is absolutely wrong. that's where all credibility fails for me. to be correct, that would mean there was never a case of harassment, racist, homophobic, or any other kinds of negative experiences on any of the interweb services regardless of how early days it was. that's just an odd hill to die on for protection of one's memories of the early web.