Comp.lang.c wasn't exactly know as a kind space. Thinking about it, the lisp group had a bit of unfriendly rep. The objective-c group had one damn fool who advocated that NeXT wasn't actually a true Objective-C. I do miss those group though.
And Erik Naggum might have had something to do with it. Perhaps unfairly as he seemed to hate stupidity rather than ignorance, which he was AFAICS, helpful towards.
I alwasy imagined a 60 year old sergeant-major type frothing at the mouth, heck yes he could flame! Dead aged 44. A loss.
"Erik Naggum several times stated that stupidity, or rather the lacking willingness of individuals to acquire knowledge about a subject, argument or read other people's arguments with an open mind, was more or less a criminal offense. He was known for his polemic aggression towards what he considered to be ignorant individuals. Much of what he wrote was so full of sarcasm and irony that it could be difficult to understand what he truly believed in and what were general exaggerations made just to make a point. "
I don't know if there's a place less friendly than #perl on freenode
I'm pretty sure 90% of the questions I ever asked there were answered with "CPAN is a thing" or "Why would you even want to do that?". Rarely would anyone answer my actual question.
