Are you old enough to remember actual flame wars on Usenet, etc.? That's what I'm talking about. The people who invented the term "flame war" weren't deterred by a high barrier to entry.

[–] dpkonofa@lemmy.world 0 points 11 months ago

I am old enough to remember that. It wasn’t a huge part of what Usenet was. I remember downloading the original DooM shareware and finding an entire community of people that were super helpful and showed me resources for how to make my own maps and levels. I learned all about programming, making websites, and video editing. Maybe I got in earlier than you did or something, I’m not sure. For the most part, it was a group of highly technical, highly educated people looking for other people with similar interests. It was great.