I'd say that comp.lang.lisp went into irrelevance at the same time Usenet did. I don't think the tone there repelled many people; there must be other reasons,

I'd say that comp.lang.lisp went into irrelevance at the same time Usenet did. I don't think the tone there repelled many people; there must be other reasons, like Python (unfortunately!) replacing Lisp in several domains. Most newsgroups had a moderated sibling, which was more polite but universally less popular than the main unmoderated one. If the repelled persons had wanted polite discussion, they could have gone there, but they didn't.