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Are you joking? We were absolutely not “virulently” anti-anyone on early IRC. We didn’t even have real names or photos. Nobody had any idea who was behind the

Are you joking? We were absolutely not “virulently” anti-anyone on early IRC. We didn’t even have real names or photos. Nobody had any idea who was behind the keyboard, and that was okay.

John23832 4y ago
Why would I be joking? I'm glad you didn't have a negative experience, but my point wasn't about you. You are not a "we" in the masses of the internet. You don't have to know anything about anyone to say derogatory things about a group they identify with. Just look at the bigotry shared on social media today.
jakelazaroff 4y ago
Do you think it’s impossible to say something racist without specifically directing it at someone in the conversation?
stirfish 4y ago
If there's a text box anywhere, the first thing people will type into it is the n-word
camgunz 4y ago
I can say with experience that there was an assumption that these groups were pretty much all white men and boys. Maybe not everywhere all the time, but enough. I wouldn't categorize it as virulent, but I would say that a lot of insensitive things were written about minorities, women, and LGBTQ people. It's like when you go back to watch Friends and cringe at all the anti-gay jokes. Is it virulent? I guess not. Is it fun to watch if you're gay? I doubt it.
tyingq 4y ago
It's hard to characterize with absolutes. There were a lot of different networks and channels in IRC. It's true it was anonymous, but I'm also sure there were inappropriate jokes, perceptions, etc, shared in IRC.
Quarrelsome 4y ago
to be fair "there are no girls on the internet" is technically somewhat misogynistic and was a popular meme of the era.
- surement 4y ago
  I've never heard this and there were plenty of girls on IRC
  - fknorangesite 4y ago
    Well if you've never heard that old joke, then clearly it can't ever have existed, right? Oh wait: > Welcome to the Internet, where the men are men, the women are men, and the kids are cops. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1546789 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1546789 I picked this instance of course because it was said on HN, but it was a dead horse even in 2010.
    - surement 4y ago
      by 2010 IRC was largely replaced by social media except for niche communities, sorry you were on there in the wrong decade
      - fknorangesite 4y ago
        Of course it was, but that's not what we're talking about. The link I chose was just the arbitrary one I picked from the google results. Personally I remember hearing that joke in the 90s. If you want a different example, here's a variant from 2001: http://www.bash.org/?2832 http://www.bash.org/?2832 Note that this one ends with "but some of the men are really women"; it's already old and well-known enough in '01 that people are modifying it for meta-humor.
grogenaut 4y ago
Yet the n-bomb, gay and b*tch and other words as a universal slur and negative adjective were everywhere on irc. Casual rape references were constant, it was about as bad as Xbox voice chat. I have trouble going back and reading much of bash.org's top 100 due to the things you're claiming didn't exist. http://bash.org/?99060 http://bash.org/?99060 http://bash.org/?5775 http://bash.org/?5775 http://bash.org/?23601 http://bash.org/?23601 Just because you didn't mean it or it didn't bother you doesn't mean it wasn't hostile to others.
- jakelazaroff 4y ago
  Wow, forgot about bash.org but that's a good reference to pull. Definitely a microcosm of IRC culture at the time.
- drstewart 4y ago
  Wow, solid resource: http://bash.org/?121764 http://bash.org/?121764 ><p00p> why do you crackers steal everything from us? http://bash.org/?51331 http://bash.org/?51331 >(@virt) cracker barrel is the most hilarious name for a place where a bunch of white people go http://bash.org/?86009 http://bash.org/?86009 ><Gabe> It's sad when white people try to talk like black inner city people. It's doubly sad when those white people are European. :P Incredibly virulent anti-whiteness. Thank you for posting this to open our eyes to this.
  - jakelazaroff 4y ago
    The fact that these are so low-ranking compared to the top quotes is instructive. Also, the third one is definitely an example of anti-Blackness, not anti-whiteness.
    - drstewart 4y ago
      Low ranking based on what? Are you telling people what feelings they should have towards slurs directed towards them? The "top quotes" don't bother me at all, for example.
odiroot 4y ago
What I loved the most about IRC is no one cared about your age too! I was very passionate about tech since early primary school. But I couldn't really share this passion with anyone, being a little kid. Once I got dialup (in middle-school) and could join IRC channels, I realised, no one would know, how young I was. It felt great.

Are you joking? We were absolutely not “virulently” anti-anyone on early IRC. We didn’t even have real names or photos. Nobody had any idea who was behind the keyboard, and that was okay.

John23832 4y ago

Why would I be joking? I'm glad you didn't have a negative experience, but my point wasn't about you. You are not a "we" in the masses of the internet. You don't have to know anything about anyone to say derogatory things about a group they identify with. Just look at the bigotry shared on social media today.

jakelazaroff 4y ago

Do you think it’s impossible to say something racist without specifically directing it at someone in the conversation?

stirfish 4y ago

If there's a text box anywhere, the first thing people will type into it is the n-word

camgunz 4y ago

I can say with experience that there was an assumption that these groups were pretty much all white men and boys. Maybe not everywhere all the time, but enough. I wouldn't categorize it as virulent, but I would say that a lot of insensitive things were written about minorities, women, and LGBTQ people. It's like when you go back to watch Friends and cringe at all the anti-gay jokes. Is it virulent? I guess not. Is it fun to watch if you're gay? I doubt it.

tyingq 4y ago

It's hard to characterize with absolutes. There were a lot of different networks and channels in IRC. It's true it was anonymous, but I'm also sure there were inappropriate jokes, perceptions, etc, shared in IRC.

Quarrelsome 4y ago

to be fair "there are no girls on the internet" is technically somewhat misogynistic and was a popular meme of the era.

surement 4y ago
I've never heard this and there were plenty of girls on IRC
- fknorangesite 4y ago
  Well if you've never heard that old joke, then clearly it can't ever have existed, right? Oh wait: > Welcome to the Internet, where the men are men, the women are men, and the kids are cops. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1546789 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1546789 I picked this instance of course because it was said on HN, but it was a dead horse even in 2010.
  - surement 4y ago
    by 2010 IRC was largely replaced by social media except for niche communities, sorry you were on there in the wrong decade
    - fknorangesite 4y ago
      Of course it was, but that's not what we're talking about. The link I chose was just the arbitrary one I picked from the google results. Personally I remember hearing that joke in the 90s. If you want a different example, here's a variant from 2001: http://www.bash.org/?2832 http://www.bash.org/?2832 Note that this one ends with "but some of the men are really women"; it's already old and well-known enough in '01 that people are modifying it for meta-humor.

grogenaut 4y ago

Yet the n-bomb, gay and b*tch and other words as a universal slur and negative adjective were everywhere on irc. Casual rape references were constant, it was about as bad as Xbox voice chat. I have trouble going back and reading much of bash.org's top 100 due to the things you're claiming didn't exist. http://bash.org/?99060 http://bash.org/?99060 http://bash.org/?5775 http://bash.org/?5775 http://bash.org/?23601 http://bash.org/?23601 Just because you didn't mean it or it didn't bother you doesn't mean it wasn't hostile to others.

jakelazaroff 4y ago
Wow, forgot about bash.org but that's a good reference to pull. Definitely a microcosm of IRC culture at the time.
drstewart 4y ago
Wow, solid resource: http://bash.org/?121764 http://bash.org/?121764 ><p00p> why do you crackers steal everything from us? http://bash.org/?51331 http://bash.org/?51331 >(@virt) cracker barrel is the most hilarious name for a place where a bunch of white people go http://bash.org/?86009 http://bash.org/?86009 ><Gabe> It's sad when white people try to talk like black inner city people. It's doubly sad when those white people are European. :P Incredibly virulent anti-whiteness. Thank you for posting this to open our eyes to this.
- jakelazaroff 4y ago
  The fact that these are so low-ranking compared to the top quotes is instructive. Also, the third one is definitely an example of anti-Blackness, not anti-whiteness.
  - drstewart 4y ago
    Low ranking based on what? Are you telling people what feelings they should have towards slurs directed towards them? The "top quotes" don't bother me at all, for example.

odiroot 4y ago

What I loved the most about IRC is no one cared about your age too! I was very passionate about tech since early primary school. But I couldn't really share this passion with anyone, being a little kid. Once I got dialup (in middle-school) and could join IRC channels, I realised, no one would know, how young I was. It felt great.