Really I think it's just safe to say that anyone who was on irc in the late 90s probably had their career benefit from it. #winprog got me my first job at the t

Really I think it's just safe to say that anyone who was on irc in the late 90s probably had their career benefit from it. #winprog got me my first job at the tail of the boom (and I did terribly at it) and that definitely wasn't a 'scene' kind of channel (ridiculous Wired article aside), but I definitely still have a certain kind of fraternity with the other people I occupied that space with (in a different channel, as well as semi-regular real life meetings, now) and a lot of those people have gone on to do great stuff.