I think libera has enough problems with moderation as it is. And most of the regulars (including most mods) in all the biggest channels seem to have cosmically inflated god complexes and are regularly and demonstrably abusive to their users with no recourse available (if you try to report it they just ban you).
I once dared ask for Javascript advice on solving a front-end problem without Node.js. That particular detail was taken as a personal insult. I’ve never experienced anything like it.
I'd say it's more of an IRC thing. IRC has always had a less than professional culture of communication and this is just regular behaviour on an open IRC network. Personally I think that, on one hand, the more relaxed standards make communication more direct, but on the other hand, there's definitely a tendency to escalate disputes and pile on if someone disagrees with a regular in a channel.
This sounds exactly like what one of those moderators would say...
I have observed a lot of the behavior of what OP is referring to, and I really have to agree with them although apparently some people are taking issue with it.
I think there are a lot of factors that play into why those communities are not replaced and/or people don't move, such as:
- most users who are not regulars are transient help-seeking users that never stay long, often just leaving after being abused by the regulars for daring to ask a question
- most regulars simply don't care enough or are enabling/participating in the same abuse to do anything about it
- it's not something that happens constantly all day, so nobody feels it's worth trying to start up a whole new community over it, plus they don't want that burden
- it could be argued that libera as a whole would also not be the right place for a new community due to the attitude of their network operators
This seems to be a constant in a lot of programmer spaces. Stack Overflow was notorious for toxicity a while back. Even some of the programming subreddits have power-tripping mods and whatnot.
