[lll-o-lll]

Strategy? You think a bunch of people sat down and planned a specific set of rules to ensure only the “right sort” (cynical bastards), were allowed in the club?

The BOFH “culture” was the IT admin culture (exaggerated for comic effect); more cynical than anyone because they had to deal with people. It’s probably still like this. IT (or IS as it seems to have been re-branded), sits as a “cost centre”, frequently at the end of a long line of sewage pipes, coping the blame for any number of other peoples mistakes. I suspect the prickly nature is a necessary survival trait.

Cultures develop as they develop. There’s no conspiracy. They also evolve and change, and targeted interventions can push them in certain directions. “Hacker Culture” was never just one thing, and that’s never been more true than today. Certain “clubs” might have been more or less exclusionary at various times, but the scene as a whole has always been a welcoming one.

[maxbond]

I think a bunch of people, without explicit coordination, were rude to the sorts of people who weren't seen as belonging. My experience jives with the article GGP linked, and I've played both parts (and for anyone who had to put up with me shit talking PHP, I apologize). It's a tale as old as time; people form cliques and gatekeep, c'est la vie. Rarely is it by explicit coordination (secret societies notwithstanding), but I would still call it a strategy.

Please note, I'm talking about the "contempt culture" specifically and not prickly nerds broadly. Some people are prickly and that's fine. It makes sense to me too that people with a complex and difficult job which is perceived as a cost center might be prickly for entirely different reasons.