Hector Martin

Priviledge? More like, just which community you happened to be in :P And it depends, in some communities I am in admins are relatively ever-present and it was considered bad to poke them because it also gives the troll attention. But of course if they are less active, poke them.

No, by privilege I mean the prestige that comes with, for instance, being viewed as someone responsible for the existence of a community. The privilege of not being a target for some obnoxious "jokes"

That isn't exactly a privilege. You get a lot more shit for being involved and "running things". Anyway, yes, I meant ping an admin and wait for them to show up. That's how it always worked in IRC.

It's a different kind of shit though. Neither you nor I get targeted for our identities. I don't wander into dev communities and discover my race, gender or sexuality being used as a slur and admins ignoring it.

Sure, but we don't get targeted because we have identities not subject to that kind of abuse, not because we're at this or that position in the community. IMO being higher up *amplifies* the amount of abuse you're likely to get for whatever reason.

I got plenty of shit for not supporting piracy, and I'm sure if I were trans I would've gotten even more shit for that than if I had been just a random dev. Being more visible always makes things worse.

It does shift the moderation balance, in that issues the admins are personally sympathetic to are more likely to wind up being policed. And yes, we probably let some toxicity go through unchecked back in the day that we shouldn't have.

But I think it's also fair to say that things have gotten worse, much worse. Back in the day we had obnoxious jokes. These days we have people trying to destroy other people's lives. Doxing, etc. Doesn't excuse the former, but the community has definitely gotten way more toxic.