I'm a designer and developer with 15+ years of professional experience and I would absolutely agree culture is more important than code.

I won't go as far to say as coding is easy, because it isn't. The effort it takes to create a platform is considerable. It's why we don't have that many options when it comes to social media.

But culture? That's HARD. Fostering an environment that's open and inclusive and limits abuse? That's so much more difficult.

I'm a context guy, so in attempting to explain why it is so difficult, you have to look at the social context of tech, which isn't the most inviting place to begin with if you're not white, straight and a dude.

Combine this with economic inequality factors and it makes that much more difficult for non white people and women to even start building anything.

So you generally get white guys building platforms for ALL of us.

A culture that favors their perspectives.

@Are0h don't deny there are bigots in tech, but there are bigots everywhere, and my take is the majority of them came in with the #Web2.0 corporatization, beginning in the late 90s. I read a really good blog by an #OldSchool female coder, bemoaning the myth that #hacker culture was for white, middle class, cis dudes before the identitarian heroes showed up to make them be diverse. Sadly I can't find it right now, but this piece covers similar ground
https://status451.com/2016/11/06/exclusive-inclusivity/

@Are0h also, this gave me pause for thought.
"people who do seek political victory should encourage the off-putting weirdness of the other side. Hysterical feminists are good for Republicans, and anti-abortion fanatics are good for Democrats. These fringe movements aren't going to succeed, but they may be able to make their allies fail."
http://econlog.econlib.org/archives/2007/08/inessential_wei.html
How many times have I done damage to a causes I support by overplaying my hand, or berating people in place of dialogue?

@strypey Well, I would say most people who want equality don't really care about a political victory, so you are talking about a specific demographic.

And it's interesting that they world 'hysterical' is used as inequality such as sexism has some very real consequences for it's victims. It's like saying a drowning person is hysterical when talking about water.

The 'damage' that is caused by hurting ones feelings is insignificant to the damage bigotry continues to cause.

@Are0h you've seriously never come across anyone who's been "hysterical" in their advocacy for something? Maybe from over-enthusiasm, or maybe from unresolved mental health issues, or maybe even because they're not actually on the side of the cause they are "advocating" for (#AgentsProvocateur are a thing)? Lucky you.