"The flame wars on soc.culture.african.american ignited on day one, despite the fact that the new group's charter tried to prohibit it. The participants scorched the earth, made it virtually uninhabitable for any black person to survive without their intelligence, morality, political interests, even their very identity being demeaned [...] This almost certainly went unnoticed by the vast majority of those already in, or headed to, cyberspace, but this reality awaited legions of black folk about to enter."

This excerpt from Charlton McIlwain's "Black Software" relates to a federated Internet social space from the year 1990, but to be honest, it could be describing the Fediverse in 2017, 2020, or today.

We have to do better.