I sincerely don't understand the standard flaming /about/ the CL community. I've read this complaint for years. But my experience is very different. I have been learning CL in the last two years, and I've found that most people (including the usual suspects) are quite helpful. It is true that comp.lang.lisp has a very low tolerance for stupid questions and a bizarre and occasionally harsh sense of humor, but I've never had any problem with it.

What I find alarming in the CL community is something different: I feel that there is practically no innovation. It is magnificient but dying culture. The underlying idea is either that CL is a peak of perfectibility, or that the world has no more the force needed to change anything in CL anyway.