Definitely. In the past, I was involved on message boards for various hobbies and interests I’ve had, several of which were likely to be largely populated by middle-aged-and-above white guys, just based on those boards’ content (model trains, model rocketry, classic Hot Wheels toy cars, etc.). IME, many of the participants on those boards had absolutely atrocious spelling and grammar. Being on those boards made my teeth itch.
In what time period though? I remember that as being later on- maybe 2004-2010, not the very early 2000s.
This. For instance, a woman would start a thread about finding a fitting bra, and you could bet there was a boob joke in the first or second reply. And that was just the rather harmless stuff, but I absolutely can see how such behavior makes women uncomfortable.
Yeah, I know that kind of behavior was a common complaint and there were lots of threads urging mods to do better.
I’m not in a position to comment on what women and POC experience here, I’m a white guy in his 50s, but I would love for this place to be more open to differing opinions, it would make it more diverse and vibrant. What I see is a place that is more stagnant than it used to be.
I’m female, and I like fart humor. Always have. 
Some of us get a giggle out of such things. Not all members of a given demographic group think identically.
I agree. I’m quite proud of my burps.
Times have changed and so has the Board but just a little bit too slow. The current crop of newish Mods have done a fantastic job of dragging us away from the most egregious bigotry that used to be tolerated, particularly with respect to misogyny but also all matter of bigotry including some appalling anti-Semitism. Stuff used to be tolerated because it didn’t technically break a rule or it was “just a joke”.
Conversely, I don’t like fart humor, and I’m an old white guy.
Like you said, too little too late. Allowing twenty years of “scientific” racism and “show me your tits” posts pretty much guaranteed a mostly white male board. And these weren’t things that just slipped in occasionally, they were specifically allowed. There is no way to claw back to those numbers with the decline in message board participation.
Oh no, you are old! 
Agree. Pretty much any body elimination or pimple popping thread get a hard pass from me.
Yeah, but I don’t want to lay the blame on the people who inherited the mess and are trying to do the right thing.
You know, I keep seeing that posted, but never anything to back it up.
Cite? Especially the “lot”.
It wasn’t that bad- mostly. The predecessor of FQ, etc were all fairly decent. But yeah, we had threads like “Who was hotter, MaryAnn or Ginger?”, and a woman complaining about their breasts or whatever, would get “pics or it didn’t happen” stupid joke or two.
Hardly. But they were allowed.
Maybe not that early, but yes. Posters thought that was harmless fun, but not so much. it wasn’t done out of meanness.
Message boards appeal to an older demographic.
I’ve been here since 2002. There are times when the board overall is so relentlessly aggressive toward women, POCs, and LGBTQI+ people that I stop posting or reading for a year or so. No one seems to notice my absence, but I’m not here.
It’s almost as if you’re part of the problem and intentionally don’t want to see it.
So, Post one is by @Northern_Piper who is still with us, and is a solid board contributor.
All you are doing is linking to threads complaining about misogyny, which was a issue in the past, no one doubts that. You are not providing any cites where female SDMBers say they are leaving due to misogyny, and to support your baseless claim, you would have to come up with about a dozen or more.
@Susan here does say she stopped posting for a while.
But I do not remember any large amounts of female SDMBers posting that they quit due to misogyny.
Well, when people state they’re leaving, they often get jocular abusive comments about flouncing or “don’t let the door hit you, etc.” If I knew I were leaving forever, I’d just leave. The many times I’ve stopped participating for up to a year or so I generally haven’t said anything, and no one posts “Where’d susan go?” so I don’t think the board would know generally when someone had quietly disappeared or why. Where’s Eve? Where’s Fierra? Where’s Una?
The very first time some jackass hijacked a thread about the harassment and/or rape of women with multiple claims that men have it so much worse the banhammer should have come down so fast and hard the dimmest bulb among us would have gotten the point. Instead, threads were started in ATMB trying to point out the elephant in the room…and those threads were often hijacked by the same cro-mags that caused the problem in the first place.
I don’t really blame any of the mods. The rule was set above their paygrade. I suppose you could argue that they had better access to the admin, but I don’t think that would have mattered.
That would have been great. The lamest argument was always “the poor guy’s life is ruined by the rape accusation.” Well, maybe not as lame as “she was asking for it the way she dressed/place she was/ how much she drank.”
There is a thread from 2011? about a 11 year old that was gang raped by 27 men. Even in that thread there were she dressed older, why was she hanging out with older guys, why didn’t her parents teach her better.
You also don’t see the racism being discussed in the thread about Dungeons and Dragons. You seem to struggle to see beyond your limited personal experience and are in fact making my point for me: that the problem here is that it is dominated by old white men who are disinclined to see things from outside their perspective.
You also seem to have missed post 6 from this very thread:
“ Same age group but am one of the few women. A lot of us have left over the unpoliced misogyny (I left too, but trickled back), and although the policing has improved, the women have not returned, I don’t believe. The board skews heavily white, male, and old.”
The board has become an echo chamber. Not only is it overwhelmingly white male, but all diversity of thought is gone. There is a great deal of pressure for everyone to hold the same opinions. There are no internal rewards to posting here if you know one “wrong” opinion could land you in a crybully Pit thread. So non-conformists don’t want to play in this sandbox anymore.
I submit that the proper question isn’t how can the board become more inclusive to women and POC. The better question is why is the board going out of its way to marginalize diverse viewpoints? The board’s demographics is a just a symptom of a deeper problem.
I’m one of the few black women who used to post here on a regular basis. Even through all the years of rape jokes and “black people are the problem race” threads. Even after being chastised by mods for daring to apply the word racist to actual racists. Despite this constant rain of microaggressions, posting here remained my fun little past time. I valued the intellectual debates this board used to foster and the lively discussions in the other fora. I came here to learn, share, broaden my awareness of the human condition, and examine my own beliefs.
I don’t post much here anymore and neither does my sister @monstro because the climate here is too hostile to engage with unless you limit yourself to discussing only the most pablum of topics imaginable. Pablum just doesn’t do it for me.
This is long post but I decided to reply to you because you seem quite earnest. But before I close, I will add this about the attrition of female posters. Women are increasingly finding popular social media platforms extremely hostile to their perspectives and concerns, so they are creating their own communities where they can speak more freely without being attacked and silenced by men who don’t want to hear what they have to say. Reddit has lost women the same way this one has.