Right, because insinuating anyone who uses mibbit is incapable of installing an IRC client is not a sniping remark?
I have no problem with basic aptitude tests. I have no problem with restricting a community to the technically literate. What I have a problem with is the assumption that anyone choosing to use X over Y is some kind of moron.
Right, because insinuating anyone who uses mibbit is incapable of installing an IRC client is not a sniping remark?
No, simply that as an initial barrier to entry for a technical community, "browsing to a web page" isn't very difficult and serves poorly as a first-pass filter.
webmail clients are only blocked 'due to abuse' because it's easy to make bots to register fake email addresses. But even that is not fool-proof. I remember that back when AOL on dial-up was my internet connection, the 'master' account could create multiple 'child' accounts. So even the ISP in that case could allow you to create a 'fake' email for the purpose of registration.
No, I regularly find modern registration forms that won't accept mailinator or even hotmail addresses (and your service is probably more akin to mailinator than hotmail).
I have no problem with basic aptitude tests. I have no problem with restricting a community to the technically literate. What I have a problem with is the assumption that anyone choosing to use X over Y is some kind of moron.