I read and participate in a few forums. Like some have mentioned Bikeforums is a totally different world to TE. I mainly stay in the Tandem section in which there is a good feeling of helping there.

I also belong to a Art forum which is mixed, lots of men and everyone is from all around the world. It actually has been pretty good there as people post their work for comments. The forum has a guide about commenting and the moderators are pretty good in making it work. Only once did someone post a belittling comment about someone's first piece of art and that was removed. The poster was a woman which was strange. She later apologised and it hasn't been mentioned again on that thread.

You do have to show sensitivity, especially when you have an artist posting a picture of one of the Spiritual leaders he had done for his brother, but everyone was able to find merit in the work. I was expecting someone to say something inappropiate but they didn't.

I think it also boils down to what the topic is, how the forum is setup and managed and the people participating. Obviously artists both male and female on that forum can co-exist well. Possibly as art is a level playing field between the sexes.