FWIW, In my experience, the Python community has consistently been full of high-quality, very welcoming people. I don't understand why different parts of the open source world vary in such things, but they do seem to (in my limited experience) and the Python world is consistently awesome.

Your mileage may vary, of course...

(and, also fwiw, ned batchelder has a reputation for exemplifying that spirit – just trying to give credit where it's due.)