I was a kid in the 80s and 90s, and computer user groups gave me a unique and somewhat unusual community where I got to interact with people much older than I was, and who worked in varied professions (there were lawyers, engineers, consultants, etc.). We all bonded over the fact that we were all computer nuts, which was a fairly rare demographic back then.
I think having that community helped to grow up quickly and gave me a view of world that few of my peers had. I had many interesting peer relationships (through email conversations) with adults who weren't my parents. This sounds like a red flag these days, but those days it wasn't because it was a closed-knit moderated community: we would chat about DOS, OS/2, Gravis Ultrasounds, Macintoshes, etc. I was only a kid but people would treat me like an adult.
I know of no other environment where kids and adults could interact as equals (more or less). I say that because in the computer world, competence is not always correlated with age. The sysop of one of the BBS's I hung out at was a brilliant computer guy and it was only when we met in real-life I found out he was only 15.
p.s. I don't know if anyone remembers dialing into a BBS using software like QmodemPro, downloading a mail packet (usually QWK -- a compressed file with unread emails), replying to emails offline using a reader like Bluewave or Offline Express, and then logging in to upload replies. Those were the days.
As a 1980s kid, I had similar experiences. Some bright spark in my northern England smalltown had the idea of bringing together all the families and professionals and their 8-bit machines and having them all set up on a bunch of trestle tables in some old church hall or scout hut. It was wild. I remember seeing a Macintosh for the first time and freaking out with excitement.
There were also genuine red flags though in a less well supervised setting. Some dodgy bloke with a little shop in the back of a rundown mall created a "community" of computer enthusiasts which turned out to be a front for some extremely unsavoury "grooming" type activities.
Surprised that A.P.P.L.E. didn't get a mention. They were influential enough for me to be aware of them a a high school student halfway across the country in Chicago.
The most common response (or at least gentle complaint) I've gotten was, "Why did you leave out...?" From DECUS (one of the oldest groups) to Melbourne PC User Group (one of the largest), people have been sad that their favorite wasn't included.
But the story isn't about the groups' size or age. It was about the experience and what they meant. The whole point is that these were worldwide, in tiny towns (like my own Deer Isle Maine) and in huge cities.
Our Chicago area group (APCU) is down to about 50 members, and we meet virtually thanks to the mismanagement of the plague here in the US, last time was a Zoom call.
The hardware has gotten reliable, and even the software isn't so cringy as it used to be. Gone are the days when we started each meeting with "Microsoft Bashing" just to get it out of the way.
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I think having that community helped to grow up quickly and gave me a view of world that few of my peers had. I had many interesting peer relationships (through email conversations) with adults who weren't my parents. This sounds like a red flag these days, but those days it wasn't because it was a closed-knit moderated community: we would chat about DOS, OS/2, Gravis Ultrasounds, Macintoshes, etc. I was only a kid but people would treat me like an adult.
I know of no other environment where kids and adults could interact as equals (more or less). I say that because in the computer world, competence is not always correlated with age. The sysop of one of the BBS's I hung out at was a brilliant computer guy and it was only when we met in real-life I found out he was only 15.
p.s. I don't know if anyone remembers dialing into a BBS using software like QmodemPro, downloading a mail packet (usually QWK -- a compressed file with unread emails), replying to emails offline using a reader like Bluewave or Offline Express, and then logging in to upload replies. Those were the days.
There were also genuine red flags though in a less well supervised setting. Some dodgy bloke with a little shop in the back of a rundown mall created a "community" of computer enthusiasts which turned out to be a front for some extremely unsavoury "grooming" type activities.
I don’t think the internet can completely replace the tight knit communities that are created from in person gatherings.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Pugetsound_Program_Libra...
But the story isn't about the groups' size or age. It was about the experience and what they meant. The whole point is that these were worldwide, in tiny towns (like my own Deer Isle Maine) and in huge cities.
The hardware has gotten reliable, and even the software isn't so cringy as it used to be. Gone are the days when we started each meeting with "Microsoft Bashing" just to get it out of the way.