[vcf-midatlantic] The good old days of user groups.

[Alexander Pierson]

 The article mentioned TPUG, the Toronto PET Users Group.  These days, they exist in part as a Discord group (however, I'm sure someone like Leif Bloomquist can speak to the nature of their current existence better).  I think that's pretty cool.  

The bulk of my interaction these days with vintage computer enthusiasts is done on that platform (though the VCFed Discord is rather... quiet).  The youth of the hobby have found a home there, either on smaller manufacturer-specific servers, or larger generalist servers with plenty of cross-pollination between minis, micros, homebrews, etc. of a variety of makes and models. The SNR varies between servers of course, which can be jarring.  

Regardless, you find good people there who have never interacted with the other areas of the hobby, and are mostly unaware of the existence of the established groups such as ours.  They're busy hacking away on fascinating projects and sharing their repair progress.  I agree about the ClassicCMP server being a good place, compared to its mostly desolate IRC counterpart.  
In a few years, I'm sure we may migrate to the next big platform, but for now?  Discord.  
-Alexander 'Z' Pierson

    On Monday, August 24, 2020, 9:17:42 PM EDT, RETRO Innovations via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic at lists.vcfed.org> wrote:  
 
 On 8/24/2020 7:45 PM, Dean Notarnicola via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
> Seconded on the TRS-80 Discord. Very high signal to noise ratio, invite
> only helps that greatly.

Third on Discord.  If you liked the message bases in BBS days of old, 
Discord will feel very familiar.  IRC did as well, but Discord has the 
advantage of allowing gfx/videos/files to be interspersed with the 
conversation to add context or support the discussion.

There's 3 TRS-80 servers I'm aware of:  CoCo, TRS-80 (all models), and 
Model II and friends.

A sprinkling of CBM ones, Classic COmputing has one, as does the TI, and 
the Vintage Apple folks are on there.

Jim