Here's an article about the golden years of computer user groups. [arstechnica.com]

Our own local mac user group was fantastic. I was maybe 16 when I joined and the people in the group where (still are) important to me.

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Ukulele music I couldn't find anywhere else.
[colquhoun.info]

Thanks for that. I'd say that the user groups were just a bit before my time but I knew they existed and had some idea of what they were like.

Sometimes I'm frustrated that people accept the social media hellscape as the way tech is. It wasn't always this way.

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I loved NYMUG’s BBS. There were really knowledgeable people participating, including David Lerner of Tekserve, and Sandee Cohen.

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My life goes smoothly and in regular intervals

Our user group is still hanging on the best we can. We had to get a new place to meet after the lockdown because the restaurant we were using stopped opening after 5PM. If anyone is in the area of Chesapeake, Va. on the 3rd Thursday of the month come look us up. TARMAC user group

[tidewatermug.757.org]

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Portsmouth, Va

There was a DC capitol region MUG that was amazing. Good memories.

The only computer user group I belonged to was in my Atari days back in the 80's. GAG stood for Genesee Atari Group. It was quite a mixture of folks and held in an elementary school. It was pretty great until I noticed that after the meeting, a small group would gather in another room, leaving the newbies and unpopular folks to have their "private" sessions.

It kind of turned me off to the whole gathering thing.

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Mr. Lahey: A lot of people, don’t know how to drink. They drink against the grain of the liquor. And when you drink against the grain of the liquor? You lose.

Randy: What the @#$%& are you talking about?

I am lucky to be involved with 2 Mac User Groups in the Sacramento area. We are losing about 10% of our members due to age attrition.
I am President of MacNexus.org, which started in October 1984 just months after the Mac was introduced.
We currently have just under 400 members. The high was around 1200 members when the group was am early Mac Based ISP.

In the other group, north east of Sacramento, I am heavily involved is LHAUG.org Lincoln Hills Apple User Group. We have nearly 1400 members, from about 900 homes, exclusively from within our 6800 home Active Senior Community.
Our member numbers have been consistent for the last several years.
We have a few former Apple employees, and one that still has Apple Employee Badge with an employee number in the lower 3 digits.

Both groups are now called "Apple User Groups" since the majority of emphasis is on iOS devices.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/23/2020 02:58PM by Ken Sp..

I was a member of BMUG (Berkeley, CA) and SBMUG (South Bay) for years. Sometimes we would meet in Apple headquarters. The BMUG bulletin board was very useful for me. When visiting Kauai I went to a couple of Macnut meetings too. I miss those times.

Our local MUG (MUGOO - Mac User Group of Orlando, later renamed to FLMUG) once had Charles Martin, aka chas_m... I'm sure some of you long time members remember his condescending attitude on this forum and on Dealchat. He was even more obnoxious in person than he was online if you can believe it. Thankfully he left the area (I think he actually left the country and went to Canada). I don't think the group exists anymore.

Those were some good days.

I was a member of MacGroup Detroit which finally folded a year or three ago and also held several Board positions on The Michigan Apple User group for years back in the day.

Quote
Ken Sp.
We are losing about 10% of our members due to age attrition..

That was a big problem back in the day - older members dying off vs too few young new members trying to join.

This is the only users group I belong to.

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C(-)ris
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