I was a part of this lost world of computer user groups.

Most user groups encouraged new people to participate. It was far from a tech intelligentsia; the officers in my first user group were a silversmith, a postal mail carrier, and a retired newspaperman. Women were welcome. Introverts reigned. Nobody cared what age you were; enthusiasm was the only thing that mattered.

That was before computing changed, and become about gaming and testerone overdose. It was also part of a larger shift in society that the internet and the ascendance of the algorithm worsened greatly. People claim that things haven’t changed, that it’s no different now. But I was there and it was different. Very much so.